Laptop Identity Marking, how do you do it?

[Sohailahmad]

Hi all

 

I'm at one of my schools where their laptop use is very heavy for a 2/3 form primary school.

 

We have approx 280 laptops across 8 trolleys + some spares or 1on1 laptops.

 

Each trolley is identified by a sheet of coloured card stuck to the doors.

 

I wondering what you all suggest in terms of marking the laptops with asset labels or something else which will help identify which trolley each laptop belongs to.

 

Too many times I turn up to work and laptops are all over the place, some being left on top of trolleys clearly not the same (Lenovo's sitting on top of a trolley full of Dell's). Also too many times my concerns have fallen on deaf ears so continuing to go down that route really isn't feasible.

 

I want to make sure it's less difficult to for staff/kids to make mistakes by making identity of the laptop visual, orange sticker/marking = orange trolley etc.

 

How do you guys do it? What do you suggest? Is there anything that can be purchased like a foil asset tag that has strong glue and difficult to remove?

 

Thanks in advance.

[dhicks]

I wondering what you all suggest in terms of marking the laptops with asset labels or something else which will help identify which trolley each laptop belongs to.

 

We currently have 110 Chromebooks around the school, mostly in batches of 6 in classrooms. We have a picture of a different (cute) animal on each room's laptops, printed on to sticky-backed laser-printable plastic. The label extends on to the spine of the laptop, where you can identify the animal printed there when the laptop is sat charging. There is also a barcode on each label, matched with the ID given by an RFID sticker placed on the spine of each laptop. I found that the RFID stickers only worked on the laptop spine, elsewhere on the laptops (lids, backs) and they didn't work. You can bend the stickers, though, they are quite flexible, although a little bit of superglue is needed to keep them properly in place.

 

I'm currently halfway through writing a script to generate printable label templates from the data recorded in Google's admin console, so we just have to register each device once, then a printable label is automatically generated for us to print.

[dry]

Primary School: Coloured sticker (same colour as laptop trolley sticker) with name of laptop on

 

Secondary School: Text label on each laptop with laptop name, e.g. Humanities trolley laptops were HU-Lxx, and Science trolley laptops were SC-Lxx etc

[Sohailahmad]

Thanks for the quick reply David, that's a nice idea with the RFID label. Also yes something similar to the animal label would be useful.

 

I've found this website (note sure if I'm allowed to post) https://www.stickythings.co.uk/round-labels-stickers/extra-permanent-labels who can make bespoke extra strong adhesive labels. Their quotes page allows you to fully customise each one, so I've requested a quote for 10 different colours x 40 labels each.

[DavR]

We have trolleys per year group, so I have sheets of laser printed paper labels with the school logo and the year group on. Not ideal though, as kids can pick at / doodle on them.

 

Those Sticky Things labels look quite promising, although not necessarily cheap. Do feed back if they turn out to be any good!

[Sohailahmad]

We have trolleys per year group, so I have sheets of laser printed paper labels with the school logo and the year group on. Not ideal though, as kids can pick at / doodle on them.

 

Those Sticky Things labels look quite promising, although not necessarily cheap. Do feed back if they turn out to be any good!

 

Dave!!! Long time! Hope you're doing well at your school, Are you coming next Friday? Sure, though not cheap I will probably get them, I'll let you know how I get on.

[DavR]

Dave!!! Long time! Hope you're doing well at your school, Are you coming next Friday? Sure, though not cheap I will probably get them, I'll let you know how I get on.

Hi Af! *waves*

 

I'm not out for the dinner next week, but I will be out for a drink about 5ish, if you're still about.

[FN-GM]

Secondary School: Text label on each laptop with laptop name, e.g. Humanities trolley laptops were HU-Lxx, and Science trolley laptops were SC-Lxx etc

 

We stopped doing this as if we moved the laptops the stickers etc would need chaining. We number them instead.

[Sohailahmad]

Thanks for all the replies, waiting on the quote, I'll report back once I get somewhere with it.

