Andie

Not sure if this is Windows or hardware, but starting here. I have 31 XP machines all working from the same image. One has developed persistent problems with differing symptoms, and another appears to be following suit. (I have virus checked them). I would appreciate some help with diagnostics. The first computer developed a problem with freezing up, and the hard drive light was fixed on. On forced shutdown, it came up with an error message saying "Disk read error press Ctrl-Alt-Del". I checked the hard drive manufacturer website and downloaded the diagnostics disk, but there was no hard drive fault on extended test. Anyway, it got sent off to the company covering our warranty (the original company went into liquidation). They couldn't find a fault, so it came back. Few weeks later, developed same fault, then refused to even come up with error message and just froze during POST. Went back to company, and they returned it having reseated and cleaned RAM. In the meantime, another computer started to display blank screen after the Windows logo screen at boot up. Now the returned computer is doing the same. I reimage them and that seems to last a day or two, then they freeze on the user or just give the blank screen on bootup. I have checked the web. There is some indication that it may be the graphic settings or drivers. But why is this not happening to all the others? The warranty company only seem to be covering the hardware faults, and keep pointing out that my problems are probably software, so I'm going round in circles here. And their turnaround is about a month - longer unless I chase things up. I would be grateful for any help in what to look for to try and tie this down!

When you are a one-person-outfit, panicking goes with the job!!!! Oh...that's just me then...... I know I found a way to get at the local admin user from the domain when I had my problem, and started trying to change the password. I'll check it out tomorrow if there are no emergencies.

Maybe this is me, but I've spent a couple of days grappling with the network version which is supposed to be OK! I printed the instructions from the Primary Frameworks website, but somehow the lines to edit for the proxy were not correct on the printout (I only know that now as I went back to the page at home and have found the extra lines). As a result, the proxy settings weren't complete and the page on the first tab didn't load unless I went into Options on the menu bar and manually edited the Network tab settings. Not sure how this happened.... It takes a while to load once it is started. I'm going to attempt to get it going properly tomorrow!!

Although I asked a slightly different question in an earlier posting, I got lots of replies telling me how to change the local admin password and to ignore the nasty warnings when I did so. The thread is below: http://www.edugeek.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=6231

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I checked this, and it seems to be linked to all the user containers, but I will need to check this out again for sure. We have Teacher and Pupil OUs set up. Come to think of it, not sure where the Administrator fits in on the structure, so I guess I'd better check up on that too. I'm still finding my way with GP and AD, as you've probably realised!!

I am having problems when updating software on a workstation as an administrator, as this seems to bump up the size of the application data folder on the C drive beyond the limits of my profile and I then can't log off! At the moment I am getting round it by cutting and pasting the relevant folder from app data on the workstation to a share on the network, but heaven only knows what trouble that is causing elsewhere. We have a profile limit set for Authenticated Users (10000Kb) currently in the LNM Domain Policy GPO. I have read somewhere on here that it isn't a good idea to redirect Application Data or I might have had a go at that as a solution. So can someone help, possibly by telling me how to remove administrator users from the current GPO restriction? Or something? We are running Server 2003 and have a mix of XP Prof and Win2000 workstations. Thanks.

I've used the ADM template, and it appears to be working a treat. I was advised to set this up as a separate GPO (called IE Favourites Redirection) and then link it to where I wanted it, which is what I did. We are redirecting Favourites to within our redirected My Docs, and after a bit of experimenting I found that %HOMESHARE%\My Documents\Favourites worked as the setting. Hope this helps someone.

As you have posted in LNM forum, I guess you are asking about the options for username creation in LNM. Off the top of my head, I think there are three: alias (first name and initial of surname), firstname surname, and another I can't remember (I'm at home at the moment). Do you have the LNM User Manual? Look at the section about the Provisioning Wizard, the tool for importing users in bulk. If you need any further help, or don't have the manual, can you post again here? I'm not in work again until Monday now, but I should be able to give you full info then if you need it.

Oh, dear! I got asked to download this and install it today. Didn't get very far, as zip file for network version took ages to extract to folder on share and then class came into suite. Staff training taking place after school today from a laptop/IWB (not networked). Perhaps they will have decided it is not needed....!!! Bit concerned about the data being put into profile, anyway, as our profiles are deleted on logout!

Posted about the issue of Favourites redirection a while ago myself and got some excellent help. Follow this link: http://www.edugeek.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=6155 Intention was to put together something for the wiki, but haven't managed to find time yet!

ICT TECHNICAL ASSISTANT Sir Harry Smith Community College Eastrea Road Whittlesey Peterborough Cambs PE7 1XB Telephone 01733 703991 Fax 01733 703992 E-mail [email protected] Post Title ICT Technical Assistant Closing Date 26 Jun 2007 Principal: Michael Sandeman Tel: 01733 703949 ICT TECHNICAL ASSISTANT Required to assist in supporting a busy school ICT department, commencing 3rd September 2007. 35 hours per week, term time plus five days per year. Salary scale 2/3 (within the range of £11,319 to £11,835 per annum scale (£14.142 to £14,787 full time equivalent). The post may be suitable for a gap year student or a graduate looking to work in education at a later date. A knowledge of Microsoft Office suite of software would be useful. The College has a no smoking policy, is positive about disabled people and is recognised as an Investor in People. Please telephone or write for further details and an application form. Closing date for applications is 26th June.

