Dell XPS M1730 User manual

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Dell™ XPS™ M1730
Owner’s Manual
Model PP06XA

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, Inspiron,Wi-Fi Catcher, and Dell MediaDirect
are trademarks of Dell Inc.; Intel, and Core are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation.;Microsoft
and Windows are registered trademarks and Windows Vista is a trademark 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.
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 PP06XA
July 2007 P/N TM373 Rev. A00

Contents 3
Contents
Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1 About Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Determining Your Computer’s Configuration . . . . . . 19
Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Left Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2 Setting Up Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . 26
Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . 27
Windows Easy Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . 30

4Contents
3 Using the Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Adjusting Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Switching the Video Image From Your Computer Display To a
Projector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Setting Display Resolution and Refresh Rate . . . . . . 32
4 Using the Keyboard and Touch Pad . . . . 33
Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Wireless Networking and Bluetooth®Wireless Technology
Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . 34
Dell™ QuickSet Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . 35
Adjusting Keyboard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5 Using a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Dell QuickSet Battery Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Microsoft®Windows®Battery Meter . . . . . . . 41
Charge Gauge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Contents 5
Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Conserving Battery Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Configuring Power Management Settings . . . . . 42
Using the Sleep Power State . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Replacing the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Playing Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Playing Media Using Dell Express Card Remote Control 49
Copying CD and DVD Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
How to Copy a CD or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Using Blank CD and DVD Media . . . . . . . . . . 51
Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Adjusting the Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Adjusting the Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Using Dell MediaDirect™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Connecting Your Computer to a TV or Audio Device . . 54

6Contents
S-Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
S-Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . 58
Composite Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . 60
Composite Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 62
Component Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . 64
Component Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 66
Enabling the Display Settings for a TV . . . . . . . 68
8 Using Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
ExpressCards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
ExpressCard Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Installing an ExpressCard . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Removing an ExpressCard or Blank . . . . . . . . 71
Memory Card Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Memory Card Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Installing a Memory Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Removing a Memory Card or Blank . . . . . . . . 74
9 Setting Up and Using Networks . . . . . . . 75
Connecting a Network or Broadband Modem Cable . . 75
Setting Up a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Wireless Local Area Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
What You Need to Establish a WLAN Connection .76
Checking Your Wireless Network Card . . . . . . 76
Setting Up a New WLAN Using a Wireless Router and a
Broadband Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Connecting to a WLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Mobile Broadband (or Wireless Wide Area Network) .80

Contents 7
What You Need to Establish a Mobile Broadband Network
Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Checking Your Dell Mobile Broadband Card . . . . 81
Connecting to a Mobile Broadband Network . . . 82
Enabling/Disabling the Dell Mobile Broadband Card 82
Dell Wi-Fi Catcher™ Network Locator . . . . . . . . . 83
10 Securing Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Security Cable Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
If Your Computer Is Lost or Stolen . . . . . . . . . . . 86
11 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Dell Technical Update Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Dell Support Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Optical drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Hard drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
E-Mail and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
ExpressCard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
IEEE 1394 Device Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

8Contents
External Keyboard problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Unexpected characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Lockups and Software Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
The computer does not start . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
The computer stops responding . . . . . . . . . . 103
A program stops responding or crashes repeatedly 104
A program is designed for an earlier Microsoft®Windows®
operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
A solid blue screen appears . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Dell MediaDirect problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Other software problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Memory Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Mobile Broadband (Wireless Wide Area Network [WWAN]) 107
Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
No sound from integrated speakers . . . . . . . . 111
No sound from external speakers . . . . . . . . . 111
No sound from headphones . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Remote Control Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . 114
If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . 114

Contents 9
Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . 116
Troubleshooting Software and Hardware Problems . . 118
Restoring Your Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Using Microsoft Windows System Restore . . . . 118
Using the Operating System Media . . . . . . . . 119
12 Adding and Replacing Parts . . . . . . . . . 123
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Before Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . 124
Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Mini-Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Coin-Cell Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Internal Card With Bluetooth®Wireless Technology . 141

10 Contents
13 Dell™ QuickSet Features . . . . . . . . . . . 143
14 Traveling With Your Computer . . . . . . . . 145
Identifying Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Packing the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Travel Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Traveling by Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
15 Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Obtaining Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Technical Support and Customer Service . . . . . 148
DellConnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Online Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
AutoTech Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Automated Order-Status Service . . . . . . . . . 149
Problems With Your Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Product Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Returning Items for Warranty Repair or Credit . . . . . 150
Before You Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152