Andie

ICT Technician We are seeking to appoint a Technician to work alongside the ICT Systems Manager in a busy environment to maintain our wide-ranging ICT facilities within this highly successful 13-19 age range School and Sixth Form. The applicant will need to have patience, a sense of humour and the ability to learn quickly. Experience of working with a large Windows networked environment would be desirable, but training would be given. 37 Hours per week to work 38 weeks of term time plus additional hours to be worked flexibly in school holidays up to the equivalent of 3 weeks. Salary: Grade F Point 16-18 Actual salary £14781-£15429, depending on experience For an application form please telephone 01832 272881 or email [email protected] Closing date for applications is Monday 19 September 2011 Prince William School & 6th Form Website - News - Staff Vacancies

OK, the toggle doesn't do anything. I thought the issue had gone away. I edited the autoplay default for mixed content so that it would default to displaying the files on the hard drive. I plugged the drive in and ejected it three times without there being any problem. But the user said to try plugging it in after opening a document from the internal drive (Office 2010), and hey presto the screen was blank as soon as I plugged the drive in. Tried Win+P a few times, but nothing came up on the display at all. Had to force power down again. Can anyone suggest anything further to try?

Thanks for the toggle. I will see if that adds anything to the diagnostics.

Deputy head's fairly new laptop has started playing up: HP 625 running Windows 7, standalone (not on domain). When he plugs in his Verbatim portable hard drive (model 47628, 250Gb), more often than not the screen is going blank instantly on the laptop. This laptop doesn't have power LEDs for the internal hard drive so tricky to tell if there is any activity going on, but the normal power on light is still lit. Can't get the display back. Did look to see if it had somehow toggled to an external display, but can't find any function key that looks like it will toggle the display between laptop and external. Am new to Windows 7 so don't know if this function has been dispensed with. Anyway, we have tried two of the three USB ports, with the same effect. I've tried a memory stick and that works fine. He tells me that the hard drive has been fine over the summer with this laptop. And we did get it to plug in fine on one occasion. I've tried the drive in this desktop twice and no issues at all. Dodgy USB cable???? I am having difficulty diagnosing this, as I don't like to keep trying the drive in the laptop and of course can't see anything once the screen goes blank. The only way to get the laptop display back seems to be to force power down, which I'm not amazingly happy about doing too many times.

I've pulled together into one document the excellent instructions from here and some I needed from elsewhere to remind me how to add a custom adm template. It may help those who, like me, are learning all this as they go along. For completeness I have also attached the txt file containing the adm text from the previous page of this thread. This makes a complete package. Please let me know if there are any mistakes in the instructions: I've checked them several times, but you never know. I've acknowledged my sources for the instructions and txt file, so hope that's Ok with everyone (just trying to be helpful rather than plagiarising!).Default Search Provider Google.txt Google as the default search provider.pdf

I note that some schools may have gone over to Uniservity's Life platform in April. Is anyone able to give any feedback about how it is going?

Works a treat!

I also had a teacher complaining about similar things happening, which I couldn't reproduce. In this case, it related to writing disappearing and reappearing when she touched the board. Eventually, she sent a runner to get me to show me the issue in front of a class. Annotations she had added to a word document kept disappearing and reappearing, and I couldn't work out why, although it seemed like a layers issue you get with objects in Word draw. I went away, then got called back, and this time saw message about image being saved. Finally realised that the issue may be with Word and not with SMART software. There was a setting in Word to Autosave every 10 minutes, and Word seemed to be picking up the annotations on the SMARTboard as alterations to the document - it was then trying to autosave as an image which was taking it ages to do, and interfering with the display. I changed the time to 60 seconds, and as far as I know that has fixed the issue. It may be that the issue you were getting wasn't being caused by SMART software, but by another program being used interacting with SMART software.

