Snookered

Unfortunately, though I can do the above suggestions and get to more options I'm not given the option for boot by cd. I've been advised by Asus that the reason is purely down to having the original UEFI which has minimal options and I can't upgrade that unless I can get online which I can't. The only solution is to go into recovery mode and set it back to factory settings, create a new user, do the 100's of updates (this was plain windows 8) and update the firmware, Deep joy!!! Thanks for all of the suggestions though.

I think because this particular laptop has it's original UEFI installed it's short on options, updating it looks like it will add things like entering legacy bios, but I can't do that. The extra boot device menu that i can get to via Esc and power shows nothing except Windows Boot Manager (hard drive) and enter setup. I think I'm well and truly stuck!

I have a former teachers laptop that I can not log into, she changed her original password. Normally I'd boot into cd and use a Hirens CD to reset the password, but this has a UEFI setup and there is no option to boot via CD, the solution seems to be to boot into Windows and update the BIOS, but obviously I can't. Is there a way for the laptop to be forced to look at the cd first. In case it helps it's a Asus X551M, there's plenty of "solutions" out there but they all involve logging into Windows first. Cheers!

So it sounds like roaming profiles would slow down login times (we don't have roaming profiles and people still moan about long log in times ). However could hundreds of local profiles slow a pc down?

I had a pc that became unusable, slow to logon and then incredibly slow to load any programs or explorer/browser windows. I ran virus and malware checks and nothing was found. What I did find though were hundreds of local profiles for a mixture of staff and pupils up to two years old, most were a couple of hundred megabytes, but there were some massive profiles in there too. I decided to use Delprof2 to delete those profiles over 30 days old, but then I decided to wipe them all. The pc runs totally different now with no slow downs. What do you tend to do with machines that have numerous different logons? I have read online that Local profiles do not slow pc's down, but this isn't the case with this pc. Also can someone explain the difference between Local and Roaming profiles? Many thanks!

When we start our pc's, windows is looking to install printers that we no longer have from our previous SVR2003 printer server. Our new printers are set up fine, I just need to stop Windows from searching for the old server. Where do I look? I have no idea how the original settings were pushed out, I could switch the old server back on, is it likely the a policy was sent from it? Or is there something I could do on our new server? Cheers!

I'm pretty miserable at the moment with things that are happening where I work, so seeing your comments this morning has put a smile on my face. If I could walk into another job I would happily give a months notice today. I love the school and the vast majority of the people here, but the morale here is rock bottom and unless OFSTED come in and have some Teflon remover things aint gonna get any better. The problem for me is lack of formal qualifications, I came out of retail management 10 years ago, did some IT training which promised a job at the end of it, which I got, and have been learning on the job ever since and on the whole I know what i'm doing (come here when I'm stuck!). The one drawback is there hasn't been the opportunity to develop with MCSE's etc. I do dream of becoming a Crofter on the Outer Hebrides though...

We had a few Sharp MX-5140's installed over the Christmas holidays along with Papercut MF. The one function that we would really like to have working but isn't is Scanning to Email (we had it before, Canon and Uniflow). The Sharp guy who set the MFP's didn't know how to do it and I've had a go and have not managed it either. I've got a ticket open with Papercut but they are being uncharacteristically slow with an answer. Has anyone managed? Does is need to be done via the Sharp web interface or Papercut or a bit of both? Cheers!

I don't have a tolerant head and the head teacher's not that tolerant either... I've had a great 7 years at my current school,but the last year has been getting awful by the month, I no longer feel that valued by certain parts of management team and this has become the icing on the cake. I think it's time to start some serious thinking about the future. Thanks for the comments

After 6 years in having my own "open space" off a corridor I have been told that I am being moved to the main school office as my area is required for learning. All of my equipment has been moved into a loft space as there is no room in the new location, so I'll have a desk for a pc and a 3 draw cabinet and that is it. I'll be sharing the office with 2-3 admin assistants and the office doubles up as a medical room for children. This office is where parents, visitors and staff all come to for the normal services that a busy school office offers. There is no discussion and this is final, is this acceptable? Do any of you guys already work in a similar setup and if yes have you become a secretary answering phones and queries from parents?

I have replied to the area manager as I did wonder if I over complicated my question. My aim is to remove the 2003 server along with the current MFD's (four of them, their lease is up). I'll have a look at at what "dry" says, my brain however tells me it's not as easy as it sounds and I'll chat to the guys at Sharp to give them a clearer picture. I appreciate the replies, Cheers!

