Dell XPS M1210 User manual

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Dell™ XPS™ M1210
Owner’s Manual
Model PP11S

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.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
For a complete list of abbreviations and acronyms, see "Glossary" on page 177.
If you purchased a Dell™ n Series computer, any references in this document to Microsoft
®
Windows
®
operating systems are not applicable.
____________________
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2006 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, Inspiron, Dell Precision, Dimension, OptiPlex, Latitude, PowerEdge, PowerConnect,
PowerVault, PowerApp, Dell TravelLite, ExpressCharge, Wi-Fi Catcher, Dell MediaDirect, Strike Zone, and XPS are trademarks of Dell Inc.;
Core is a trademark and Intel, Celeron, and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation; Microsoft,Outlook,and Windows are
registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; Bluetooth is a registered trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and is used by Dell under
license; EMC is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation; ENERGY STAR is a registered trademark of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency.
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 PP11S
August 2006 P/N PF362 Rev. A03

Contents 3
Contents
Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1 About Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Determining Your Computer’s Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Left Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Bottom View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2 Setting Up Your Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Running the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard With the
Operating System CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Running the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard Without the
Operating System CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Connecting a USB Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

4Contents
3 Using the Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Adjusting Brightness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Switching the Video Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Setting Display Resolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4 Using the Keyboard and Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
QuickSet Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Adjusting Keyboard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5 Using a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Dell™ QuickSet Battery Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Microsoft®Windows®Power Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Charge Gauge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Conserving Battery Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Power Management Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Configuring Power Management Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Replacing the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Contents 5
6 Using the Optional Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Accessing the Camera’s Help File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Manually Adjusting the Camera Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Creating a Picture or a Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7 Using Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Playing a CD or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Adjusting the Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Adjusting the Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Copying CDs and DVDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
How to Copy a CD or DVD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Using Blank CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Using Dell Media Experience and Dell MediaDirect™. . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
If the Computer Is Turned On or in Standby Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
If the Computer Is Turned Off or in Hibernate Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Dell MediaDirect and Dell Media Experience Help . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Connecting Your Computer to a TV or Audio Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
S-Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
S-Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Composite Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Composite Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Component Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Component Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Setting Up the Cyberlink (CL) Headphones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Enabling the Display Settings for a TV in Microsoft®Windows®XP . . . 68
Sound Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Stereo Sound Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.1 Surround Sound Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

6Contents
8UsingCards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
ExpressCards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
ExpressCard Blanks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Installing an ExpressCard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Removing an ExpressCard or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Media Memory Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Installing a Media Memory Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Removing a Media Memory Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
9 Using Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Physically Connecting to a Network or Broadband Modem . . . . . . . . . . 75
Network Setup Wizard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
What You Need to Establish a WLAN Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Checking Your Wireless Network Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Setting Up a New WLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Connecting to a WLAN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Determining the Wireless Network Device Manager . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Completing the Connection to the WLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Monitoring the Status of the Wireless Network Card Through
Dell™ QuickSet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Mobile Broadband (or Wireless Wide Area Network) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
What You Need to Establish a Mobile Broadband
Network Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Checking Your Dell Mobile Broadband Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Connecting to a Mobile Broadband Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Enabling/Disabling the Dell Mobile Broadband Card. . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Dell™ Wi-Fi Catcher™ Network Locator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Microsoft®Windows®Firewall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
10 Securing Your Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Security Cable Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Contents 7
Computer Tracking Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
If Your Computer Is Lost or Stolen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
11 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Dell Support Utility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Accessing the Dell Support Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Clicking the Dell Support Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Double-Clicking the Dell Support Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
CD and DVD drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
If you cannot eject the CD, CD-RW, DVD, or DVD+RW drive tray . . . . . 89
If you hear an unfamiliar scraping or grinding sound . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Hard drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
ExpressCard Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
IEEE 1394 Device Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
External Keyboard problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Unexpected characters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Lockups and Software Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
The computer does not start up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
The computer stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
A program stops responding or crashes repeatedly . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
A program is designed for an earlier Microsoft®Windows®
operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
A solid blue screen appears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Dell MediaDirect™ problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Other software problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Memory Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

8Contents
Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Mobile Broadband (Wireless Wide Area Network) . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Ensuring Sufficient Power for Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
No sound from integrated speakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
No sound from external speakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
No sound from headphones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Video and Display Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Restoring Your Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Using Microsoft Windows XP System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Using Dell PC Restore by Symantec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Using the Operating System CD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
12 Adding and Replacing Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Before You Begin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Before Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Contents 9
Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
WLAN Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Mobile Broadband Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Internal Card With Bluetooth®Wireless Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
13 Dell™ QuickSet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
14 Traveling With Your Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Identifying Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Packing the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Travel Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Traveling by Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
15 Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
16 Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
17 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Using the System Setup Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Viewing the System Setup Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
System Setup Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Commonly Used Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

10 Contents
Cleaning Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Computer, Keyboard, and Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Floppy Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
CDs and DVDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Dell Technical Support Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Definition of "Dell-Installed" Software and Peripherals . . . . . . . . . 175
Definition of "Third-Party" Software and Peripherals. . . . . . . . . . . 175
FCC Notice (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
FCC Class B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Macrovision Product Notice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187