selu Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 I have been working at this primary school for 3 years now but unfortunately we have no money at all in our IT budget. There are many reasons for this but the main one is that we bought 36 laptops 4 years ago brand new in trolleys that just are not up to the job. Batteries and wireless problems are the main problem. (Unfixable with no money). So back to basics is the plan second user crt monitors from the local high school are abundant so we need some donated base units with xp pro license (oem attached) with original recovery media if available for compliance. 2 gb processors and 512 memory would be nice as a minimum spec but would not mind adding some second hand memory etc they dont need mint. Has anyone ever done this before or attempted to do this before? Can your school/business offer any donated base units? We plan to use work experience people to help us install the units. Openoffice and other freeware and our existing site licensed software like textbase textease etc If you can help us please PM me or reply to this thread.
Midget Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Silly question, but why can't you hook the laptops up to a keyboard,mouse,monitor and network cable, remove the batteries and leave them plugged in? Or are they too old? There are lots of grants out there and you could always sell your schools soul for money and have a wall sized advert for the company donating the money/equipment. Could you speak to some of the local 2ndaries and see if theyre going to be upgrading their kit meaning you can take the old off their hands?
selu Posted June 19, 2009 Author Posted June 19, 2009 ...that is the idea of posting this post, to ask around. The two main reasons we cannot use the laptops are firstly the age of the laptops and secondly security (leaving laptops laying around in a busy primary school isn't the best of ideas). Once we have a fully functioning reliable IT suite we intend on using the laptops for "special lessons" as and when required. As for removing the batteries, it may be not a good idea as the PAT testers will/might fail them (at the testers discretion - possibly costing the school more money). We are currently applying for all the equiptment grants we can think of, if anybody has any suggestions for available grants/sponsorship in exchange for equiptment it would be greatly appreciated. We are trying to be a "green school" and are not asking for money, we are trying to get a full IT suite for free within 2 weeks, not the 2 years or so that the grants we have read about take. Why borrow money to buy new equiptment when businesses, government departments, data centers etc etc replace there equiptment every 3 years. Why send it to landfill when we can make good use of it? Thanks for your reply, you have picked up on some useful points.
synaesthesia Posted June 20, 2009 Posted June 20, 2009 Got a couple of schools around here that are replacing their old suites with newer kit, but the systems are mostly 1.7ghz Celerons with 512mb memory (beige/blue front RM units). They seem very good at re-use around here somewhat surprisingly, there always appear to be a use for some of these machines, whether it's a secondary PC in a classroom or SEN machine, or propping open the particularly heavy hall doors As for PAT testing - no, having batteries removed will not fail them. PAT testing on IT hardware is slightly more specialised than testing fans and toasters, they can only do a visual test on the main unit and they should know what they're looking at. The only part of any PC or laptop they can/should actually plug in and test is the mains cable/PSU. Anyway will also keep an open eye, only trouble is if there is anything, it's the matter of getting it transported over to you.
mac_shinobi Posted June 20, 2009 Posted June 20, 2009 you could create a gmail account or a seperate email account and sign up for freecycle.org ( in the areas ) where you are willing to go and collect computer items ie monitors, base units etc and post a request every so often for computers. The reason I say to create a new or seperate email account is because there are always people posting requesting for free stuff and also people posting what they are offering etc so a lot of emails which I am guessing you dont want mixed up with your normal emails.
f21970 Posted June 20, 2009 Posted June 20, 2009 Selu - sign up to the ICT register. I recently gave away 10 Promethean boards to a school in Burnley via this.
