Dell Inspiron 1521 User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ 1521 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.; AMD, AMD Turion, HyperMemory, 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 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

March 2007 P/N RT722 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Right Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

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

Bottom View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2 Setting Up Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

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

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

Transferring Information to a New Computer . . . . . 35

Windows Easy Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

4Contents

Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . 38

3 Using the Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Adjusting Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Switching the Video Image From Your Computer

Display To a Projector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Setting Display Resolution and Refresh Rate . . . . . . 39

4 Using the Keyboard and Touchpad . . . . . 41

Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Microsoft® Windows® Logo Key Functions . . . 43

Dell™ QuickSet Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . 43

Adjusting Keyboard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Contents 5

5 Using a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Dell QuickSet Battery Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Microsoft®Windows®Battery Meter . . . . . . . 49

Charge Gauge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Low-Battery Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Conserving Battery Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Configuring Power Management Settings . . . . . 50

Using the Sleep Power State . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Replacing the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

6 Using Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Playing Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Copying CD and DVD Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

How to Copy a CD or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Using Blank CD and DVD Media . . . . . . . . . . 57

Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Adjusting the Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Adjusting the Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Using Dell MediaDirect™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

6Contents

Connecting Your Computer to a TV or

Audio Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

S-Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

S-Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . 64

Composite Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . 66

Composite Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 68

Component Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . 70

Component Video and S/PDIF Digital Audio . . . . 73

Enabling the Display Settings for a TV . . . . . . . 76

7 Using ExpressCards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

ExpressCard Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

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

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

8 Using the Memory Card Reader . . . . . . . 81

Memory Card Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Installing a Memory Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Removing a Memory Card or Blank . . . . . . . . . . . 83

9 Setting Up and Using Networks . . . . . . . 85

Connecting a Network or Broadband

Modem Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Setting Up a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Contents 7

Wireless Local Area Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

What You Need to Establish a WLAN

Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Checking Your Wireless Network Card . . . . . . 87

Setting Up a New WLAN Using a Wireless

Router and a Broadband Modem . . . . . . . . . 88

Connecting to a WLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Mobile Broadband (or Wireless Wide

Area Network) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

What You Need to Establish a Mobile

Broadband Network Connection . . . . . . . . . 91

Checking Your Dell Mobile Broadband Card . . . . 91

Connecting to a Mobile Broadband Network . . . 92

Enabling/Disabling the Dell Mobile

Broadband Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Dell Wi-Fi Catcher™ Network Locator . . . . . . . . . 93

10 Securing Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Security Cable Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

If Your Computer Is Lost or Stolen . . . . . . . . . . . 96

11 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Dell Technical Update Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Dell Support Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

8Contents

Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Optical drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Hard drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . . 106

Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

ExpressCard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

IEEE 1394 Device Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

External Keyboard problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Unexpected characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Lockups and Software Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

The computer does not start . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

The computer stops responding . . . . . . . . . . 115

A program stops responding or crashes

repeatedly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

A program is designed for an earlier Microsoft®

Windows®operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

A solid blue screen appears . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Dell MediaDirect problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Other software problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Memory Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Mobile Broadband (Wireless Wide Area

Network [WWAN]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Contents 9

Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

No sound from integrated speakers . . . . . . . . 123

No sound from external speakers . . . . . . . . . 123

No sound from headphones . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . 125

If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . 126

Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . 127

Troubleshooting Software and Hardware

Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Restoring Your Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Using Microsoft Windows System Restore . . . . 131

Using Dell PC Restore by Symantec . . . . . . . . 131

Using the Operating System Media . . . . . . . . 134

12 Adding and Replacing Parts . . . . . . . . . 137

Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Before Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . 138

10 Contents

Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Removing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Replacing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Removing the Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Replacing the Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Removing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Replacing the Hinge Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Removing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Replacing the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Removing the DIMM A Memory Module . . . . . . 146

Replacing the DIMM A Memory Module . . . . . 148

Removing the DIMM B Memory Module . . . . . . 149

Replacing the DIMM B Memory Module . . . . . 150

Subscriber Identity Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Wireless Mini Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Removing a WLAN Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Replacing a WLAN Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Removing a Mobile Broadband or

WWAN Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Replacing a WWAN Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Removing a WPAN Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Replacing a WPAN Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

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