Dell Dimension 8100- Manuals

E O U QJ T3 o Q. Q. Z5 to • Keep your eomputer away from radiators and heat sourees. Also, do not Eloek eooling vents. Avoid plaeing loose papers underneath your eomputer; do not plaee your eomputer in a elosed-in wall unit or on a bed, sofa, or rug. When Working Inside Your Computer Before you remo...

Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge To prevent statie damage, diseharge statie eleetrieity from your body before you toueh anything inside your eomputer and periodieally while you work inside the eomputer. You ean do so by touehing an unpainted metal surfaee on the baek of the eomputer. You e...

1 S E C T I O N 1 ¡ S e t t i n g U p Connecting a Printer Turning Off the Computer

Connecting a Printer See the doeumentation that eame with the printer for any reeommended preparation proeedures, sueh as: • Removing the paekaging • Installing the toner or ink eartridge • Loading paper Then follow the instruetions that eame with the printer to eonneet it to the eomputer. If no inf...

screws (2) parallel connector on computer parallel connector on printer clips (2) 3 Turn on the printer and then turn on the eomputer. If the Add New Hardware Wizard window appears, eliek Cancel . 4 Install the printer driver if neeessary (see page 14). USB Printer 1 Install the printer driver if ne...

USB connector on printer HINT: Dell installs drivers for some new printers. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Printers. If your printer is listed in the Printers window, the printer is ready to use. Installing the Printer Driver If you need to install a printer driver, insert...

Windows 98 Second Edition (SE) and Windows Millennium Edition (Me) 1 Save and exit any programs and files you have open. 2 Cliek the Start button, and then eliek Shut Down . 3 In the Shut Down Windows window, eliek Shut down and then eliek OK . The eomputer automatieally turns off after the shutdown...

2 S E C T I O N 2 S o l Y i n g P r o b l e m s Finding Solutions Power Problems Start-Up Error Messages Video and Monitor Problems Sound and Speaker Problems Printer Problems Scanner Problems Modem Problems Mouse Problems Keyboard Problems Drive Problems Network Problems Windows Error Messages Gene...

Finding Solutions Sometimes it’s diffieult to figure out where to go for answers. Use this ehart to help you quiekly find the answers to your questions. N O o N O o CONTINUE I S o l v i n g P r o b l e m s

HINT: Seethe Tell Me //oM/help file for information on the standby mode. Power Problems C h e c k t h e p o w e r l i g h t — When the power light is lit or blinking, the eomputer has power. If the power light is blinking, the eomputer is in standby mode—press a key on the keyboard or move the mouse...

Start-Up Error Messages O p e r a t i n g s y s t e m n o t f o u n d — Call Dell for technical assistance (see page 69). I n s e r t b o o t a b l e m e d i a — The operating system is trying to boot to a nonbootable floppy disk or CD. Insert a bootable floppy disk or CD. N O N - S Y S T E M d i s ...

C h e c k t h e b a c k p a n e l l i g h t s — If all four lights below the serial port are not green, eall Dell for teehnieal assistanee (see page 69). C h e c k t h e P o w e r P r o p e r t i e s i f t h e m o n i t o r s c r e e n o c c a s i o n a l l y t u r n s b l a n k — See Windows Help. ...

C h e c k f o r a d d i t i o n a l a d j u s t m e n t s — See the monitor doeumentation for any additional adjustments that your monitor may require. A d j u s t t h e W i n d o w s d i s p l a y s e t t i n g s — Cliek the Start button, point to Settings, and eliek Control Panel. Double-eliek the...

M o v e t h e s u b w o o f e r a w a y f r o m t h e m o n i t o r — If your speaker system ineludes a subwoofer, ensure that the subwoofer is at least 2 ft (6 em) away from the monitor. E l i m i n a t e p o s s i b l e i n t e r f e r e n c e — Turn off nearby fans, fluoreseent lights, or halogen...

If you cannot print to a USB printer V e r i f y t h e p r i n t e r c a b l e c o n n e c t i o n s — Ensure that the printer eable is eonneeted as deseribed on page 16. T e s t t h e e l e c t r i c a l o u t l e t — Ensure that the eleetrieal outlet is working b\ testing it with another deviee, s...

Modem Problems NOTICE: Connect the modem to an analog telephone jack only. Connecting the modem to a digital telephone network damages the modem. C h e c k t h e t e l e p h o n e j a c k — Disconnect the telephone line from the modem and connect it to a telephone. Listen for a dial tone. C o n n e ...

Mouse Problems R e c o n n e c t t h e m o u s e c a b l e 1 Press <CtrlxEsc> to display the Start menu. 2 Use the keyboard arrow keys to highlight Shut Down and then press the <Enter> key 3 After the computer turns off, reconnect the mouse cable as shown on the START HERE sheet for your...

C a n n o t s a v e f i l e s t o a f l o p p y d i s k — Ensure that the floppy disk is not full or write-proteeted (looked). See the following illustration. T e s t t h e d r i v e w i t h a n o t h e r f l o p p y d i s k — Insert another floppy disk to eliminate the possibility that the original...

If you cannot play a DVD movie E n s u r e t h a t W i n d o w s r e c o g n i z e s t h e d r i v e — Double-click the My Computer icon. If the DVD drive is not listed, perform a full scan with your antivirus software to check for and remove viruses. Viruses can sometimes prevent Windows from recog...

Network Problems C h e c k t h e n e t w o r k c a b l e c o n n e c t o r — Ensure that the network eable eonneetor is firmly eonneeted to the eonneetor on the eomputer as shown on the START HERE sheet for your eomputer. C h e c k t h e n e t w o r k l i g h t s o n t h e b a c k o f t h e c o m p ...

