Quick Reference Guide
Table Of Contents
- Contents
- About This Reference
- Checking Out Your Computer
- Setting Up and Getting Started
- Working safely and comfortably
- Preparing power connections
- Connecting to a broadband modem or network
- Connecting a dial-up modem
- Starting your computer
- Turning off your computer
- Restarting (rebooting) your computer
- Using the keyboard
- Using the mouse
- Using optical drives
- Using the memory card reader
- Using the diskette drive
- Adjusting the volume
- Installing a printer, scanner, or other device
- Upgrading Your Computer
- Preventing static electricity discharge
- Opening and closing the case
- Replacing the optical disc drive
- Replacing the diskette drive
- Replacing the memory card reader
- Replacing the hard drive
- Installing memory
- Adding or replacing an expansion card
- Replacing the heat sink and processor
- Replacing the system battery
- Replacing the power supply
- Replacing the system board
- Maintaining Your Computer
- Troubleshooting
- Safety guidelines
- First steps
- Troubleshooting
- Add-in cards
- Audio
- CD or DVD drives
- Diskette drive
- The diskette drive is not recognized
- You cannot save a file to diskette or you see the message “disk is full or write-protected”
- You see an “Access Denied” or “Write protect” error message
- You see a “Disk is full” error message
- You see a “Non-system disk” or “Disk error” error message
- The diskette drive LED is lit continuously
- Display
- DVD drives
- Ethernet
- Expansion cards
- File management
- Floppy drive
- Hard drive
- Internet
- Keyboard
- Media Center
- Memory
- Memory card reader
- Modem (cable or DSL)
- Modem (dial-up)
- Your modem does not dial or does not connect
- You cannot connect to the Internet
- Your 56K modem does not connect at 56K
- Your fax communications program only sends and receives faxes at 14,400 bps when you have a 56K modem
- The modem is not recognized by your computer
- The modem is noisy when it dials and connects
- Monitor
- Mouse
- Networks
- Passwords
- Power
- Printer
- Sound
- Recovering your Windows Vista system
- Recovering pre-installed software and drivers
- Using Microsoft System Restore
- Recovering your system to its factory condition
- Recovering your system using the Windows DVD
- Recovering your Windows XP system
- Telephone support
- Legal Notices
- Index
Contents
ii
Identifying optical drive types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Playing discs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Creating discs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Using the memory card reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Memory card types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Using a memory card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Using the diskette drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Adjusting the volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Installing a printer, scanner, or other device . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Chapter 4: Upgrading Your Computer . . . . . . . 37
Preventing static electricity discharge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Opening and closing the case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Replacing the optical disc drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Replacing the diskette drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Replacing the memory card reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Replacing the hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Installing memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Adding or replacing an expansion card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Replacing the heat sink and processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Replacing the system battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Replacing the power supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Replacing the system board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Chapter 5: Maintaining Your Computer. . . . . . 71
Setting up a maintenance schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Caring for your computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Cleaning your computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Cleaning the exterior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Cleaning the keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Cleaning the monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Cleaning the mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Cleaning optical discs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Updating Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Using BigFix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Managing hard drive space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Checking hard drive space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8512138.book Page ii Friday, March 16, 2007 4:33 PM