Dell SmartStep 100N User manual

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Dell™ SmartPC™ 100N

Owner’s Manual

Hints, Notices, and Cautions

HINT: A HINT 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 26.

____________________

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, DellNet, TrueMobile, DellPlus, Inspiron, Dell

Precision, Dimension, OptiPlex, Latitude, and SmartPC are trademarks of Dell Computer

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

Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; EMC is the 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.

March 2002 P/N 8P550 Rev. A00

Contents 3

Contents

Safety and Use Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Caution: Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

When Using Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Ergonomic Computing Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

When Removing or Installing Memory Modules . . . . . . . . . 13

Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Battery Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

1Setting Up

Connecting a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Parallel Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

USB Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Installing the Printer Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Transferring Information to a New Computer

(Windows®XP Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Setting Up a Home and Office Network

(Windows XP Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Turning Off the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Power Protection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Surge Protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Line Conditioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Uninterruptible Power Supply Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2Solving Problems

Finding Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4Contents

Accessing Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Video and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

If the display is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

If the display is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

If only part of the display is readable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

If you have a problem with integrated speakers . . . . . . . . . 31

Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Modem and Internet Connection Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Scanner Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

PC Card Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Touch Pad or Mouse Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

External Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Unexpected Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

If you cannot play a CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

If you cannot eject the CD drive tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

If you hear an unfamiliar scraping or grinding sound . . . . . . 37

If you have problems with a hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

General Program Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

A program crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

A program stops responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

A solid blue screen appears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Error messages appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

E-Mail Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

If Your Computer Gets Wet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Contents 5

If You Drop or Damage Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Resolving Other Technical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Reinstalling Drivers and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Reinstalling the Modem Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Using the Windows XP Device Driver Rollback . . . . . . . . . 43

Resolving Software and Hardware Incompatibilities . . . . . . . 44

Using System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Creating a Restore Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Restoring the Computer to an Earlier Operating State . . . . . . 46

Undoing the Last System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Reinstalling Windows®XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Enabling Hibernate Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

3Replacing Parts

Adding Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Replacing the Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Returning a Hard Drive to Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Removing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Installing a Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Replacing a Daughter Card Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

4Appendix

Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Standard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Viewing the System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

System Setup Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

6Contents

Returning Items for Warranty Repair or Credit . . . . . . . . . . 69

Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Regulatory Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

CE Notice (European Union) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

CE Mark Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Safety and Use Instructions 7

Safety and Use Instructions

Caution: Safety Instructions

The following information defines the meaning of additional symbols used

only in "Safety and Use Instructions."

Caution: General (Safety Instructions, continued)

Risk of explosion Aircraft

Risk of fire Use of this feature may be prohibited

on aircraft

Risk of electric shock

• Do not attempt to service the computer yourself unless

you are an authorized service technician. Always follow

installation instructions closely.

• If you use an extension power cable with your AC

adapter, ensure that the total ampere rating of the

products plugged in to the extension power cable does

not exceed the ampere rating of the extension cable.

• Do not push objects into air vents or openings of your

computer. Doing so can cause fire or electric shock by

shorting out interior components.

• Place the AC adapter in a ventilated area, such as a desk

top or on the floor, when you use it to run the computer

or to charge the battery. Do not cover the AC adapter

with papers or other items that will reduce cooling; also,

do not use the AC adapter inside a carrying case.

8Safety and Use Instructions

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• The AC adapter may become hot during normal

operation of your computer. Use care when handling

the adapter during or immediately after operation.

• Do not allow your portable computer to operate with

the base resting directly on exposed skin for extended

periods of time. The surface temperature of the base

will rise during normal operation (particularly when AC

power is present). Allowing sustained contact with

exposed skin can cause discomfort or, eventually, a

burn.

• Do not use your computer in a wet environment, for

example, near a bath tub, sink, or swimming pool or in a

wet basement.

• If your computer includes an integrated or optional (PC

Card) modem, disconnect the modem cable if an

electrical storm is approaching to avoid the remote risk

of electric shock from lightning via the telephone line.

• To help avoid the potential hazard of electric shock, do

not connect or disconnect any cables or perform

maintenance or reconfiguration of this product during

an electrical storm. Do not use your computer during

an electrical storm unless all cables have been

disconnected and the computer is operating on battery

power.

• If your computer includes a modem, the cable used

with the modem should be manufactured with a

minimum wire size of 26 American wire gauge (AWG)

and an FCC-compliant RJ-11 modular plug.

• PC Cards may become very warm during normal

operation. Use care when removing PC Cards after their

continuous operation.

• Before you clean your computer, remove power. Clean

your computer with a soft cloth dampened with water.

Do not use liquid or aerosol cleaners, which may

contain flammable substances.

Safety and Use Instructions 9

Caution: Power (Safety Instructions, continued)

• Use only the Dell-provided AC adapter approved for

use with this computer. Use of another AC adapter may

cause a fire or explosion.

• Before you connect the computer to an electrical outlet,

check the AC adapter voltage rating to ensure that the

required voltage and frequency match the available

power source.

• To remove power from the computer, turn it off,

remove the battery pack, and disconnect the AC

adapter from the electrical outlet.

• To help prevent electric shock, plug the AC adapter and

peripheral power cables into properly grounded power

sources. These power cables may be equipped with

three-prong plugs to provide an earth grounding

connection. Do not use adapter plugs or remove the

grounding prong from the power cable plug. If you use a

power extension cable, use the appropriate type, two-

prong or three-prong, to mate with the AC adapter

power cable.

• Be sure that nothing rests on your AC adapter’s power

cable and that the cable is not located where it can be

tripped over or stepped on.

• If you are using a multiple-outlet power strip, use

caution when plugging the AC adapter’s power cable

into the power strip. Some power strips may allow you

to insert the plug incorrectly. Incorrect insertion of the

power plug could result in permanent damage to your

computer, as well as risk of electric shock and/or fire.

Ensure that the ground prong of the power plug is

inserted into the mating ground contact of the power

strip.

10 Safety and Use Instructions

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Caution: Battery (Safety Instructions, continued)

• Use only Dell battery modules that are approved for use

with this computer. Use of other types may increase the

risk of fire or explosion.

• Do not carry a battery pack in your pocket, purse, or

other container where metal objects (such as car keys or

paper clips) could short-circuit the battery terminals.

The resulting excessive current flow can cause

extremely high temperatures and may result in damage

to the battery pack or cause fire or burns.

• The battery poses a burn hazard if you handle it

improperly. Do not disassemble it. Handle a damaged

or leaking battery pack with extreme care. If the battery

is damaged, electrolyte may leak from the cells and may

cause personal injury.

• Keep the battery away from children.

• Do not store or leave your computer or battery pack

near a heat source such as a radiator, fireplace, stove,

electric heater, or other heat-generating appliance or

otherwise expose it to temperatures in excess of 60ºC

(140ºF). When heated to excessive temperatures,

battery cells could explode or vent, posing a risk of fire.

• Do not dispose of your computer’s battery in a fire or

with normal household waste. Battery cells may

explode. Discard a used battery according to the

manufacturer’s instructions or contact your local waste

disposal agency for disposal instructions. Dispose of a

spent or damaged battery promptly.

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