Look on the taskbar and see if you have the Quickset icon there. It's in the shape of a blue Q with a yellow tail sticking out of it. Click the icon and uncheck 'disable onscreen volume meter.' (On some versions you must right click it.)

If the icon is missing look under Start/All Programs and see if you have a program called Dell Quickset. Follow the arrow to the word 'Quickset' and click on it and the 'Q' icon should appear on the taskbar.

If you don't have the Quickset program you can download it from your downloads page under 'Applications'.

Quickset's main function is to start the power management wizard; however, clicking the icon lets you enable or disable the Fn keys for volume and screen brightness, and it is necessary for Media Direct to function.

Jim

thanks alot. it finally works again. but im afraid while i was trying to figure it out by myself i did some real damage. i was going through all the files on my comp the same day i posted this message. that night i found a setup for this program called registry patrol v3. i ended up loading it and before i knew it i was bombarded with four different viruses and numerous popups. this is my first dell computer. i know my other hp ones have this advanced menu option thats sets your computer back to the way you first bought it, wiping out all your files, and making it brand new without the cd. my laptop hasnt crashed yet, but i feel as though their is permanent damage- corrupted registry files. i cant find the recovery disk for it and now i dont know what to do? is their a way to do it without the disk like how my hp can? my cousin says that he can give me his XP professional OS recovory CD, but the problem is i would lose all the dell drives. i know where to find it on the dell site but i dont even know which ones i have currently on my laptop so i can download the same exact ones again. wut should i do?

Message Edited by swtlilgirl989 on 11-07-2007 05:50 PM

also my laptop locks up after two to four hours. is that becuase of corrupted registry keys or what? i run four programs to watch for spware/adware/viruses. windows defender adware SE from lavasoft norton antivirus 2006 spybot search and destroy i also run webroot spysweeper but my susbrictions over. i just use it monitor wutever it can catch and it does. can this cause a possible lockup?

Dell's PC Restore is your original OS, drivers, applications and configuration setting in a hidden partition on the hard drive. It's like a normal reformat in that you have to save all of your data to removable media, but it's quicker and simpler and includes the apps & drivers, etc. Whatever was working when you got the computer will work after PC Restore, except for any hardware problems.

To use PC Restore you restart and press Ctrl + F11 during the restart process and it should take you to the "PC Restore" menu. Then just restore your computer to the factory settings.

Your other questions might be better answered on another board, TechTalk/Software/Virus/Spyware.

Jim

DUDE YOU ARE a complete GENIUS. i LOVE you!! i am not at home right now, but i will do it as soo as i get home today. its weird though. i went through the help and support program thats there and put in pc restore and nothing came up. isnt that strange. ur sure this is going to work for a dell e1705 and set it back to the original OS?

"ur sure this is going to work for a dell e1705 and set it back to the original OS?"

Yes, unless the Restore partition has been wiped from your hard drive.

Your owner's manual has a section on this starting on page 112.

Jim