wesleyw Posted June 20, 2009 Posted June 20, 2009 we're getting rid of some base units this year p4 2.4 ghz 512ram 40gb hdd however they are now 7 years old. Wes
selu Posted June 20, 2009 Author Posted June 20, 2009 (edited) Landline number. Collection wise I have a volvo estate and a petrol account so collection from anywhere in the UK could be possable. Obviously Lancashire Cumbria Manchester Liverpool area would be best but to meet our goal I am prepared to travel that extra mile as you can see. Edited June 20, 2009 by selu extra information
browolf Posted June 20, 2009 Posted June 20, 2009 you could create a gmail account or a seperate email account and sign up for freecycle.org ( in the areas ) where you are willing to go and collect computer items ie monitors, base units etc and post a request every so often for computers. The reason I say to create a new or seperate email account is because there are always people posting requesting for free stuff and also people posting what they are offering etc so a lot of emails which I am guessing you dont want mixed up with your normal emails. that's what mail filters/rules are for I'm not sure you'd want a ict suite full of random base units. makes imaging type maintenance a lot harder. @selu maybe you could borrow the local high school's mini bus (remove the seats) to collect bigger amounts of stuff, if the primary would pay the petrol costs. I think I have 1 or 2 crt monitors you could have. Not far for you to get ;-) @f21970 what's the ICT register?
selu Posted June 20, 2009 Author Posted June 20, 2009 Browolf Yes if we could have identical stuff perfect but we can use a standard image accross a whole range of hardware nowadays (sysprep multiple hdd drivers etc) Minibus is an option but would put diesel in it myself even though its more expencive can tell you dont drive lol Thanks for the offer on the monitors you as always have been most helpfull. Selu
witch Posted June 20, 2009 Posted June 20, 2009 that's what mail filters/rules are for I'm not sure you'd want a ict suite full of random base units. makes imaging type maintenance a lot harder. But freecycle is worth a go - in the past 2 years I have freecycled 23, 19 and 8 identical machines which were being replaced in 3 different schools
mac_shinobi Posted June 20, 2009 Posted June 20, 2009 that's what mail filters/rules are for I'm not sure you'd want a ict suite full of random base units. makes imaging type maintenance a lot harder. @selu maybe you could borrow the local high school's mini bus (remove the seats) to collect bigger amounts of stuff, if the primary would pay the petrol costs. I think I have 1 or 2 crt monitors you could have. Not far for you to get ;-) @f21970 what's the ICT register? Tried that but it never caught all of them as people offering stuff all have different email addresses and no way of knowing who is going to offer stuff as it could be yahoo mail, gmail, bt internet, orange email etc etc Just thought I would suggest to register it to one email account that way it does not matter.
selu Posted June 20, 2009 Author Posted June 20, 2009 All of your suggestions are very useful. As you can see I need advice on procuring some free / recycled pc base stations for a primary school. The whys and wherefores on email filtering have long since been dealt with on this forum. I can look after myself re the spammers This is a genuine post / plea on behalf of a hard working school that has fallen on hard times. Despite this we are a “good school” We aim to improve the learning environment here beyond recognition with your help I am sure we can achieve that goal. With your help/ donated equipment we will be podcasting our own radio station. The first production will be dedicated to the people who have helped us. Let’s keep on topic and focused. Thanks selu
wesleyw Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 @Selu our current suite has 18 towers and 7 desktops (slightly different driver builds between tower and desktop) However I think we have a further 12 desktops not sure in what state they are as they've been in storage for parts since September. I don't suppose you have ghost? If you did I could write to DVD our base install image with Windows, Drivers etc.. Wes
selu Posted June 21, 2009 Author Posted June 21, 2009 (edited) This is what we need. A genuine offer to help our cause. We have ghost 8 your image would be VERY usefull thanks. :troll: OEM XP PRO ? p4 2.4 ghz 512ram 40gb hdd When could they be made available for collection ? Will get Peter to ring you on Monday. Cheers SELU Edited June 21, 2009 by selu better wording
Little-Miss Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 Unfortunately i cant help, we're not doing any big upgrades workstation wise, but i just wanted to say that i admire what you are doing and i wish you the best of luck. There are a LOT of helpful people on this forum and i hope that there is someone out there who is in the position to help you. Please keep us updated.
Guest monkeyx Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 I may be able to get some servers that may be of help. I will need to check with Bursar re moving kits between schools. Can I also suggest that you look at using open source software to get more life out of your old kit. For example, we are going to reuse some old laptops by turning them into work stations as batteries are all died in them! But they are fine for running office applications and connecting to moodle There is a web site dedicated to helping schools use OSS see Open Source Schools and a good case study of interest maybe Alton Convent - low-cost computer suite | Open Source Schools. It may also be worth you asking for help on that site, as less of a commercial aspect to the people that use and run the site. Please PM if you would like more details, happy to help if I can.
