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book.book Page 1 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM
Dell™ Inspiron™ 531 Owner’s Manual
Model DCMA
www.dell.com | support.dell.com
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book.book Page 2 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM 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. If you purchased a Dell™ n Series computer, any references in this document to ® ® Microsoft Windows operating
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book.book Page 3 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM Contents 1 Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2 Setting Up and Using Your Computer . . . 15 Front View of the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Back View of the Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Back Panel Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Installing Your Computer in an Enclosure . . . . . . . 20 Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Printer Cable . . . . . . . . . . . .
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book.book Page 4 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM Connecting One Monitor With a VGA Connector and One Monitor With a DVI Connector . . . . . . 32 Connecting a TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Changing the Display Settings . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Power Management Options in ® ® Microsoft Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Standby Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Hibernate Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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book.book Page 5 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM 3 Solving Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Troubleshooting Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Battery Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 CD and DVD drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Hard drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . 54 Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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book.book Page 6 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM Sound and Speaker Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 No sound from speakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 No sound from headphones . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Video and Monitor Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 If the screen is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 If the screen is difficult to read . . . . . . . . . . . 72 4 Troubleshooting Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Power Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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book.book Page 7 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM 5 Removing and Installing Parts . . . . . . . . 97 Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Turning Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Before Working Inside Your Computer . . . . . . . 98 Removing the Computer Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Inside View of Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 System Board Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
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book.book Page 8 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Replacing the Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Replacing the Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Removing the Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Installing the Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 I/O Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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book.book Page 9 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM A Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Entering System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 System Setup Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Boot Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Clearing Forgotten Passwords . . . .
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book.book Page 10 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM Problems With Your Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Product Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Returning Items for Warranty Repair or Credit . . . . . 186 Before You Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Contacting Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 10
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book.book Page 11 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM Finding Information NOTE: Some features or media may be optional and may not ship with your computer. Some features or media may not be available in certain countries. NOTE: Additional information may ship with your computer. What Are You Looking For? Find it Here Warranty information Dell™ Product Information Guide Terms and Conditions (U.S. only) Safety instructions Regulatory information Ergonomics information End User License
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book.book Page 12 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM What Are You Looking For? Find it Here ® ® Service Tag and Express Service Tag and Microsoft Windows License Service Code These labels are located on your computer. Microsoft Windows License Label Use the Service Tag to identify your computer when you use support.dell.com or contact support. Enter the Express Service Code to direct your call when contacting support. NOTE: As an increased security measure, the newly designed Micros
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book.book Page 13 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM What Are You Looking For? Find it Here Solutions — Troubleshooting hints Dell Support Website — support.dell.com and tips, articles from technicians, NOTE: Select your region to view the and online courses, frequently asked appropriate support site. questions NOTE: Corporate, government, and education Community — Online discussion customers can also use the customized Dell with other Dell customers Premier Support website at Upgrad
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book.book Page 14 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM What Are You Looking For? Find it Here ® How to use your Windows Windows Help and Support Center operating system 1 To access Windows Help and Support: How to work with programs and In Windows XP, click Start and click files Help and Support. How to personalize my desktop ® In Windows Vista , click the Windows Vista start button™ and click Help and Support. 2 Type a word or phrase that describes your problem and press . 3
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book.book Page 15 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM Setting Up and Using Your Computer Front View of the Computer 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 Service Tag Use the Service Tag to identify your computer when you (located on top of the access the Dell Support website or call technical support. chassis towards the rear) 2 CD or DVD drive Use the CD/DVD drive for playing a CD/DVD. 3 CD or DVD drive panel This panel covers the CD/DVD drive. (Shown in open position) 4 CD or DVD eject button P
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book.book Page 16 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM 5 optional CD or DVD Can contain an optional CD/DVD drive. drive bay 6 optional CD or DVD Press to eject a disk from the optional CD or DVD eject button drive. 7 FlexBay drive Can contain an optional floppy drive or optional Media Card Reader. For information on using the Media Card Reader, see the Sonic website at www.sonic.com for additional information. 8 USB 2.0 connectors (4) Use the front USB connectors for devices that you connect o
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book.book Page 17 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM Back View of the Computer 1 2 6 3 5 4 1 power connector Insert the power cable. 2 power supply LED Indicates power availability for power supply. 3 back panel Plug USB, audio, and other devices into the appropriate connectors connector. See "Back Panel Connectors" on page 18 for more information. 4 card slots Access connectors for any installed PCI and PCI Express cards. 5 padlock rings Padlock rings are for attaching a commercially available
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book.book Page 18 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM Back Panel Connectors 12 3 4 5 6 7 11 9 8 10 1 network activity Flashes a yellow light when the computer is transmitting or light receiving network data. A high volume of network traffic may make this light appear to be in a steady "on" state. 2 network adapter To attach your computer to a network or broadband device, connector connect one end of a network cable to either a network port or your network or broadband device. Connect the other
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book.book Page 19 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM 4 center/subwoofer Use the orange connector to attach a speaker to a Low connector Frequency Effects (LFE) audio channel. LFE audio channel is found in digital surround sound audio schemes that carries only low frequency information of 80 Hz and below. The LFE channel drives a subwoofer to provide extremely low bass extension. Systems not using subwoofers can shunt the LFE information to the main speakers in the surround sound set-up. 5
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book.book Page 20 Friday, April 4, 2008 12:10 PM Installing Your Computer in an Enclosure Installing your computer in an enclosure can restrict the airflow and impact your computer’s performance, possibly causing it to overheat. Follow the guidelines below when installing your computer in an enclosure: NOTICE: The operating temperature specifications indicated in this manual reflects the maximum ambient operating temperature. The room ambient temperature needs to be a consideration when
