Dell Dimension 5100 User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ 5100 and 5150

Owner’s Manual

Model PP07L and PP08L

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 the Tell Me How help file. To access

the help file, see page 80.

____________________

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Computer Corporation is strictly

forbidden.

Trademarks used in this text: Dell, the DELL logo, AccessDirect, UltraSharp, Inspiron, Dell Precision, Dimension,

OptiPlex, Latitude, Dell TrueMobile, and DellNet are trademarks of Dell Computer Corporation; Intel, Pentium,and

Celeron are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation; Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft

Corporation; EMC is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation; Bluetooth is a trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG,

Inc. and is used by Dell Computer Corporation 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 Computer Corporation disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names

other than its own.

Model PP07L and PP08L

July 2003 P/N M1708 Rev. A02

Contents 3

Contents

CAUTION: Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Air Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

EMC Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

When Using Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Ergonomic Computing Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

When Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Battery Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1A Tour of Your Computer

Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Left Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

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

2Setting Up Your Computer

Adjusting Font and Icon Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Adjusting Font Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Adjusting Icon Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

4Contents

Dell™ QuickSet Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Clicking the QuickSet Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Double-Clicking the QuickSet Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Right-Clicking the QuickSet Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Modem and Internet Connection Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

E-Mail Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . . . . . . 36

Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

3Using a Battery

Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Power Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Removing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Installing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Contents 5

Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Battery and Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

If the battery is not charging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

If battery life is short . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

4Using the Keyboard and Touch Pad

Dell™ AccessDirect™ Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Reprogramming the Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Speaker Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

External Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Unexpected Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

5Using CDs, DVDs, and Other Multimedia

Using CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

CD or DVD Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

If you cannot play a CD, CD-RW, DVD, or DVD+RW . . . . . . 56

If you cannot eject the CD, CD-RW, DVD, or DVD+RW drive tray 56

If you hear an unfamiliar scraping or grinding sound . . . . . . 56

If the CD-RW or DVD+RW drive stops writing . . . . . . . . . 56

6Contents

Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

If you have a problem with integrated speakers . . . . . . . . . 57

If you have a problem with external speakers . . . . . . . . . . 57

Connecting a Television to the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

S-Video Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Composite Video Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Enabling the Display Settings for a Television . . . . . . . . . 62

6Setting Up a Home and Office Network

Connecting to a Network Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Network Setup Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Connecting to Wireless Local Area Networks . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Determining Your Network Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Connecting to a Network in Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Finalizing Your Network Connection (Security Settings) . . . . 71

7Solving Problems

Finding Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Accessing Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

If you cannot save a file to a floppy drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Contents 7

If you have problems with a hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

PC Card Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

General Program Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

A program crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

A program stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Error messages appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Resolving Other Technical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

If Your Computer Gets Wet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

If You Drop or Damage Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Reinstalling Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Manually Reinstalling Drivers for Windows XP . . . . . . . . . 91

Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities . . . . . . . 92

Using System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Creating a Restore Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Restoring the Computer to an Earlier Operating State . . . . . . 93

Undoing the Last System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Reinstalling Microsoft®Windows®XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Before You Reinstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Reinstalling Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

8Adding and Replacing Parts

Before You Add or Replace Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Modem and Mini PCI Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Adding a Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

8Contents

Adding a Mini PCI Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

CD or DVD Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

9Appendix

Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Using the System Setup Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Viewing the System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Commonly Used Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

System and Battery Performance Optimization . . . . . . . . . 124

System Performance Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Optimizing Power Consumption and Battery Charge Time . . . 124

Variable Speed Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Dell Technical Support Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Definition of "Dell-Installed" Software and Peripherals . . . . . 125

Definition of "Third-Party" Software and Peripherals . . . . . . 126

Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Regulatory Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

NOM Information (Mexico Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Limited Warranties and Return Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Limited Warranty for Dell-Branded Hardware Products (U.S. Only)

145

"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . 148

Limited Warranty Terms for Dell-Branded Hardware Products (Canada

Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Contents 9

"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . 151

Dell Software and Peripherals (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . 152

1-Year End-User Manufacturer Guarantee (Latin America and the

Caribbean Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Intel®Warranty Statement for Pentium®and Celeron®Processors

Only

(U.S. and Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

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