Cwizard Posted June 14, 2011 Posted June 14, 2011 Hopefully someone has the answer to this. Basically we are a CC3 based school with a number of laptops and base units for staff that are standalone windows with mapped shares available. All our replacement unit we currently purchase from Dell. This afternoon i have looked on Dells website and the new Vostro 260 units don't have XP drivers available. Now, before anyone says more with the times and migrate to Windows 7, Money is a massive issue. More the point, the lack of money. Anyone have any thoughts on this or a workaround to accommodate windows 7 into CC3? I cant see the "XP Mode" with smart-client being an option either. I currently use this successfully on my Windows 7 desktop, but with students i can see it working. Any ideas people?
SYNACK Posted June 14, 2011 Posted June 14, 2011 (edited) Second hand laptops might be your best option, could help with the money aspect too. Edited June 14, 2011 by SYNACK
Cwizard Posted June 14, 2011 Author Posted June 14, 2011 Finding them will be the problem in the quantities required. Plus who is going to be looking to offload stations that are still within warranty and up to modern standards. I can't really see it working, but thanks for the reply Synack...
SYNACK Posted June 14, 2011 Posted June 14, 2011 Finding them will be the problem in the quantities required. Plus who is going to be looking to offload stations that are still within warranty and up to modern standards. I can't really see it working, but thanks for the reply Synack... Modern standards don't really include XP, but you may with a lot of work be able to dig up many of the drivers from the individual hardware vendors. ICT direct is a sponser on here and deals in refurbed hardware so may be able to help. You may just need to take it to the powers that handle the funding and say that their options are severly limited by the systems that they are chained to by insufficient funding and that situation is only going to get worse. Their options are possibly half working laptops with XP that would take lots of effort to get running or older hardware to go along with the older software that you are limited to.
irsprint84 Posted June 14, 2011 Posted June 14, 2011 Have you looked at Xen client? possible xen client will have its own drivers for XP
Cwizard Posted June 14, 2011 Author Posted June 14, 2011 Synack: Unfortunately I don't need convincing, its the powers that be... Well i have dropped the bomb shell to the boss, needless to say panic set in, but his responsibility to try and convince them, I'm not very confident to say the least! Irsprint84: We currently have a number of thin client stations that work to an extent. (Personally not a fan of the technology) It's seems pretty pointless to buy a station with better than average processing power and memory, just to do all the hard work elsewhere. The thin clients work but cant handle the software required to run in the departments in question. E.g. 3d modelling, video manipulation... I just see us looking to another supplier, probably RM for a solution. Unfortunately i lost all confidence in RM hardware a number of years ago, not to mention what you get for your money.
irsprint84 Posted June 14, 2011 Posted June 14, 2011 Synack: Unfortunately I don't need convincing, its the powers that be... Well i have dropped the bomb shell to the boss, needless to say panic set in, but his responsibility to try and convince them, I'm not very confident to say the least! Irsprint84: We currently have a number of thin client stations that work to an extent. (Personally not a fan of the technology) It's seems pretty pointless to buy a station with better than average processing power and memory, just to do all the hard work elsewhere. The thin clients work but cant handle the software required to run in the departments in question. E.g. 3d modelling, video manipulation... I just see us looking to another supplier, probably RM for a solution. Unfortunately i lost all confidence in RM hardware a number of years ago, not to mention what you get for your money. Xenclient isnt a thin client, think of it like running xen server on your laptop (best explanation can think of) Its very new technology about 1 year old, it uses hardware to full potentional
PeterW Posted June 14, 2011 Posted June 14, 2011 (edited) If you tell us the drivers you are struggling with I'm sure the power of edugeek can make it all better Hmm if it is the desktop Vostro 260 the only driver I can see that might be a problem would be the conexant audio driver but I'm sure there will be an XP driver kicking about for that. As for the main guts it is an Intel H61 based system so these are the chipset and display drivers you need Intel Chipset http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=20019&ProdId=3301&lang=eng Intel Display http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=19922&ProdId=3231&lang=eng&OSVersion=Windows%20XP*&DownloadType= Intel Managment Engine http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=20078&ProdId=3324&lang=eng&OSVersion=Windows%20XP%20Home%20Edition*&DownloadType=Drivers Realtek Lan Realtek Conexant Audio Drivers and Downloads (although it does not state XP support I have just downloaded it and there is indeed an XP32 folder in the archive) Edited June 14, 2011 by PeterW
Jamo Posted June 14, 2011 Posted June 14, 2011 I would be highly surprised if Dell etc dropped support for XP just like that, I would think that any sales dept would be able to sort out units for you with a driver set which works on XP. i know commercial businesses which still rely on XP and it was only 2 weeks ago I saw a fairly tidy suited up (bad description of a business woman) lady open up her laptop to reveal....... Windows 2000 prof.... All our units are XP based we get ours from stone Computers. You could also look at creating a new OU set outside of the RM system one and use FOG or MDT to push out client builds and use them as vanilla clients. The old RM system should just still work fine providing you don't poke too mcuh!!