EduTech Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 I'll have to take a look at what we have in storage, i'll have a word with my boss on monday as we probably could do with clearing up some space. I know we have some printers as well, dont know what were doing with them yet, but if its for a good cause i am sure we can sort something out. I'll mention it on monday, were not that far from Wes. James.
rh91uk Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 We'd love to help but we have none in storage - we have just got rid of seventy machines! But good luck and let us know how you get on r
Jamman960 Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 Does anyone know what it'd take or cost to become WEEE certified? or atleast certified enough to take ownership of PC's and guarentee that they'll be wiped to a satisfactory level? I keep meaning to look into it but never get round to it. I've got a few contacts in corperate IT, they are unable to donate pc's they are getting rid of to schools/charities due to the extra hastle it involves and the potential come backs. If a school could approach such companies and offer to take working pcs for free and provide the nessesary legal bits so that its all above board I'm sure a few corperates would be willing to cooperate. I guess you'd need to be willing to take a serious number of pc's to make it worth their time though. Then again even the smaller schools have 50+ workstations these days.
synaesthesia Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 The WEEE certifications and secure data destruction are not linked at all, but for the latter its HMG Infosec levels you need to be looking at. Blancco is a good example of certifiable software for that purpose and is good for infosec level 5 - the standard used for data destruction by the MOD, NHS etc etc. Costs atm I have no idea on.
dhicks Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 and a good case study of interest maybe Alton Convent - low-cost computer suite | Open Source Schools. Oh, erm, that's us! The thin clients work fine, but did cost us some money. At first we re-used some older PCs and bought second-hand 15" LCD screens from a second-hand dealer in Southampton. Those worked well but looked a bit clunky in our rather small IT room, so then we bought second-hand RM One machines (from user Sysman_mk on this forum). We didn't care about the processor in them, but the all-in-one design makes them great thin clients! We also spent around £2,000 on a server to run the clients. That included a fair bit of disk space and probably has some spare capacity, but you would probably still need a decent £500 - £1,000 server to manage. Saying that, the server is now 2 years old, so you might be able to find something similar second-hand coming from an industry that replaces their servers every 3 years. -- David Hicks
Guest monkeyx Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 Oh, erm, that's us! The thin clients work fine, but did cost us some money. At first we re-used some older PCs and bought second-hand 15" LCD screens from a second-hand dealer in Southampton. Those worked well but looked a bit clunky in our rather small IT room, so then we bought second-hand RM One machines (from user Sysman_mk on this forum). We didn't care about the processor in them, but the all-in-one design makes them great thin clients! We also spent around £2,000 on a server to run the clients. That included a fair bit of disk space and probably has some spare capacity, but you would probably still need a decent £500 - £1,000 server to manage. Saying that, the server is now 2 years old, so you might be able to find something similar second-hand coming from an industry that replaces their servers every 3 years. -- David Hicks We have a dual processor server with a reasonable amount of ram and storage. Just need to check with Bursar about moving to another school. If you added license costs to the above it would have added a LOT to the costs, even with Educational pricing. So it will still offer big savings with a wider variety of software that can be deployed for free.
rogerblue Posted June 23, 2009 Posted June 23, 2009 we might have an interactive whiteboard you could have, and for disposal and recycling of hardware for use by schools and charities from government departments and businesses, there is Northern Realisations (Northern Realisations - Refurbishment and Remarketing of IT equipment since 1999) £50 gets you a legit xp pro licenced pc with monitor etc (less than the cost of a replacement hard drive. their fully approved for wee, anf microsoft authorised resellers. They usually take schools old kit for disposal as well.
browolf Posted June 23, 2009 Posted June 23, 2009 would it not be useful to create/get some kind of freecycle type functionality inside edugeek. I mean not forum but an actual bolt-on application. ?
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