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Yep, sounds about right. Thanks for the reply. I think we are stuck with these problems. We only brought around 35 of them so it could be worst.

Hi there, I see you have Fujitsu Esprimo E3521 desktops at your place. We've had them now for a year and a half and there seems to be an intermittant fault with the fans going off at high speed. This happens sometimes at the boot which prevents them booting and sometimes whilst they are in use. We've called in Fujitsu support as they are still under warranty, but often they will just start working again before the engineer gets here. Have you had similar experiences with yours?

In my mind I've renamed it Windows Hate for the same reasons as most. I am amazed that MS make such big mistakes. When I saw Vista for the first time and the UAC it took me a nanosecond to decide that it was a terrible feature. Yes they improved it by reducing the alerts but how the hell does this stuff go unnoticed or unchallenged before it gets out? They couldn't even be bothered to put a windows logo on start-up for Vista, it's just shabby. In Windows 7 they didn't get much wrong if anything, and now onto 8 and they get rid of the start menu. Let me think for a nanosecond, not a good idea. At the very least give me a choice.

Has anyone got any idea of the costs involved if it is this DLP chip?

We've just had two of these just recently start showing what look like stars from a distance but are more than likely pixels as you see the odd one flash or go back to normal. They are randomly scattered from the left hand corner area around to the middle of the display almost as if someone has sprayed them there. This occurs even when no laptop is attached. Speaking to a repair company they seem to think it is dirt or dust inside the projector, but I'm not so sure. Firstly, the stars appeared from no-where and secondily they are most definitely pixels because if you see them close up they are square to each other. Has anyone else come across this problem? and yes the warranty expired earlier on this year.

Nope! the supervisor PWD doesn't lock the bios, when you set one you are still offered to press f11 for limited functionality. The limted functionality consists of just setting a power-on-password everything else is greyed out. I did try the latest bios and it does the same thing, in fact I can't see any changes. I've resorted to setting separate master and user power-on-passwords. The students can know the user password and if they change it I can change it back with the master password. Warning to all, don't buy these for education. We only brought 12 (thank god) and that was enough.

Removing the battery doesn't reset the passwrds, but I can set supervisor password for the bios and a master password for the power-on-password, and then set a user power-on-password that the students know. If they change it, I can change it back with my supervisor password access, but this is far from ideal and just about the only option I think I have.

Just got in some Toshiba Satellite Pro C850-10V's for students, and to cut a long story short I've discovered you cannot stop someone (students) from being able to set a power on password in the bios unless you set one of your own. Toshiba support confirm this not to be a bug, but just the way it is (great!). Yes we can set one of our own, but the teachers have to know / remember and not disclose what it is and type it in each time the a student powers the laptop on (nightmare!). So, I'm looking at ways to reset the bios if we leave it open, if anyone has some trusted methods?? I've tried removing the CMOS battery for a minute and that didn't work (currently trying for a longer time to see if that works). Toshiba support unsurprisingly won't let on to any method other than sending it back to them (plus cash) for a reset. Any help greatly received as these laptops needed to be ready yesterday.

I've got a very similar problem as we've recently given teachers laptops to use in classrooms. One teacher couldn't get their laptop to output to the projector. I tried all the usual ideas, source input, laptop key combination nothing worked. As we shut the laptop down it started outputting corrupted graphics but it looked like it was trying to display something. I then got my identical model laptop out, connected and it was fine. I tried reinstalling the graphics driver and rebooting the troubled laptop but still this refused to work, although it can be taken to another room, same model projector and it works. It almost defies logic?? can anyone throw anything into the mix? usually this model of laptop will automatically change the resolution upon VGA connection to match the projector, so it's like the detection of the projectors resolution isn't being reported correctly, but then why would my laptop work?

We had problems with the WOL and netbooting this model although we were using FOG for our imaging. We only brought two of this model at the end of last year and already both motherboards have been replaced. I think there has been new bios updates, so I would check this first. The replacement boards, I think, came with the latest revision. I remember looking to turn off the deep sleep feature and it had disappeared from the new boards.

Never tried this before but in theory it might work. Start to install windows 7 on the PC with the working DVD drive. Let the install get to the stage where it copies all the files over from the DVD. It should then reboot, at this stage turn the PC off and transfer the HDD back to the other PC and continue the install.

When the reboot occurs press F8 on startup and disable the automatic restart option, then you will probably see the BSOD that Microsoft is trying to hide.

I am really starting to get frustrated with this and cannot figure out why. I have this pc which doesn't recognise the DVD drives within windows but recognises them being in the bios and when trying to boot it wont boot to them either. (thats one issue) Check the master \ slave jumper on the back of the DVD drive, or try another IDE cable \ sata cable whichever you are using So to get around this i had another computer which i plugged the HDD in and installed win 7 32-bit and this ran fine and works fine on the test machine, yet when i plug it into the other machine and try to boot to it, it fails to boot and does a boot loop? This is really confusing me... any ideas anyone? If you are moving a previously installed HDD from one PC to another and it doesn't boot probably means it's got different chipset \ drivers. You would need to install windows again on the PC that isn't booting, if you can get the DVD drive working. Any help would be great. Ben

