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
- Adjusting the volume
- Configuring the audio jacks
- Installing a printer, scanner, or other device
- Setting up RAID
- Upgrading Your Computer
- Preventing static electricity discharge
- Opening the case
- Closing the case
- Adding or replacing memory
- Replacing the system battery
- Adding or replacing an optical disc drive
- Adding or replacing an optional diskette drive
- Adding or replacing the memory card reader
- Adding or replacing a harddrive
- Replacing the front fan
- Replacing the rear fan
- Replacing the power supply
- Replacing the heat sink and processor
- Replacing the I/O board
- Adding or replacing an expansion card
- Replacing the system board
- Maintaining Your Computer
- Troubleshooting
- Safety guidelines
- First steps
- Troubleshooting
- Add-in cards
- Audio
- CD or DVD drives
- DVD drives
- Ethernet
- File management
- Hard drive
- Internet
- Keyboard
- Media Center
- The Media Center video display looks bad on your TV
- You need to configure your Media Center computer to output to aTV
- You want to change display settings to get better TV or DVD image quality
- You want to know whether you can burn programs that were recorded with your Media Center computer...
- You want to know whether you can play recorded programs on other computers
- You want to know whether you can play recorded programs on your home DVD player
- You get a “Download Error” message when the Media Center tries to update the Program Guide:
- 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 14,400bps when you have a 56K m...
- 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 system
- Recovering pre-installed software and drivers
- Using Microsoft System Restore
- Recovering your system to its factory condition
- Recovering your system using the WindowsDVD
- Telephone support
- Legal Notices
- Index
www.gateway.com
iii
Cleaning the mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Cleaning optical discs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Updating Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Using BigFix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Managing hard drive space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Checking hard drive space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Deleting unnecessary files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Checking the hard drive for errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Defragmenting the hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Backing up files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Scheduling maintenance tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Moving from your old computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Moving with Windows Easy Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Moving files and settings manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Chapter 6: Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Safety guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
First steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Add-in cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
CD or DVD drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
DVD drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Ethernet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
File management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Media Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Memory card reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Modem (cable or DSL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Modem (dial-up) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
8512066.book Page iii Tuesday, January 16, 2007 11:02 AM