Ah! I haven't gone through the checklist for dns/network issues yet, as the above rang a bell. I had already gone into the event viewer on a few of the laptops. One thing I did notice was that the Colour Laser driver was coming up as updating from time to time, but nothing for the Y4 and Y5 Lasers. So I looked on the HP website to see if there was a driver I could download to try. Downloaded the PCL 6 driver to the server and used the New Driver button on the Advanced tab of properties for Y4Laser to install the driver. Tested mapping on a non working laptop, and now both Y4 and Y5Laser mapped. Brief delay, but they mapped and then showed up in printer settings window. Checked Event log and both the PCL (Y5Laser) and the PCL 6 (Y4Laser) drivers had been updated to the client side. Checked the new driver would print from applications, and there was an issue with publisher docs. So changed the Y4Laser driver back to PCL using the Advanced tab in printer properties. Checked another laptop. Still mapping fine. Checked application printing and still fine. Checked a few more laptops at random from Y3, Y5 and Y6, and desktops in Suite. All now fine. Reinstated the logon scripts, tested and no errors. It looks like it is fixed. To me, it looks as if, for some reason, the drivers weren't being pushed out to the clients for these printers, and the act of installing the new driver triggered something so that the clients started getting the drivers. However, I won't be fully sure that this has worked until I've seen it running properly for a while. And it still doesn't explain why the YR4 laptops worked when the others didn't. In the meantime, if anyone can see why this has worked and if I still need to do anything else to prevent it all going wrong again....

The King's School in Peterborough has the following post: POST TITLE: SIMs Co-ordinator Reporting & Assessment Officer OPA Administrator GRADE: 6 FTE: 0.86 HOURS: Working – 190 pupil days plus five training days. 37 hours per week @ 45 weeks per year. 0800 – 1600 for three days per week 0815 – 1600 for two days per week SALARY SCALE: £17161-£19621 ACTUAL SALARY: £14851 - £16980 Closing date 3rd June 2011 Further info: The King's School - Current Vacancies

Thanks for this checklist. We have done a few ip based tests, but I will go through your suggestions nest week, and try to be systematic about it. One question: what is clearing arp?

I'm not sure if I'm being equally silly, but have you enabled the On Board LAN Boot ROM? You have to do that in a different part of BIOS, and I can't for the life of me remember where, but it's a separate tab and it relates to on-board bits (LAN card, video, etc). Sorry - someone will know what I'm talking about and give us the correct place!

After some more tests, have started a new thread: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows/76031-weird-printer-mapping-issue.html#post677415

Don't know where to put this. It follows on from another thread, but decided to start afresh after further testing. (Previous thread http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows/36130-logon-script-suddenly-throwing-up-error.html). We have 98 laptops and 31 desktops on the domain. Server 2003 and clients are XP Prof. 50 laptops of one model, all imaged from build of first one. 48 laptops of similar model, all imaged from build of first one. Computer names for laptops are YRx-number (eg. YR3-01). Half of each year group is one model, and half the other. All laptops in same OU in AD, not split by year group. At login, script runs that maps drives and printers according to first two or three letters of computer name. Same script on all machines. Was running fine. Now getting scripting errors coming up on YR3, YR5 and YR6. These relate to two HP 2200dn printers, both same age. Other printers fine. I know you're thinking it's a scripting error, but hold on. YR4 laptops are fine; we can't get a scripting error on YR4 laptops at all and they map the printers fine. So to test if it's machine specific (we've tried every other combination of tests we can think of - different room, wired/wireless, etc), we renamed a laptop that doesn't work for printers so that the name starts YR4. Still doesn't work for those printers. Can't manually map the printers, can't map them with script. Tried it the other way (and this is all from the same room). Renamed a YR4 laptop to YR3. Still works for printers, can map with script (no scripting error) and can map manually. I hope someone out there is sitting there thinking the solution is obvious.... Please tell me what I'm missing!

:shocked:Garden Organic do a set of growing guide cards that you can download in pdf form - one veg on each card (you don't have to print them!). Growing info cards. Growing Cards - Grow Your Own info in bite-sized chunks As an alternative to Tomorite, liquid seaweed is good for anything that fruits (peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, etc.). When you really get up and running, you can grow comfrey (variety Bocking 14) and make your own liquid feed!! There is lots of allotment advice on the Gardener's Click website. You can also find the Radio 2 allotment expert, Terry Walton, on there who does a fairly regular podcast. Terry's Podcast « Gardening Articles « gardenersclick And of course you will want to start composting: Recycle now - Home Composting That should keep you going for a while..... :shocked:

This article was on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph: Ban mobile phones and wireless networks in schools, say European leaders - Telegraph