Arthur Posted June 14, 2011 Posted June 14, 2011 Dell would rather you bought their more expensive OptiPlex's instead (which still support XP from what I can tell).
PeterW Posted June 14, 2011 Posted June 14, 2011 Why buy Dell? I assume being Vostros they are getting a nutty deal on them.
Cwizard Posted August 23, 2011 Author Posted August 23, 2011 @Webman: as someone else said we get a pretty good deal, plus until now i have not had a bad word to say about dell's units or service. Thanks everyone for the replies, as it turned out i put the pressure back on our account manager, throwing the "If you don't have a solution then i may have to go elsewhere with our orders" We have now received the Optiplex 390 model instead at a pretty good discount due to the issue. Bit of a headache, but all came together eventually, now just got to sort an issue I'm getting when smart building the units. Also as a note on the Optiplex 390, if you try and use clonezilla liveCD you will be sitting there a long time, the DVD drive isnt ubuntu supported so the disc fails to boot correctly... Found this out the hard way.
Michael Posted August 31, 2011 Posted August 31, 2011 It is worth bearing in mind (for future reference) that Windows 7 isn't supported on RM CC3, so your only options are to upgrade to RM CC4 or a vanilla setup sometime in the near future. Windows XP will be dropped by Microsoft in 2014, which isn't a million miles away, once you consider budgeting, planning and implementing Windows 7 clients.
TechMonkey Posted August 31, 2011 Posted August 31, 2011 We have now received the Optiplex 390 model instead at a pretty good discount due to the issue. Not wanting to rain on your chips but the 390 does not build to CC3. You have to smartclient it. Guess what we were trying to do for a week and a half and what we now have sitting in a corner until we can find time to do them one at a time. Not a show stopper but a tad annoying.
thomaspark Posted September 5, 2011 Posted September 5, 2011 Hi Cwizard, We have had the same problem with finding Windows XP Drivers. We have taken to buy refurbished computers or buying from companies such as Novatech as they ship their PC's with the XP Drivers on a CD. Our other solution for Teacher Laptop is to Install Windows 7 Join it to our Domain, make a few teak in the local GPO and install Virtual PC with a XP RM CC3 Machine inside a VM. This way it allows the teacher the ability to use the laptop at home and at work, with there not being any issues. Our staff are quit happy with this and it doesn't break the user profile or Windows 7. The Windows 7 Machine can't be used by Students use the Laptop as if they logged in it would break their user profile, but this is not usually an issue for us. Oh our tweaks are we only allow Local Profiles nor Roaming Profiles to be used on the computer and I think there is another setting we change but I will check (it's been soo long since I've built a Windows 7 machine). As for RM Kit it is good for Primary Schools but we have found it to be under powered and expensive when it comes to the higher specs, and we just can't afford it! If you open up some RM 1 and RM EcoQuiets you will find a Laptop Motherboards, yes we do open them up once they are out of warranty. Hope that this helps
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now