Dell Inspiron 1520 User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ 1520 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.

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 is a registered trademark and Core is a trademark of Intel Corporation;

Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Vista are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft

Corporation in the United States and/or other countries; Blu-ray Disc is a trademark of the Blu-ray

Disc Association; 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 PP22L

October 2007 P/N UX862 Rev. A03

Contents 3

Contents

Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

1 About Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Determining Your Computer’s Configuration . . . . . . 21

Front View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Left Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Back View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Bottom View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

2 Setting Up Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Setting Up Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . 36

Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . 37

Windows Easy Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

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

Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

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

4Contents

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

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

Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

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

3 Using the Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Adjusting Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Using a Projector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Making Images and Text Look Bigger or Sharper . . . 41

Microsoft®Windows®XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Windows Vista®. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Using Both a Monitor and Your Computer Display . . . 43

Microsoft Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Setting Display Resolution and Refresh Rate . . . . . . 44

Microsoft Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

4 Using the Keyboard and Touchpad . . . . . 47

Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . 49

Dell™ QuickSet Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . 49

Adjusting Keyboard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Contents 5

Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

5 Using a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Dell QuickSet Battery Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Microsoft®Windows®Battery Meter . . . . . . . 55

Charge Gauge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Conserving Battery Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Power Management Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Standby and Sleep Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Hibernate Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Configuring Power Management Settings . . . . . . . 58

Accessing Power Options Properties . . . . . . . 58

Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Replacing the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

6 Using Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Playing Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Playing Media Using Dell Travel Remote

(Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

6Contents

Copying CD, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) Media . . . 64

How to Copy a CD, DVD, or BD . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Using Blank CD, DVD, and BD Media . . . . . . . 65

Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Adjusting the Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Adjusting the Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Using Dell MediaDirect™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Connecting Your Computer to a TV or

Audio Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

S-Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

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 . . . . 81

Enabling the Display Settings for a TV . . . . . . . 84

7 Using ExpressCards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

ExpressCard Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Installing an ExpressCard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Removing an ExpressCard or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 89

8 Using the Memory Card Reader . . . . . . . 91

Memory Card Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Installing a Memory Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Removing a Memory Card or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Contents 7

9 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

What You Need to Establish a WLAN

Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

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) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

What You Need to Establish a Mobile

Broadband Network Connection . . . . . . . . . 100

Checking Your Dell Mobile Broadband Card . . . . 100

Connecting to a Mobile Broadband

Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Enabling/Disabling the Dell Mobile

Broadband Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Dell Wi-Fi Catcher™ Network Locator . . . . . . . . . 102

10 Securing Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Security Cable Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

If Your Computer Is Lost or Stolen . . . . . . . . . . . 105

8Contents

11 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Dell Technical Update Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Dell Support Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Dell Support 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Dell PC Tune-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Dell PC CheckUp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Dell Network Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

DellConnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Optical drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Hard drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . . 117

Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

ExpressCard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

IEEE 1394 Device Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

External Keyboard problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Unexpected characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Lockups and Software Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

The computer does not start . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

The computer stops responding . . . . . . . . . . 127

A program stops responding or

crashes repeatedly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

A program is designed for an earlier

Microsoft®Windows®operating system . . . . . 127

A solid blue screen appears . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Contents 9

Dell MediaDirect problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Other software problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Memory Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Mobile Broadband (Wireless Wide Area

Network [WWAN]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

No sound from integrated speakers . . . . . . . . 135

No sound from external speakers . . . . . . . . . 135

No sound from headphones . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . 138

If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . 139

Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . 140

Troubleshooting Software and Hardware

Problems in the Microsoft®Windows®XP and

Microsoft Windows Vista®Operating Systems . . . . 143

Restoring Your Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Using Microsoft Windows System Restore . . . . 145

10 Contents

Starting System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Using Dell™ PC Restore and Dell Factory

Image Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Using the Operating System Media . . . . . . . . 150

12 Adding and Replacing Parts . . . . . . . . . 153

Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Before Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . 154

Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Removing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Replacing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Removing the Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Replacing the Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Removing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Replacing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Removing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Replacing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Removing the DIMM A Memory Module . . . . . . 163

Replacing the DIMM A Memory Module . . . . . 165

Removing the DIMM B Memory Module . . . . . . 166

Replacing the DIMM B Memory Module . . . . . 167

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