Dell 1526 - Inspiron - Laptop User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ 1525/1526

Owner’s Manual

Model PP29L

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.

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.; AMD, AMD

Turion, Athlon, Sempron, ATI Radeon and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro

Devices, Inc.; Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Vista are either trademarks or registered trademarks

of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries; Bluetooth is a registered

trademarkownedbyBluetoothSIG,Inc.andisusedbyDellunderlicense.Blu-rayDiscisatrademark

of the Blu-ray Disc Association.

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 PP29L

October 2007 P/N NN491 Rev. A01

Contents 3

Contents

Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1 About Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Left Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Bottom View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2 Setting Up Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . 32

Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . 33

Windows Easy Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . 36

4Contents

3 Using the Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Adjusting Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Switching the Video Image From Your

Computer Display To a Projector . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Setting Display Resolution and Refresh Rate . . . . . . 38

4 Using the Keyboard and Touchpad . . . . . 39

Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . 41

Dell™ QuickSet Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . 41

Adjusting Keyboard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

5 Using a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Dell QuickSet Battery Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Microsoft®Windows®Battery Meter . . . . . . . 47

Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Contents 5

Conserving Battery Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Configuring Power Management Settings . . . . . 48

Using the Sleep Power State . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Replacing the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

6 Using Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Playing Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Playing Media Using

Dell Travel Remote (Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Copying CD, DVD, and

Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

How to Copy a CD, DVD or BD . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Using Blank CD, DVD, and BD Media . . . . . . . 55

Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Adjusting the Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Adjusting the Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Using Dell MediaDirect™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Connecting Your Computer to a TV or

Audio Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

S-Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

S-Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . 62

Composite Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . 64

Composite Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 66

Component Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . 68

6Contents

Component Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 71

HDMI (Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Enabling the Display Settings for a TV . . . . . . . 74

7 Using the Optional Camera . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Accessing the Camera’s Help File . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Manually Adjusting the Camera Settings . . . . . . . . 76

Creating a Picture or a Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

8 Using Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

ExpressCards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

ExpressCard Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Installing an ExpressCard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Removing an ExpressCard or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Memory Card Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Memory Card Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Installing a Memory Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Removing a Memory Card or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 81

9 Setting Up and Using Networks . . . . . . . 83

Connecting a Network or

Broadband Modem Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Setting Up a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Contents 7

Wireless Local Area Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

What You Need to Establish a

WLAN Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Checking Your Wireless Network Card . . . . . . 84

Setting Up a New WLAN Using a

Wireless Router and a Broadband Modem . . . . 85

Connecting to a WLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Mobile Broadband

(or Wireless Wide Area Network) . . . . . . . . . . . 88

What You Need to Establish a

Mobile Broadband Network Connection . . . . . 88

Checking Your Dell Mobile Broadband Card . . . . 89

Connecting to a Mobile Broadband Network . . . 90

Enabling/Disabling the

Dell Mobile Broadband Card . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Dell Wi-Fi Catcher™ Network Locator . . . . . . . . . 91

10 Securing Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Security Cable Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

If Your Computer Is Lost or Stolen . . . . . . . . . . . 94

11 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Dell Technical Update Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Dell Support Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Dell Support 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

DellConnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

8Contents

Network Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

PC TuneUp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

PC CheckUp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Optical drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Hard drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . . 104

Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

ExpressCard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

IEEE 1394 Device Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

External Keyboard problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Unexpected characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Lockups and Software Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

The computer does not start . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

The computer stops responding . . . . . . . . . . 113

A program stops responding or

crashes repeatedly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

A program is designed for an earlier

Microsoft®Windows®operating system . . . . . 114

A solid blue screen appears . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Dell MediaDirect problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Other software problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Memory Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Mobile Broadband

(Wireless Wide Area Network [WWAN]) . . . . . 117

Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Contents 9

Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

No sound from integrated speakers . . . . . . . . 120

No sound from external speakers . . . . . . . . . 121

No sound from headphones . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . 123

If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . 124

Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . 125

Troubleshooting Software and

Hardware Problems in the Windows Vista®

Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Restoring Your Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Using Windows Vista System Restore . . . . . . . 128

12 Adding and Replacing Parts . . . . . . . . . 133

Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Before Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . 134

10 Contents

Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Removing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Replacing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Removing the Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Replacing the Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Removing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Replacing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Removing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Replacing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Removing Memory Module . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Replacing Memory Module . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Subscriber Identity Module (Optional) . . . . . . . . . 146

Wireless Mini-Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Removing Mini-Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Replacing Mini-Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Flash Cache Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Removing the FCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Replacing the FCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Broadcom®Media PC Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Internal Card With Bluetooth®

Wireless Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Removing the Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Replacing the Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

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