Manuals

Introduction: Dell Latitude L400 User's Guide

Introduction: Dell™ Latitude™ L400 User's Guide

	Overview		Available Options
	Features		Getting Help

Overview

Dell Latitude L400 portable computers are expandable multimedia systems designed around an Intel® Mobile Pentium® III microprocessor that includes Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) and Intel SpeedStep™ technologies. This section describes the major hardware and software features of your computer. Figure 1, Figure 2, and Figure 3 show the front/right, back/left, and bottom views of the computer.

Figure 1. Front/Right View of the Computer

1	Power button
2	Display latch
3	Drive access indicator
4	Pad Lock (Num Lock) indicator
5	Caps Lock indicator
6	Scroll Lock indicator
7	Integrated microphone
8	PC Card slot
9	Hard-disk drive
10	Security cable slot
11	Battery status indicator
12	Power indicator
13	Touch pad buttons
14	Touch pad
15	Keyboard

NOTICE: To avoid overheating the computer, do not place the external media bay close to the air inlet or fan intake/exhaust vents (see Figure 2).

NOTICE: Do not confuse the modem and NIC connectors on your computer. Do not plug a telephone line into the NIC connector (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Back/Left View of the Computer

1	USB connector
2	Speakers and headphones (line-out/speaker-out) jack
3	Microphone (MIC IN) jack
4	Fan intake/exhaust vents
5	Air inlet
6	PS/2 connector
7	AC adapter connector
8	External media bay connector
9	Parallel connector
10	Video connector
11	Modem connector
12	NIC connector
13	External media bay

Figure 3. Bottom View of the Computer

1	Docking connector
2	Reset switch access hole
3	Microphone (MIC IN) jack
4	Speakers and headphones (line-out/speaker-out) jack
5	USB connector
6	Speaker
7	Battery latch
8	Battery charge gauge
9	Battery
10	Hard-disk drive bay

Features

Your Dell computer provides the following features:

Full multimedia capability through the following standard features:
- A 12.1-inch extended graphics array (XGA), 1024 X 768 thin film transistor (TFT) active-matrix color display
- An external media bay that supports storage devices such as a DVD-ROM, CD-RW, CD-ROM, diskette, or Zip 250 drive; it also supports a second, nonbootable hard-disk drive
  
  NOTE: For information on installing devices in the external media bay, see "External Media Bay."

4 megabytes (MB) of video memory
Accelerated graphics port (AGP) architecture that increases the computer's video performance
Support for a zoomed video (ZV) PC Card in the PC Card slot
Two audio jacks for connecting a microphone and external stereo speakers or headphones
Integrated microphone and speaker
Software wavetable support and Sound Blaster software-emulation capability

System memory consisting of 64, 128, or 256 MB (optional at time of purchase) of synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) small outline, dual-inline memory modules (SODIMMs).
Two power conservation modes—suspend (or standby) mode and suspend-to-disk (S2D) mode—that help you conserve battery power. If the batteries run out of power, S2D mode prevents data loss by copying all system data to the hard-disk drive and turning off the computer.
Connector for one 3.3-volt (V) or 5-V PC Card. The PC Card slot supports Type I and Type II PC Cards, including ZV PC Cards.

NOTE: The PC Card controller supports the CardBus standard for 32-bit data transfer on the PC Card.

Hardware and software support for the Dell Latitude L400 Advanced Port Replicator (APR).
A touch pad pointing device positioned for both left- and right-handed users. The left and right touch pad buttons mimic mouse buttons; you can also perform many pointing functions by tapping the touch pad itself. Click-and-drag buttonless functions are supported.
A lithium ion battery in the battery bay. A 4-cell battery is standard, with a 6-cell battery optional at the time of purchase, or as post-sale customer kit.

NOTICE: The batteries are designed to work only with Dell Latitude L400 computers. Do not use these batteries with other computers, and do not use batteries from other computers with Latitude L400 computers.

CAUTION: Do not puncture or incinerate the battery. When your battery no longer holds a charge, call your local waste disposal agency or environmental agency for advice on disposing of the computer's lithium ion battery.

A high-performance parallel port and a multipurpose Personal System/2 (PS/2) connector for attaching external devices, a monitor connector for attaching an external monitor to your computer, and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector that supports stand-alone and hub devices.
An integrated 56-kilobits per second (Kbps) v.90 controllerless modem with support for telephone hardware worldwide.
An integrated 3Com® 10/100-BASETX PCI bus master Ethernet network interface controller (NIC).
A reset switch (accessible though the reset switch access hole on the bottom of the computer) for restarting the computer without turning the power off and on.

NOTE: To restart the computer using the reset switch, straighten a paper clip and press it into the reset switch access hole for about one second.

An automatic thermal management system that uses a fan and microprocessor speed changes to keep the computer running at an optimum temperature.

CAUTION: Do not allow your portable computer to operate with the base resting directly on your body. With extended operation, heat can potentially build up in the base. Allowing sustained contact with the skin could cause discomfort or, eventually, a burn.

The following software is included with your Dell computer:

The Microsoft® Windows® 98 Second Edition, Windows NT® 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows Me operating system installed on your hard-disk drive. For more information, see your operating system documentation.
The system setup program that lets you view and change the system configuration.
The Dell Latitude L400 ResourceCD, which allows you to run the Dell Diagnostics and reinstall, if necessary, the device drivers and utilities that Dell installed on your computer's hard-disk drive.
Dell Diagnostics for evaluating the computer's components and devices.

NOTE: If Dell did not install an operating system on your hard-disk drive, the drivers, system utilities, and diagnostics are available separately from Dell. To order them, see "Getting Help" for the appropriate telephone number in your location.

Available Options

Dell offers the following devices and upgrade options:

Latitude L400 APR
Additional batteries
External keyboards and keypads
External monitors
External pointing devices
External speakers, headphones, and microphones
Printers
Dell Latitude storage devices such as hard-disk drives, CD-ROM drives, CD-RW drives, DVD-ROM drives, and Zip 250 drives
AC adapter
PC Cards
Carrying cases

Instructions for connecting or installing these options are included in the upgrade kit you receive from Dell. For more information on options available for your computer, visit the Dell World Wide Web site at http://support.dell.com.

Getting Help

If at any time you don't understand a procedure described in this guide, or if your computer does not perform as expected, Dell provides a number of tools to help you. For more information on these help tools, see "Getting Help."

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