Disadvantaged children across England are set to receive laptops and tablets

[Garacesh]

They've told me I have to set up a Volume Licensing agreement with them for that?

 

Oh! They said nothing about that to me, but I assumed you had 365 as part of an OVS agreement like we do.

Sorry

[keyboards]

I filled in the new support site weeks ago

 

https://computacenterprod.service-now.com/dfe?id=wow_tickets

 

No update to either of my tickets

[mattysmith80]

Has anyone had any experience of getting there DFE laptops exchanged ?

We had some faulty Geo Books, guy came out swapped them with Dells and just been on to try and find the BIOS and Admin passwords in the portal for the swapped devices but they arent there.

 

This was around 2 weeks ago and gave it a chunk of time to allow them to update the records... Plus I have updated the tickets asking for the Admin and Bios passwords but they just closed the tickets down...

 

Just wondering if anyone has experienced this ?

[Steve21]

We haven't even been able to get the dead geobook we got swapped out at all, How did you manage that part?

 

Steve

[LeMarchand]

Head at one site quickly ordered a bunch of iPads, but didn't give our "number" (presumably our Organization ID) as they reasoned that stock might go before the found it out.

 

Anyone know if there's a way to retroactively apply this so I can add them to our MDM?

[Rob_D]

Head at one site quickly ordered a bunch of iPads, but didn't give our "number" (presumably our Organization ID) as they reasoned that stock might go before the found it out.

Anyone know if there's a way to retroactively apply this so I can add them to our MDM?

 

You should be able to call supplier/support and ask. I wasn't DfE ones, but we managed to get iPads added to our MDM almost a year after purchasing.

[DGardiner]

You should be able to call supplier/support and ask. I wasn't DfE ones, but we managed to get iPads added to our MDM almost a year after purchasing.

 

Its at the discretion of the reseller. can be done on anything post IOS9.3 iirc

 

You will have to factory reset them though to enrol - depending on numbers you may be quicker enrolling them into DEP using configurator

[LeMarchand]

You will have to factory reset them though to enrol - depending on numbers you may be quicker enrolling them into DEP using configurator

 

Is that the thing you need a Mac for?

[gmonks]

Is that the thing you need a Mac for?

 

Apple Configurator runs on a Mac, yes.

[LeMarchand]

Apple Configurator runs on a Mac, yes.

 

Looks like we'll have to hope the supplier can do the do then.

[Garacesh]

Is that the thing you need a Mac for?

 

I use iMazing on Windows. £30 a year for 2 seats (2 seat minumum) with education discount (£50 without) and does basically everything Configurator does.

Only gripe I've found so far is that it doesn't automatically apply profiles and certificates, you have to do those manually on the iPad. But you can still build a profile, put everything in it, then flag it as unremovable or password protected, it just adds about 30 seconds extra work per device.

 

Configurator is the better option, I'd say, but if you don't got an Apple device to run it on, and don't fancy spending a grand on a macbook, this is an adequate solution.

 

Edit: Also free trial that has most of the functions unlocked (You can't supervise with the trial tho) so you can have a bit of a play before you commit.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Garacesh

[Gregzo]

Hi, iMazing devs here. Glad to hear that you're putting iMazing to good use! One thing: when you install a configuration profile with iMazing, it will be a fully automatic, zero-touch experience only if the device is supervised AND the supervision identity is configured in iMazing's organisations library. Apple Configurator works in the exact same way, the restriction is at the iOS/iPadOS level.

[Garacesh]

Hmm, it's possible I've misconfigured something then, but I'll not derail any further. I appreciate your response!

[LeMarchand]

Just thought: We should have been running a sweepstake on who is closest to getting the percentage of these that are returned with chargers and other accessories in good working order by the end of this month at their school correct.

[kennysarmy]

Just thought: We should have been running a sweepstake on who is closest to getting the percentage of these that are returned with chargers and other accessories in good working order by the end of this month at their school correct.

 

I'm hoping for +90%

[Garacesh]

I'm hoping for +90%

 

90% would be great, but in reality I'm expecting a 25-30% unreturned/damaged/otherwise unfit.

 

At least, if nothing else, we'll have plenty of spare parts. I hope you're all comfortable frankensteining dead laptops together

[Rob_D]

By the end of this month, none. By the end of the summer term, I'd be happy with 50-60% return, but we'll see (historically we've been quite good at getting stuff back).

[kennysarmy]

By the end of this month, none. By the end of the summer term, I'd be happy with 50-60% return, but we'll see (historically we've been quite good at getting stuff back).

 

We've asked for them all to be returned by the start of next week!

[Boredguy]

We originally requested that devices were returned by March 2021 (based on when the Cisco umbrella was due to expire), but for now we're waiting a couple of weeks before arranging anything. Will likely let the Y11 students who have a device to keep using it for the rest of the year and get them back in June. Already had 2 laptops back in from students today though as they had not used them during the recent lockdown so thought it was best they came back... now why can't all students be like that!

[MrBitey]

Being a primary school we don't have loads of devices out in the wild. I think we've loaned out about 25 off the top of my head. We've had 4 back so far.

When they are all back we will find ourselves blessed with about 50-60 Chromebooks (which is nice). Thinking about what best to do with them.

We have a couple of Lapsafes which house our Nexus 7 tablets (2012 models). The smaller Chromebooks will fit in these but I don't believe they will charge particularly well as Chromebooks need a higher wattage than tablets.

I've dropped Lapsafe a line to see if the safes can be modified at a reasonable price. Otherwise, I might need to get a load of mains adaptors...

[enjay]

We're not asking for the DfE laptops back until the student leaves the school. Who knows what state they'll be in by then!

 

We did have one student return their laptop on Monday "because school is open again now". Sadly, no charger or bag with it, and no mention of the unusably cracked screen.

[CHiLL]

Since no official time-frame was provided, we've said the student keeps it until after they've completed their GCSEs or gets their own laptop first. If it's a Year 7 student, they may well have it for 5 years.

[enjay]

We have a laptop with out-of-warranty damage on it (see my earlier post!). I'm assuming doing it ourselves will invalidate the warranty but I'm not about to pay £220 for a replacement screen, has anyone tried contacting Dell direct to see if they'll help for a better price and preserve the warranty?

[Rob446]

We have a laptop with out-of-warranty damage on it (see my earlier post!). I'm assuming doing it ourselves will invalidate the warranty but I'm not about to pay £220 for a replacement screen, has anyone tried contacting Dell direct to see if they'll help for a better price and preserve the warranty?

 

We're just keeping our one with a broken screen to use as parts when one comes in with a broken keyboard, charging port, USB slot etc.

[LeMarchand]

We've just had our first, "The dog chewed my charger".