Dell Inspiron 600m User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ 600m

Owner’s Manual

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 98.

____________________

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, Inspiron, Dell TravelLite, Dell TrueMobile,

Dell Precision, Dimension, OptiPlex, DellNet, and Latitude 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; Bluetooth is a trademark owned

byBluetoothSIG,Inc.,andisusedbyDellComputerCorporationunderlicense;EMCisaregistered

trademark of the EMC Corporation.

Othertrademarksandtradenamesmaybeusedinthisdocumenttorefertoeithertheentitiesclaiming

themarksandnamesortheirproducts.DellComputerCorporationdisclaimsanyproprietaryinterest

in trademarks and trade names other than its own.

Model PP05L

July 2003 P/N 4N142 Rev. A01

Contents 3

Contents

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

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

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

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

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

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

California Residents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

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

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

2Setting Up Your Computer

Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

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

4Contents

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

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

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

Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Connecting a Parallel Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Setting Up the Docking Device to Connect to a Network . . . . 41

Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Uninterruptible Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

3Using Batteries and Module Bay Devices

Using a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

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

Removing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Installing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Removing and Installing a Reserve Battery . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Storing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

About the Module Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Checking the Charge on the Second Battery . . . . . . . . . . 54

Removing and Installing Devices While the Computer Is Turned Off

Contents 5

If the Device Screw Is Not Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

If the Device Screw Is Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Removing and Installing Devices While the Computer Is Running 58

If the Device Screw Is Not Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

If the Device Screw Is Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

4Using the Keyboard and Touch Pad

Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

CD or DVD Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Radios (Including Wireless Networking and Bluetooth™) . . . . 65

Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Speaker Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

External Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Unexpected Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

5Using CDs, DVDs, and Other Multimedia

Using CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

CD and DVD Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

If you cannot play a CD or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

If you cannot eject the CD, CD-RW, or DVD drive tray . . . . . 72

If you hear an unfamiliar scraping or grinding sound . . . . . . 73

If the CD-RW drive stops writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

6Contents

Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

If you have a problem with integrated speakers . . . . . . . . . 73

If you have a problem with external speakers . . . . . . . . . . 73

Copying CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Using Easy CD Creator Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Using Blank CD-R Discs or Blank CD-RW Discs . . . . . . . . 75

Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

How to Copy a CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Connecting a Television to the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

S-Video Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Composite Video Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Enabling the Display Settings for a Television . . . . . . . . . 82

6Setting Up a Home and Office Network

Connecting to a Network Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Network Setup Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Connecting to Wireless Local Area Networks . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Determining your Network Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Connecting to a Network in Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Finalizing your Network Connection (Security Settings) . . . . 90

7Solving Problems

Finding Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Accessing Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Contents 7

If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

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

If you cannot save a file to a floppy drive . . . . . . . . . . . 102

If you have problems with a hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

PC Card Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

General Program Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

A program crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

A program stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Error messages appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

If Your Computer Gets Wet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

If You Drop or Damage Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Resolving Other Technical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Manually Reinstalling Drivers for Windows XP . . . . . . . . 109

Using System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Creating a Restore Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Restoring the Computer to an Earlier Operating State . . . . . 110

Undoing the Last System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities . . . . . . 112

Reinstalling Microsoft®Windows®XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Before You Reinstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Reinstalling Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Reinstalling Drivers and Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

8Contents

8Adding and Replacing Parts

Adding Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Adding a Mini PCI Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Replacing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

9Appendix

Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Standard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Viewing the System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Commonly Used Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Dell Technical Support Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Definition of "Dell-Installed" Software and Peripherals . . . . . 139

Definition of "Third-Party" Software and Peripherals . . . . . . 139

Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Regulatory Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

NOM Information (Mexico Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Limited Warranties and Return Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Limited Warranty for Dell-Branded Hardware Products

(U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (U.S. Only) . . . . . . . . . . 163

Limited Warranty Terms for Dell-Branded Hardware Products

(Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . 167

Dell Software and Peripherals (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . 167

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

Caribbean Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Intel®Warranty Statement for Pentium®and Celeron®Processors

Only (U.S. and Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Contents 9

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

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