Laptop Keyboards...Ahhhhh...

[EvLPhenom]

I have just about enough of the kids ripping the keys off laptop keyboards and also tearing the rubber membrane "stuff" from off them leaving just the chasis of the board exsposed.

We have been looking for some sort of protective cover that fits over the K/B or the laptop but have only really seen one site that offers this.

We were wondering if any of you have found a way of stopping or decreasing the amount of laptop keyboards that are vandalised. It seems that alot of time is used up by repairing them and spending loads of money on replacing them.

Anything would be grately apreciated

[Ric_]

Passing the cost of the keyboards onto the departments really does help... 3 or 4 £50 charges later and they are a lot more vigilant.

[EvLPhenom]

Thanks ric i think we may have to seriously start looking at this route. Its becoming a royal pain in the now

[broc]

We have had limited success with billing subject depts. Once they discovered we were going to charge them they decided they could do 'better' thermselves by sticking the keys on with sellotape!

We have one dept trolley of 16 machines with almost half of them with keyboards covered in tape.

The other thing that annoys me is the students pulling the rubber screen 'buffers' off the screen surround.

I shudder to think what will happen if they proceed with the BSF plan to have one device per user. By then however it probably won't be my problem.

[contink]

Originally Posted by broc

We have had limited success with billing subject depts. Once they discovered we were going to charge them they decided they could do 'better' thermselves by sticking the keys on with sellotape!

We have one dept trolley of 16 machines with almost half of them with keyboards covered in tape.

Surely you should be able to quote H&S regs at them and remove the damaged laptops from use completely until they agree to pay for the damaged keyboards.

I'm sure you could cook up a storm about electrical danger, etc...

[broc]

Originally Posted by contink

Surely you should be able to quote H&S regs at them and remove the damaged laptops from use completely until they agree to pay for the damaged keyboards.

I'm sure you could cook up a storm about electrical danger, etc...

I could, but I decided to let it go... too much politics. I have given up worrying about laptop damage now. I predicted it would happen when the school decided to 'embrace' mobile technology & I have been proven right.

I have decided if depts don't bother to report the problems we don't get the hassle of trying to fix them

My line manager (Deputy HT) came to see me abut the 'sellotape' suite as she had noticed them in use during a lesson observation. I explained why they had been left in that state & I said we would be happy to fix them if we were given the funds to do so. Nothing has happened so far.....

In a couple of years time when we become a BSF school and we have 3x as many student laptops it will be fun (not) for the poor solo ICT technician in school left picking up the pieces......

[Oops_my_bad]

Couldnt agree more. I've long given up on laptops and dont repair them until the department pays for them.

Sometimes they catch the culprit (amazing what a bit of checking can do at the start and end of a lesson) and I will keep in detention to re-key the entire pile of laptops that have been stripped of keys

Biggest waste of money ever.

[maniac]

Never found a solution to this, and I don't think there ever will be one.

We change on average 2-3 keyboards a week, and repair around a dozen or so from our ample stocks of spare parts. I've warned the bursar how much this is costing, but the word from the top is just to carry on fixing them up, as there is no alturnative really. it is eating £1000's into my budget, but not a lot else I can do really (I'm lucky, I do have a generous budget)

We have found that we get less damage if we catch it early, so we are constantly pushing the message to staff to report damage to machines as soon as they notice it so we have a chance to fix it quickly before it gets any worse. We find a laptop that is already damaged is more likely to suffer further damage as a result. By fixing them promptly the theory is we should get less damage. Too early to tell yet thou.

Mike.

[FragglePete]

We get the same problem, usually find that if one keyboard get's damaged then it starts a spate of and a couple more get damaged as well.

Had three Dell Latitude keyboards damaged in the last week on the last term. We remove them from circulation as soon as we notice them and with the power of Impero start an investigation.

We already have names of the recent culprits and will be sending bills home to their parents. Hopefully making an example of a them will spread the word.

Cost of a replacement keyboard from Dell for a Latitude D520 is £87 !!! Managed to find a shop of ebay that sells Official Dell ones for a fraction of that price. Just had 3 delievered with delivery costing £95!

Pete