Can anyone shed any light on this issue? The laptop I am using shows a printer connection to a printer called Y4Laser, with the printer set to Ready. I am logged in as domain admin. If I double click the printer, I get the attached on screen. I can't map to this printer from this laptop. The laptops behind me, using the same wireless connection to the network, can map to the printer with no error messages. All of the laptops in this room with me are in the same AD group and they were all imaged from the same build. The laptops behind me are a random sample from year 4. None have the scripting error. So far, this year group seems to be the only one unaffected by the issues with these laser printers, unless I have been incredibly lucky with my random sample. I can't work out what the link is. Printer Connection Error 20110516.pdf

Thank you!!! I have just checked some of the policies for the "Disable changing home page" setting and I've foolishly set it in a policy that loads later down. Took it off and the issue has now been resolved.

So GPO won't override a setting in the profile? I've just run a test as a user with no profile, and it picked up the GPO with the amended home page URL fine. Rats! That means it's got into the mandatory profile and I hate changing those...

Working on a YR4 laptop and it is fine, with no scripting error and the Y4Laser set as default. BUT just been to deal with a problem in year 3 on a laptop, and when they logged in they were getting a scripting error. This laptop had just been brought to me because it had failed to log on to the network, and had come up with a local profile (no scripting error then). When logged on next time, it had picked up the network, but had a scripting error.

Just a quick query: Scenario: WinXP Prof and Server 2003. Logged in as pupil. Open Internet Options, and the home page setting is greyed out. Note at the bottom saying some seetings are controlled by the system administrator. Does that DEFINITELY mean it is being controlled by GPO, or can it also mean that the setting is being taken from a mandatory profile? I am being driven mad trying to get our home page to reset, after RM changed the URL for the Learning Alive home page. Changing the GPO and forcing the update seems to be having no effect. Beginning to think I may have something set in the profile....

OK, some progress. I spent about an hour looking at this with my secondary school technical support person. Turns out that the colour printer was a bit of a red herring - the current error points to line 138 or 148 depending on which of the scripts runs (logon or stafflogon). This line refers to the Y5Laser. The colour printer is being blocked because in one script it comes after the Y5Laser - in the other script it comes before. Yes, thanks for the test script. The colour printer mapped and pings fine. The Y5Laser pings, but doesn't map, even as domain admin. We've checked the share name is correct and checked permissions, and checked the IP address of the port. I went and tested a random sample of other laptops that connect to Y5Laser. All are showing the same issue (although no one had logged it). We REMd out the Y5Laser lines in the script, and the scripting error went away. So there appears to be an issue with this particular printer and the curriculum laptops. Staff laptops, which aren't on the domain, print to it fine. Can do a test print direct from the server too. Ran out of time, but next test will be to run a test from a networked desktop in the IT Suite. I'm also going to double check the Y4Laser, as it is same make and model as Y5Laser. Both are HP 2200dn with JetDirect cards.

The printer is there when logged in as administrator and I can print to it, even though I get the script error. The script has been running fine for all users for months and still runs fine for all the other identical laptops. It is just these three that, all of a sudden, are throwing up script errors and preventing ordinary users from connecting to the printer. I can run the test script, but I don't understand what this helps with. Sorry if I am being thick.

Sorry for resurrecting my old post, but this has reared it's ugly head again in a different situation. We have a set of laptops in each class now, new laptops but running XP Professional SP3. The SP3 is part of the original Windows install on these, and not an update. Been fine for a good few months. A teacher has given me three laptops which are now unable to print to the colour laser printer (HP Colour LaserJet 2605dn). Same printer as the original posting. Booted the laptops and they are all showing the scripting error. If I log in as a pupil, the colour laser printer is not found in the printers list. If I log in as domain admin, I still get the scripting error but the printer is shown and I can print a test page fine. The script is the same as attached higher up. It is just used to allocate the correct set of printers to the workstation at login. We have 31 desktops and 98 laptops, and, as far as I know, only these three have this issue - so the script can't be the problem. Server is Windows Server 2003. Other printers are fine. I can't uninstall SP3 update, as it isn't an update. I would have to reimage the laptops. If this problem occurs on other machines, this could become a real headache. Any ideas???

Great link - thanks. Very timely, as now pushing staff laptops into the new era...!!