Work....

[mrbios]

Where have you put the power & reset switches?

Simple, we open the boxes with a key and ram a screw driver between the two pins on the motherboard

Joking aside we have a reset switch attached to the pins, just means unlocking each of the boards to press it, all the PCs are set to boot on power fail so it's quite rare we have to ever open more than 1 or 2 at a time

For teacher machines like the staff room we just have the reset switches coming up the back hole in the desk so anyone can press them

 

[mrbios]

I'd love to have your job, it looks well fun lol

It can be quite enjoyable, but trust me, its not as enjoyable as it looks (it could be great fun if it wasn't for one certain person makin life harder for everyone than it needs to be, that one person makes life harder on everyone, says no to everything and is always in a bad mood)

 

[nathan]

It can be quite enjoyable, but trust me, its not as enjoyable as it looks (it could be great fun if it wasn't for one certain person makin life harder for everyone than it needs to be, that one person makes life harder on everyone, says no to everything and is always in a bad mood)

the head?

 

[nathan]

Simple, we open the boxes with a key and ram a screw driver between the two pins on the motherboard

Joking aside we have a reset switch attached to the pins, just means unlocking each of the boards to press it, all the PCs are set to boot on power fail so it's quite rare we have to ever open more than 1 or 2 at a time

For teacher machines like the staff room we just have the reset switches coming up the back hole in the desk so anyone can press them

They going to be left on all the time? or using using a startup/shutdown script?

 

[mrbios]

They going to be left on all the time? or using using a startup/shutdown script?

At the moment they are on all the time (shutdown is removed from the kids and teachers view) in some rooms we have a main power switch for the room which teachers just clonk off at the end of the day, but they forgot to put them in on the new rooms

Not great for the PCs but we seem to get far less problems from not shutting them down properly than we do heat

We could quite easily put a startup/shutdown script in place but the problem being the startup, needing us to configure WOL on every PC, ive looked into alternatives but WOL seemed the most suitable solution and we just never seem to have the time to sort the configuring out

 

[nathan]

At the moment they are on all the time (shutdown is removed from the kids and teachers view) in some rooms we have a main power switch for the room which teachers just clonk off at the end of the day, but they forgot to put them in on the new rooms

Not great for the PCs but we seem to get far less problems from not shutting them down properly than we do heat

We could quite easily put a startup/shutdown script in place but the problem being the startup, needing us to configure WOL on every PC, ive looked into alternatives but WOL seemed the most suitable solution and we just never seem to have the time to sort the configuring out

Just need it enabled in the bios and your set to go. might even be enabled by default.

 

[mrbios]

Just need it enabled in the bios and your set to go. might even be enabled by default.

Nah not by default sadly, the problem is finding the time to enable it on about 250PCs, the rest are in cases so can be done manually, though if we were goign to roll out a script we would probably put it on the entire network which would mean sorting it on about 600PCs

 

[FarFarAway]

Puy all images in IMG tags

Nice mate, that's a lot of PC's

I still prefer the 600+ Dell rackmounts we've got in our server room

 

[nathan]

Nah not by default sadly, the problem is finding the time to enable it on about 250PCs, the rest are in cases so can be done manually, though if we were goign to roll out a script we would probably put it on the entire network which would mean sorting it on about 600PCs

yeah i understand, talk to the head about doing it in overtime and tell her how much savings there are to be had. having said that, that could be a task in its own

 

[mrbios]

yeah i understand, talk to the head about doing it in overtime and tell her how much savings there are to be had. having said that, that could be a task in its own

The heads a "him", he wasn't the one i was on about being the problem earlier either i won't say who though, simple to cover my back incase of the rare chance they appear on here

 

[soapsupah]

God! so many, , nice job you did, and cool pics mate.

and we always get someone to make our lifes harder in jobs, dont matter the job or where do you live, they always there (i wonder if is a conspiracy)

yet... so many

 

[maxw]

Wow, a looooooot of computers.

At my school they're all in cases, but I don't think the techys built them...

 

[nathan]

I know this is off topic and im sorry. I went to a school the other day and each kid has a usb stick with a live linux os, they store all there data on their too. So no need for hard drives. personally i didnt like the idea. Any schools out there do this?

 

[mrbios]

That seems like a very bad way of doing it in my opinion, mainly because kids need to learn the main way computers are used (just an estimate but i would assume only about 10% of pcs throughout the world probably use linux?)

They need to learn the layout of windows, how microsoft office works and where everything is etc

Plus it must cost alot in broken/lost pen drives though no more than the stupidly priced microsoft volume licenses i guess!

End of the day it has it's ups and downs but i can't see it being at all beneficial to the kids seeing as, as much as we hate them, microsoft rule the world of computing

EDIT: software compatibility must be another issue, though i don't know the ins and outs of how they do it

 

[nathan]

That seems like a very bad way of doing it in my opinion, mainly because kids need to learn the main way computers are used (just an estimate but i would assume only about 10% of pcs throughout the world probably use linux?)

They need to learn the layout of windows, how microsoft office works and where everything is etc

Plus it must cost alot in broken/lost pen drives though no more than the stupidly priced microsoft volume licenses i guess!

End of the day it has it's ups and downs but i can't see it being at all beneficial to the kids seeing as, as much as we hate them, microsoft rule the world of computing

EDIT: software compatibility must be another issue, though i don't know the ins and outs of how they do it

understand what you mean, but you'd be surprised at how many are using linux as a desktop. have a browse around edugeek, good website with nice people. Met a few of them too. Cost of pen drives really isnt an issue, there that cheap. I dont like the fact that if a kid loses it, the work is gone. get into trouble with ofsted for that.

 

[mrbios]

yea im a member of edugeek, don't use it all that often though

I can understand some of the good sides of doing it but in my opinion there are just far too many downsides to it, our IT teachers would go mental at the idea i know that much

 

[nathan]

yea im a member of edugeek, don't use it all that often though

I can understand some of the good sides of doing it but in my opinion there are just far too many downsides to it, our IT teachers would go mental at the idea i know that much

On a side note, All those PC's. What onboard network card do they use?

 

[mrbios]

Its a marvell gb lan adapter, though they are all configured for 100mbps

 

[nathan]

Its a marvell gb lan adapter, though they are all configured for 100mbps

just wondering if you could get away with enabling the wol in the device config in device manager, you'd be able to script it then and roll across your network.

 

[mrbios]

That batch of boards we have has WOL enabled by default, which i fully intend to use along with a nifty little program that acts as an AD addon called specops remote admin

Sadly most of the network doesn't have it enabled by default but it is in the bios so if i ever get a chance (ha) i plan to enable it on everything eventually and have a mass shutdown script run at like 6-10pm (depending on where the machines are, they have after school things sometimes)