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Dell™ Dimension™ XPS Gen 3
headphone
connector
microphone
connector
USB 2.0
connectors (2)
IEEE 1394
connector
fans (2)
diagnostic lights
serial port
mouse connector
parallel port
cover latch release
keyboard connector
network adapter connector
USB 2.0
TV-OUT connector
connectors (6)
DVI video connector
VGA video connector
sound card connectors
PCI card (4), PCI Express
x1 card (1), PCI Express
security cable slot
x16 card (1) slots
padlock ring
fans (2)
modem connector
power connector
Model
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Notes, Notices, and Cautions NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer. NOTICE: A NOTICE indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. Abbreviations and Acronyms For a complete list of abbreviations and acronyms, see the Dell Dimension Help file. To access the help file, see page 10. ® ® If you pu
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Contents Finding Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1 Setting Up and Using Your Computer Opening the Drive Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Changing the Backlight Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Connecting Two Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Connecting Two Monitors With VGA Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Connecting One Monitor With a VGA connector and One Monitor With a DVI
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3 Solving Problems Troubleshooting Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Battery Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Drive Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 CD and DVD drive problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Hard drive problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Error Messages . . .
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4 Advanced Troubleshooting Diagnostic Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Dell Diagnostics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 When to Use the Dell Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 What Is a Driver? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Identifying Drivers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Reinstallin
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Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 PCI Cards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 PCI Express Cards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 General Installation Guidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Connecting Drive Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Hard Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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6 Appendix Specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Entering System Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 System Setup Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Boot Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Clearing Forgotten Passwords . . . .
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8 Contents
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Finding Information What Are You Looking For? Find it Here How to access tutorials and other how to information Dell Solution Center How to get a copy of my invoice On your Windows desktop How to extend my warranty ® How to access Dell Support on my Microsoft ® Windows desktop (U.S. only) Additional documentation, tools, troubleshooting information, and links to online support resources A diagnostic program for my computer ResourceCD Drivers for my computer Documentation and dri
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What Are You Looking For? Find it Here Warranty information Dell™ Product Information Guide Safety instructions Regulatory information Ergonomics information End User License Agreement How to set up my computer Setup Diagram ® ® Tips on using Microsoft Windows The Dell Dimension Help file How to play CDs and DVDs 1 Click the Start button and click Help and Support. How to use standby mode and hibernate mode 2 Click User and system guides and click User’s guides. How to change
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What Are You Looking For? Find it Here Service Tag and Express Service Code Service Tag and Microsoft Windows License Microsoft Windows License Label These labels are located on your computer. Use the Service Tag to identify your computer when you use support.dell.com or contact technical support. Enter the Express Service Code to direct your call when contacting technical support. The Express Service Code is not available in all countries. Latest drivers for my computer Dell Sup
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What Are You Looking For? Find it Here How to reinstall my operating system Operating System CD The operating system is already installed on your computer. To reinstall your operating system, use the ® Operating System CD. See "Reinstalling Microsoft ® Windows XP" on page 57. After you reinstall your operating system, use the ResourceCD to reinstall drivers for the devices that came with your computer. NOTE: The color of your CD varies based on the operating system you ordered. 12 F
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Setting Up and Using Your Computer Opening the Drive Door Changing the Backlight Color You can use this exclusive Dell™ Dimension™ XPS Gen 3 feature either to change the color of the backlight that illuminates the Dell name and displays around the badge on the front of your computer, or to turn off the backlight entirely. Setting Up and Using Your Computer 13
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backlight badge There are several color choices: Ruby Emerald Sapphire (default) Amber Amethyst Topaz Diamond CAUTION: Before you begin any of the procedures in this section, follow the safety instructions located in the Product Information Guide. NOTE: The backlight is not for diagnostic purposes. 1 Follow the procedures in "Before You Begin" on page 61. 2 Turn on (or restart) your computer. 3 Enter system setup (see page 114). 4 Scroll through the color options using the up- and
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5 Click Front LED Color, and press . 6 Press the left- and right- arrow keys to scroll through the color options. The backlight color changes as you scroll through the options. 7 Select the color you want, and press . 8 Press , and press Save and Exit to save the new backlight color setting. Connecting Two Monitors CAUTION: Before you begin any of the procedures in this section, follow the safety instructions located in the Product Information Guide. NOTE: If you are conne
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optional DVI adapter DVI (white) connector TV-OUT connector VGA (blue) connector Connecting One Monitor With a VGA connector and One Monitor With a DVI Connector 1 Follow the procedures in "Before You Begin" on page 61. 2 Connect the VGA connector on the monitor to the VGA (blue) connector on the back of the computer. 3 Connect the DVI connector on the other monitor to the DVI (white) connector on the back of the computer. Connecting a TV NOTE: To connect a TV to your computer, you must purch
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Changing the Display Settings 1 After you connect the monitor(s) or TV, turn on the computer. ® ® The Microsoft Windows desktop displays on the primary monitor. 2 Enable clone mode or extended desktop mode in the display settings. In clone mode, both monitors display the same image. In extended desktop mode, you can drag objects from one screen to the other, effectively doubling the amount of viewable work space. For information on changing the display settings for your graphics card, see t
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RAID Level 0 RAID level 0 uses a storage technique known as "data striping" to provide a high data access rate. Data striping is a method of writing consecutive segments, or stripes, of data sequentially across the physical drives to create a large virtual drive. Data striping allows one of the drives to read data while the other drive is searching for and reading the next block. serial ATA RAID configured for RAID level 0 segment 1 segment 2 segment 3 segment 4 segment 5 segment 6 hard dri
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serial ATA RAID configured for RAID level 1 segment 1 segment 1 duplicated segment 2 segment 2 duplicated segment 3 segment 3 duplicated segment 4 segment 4 duplicated segment 5 segment 5 duplicated segment 6 segment 6 duplicated hard drive 1 hard drive 2 If a drive failure occurs, subsequent read and write operations are directed to the surviving drive. A replacement drive can then be rebuilt using the data from the surviving drive. Also, because data is duplicated on both drives, two 120-G
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5 Use the left- and right-arrow keys to highlight Save/Exit, and press to exit system setup and resume the boot process. Configuring for RAID Using the Intel(R) Option ROM Utility NOTE: Although any size drives may be used to create a RAID configuration using the Intel Option ROM utility, ideally the drives should be of equal size. In a RAID level 0 configuration, the size of the array will be the size of the smallest disk multiplied by the number (two) of disks in the array. In a RA
