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
www.gateway.com
iii
Deleting unnecessary files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Checking the hard drive for errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Defragmenting the hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Backing up files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Scheduling maintenance tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Using Task Scheduler in Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Using the Scheduled Task Wizard in Windows XP . . . . . 85
Moving from your old computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Transferring files and settings automatically . . . . . . . . 86
Transferring files and settings manually . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Chapter 6: Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Safety guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
First steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Add-in cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
CD or DVD drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Diskette drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
DVD drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Ethernet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Expansion cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
File management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Floppy drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Media Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Memory card reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Modem (cable or DSL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Modem (dial-up) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
8512138.book Page iii Friday, March 16, 2007 4:33 PM