Quick Reference Guide
Table Of Contents
- Contents
- About This Reference
- Checking Out Your Notebook
- Setting Up and Getting Started
- Working safely and comfortably
- Connecting the AC adapter
- Connecting the dial-up modem
- Connecting to a broadband modem or network
- Starting your notebook
- Turning off your notebook
- Restarting (rebooting) your notebook
- Using the status indicators
- Using the keyboard
- Using the EZ Pad touchpad
- Adjusting brightness
- Adjusting the volume
- Turning your wireless radio on or off
- Using Drives and Accessories
- Managing Power
- Traveling with Your Notebook
- Maintaining Your Notebook
- Upgrading Your Notebook
- Troubleshooting
- Safety guidelines
- First steps
- Troubleshooting
- Audio
- Battery
- CD drives (external)
- Diskette drive (external)
- Display
- DVD drives (external)
- 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 to output to a TV
- You want to change display settings to get better TV or DVD image quality
- You want to know whether you can burn videos that were recorded with your Media Center computer to a DVD
- You want to know whether you can play recorded videos on other computers
- You want to know whether you can play recorded videos on your home DVD player
- 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 notebook
- The modem is noisy when it dials and connects
- Mouse
- Networks (wired)
- Networks (wireless)
- You turned wireless networking on, but it takes a while to connect
- Your connection on the network seems intermittent or your wireless network is running slower than you expect
- You are in a wireless network, you can see the network, but cannot communicate, send files, print, or get to the Web
- You are in a wireless network, but no available networks are listed in the Connect to a network dialog box
- Your wireless network is listed as a preferred network, but it has an “x” on it
- Internet Explorer is unable to access the Internet
- You cannot see other computers on your network
- You cannot connect to your network
- Passwords
- PC Cards
- Pointing device
- Power
- Printer
- Sound
- Status indicators
- Touchpad or pointing device
- Video
- Telephone support
- Legal Information
- Index
CHAPTER 7: Maintaining Your Notebook
68
Cleaning CDs or DVDs
Wipe from the center to the edge, not around in a circle, using
a product made especially for the purpose.
Recovering your system
You can solve most computer problems by following the
information in “Troubleshooting” on page 89 or in the
technical support pages at www.
gateway.com. Problem
solving may also involve re-installing some or all of the
notebook’s software (also called recovering or restoring your
system). Gateway provides everything you need to recover
your system under most conditions.
• If only one or two items of software or hardware have
stopped working correctly, the problem may be solved
by re-installing the software or the hardware drivers.
To recover software and drivers that were pre-installed
at the factory, see “Recovering pre-installed software
and drivers” on page 69. For instructions on reinstalling
software and drivers that were not pre-installed, see
that product’s documentation or support Web site.
• If re-installing software or drivers does not help, then
the problem may be solved by returning your system
to a previous state when everything was working
correctly. For instructions, see “Using Microsoft System
Restore” on page 75.
• If nothing else has solved the problem and you want
to return your system to factory condition, see
“Recovering your system to its factory condition” on
page 78.
Caution
To prepare your notebook for additional system recovery options, you
should create a set of software and driver recovery discs as soon as possible.
For instructions, see “Preparing for software and device driver recovery” on
page 69.