Contents 7
11 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Dell Technical Update Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
When to Use the Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Starting the Dell Diagnostics From Your Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Starting the Dell Diagnostics From the Drivers and Utilities CD . . . . . . 88
Dell Diagnostics Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Dell Support Utility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Accessing the Dell Support Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Clicking the Dell Support Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Double-Clicking the Dell Support Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Drive Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
CD and DVD Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
If You Cannot Eject the CD, CD-RW, DVD, or DVD+RW Drive Tray. . . . . 92
If You Hear an Unfamiliar Scraping or Grinding Sound. . . . . . . . . . . 92
Hard Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
IEEE 1394 Device Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
External Keyboard Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Unexpected Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Lockups and Software Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
The Computer Does Not Start Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
The Computer Stops Responding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
A Program Stops Responding or Crashes Repeatedly. . . . . . . . . . . 99
A Program Is Designed for an Earlier Microsoft® Windows®
Operating System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
A Solid Blue Screen Appears. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Dell MediaDirect Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Other Software Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Memory Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
PD598a01.book Page 7 Monday, February 6, 2006 2:24 PM