We have new MFD's coming in to our school the week before Christmas (great timing). Our current machines are on a Server 2003 print server which I was hoping to get rid off. We have a decent Server 2012 system with a number of virtual servers running on it and I was expecting the Sharp engineer who is setting the equipment up to create a virtual print server on this (I was told this was not a problem back in the summer when we decided to go with Sharp) Today though after asking if this was still the case the reply has confused me somewhat: "With regards to migrating to another server, unfortunately the engineers are unable to offer any help. This is basically down to insurance and lack of cover thereof" Is this a big job? What are they worried about? Cheers

We currently have a few users accessing SIMS & FMS from home via Teamviewer. These pc's tend to be the ones that slow down and have problems when running updates as they never get shutdown. We have a VPN already running successfully to access shared drives and I'm considering adding the Sims share to it, but I've seen elsewhere on here someone saying not to use a VPN. Is this for security reasons or something else? We also have a couple of users using RDP to access a single application on the server. So I could add SIMS to it and add the appropriate number of Cals. With either of these solutions do I need to consider buying SIMS licences too, the users will be using school laptops, not their pc's? Cheers

We're in the process of changing our contract for our MFD's. We've been using Uniflow for a number of years but it looks like our next devices will be coming with Papercut. Our Business manager is new to the job and I'm just a bit concerned that the quote that looks most favorable in terms of devices might be a bit over the top for the cost of Papercut. I'm not sure about forum etiquette with regard to the posting of costs, would it be okay to post them, but without the supplier details, so that someone might be able to give me an idea as to whether if it is good or not? Cheers

I've just explained to the teacher what would have happened if the School folder was deleted and unlike most that I deal with she understood immediately what the consequences would have been. Nothing is backed up, though it will soon be and I've moved it to her documents folder and put a shortcut on the desktop. The slowness she referred to was her broadband, she said that BT were investigating her line...

I've just come across a laptop where the teacher has numerous files on the desktop and one folder in particular which contains 600 sub folders which go on to contain 5000 files which come in at just over 5GB. I've always been led to believe to keep the desktop as clear as possible, using shortcuts when needed otherwise the system RAM is constantly being drawn upon when loading up the desktop at startup and when switching between windows. Is this an old wife's tale or is there some truth to it? This particular laptop is supposed to be slow, though I think the teacher is getting confused between slow pc and slow internet as it seems fine to me, though I haven't got the usual 30 windows open that most teachers have. I will suggest she moves the single folder to her documents though as I'd hate to see the reaction if that single folder was accidentally deleted. What are your thoughts?

Sorted it....swapped out a video splitter and problem has gone, never seen that before in the 8 years that I've been working in a school which is full of 2 screen setups. It's Friday and my day has started well! Thanks for the suggestions!

Not a stupid question at all and my answer is yes, and also rolled back to the very first original drivers too...

I don't normally bump my own questions, but with this thread having had nearly 90 views, yet with no suggestions, I was wondering if this is because I'm asking for help about something that is so simple the answer is staring at me in the face, or it really is something that no one has ever come across before. Definitely no sarcasm in my question!!

A users screen resolution seems to be stuck at 960x600 despite them not making any changes, no matter what setting is chosen it stays the same. When I log in as admin I can make changes and save them fine. I've never come across this before and it's stumped me. Any ideas as to where the problem may lay? (I've had them logged on and off, rebooted, unplugged and even changed monitors) Many thanks!

Thanks Arthur, the reviews for the extension look promising, will give that a go later today.

Great minds think alike as they say, I did look Openelec over the weekend as I've been trying to get another one of these Zotacs to do similar stuff elsewhere. May give it a go. Cheers

LOL! I posted a similar thread elsewhere across numerous IT forums, no one answered. This, though slightly disheartening is blunt but to the truth and what I expected. Many thanks!!

I've got a Zotac ZBOX nano XS AD11 Plus that would be good for showing video on a large screen accept it can't stream HD videos from the likes of Youtube and iplayer, it's incredibly choppy and un-watchable. It can play 1080p from the hard drive without a hitch. I've tried Chrome, IE, Opera and Firefox browsers and I have up to 60mb broadband and other pc's/laptops run the same youtube videos fine. Is the E-450/HD6320 combi the reason for the struggle or could it be something else? It has 4GB of ram and the latest AMD drivers installed I've contacted Zotac to see what their opinion is but they have failed to answer, which doesn't bode well. Many thanks for the suggestions

We have a 6 year old Trapeze MX8 Mobility Exchange setup with MP-372 AP's in most classes. Can anyone recommend a company to do some checks on the overall setup for me? It is currently working fine, but I doubt if we are utilising it that much, however we will have a large number of tablets being introduced in to the classes soon so it will be used a lot more and I'd like to pre-empt any issues. Though it's a managed system I have no log on, we are in Surrey but with most companies working Nationwide these days any recommendations will help. Many thanks.