Happy Birthday! This forum does what it says on the Home Page! A lifeline! And it's potty training time!!!! :twisted:

WITCH, just a long shot, maybe, but are the versions of Wordshark installed on the machines really identical to the CD or CDs you are putting in? We have found on our 2000 machines that version 3 CDs will work with version 3s installations, but not vice versa and the symptoms are the same. I'm sure their support will have gone through that with you, but....

We've used Reveal Cables before, and so far they are reliable and quick. If I've found the right thing (and these aren't powered), the price range is £4.18 to about £8. The link is below (the VGA splitters are near the bottom of the page): http://www.revealcable.co.uk/acatalog/SVGA_and_VGA_monitor_cables.html#aAA1832

Dare I mention the FITS toolkit stuff???? (Preparing the barricade..) There is some discussion on this topic and a bit about helpdesk software here: http://www.edugeek.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=295&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 I'm part-time too, and we are starting to implement Primary FITS (slowly), so I'm looking into this kind of thing too. Liberium was recommended to me by a local techie, but it looks like GLPI is more popular. Excuse my ignorance, but how do you get hold of it?

Ok, I've finally checked out our setup and have run a few tests. As I said earlier, the program is installed on a shared mapped drive on the server. For 2006 version, this also means that the ReportAssist2006 data folder is there too. I have adjusted the permissions on the whole lot, by removing inheritance, and removing permission for pupils, and teachers have modify permissions. Then I went to one of our XP machines, logged on as network administrator, navigated to the program folder on shared drive and ran ntwksetup utility (same turtle logo). This is in the manual in the CD case on page A18. The machine has to be restarted, and just to be on the safe side I first logged back on as admin. After that I tested this by logging in as a teacher and I was able to get at the reports he had created last year without any problems. I don't yet have any networked laptops, so maybe these are a separate issue. Hope you get the problem sorted!

We don't have Ranger, but we use mandatory desktop profiles for both teachers and pupils. I have set up one profile for each group with a different coloured background for each. This is really useful for instantly knowing when a teacher has logged in and then left the room without logging off or locking the machine! Users can still change their wallpaper while logged on, but once logged off the changes are lost. If you need info on profiles, go to the Edugeek Wiki using the link on the left hand side of this or click on the link below: http://www.russdev.com/edugeek/doku.php?id=profiles

I agree that years 5 and 6 are becoming more of a problem on the web. We have had to ask the LEA to block three sites they were trying to access in lunchtime clubs this year - never happened before. And about the budget. Expect to have to work miracles without money. Don't expect to have anywhere to work, ie. an office or sometimes even a workstation! Find out at your interview where your base will be (they may not even have thought of that!), and, if it's an IT Suite, what will happen if that is being used for lessons. If the job is linked to also being a teaching assistant (ie. always being in IT classes) find out if you will also have a realistic block of time away from teaching to do technical things. Be prepared to have to get tough over licencing. Some schools still don't realise they need network licences to run software on a network.

I've been trying to think how we did it last year... We have installed the program on a shared drive on the server. For 2006 version, I think we then had to run a client setup program on each workstation. Our teachers used memory sticks for doing the reports. Their laptops are not on the network yet so the program was also installed on these as standalones. I remember 2006 annoyingly putting the data folder into the same folder as the program folder on our shared drive, whereas I think this was different in 2003 version. But I know you can save the data anywhere you want to if you know how. Which folders are you having problems with? Just the data folders or the whole program folder?

I hope someone looks into this soon, although I know some secondaries/colleges already have VLEs. The same set of questions are making for sleepless nights. We are a junior school, so not sure what will happen about account transfer from infants, for example. I am hoping that someone in the LEA is going to be able to shed some light on how the whole new setup is supposed to operate (meeting coming up in June).

Where can I find this? I tried the link on your post, Ben, but I can't find anything there to download. I also tried the downloads section of Edugeek. Can find something called Self Service Reset, version 1.0. Don't think this is the right version and not sure if it is even the same program. Sorry - I'm obviously missing something.... Also, does it come with instructions for setting it up?

My understanding (which may be wrong) is that every primary school child has to have a unique username and password within the next year because of the forthcoming VLEs. That is certainly what we have been told by our LEA. We have always had one username and password per class. I am in the process of changing that because I've been asked to, and I'm certainly looking at the issue of password resets very closely now!

We have used ReportAssist up to 2006 version. I only work term time, and we are on half term all following week. We aren't using it this year, so I'm a bit foggy on what we did to set it up properly without being in school to check it out properly. Can you wait until I get back?

Thanks for the help with AD, and put in language I can understand too! I could do it that way, but having played around with things it looks like I would then have a pupil outside of Learning Network Manager. That is, I can go from LNM to AD, but not from AD to LNM, or so it seems. This would mean that when I promote the pupils to their new years in September using LNM, I would have to then do a small group of pupils manually in AD as well. Maybe the simplest work around for now would be to add a 2 to the end of the first name of the duplicate pupil in the csv import file. By the way, elsiegee40, are you sure your 3 month old pupils shouldn't be getting their own e-portfolios?? :twisted:

I've been using the Provisioning Wizard to add users in bulk. I decided to use the alias mode for usernames, which generates a username of first name and initial of surname, as this seemed ideal for younger children to type in (and we have some children here with very long surnames). The problem is that LNM threw up an error because two of our children have the same first name and initial for their surname. LNM will only create one of them as a user. I thought it would be able to cope, and would automatically add a 2 or something to the second one, but it doesn't. I'm not experienced in creating users from scratch in AD. Any helpful suggestions? We're using Server 2003.