[hardtailstar]

The primary school I used to work at had coloured labels and numbered laptops.

 

I use to label the laptops under the battery too so if the kids pealed the stickers off then I could quickly see which trolley they were from without going to the asset register.

 

The trolley also had a list inside of laptops serial numbers so that they could be checked against that too.

[tj2419]

We number all ours e.g. R01 for red trolley 01. We also, as a failsafe, write on the bottom in a silver pen the name so we can still identify if the students peel the labels off.

[Oaktech]

Junior School with 70 identical laptops.

 

They are asset tagged in an inaccessible place (HDD under the base cover) for the use of IT as the little darlings love to peel the stickers off. This tag identifies which cabinet they go in as well as their financial asset details

 

For easy identification they started off with label maker label on them, some of these got peeled off, so now the lids of most of them are sharpie markered with the location in 2 inch high capital letters. YEAR 3, YEAR 4-5, LRC etc. It's lo-tech but it seems to work.

[DavR]

Junior School with 70 identical laptops.

 

They are asset tagged in an inaccessible place (HDD under the base cover) for the use of IT as the little darlings love to peel the stickers off. This tag identifies which cabinet they go in as well as their financial asset details

 

For easy identification they started off with label maker label on them, some of these got peeled off, so now the lids of most of them are sharpie markered with the location in 2 inch high capital letters. YEAR 3, YEAR 4-5, LRC etc. It's lo-tech but it seems to work.

+1 for the Sharpie!

 

I've done this on the spines of some of ours, with their two digit number from computer name, eg, laptop79 is marked 79. This makes it a LOT easier to find a particular laptop for maintenance, also makes it easier to spot at a glance which ones are in the wrong place. Doesn't work on everything though, as some of ours are all over black, and also I haven't done this for location as things do get moved during their lifetime.

[Oaktech]

+1 for the Sharpie!

Doesn't work on everything though, as some of ours are all over black, and also I haven't done this for location as things do get moved during their lifetime.

 

Most markers come off if you wipe them with meths/surgical spirit which is what I do if a laptop has to be moved. All our laptops are silver so black sharpie works fine. If the laptops is black, which some of our have been in the past then a silver paint pen works - also wipes off with meths.

 

Just don't douse the laptop in solvent, too much exposure can affect the surface finish.

[DavR]

Just don't douse the laptop in solvent, too much exposure can affect the surface finish.

 

Yep, found that out the hard way before!

[GilCarr986]

Thanks for sharing the resource just what I was looking for.

[p858snake]

I know Avery do a range of printable labels for Asset Labeling which are stronger than normal ones, but no idea how strong, But I have seen people mention them in the various "How do you asset label" threads.

 

+1 for the Sharpie!

 

I've done this on the spines of some of ours, with their two digit number from computer name, eg, laptop79 is marked 79. This makes it a LOT easier to find a particular laptop for maintenance, also makes it easier to spot at a glance which ones are in the wrong place. Doesn't work on everything though, as some of ours are all over black, and also I haven't done this for location as things do get moved during their lifetime.

 

You can get white "permanent markers" (technically paint pens)

[DavR]

You can get white "permanent markers" (technically paint pens)

 

True enough - I've done numbers with a Sharpie thus far as it's something I've had to hand. It's something to consider, although hopefully I'll be getting rid of the black case laptops next budget year anyway!

[Mistert89]

Used to buy "freezer grade" labels in previous job. Yes, they peel, but designed for outside durability. Think, garden centre labels.

[DavR]

Thanks for the quick reply David, that's a nice idea with the RFID label. Also yes something similar to the animal label would be useful.

 

I've found this website (note sure if I'm allowed to post) https://www.stickythings.co.uk/round-labels-stickers/extra-permanent-labels who can make bespoke extra strong adhesive labels. Their quotes page allows you to fully customise each one, so I've requested a quote for 10 different colours x 40 labels each.

 

Did you ever get anywhere with these Af? I'm doing the Windows 10 update on all our laptops, and having to redo the paper labels again.... interested to see if you found a better way!