Dell Inspiron 8600 User manual

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Dell™ Inspiron™ 8600

Owner’s Manual

Model PP02X

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 (see

page 94).

____________________

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, TrueMobile, DellNet, Dell TravelLite, Inspiron, Dell Precision,

Dimension, OptiPlex, 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 by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and is used by Dell Computer Corporation under license; EMC

is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation.

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 PP02X

July 2003 P/N D2513 Rev. A00

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 View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

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

Back View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

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

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

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

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

Connecting a Parallel Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Connecting a USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

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

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

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

Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

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

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

Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

3Using Batteries and Module Bay Devices

Using a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Checking the Battery Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Charging the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Removing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Installing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Removing and Installing a Reserve Battery . . . . . . . . . . . 49

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

Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

About the Module Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Checking the Charge on the Second Battery . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Contents 5

Removing and Installing Devices While the Computer

Is Turned Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

If the Device Screw Is Not Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

If the Device Screw Is Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Removing and Installing Devices While the Computer

Is Running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

If the Device Screw Is Not Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

If the Device Screw Is Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

4Using the Keyboard and Touchpad

Numeric Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

System Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

CD or DVD Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Display Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Radios (Including Wireless Networking and Bluetooth™) . . . . 61

Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Speaker Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Microsoft®Windows®Logo Key Functions . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Customizing the Touch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

External Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Unexpected Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

6Contents

5Using CDs, DVDs, and Other Multimedia

Using CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

CD or DVD problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

If you cannot play a CD, CD-RW, or DVD . . . . . . . . . . . 68

If you cannot eject the CD, CD-RW, or DVD drive tray . . . . . 69

If you hear an unfamiliar scraping or grinding sound . . . . . . 69

Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

If you have a problem with integrated speakers . . . . . . . . . 69

If you have a problem with external speakers . . . . . . . . . . 69

Copying CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Using Easy CD Creator Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Using Blank CD-R Discs or Blank CD-RW Discs . . . . . . . . 71

Helpful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

How to Copy a CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Connecting a Television to the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

S-Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

S-Video and Digital Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Composite Video and Standard Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Composite Video and Digital Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

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

Enabling Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio for DVD Playback . . . . . . 84

6Setting Up a Home and Office Network

Connecting to a Network Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Network Setup Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Contents 7

7Solving Problems

Finding Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Accessing Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

If you cannot save a file to a floppy drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

If you have problems with a hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

PC Card Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

General Program Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

A program crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

A program stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Error messages appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

E-Mail Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

If Your Computer Gets Wet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

If You Drop or Damage Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Resolving Other Technical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Identifying Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Manually Reinstalling Drivers for Windows XP . . . . . . . . 105

8Contents

Using System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Creating a Restore Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Restoring the Computer to an Earlier Operating State . . . . . 106

Undoing the Last System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities . . . . . . . 108

Reinstalling Microsoft®Windows®XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Before You Reinstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Reinstalling Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Reinstalling Drivers and Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

8Adding and Replacing Parts

Adding Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Adding a Mini PCI Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Adding a Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Replacing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

9Appendix

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

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

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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

Contents 9

Regulatory Noticesthe help file, see . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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) . . . . . . . . . 162

Limited Warranty Terms for Dell-Branded Hardware

Products (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . 165

Dell Software and Peripherals (Canada Only) . . . . . . . . . 166

1-Year End-User Manufacturer Guarantee

(Latin America and the Caribbean Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Intel®Warranty Statement for Pentium®and

Celeron®Processors Only (U.S. and Canada Only) . . . . . . . 169

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

10 Contents

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