A R E O U I R E D . D L L F I L E W A S N O T F O U N D — The program that you are trying to open is missing an essential file. To remove and then reinstall the program: 1 Cliek the Start button, point to Settings, and then eliek Control Panel. 2 Double-eliek the Add/Remove Programs ieon. 3 Seleet t...

E - m a i l D e l l — Go to http://support.dell.com and then click E-Mail Dell in the Communicate list. Send an e-mail message to Dell about your problem; you can expect to receive an e-mail message from Dell within hours. C a l l D e l l — If you cannot solve your problem using the Dell support web...

Reinstalling Windows 98 NOTICE: The operating system CD provides options for reinstalling your Windows 9 8 Second Edition operating system. The options can potentially overwrite files installed by Dell and possibly affect programs installed on your hard drive. Therefore, Dell does not recommend that...

Reinstalling Windows Me NOTICE: The operating system CD provides options for reinstalling your Windows Me operating system. The options can potentially overwrite files installed by Dell and possibly affect programs installed on your hard drive. Therefore, Dell does not recommend that you reinstall y...

3 SECTION 5 A d d i n g P a r t s Removing the Computer Cover Looking Inside Your Computer Rotating the Power Supply Removing and Replacing the Front Panel Removing and Replacing the AGP Card Brace Adding Cards Removing Cards Adding Memory Adding or Replacing Other Drives Replacing the Computer Cove...

Removing the Computer Cover A CAUTION: Before you begin any of the procedures in this section, follow the safety instructions on page 7. ^ NOTICE: The system board continues to receive a small amount of power when the computer is turned off and attached to an electrical outlet. To avoid damaging the...

Looking Inside Your Computer 4 ^ I A d d i n g P a r t s

System Board In the illustration, the text in parentheses indieates how items are identified on the system board. CD drive audio interface connector (CD_IN) parallel port connector (SER PAR) serial port connector (SER PAR) fan connector (FAN) Suspend-to-RAM indicator (STR) mouse and keyboard connect...

Rotating the Power Supply To access some of the components on the system board, you may need to rotate the system power supply out of the way: 1 Turn off the computer and peripherals, disconnect them from their electrical outlets, and wait at least 5 seconds. Press and release the power button to dr...

To replace the AGP card brace: 1 Insert the tab on one end of the brace into the slot at the front of the computer. 2 Lower the brace, ensuring that the AGP retention lever on the bottom of the brace is aligned with the top of the AGP card (see page 48). 3 Replace the screw that secures the brace to...

Installing a Card 1 Turn off the computer and peripherals, disconnect them from their electrical outlets, and wait at least 5 seconds. Press and release the power button to drain the power from the computer, and then remove the computer cover (see page 42). 2 Prepare the card for installation. See t...

cardconnector . edge connector ■ card 6 Secure the card bracket to the computer with the screw you removed in step 4. 7 Connect any cables that should be attached to the card. See the documentation that came with the card for information about the card's cable connections. 8 If you removed the AGP b...

2 If you are removing an AGP eard, remove the AGP eard braee (see page 48). 3 If neeessary, diseonneet any eables eonneeted to the eard. 4 Remove the serew that seeures the eard braeket to the eomputer. 5 Grasp the eard by its top eorners, and ease it out of its eonneetor. 6 If you are removing the ...

4 Insert the module straight down into the eonneetor, making sure that it fits into the vertieal guides at eaeh end of the eonneetor. Press firmly on the ends until the memory module snaps into plaee. If you insert the module eorreetly, the seeuring elips snap into the eutouts at eaeh end of the mod...

12 Replace the front panel (see page 47). 13 Replace the computer cover (see page 59), reconnect the computer and peripherals to their electrical outlets, and turn them on. 14 If the drive you installed is a hard drive, enter the system setup program (see page 65), and update the drive settings. Aft...

4 S E C T I O N 4 A p p e n d i x Specifications Standard Settings Contacting Dell Regulatory Information Warranty and Return Policy Information

Environmental Temperature: Operating Storage Relative humidity Maximum vibration: Operating Storage Maximum shoek: Operating Storage Altitude: Operating Storage 10° to 35°C (50° to 95°F) -40° to 65°C (-40° to 149°F) 20% to 80% (noneondensing) 0.25 G at 3 to 200 Hz at 0.5 oetave/min 0.5 G at 3 to 200...

^ HINT: The Xs in the figure will be replaced by information that is specific to your computer. See the following figure for an example of the Main sereen of the program: Viewing Settings 1 Turn on (or restart) your eomputer. 2 When the blue Dell logo appears, press <Del> immediately. If you w...

System Setup Screens The system setup sereens display the eurrent eonfiguration information for your eomputer. Information on the sereen is divided into five areas: • Title - The area at the top of all system setup sereens that displays your eomputer’s model number. • Computer data - Two boxes below...

4 Press <Enter> at the Maintenance screen and then eliek Yes to clear all passwords. 5 Press <F10> to save your changes and exit the system setup program. 6 Remove the computer cover again. 7 Move the jumper plug so that pins 1 and 2 are jumpered (standard setting). 8 Replace the compute...

4 Insert the battery into the soeket with the side labeled “ + ” faeing up. battery socket (BATTERY) battery 5 Replaee the eomputer eover (see page 59) and plug your eomputer and deviees into their eleetrieal outlets. 6 Aeeess the system setup program and restore the settings you reeorded in step 1....

I n d e x A D I audio. See sound display. See monitor installing an expansion drivers card, 48, 50 B reinstalling, 55 Internet drives fixing problems, 52 battery fixing problems, 27 replacing, 68 DVD drive K BIOS, 65 fixing problems, 29 keyboard fixing problems, 27 c E CD drive e-mail 0 fixing probl...