Dell Vostro 1500 User manual

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Dell™ Vostro™ 1500 Owner’s Manual
Model PP22L

Notes, Notices, and Cautions
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of
your computer.
NOTICE: A NOTICE indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data
and tells you how to avoid the problem.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury,
or death.
____________________
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly
forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: Dell, the DELL logo, Vostro, Wi-Fi Catcher, and Dell MediaDirect are
trademarks of Dell Inc.; Intel is a registered trademark and Core is a trademark of Intel Corporation;
Microsoft, Windows, Outlook, and Windows Vista are either trademarks or registered trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries; Bluetooth is a registered trademark
owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and is used by Dell under license; ENERGY STAR is a registered
trademark of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As an ENERGY STAR partner, Dell Inc.
has determined that this product meets the ENERGY STAR guidelines for energy efficiency.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming
the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and
trade names other than its own.
Model PP22L
July 2007 P/N TT979 Rev. A01

Contents 3
Contents
1 Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2 About Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Determining Your Computer’s Configuration . . . . . . 21
Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Left Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Bottom View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3 Setting Up Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . 38
Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . 39
Microsoft®Windows®Easy Transfer . . . . . . . 39
Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

4Contents
Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . 42
4 Using the Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Adjusting Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Using a Projector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Making Images and Text Look Bigger or Sharper . . . 43
Microsoft®Windows®XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Windows Vista™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Using Both a Monitor and Your Computer
Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Microsoft Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Setting Display Resolution and Refresh Rate . . . . . . 46
Microsoft Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5 Using the Keyboard and Touch Pad . . . . 49
Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Contents 5
Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . 51
Dell™ QuickSet Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . 51
Adjusting Keyboard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6 Using a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Dell™ QuickSet Battery Meter . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Microsoft®Windows®Battery Meter . . . . . . . 57
Charge Gauge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Conserving Battery Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Power Management Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Standby and Sleep Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Hibernate Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Configuring Power Management Settings . . . . . . . 60
Accessing Power Options Properties . . . . . . . 60
Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Replacing the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

6Contents
7 Using Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Playing Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Copying CD and DVD Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
How to Copy a CD or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Using Blank CD and DVD Media . . . . . . . . . . 66
Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Adjusting the Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Adjusting the Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Using Dell MediaDirect™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Connecting Your Computer to a TV or
Audio Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
S-Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
S-Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . 73
Composite Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . 75
Composite Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 77
Component Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . 79
Component Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 82
8 Using ExpressCards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
ExpressCard Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Installing an ExpressCard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Removing an ExpressCard or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Contents 7
9 Using the Memory Card Reader . . . . . . . 91
Memory Card Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Installing a Memory Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Removing a Memory Card or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 92
10 Setting Up and Using Networks . . . . . . . 93
Connecting a Network or Broadband
Modem Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Setting Up a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Wireless Local Area Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
What You Need to Establish a WLAN
Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Checking Your Wireless Network Card . . . . . . 95
Setting Up a New WLAN Using a Wireless
Router and a Broadband Modem . . . . . . . . . 96
Connecting to a WLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Mobile Broadband (or Wireless Wide Area
Network) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
What You Need to Establish a Mobile
Broadband Network Connection . . . . . . . . . 100
Checking Your Dell Mobile Broadband Card . . . . 101
Connecting to a Mobile Broadband Network . . . 101
Enabling/Disabling the Dell Mobile
Broadband Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Dell Wi-Fi Catcher™ Network Locator . . . . . . . . . 103

8Contents
11 Securing Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Security Cable Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
If Your Computer Is Lost or Stolen . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
12 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Dell Technical Update Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Dell Support Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Optical drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Hard drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . . 116
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
ExpressCard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
IEEE 1394 Device Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
External Keyboard problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Unexpected characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Lockups and Software Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
The computer does not start . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
The computer stops responding . . . . . . . . . . 126
A program stops responding or crashes
repeatedly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
A solid blue screen appears . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Contents 9
Dell MediaDirect problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Other software problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Memory Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Mobile Broadband (Wireless Wide Area
Network [WWAN]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
No sound from integrated speakers . . . . . . . . 134
No sound from external speakers . . . . . . . . . 134
No sound from headphones . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . 137
If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . 138
Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . 139
Troubleshooting Software and Hardware Problems
in the Microsoft®Windows®XP and Microsoft
Windows Vista™ Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . 142

10 Contents
Restoring Your Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Using Microsoft Windows System Restore . . . . 144
Using Dell™ PC Restore and Dell Factory
Image Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Using the Operating System Media . . . . . . . . 148
13 Adding and Replacing Parts . . . . . . . . . 151
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Before Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . 152
Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Removing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Replacing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Removing the Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Removing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Replacing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Removing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Replacing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Removing the DIMM A Memory Module . . . . . . 162
Replacing the DIMM A Memory Module . . . . . 163
Removing the DIMM B Memory Module . . . . . . 165
Replacing the DIMM B Memory Module . . . . . 166