It's a long story so I'll try shorten it. We needed replacement batteries for our HP550 model laptops. I go to a site that lists 3 different batteries when navigating to them via our model name, 2 have the 10.8 voltage, 1 has the 14.4 voltage, I go for the 14.4 voltage ones. I assumed they would work with our model, read all the on-screen details, nothing to suggest they wouldn't work. A few months down the line these batteries are coming back to us as dead???. Spoke to the supplier and discover there are two different types of HP550 around, one that comes with a 14.4v battery and one that comes with a 10.8v battery. There is no known way just from looking at the laptop that you can tell these apart. Our model of HP550 comes with an 10.8v battery and the 14.4v battery is incompatible with it. So I argue with the supplier and say there was no warning on their site about this (taking screen shots beforehand of their site), but yes there was, after coming back from holiday to resume the dispute I'm advised there is a live link next to the word "voltage". True enough, didn't notice this before, but if I click on it, it explains I need to check the voltage is compatible. So the long and short of it is: when ordering replacement batteries for laptops, go for the same voltage batteries as the originals that were supplied in the laptop to ensure compatbility and don't make the mistake I made. Unfortunately we ordered 21 of these 14.4v batteries and it looks like they're all knackered.

We went to laptops because we couldn't sustain the growing number of devices (we warned them, but they kept buying new PC suites and didn't replace old PC's (old meaning about 8 years old!)). Some teachers had laptops previousily until we ran out, PC's in the classrooms, PC's in the staff rooms, PC's in their offices. Now they just have a laptop which they use where ever they go, so therefore the number of devices reduces, but I know it's all swings and roundabouts. It sent a shiver down my spine when I found out. With the calibration issue I'm kind of thinking they should just put up with it. It must only take 30 seconds max to perform a calibration in a new room. If anyone else uses laptops with IWB's and their teachers calibrate when needed, maybe you can let me know, so I can say X number of other schools do it this way so stop complaining.

We've recently switched from base units to laptops. Teachers are complaining that they have to calibrate each time they connect their laptop to a different board. Is there a way round this? Many thanks

I have a print server with windows 2003 server installed. if i setup a new network printer that will be used by windows 7 clients, do I use the windows 7 driver on HP's website or the windows 2003 server version? To start with I think I must use the windows 7 driver but then I think what is the windows 2003 server version for?

We have the HP3505 which looks very similar and I've had problems only last week. I eventually found a piece of paper in the fuser. I didn't realise straight away but you can take the fuser out of the printer in seconds and push open a flap to examine inside the fuser for any bits of paper. Also if the model is the same, you can run through the printers menu to find the current status of the paper sensors. It may give you some kind of clue. Ideally get hold of the service manual if you can find a free one online.

We are shortly switching to laptops for our classroom PC's so any exiting serial connections will be a no go. Almost all our exisiting boards have the serial connections although all the one's I've looked at also have the USB option as well. I'm looking at runs of 7-8 metres on most of our boards. I've read up on the forums and as expected 5m is the longest a USB cable will go on it's own, so it looks like an active 5m usb ext (+ short standard USB lead) or an usb to ethernet adaptor will be needed. Will this alone be enough to power the board and provide a reliable connection? I've read some people have connected via a usb cable and have also left the power supply adapter plugged into the old serial connection, but surely the USB connection can provide the power? I've done a quick test with a laptop just using a short USB connection, but of course I don't know if this is reliable, especially as I'll be running over longer distances.

I know nothing about these things, as I was brought up on Windows. The first disk (primary) out of four in the raid was reported bad by the smart diagnostics. I replaced the disk but it doesn't boot and gives out these three lines at the end. VFS: Cannot open root device "md3" or unknown-block(0,0) Please append a correct "root=" bot option Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0) Ok, so I have to edit and change something to get it to work, but as a starting point how to I even do that? Do you have to use some sort of bootable USB? and what config's am I likely to need to change? I think the system is using something called LILO (v.22.6.1) if that's any help.

I've had a problem with this model shutting down when I try and image it. Does it every time, although is fine for normal use. I'm not sure if it is overheating or not or there is some kind of other issue. I haven't experienced the graphics issue, but to correct my issue, I went on to the Acer website and downloaded bios v1.45 and it fixed my problem. There is no explaination to what the latest bios does, but it may also fix your issue. Worth a go?

I am trying to upgrade. I don't really want to remove 0.28 as I'll lose all the current settings. I'm not really a linux person and am struggling a bit. Someone else built the box (have now left) and I'm trying to learn as I go, but at the same time it quite a vital box to have up and running and we are already missing it. I'm wondering if I should upgrade to 0.29 first, and try it from there.

Just installing version 0.28 to 0.32 after messing up the kernels in 0.28 I've just run the install (by running installfog.sh) from our Ubuntu server Ver 9.10 and it seems to completed ok. I go to the fog server http address to finish the install and there is no prompt, just my normal fog login screen still stuck on 0.28 Anyone have any ideas?

Hi Promethean people, We have just had a board reported that has issues with the pen to board sync. The cursor seems to want to stick to the top line of the board. Attempting to touch the pen on the board makes it flick randomly around the board before moving the cursor to the top again when you take the pen back off. I've tried calibrating several times, but this has no effect on the problem. I am pretty certain we have no warranty on this board so I attempted to solve the problem myself. Doing a swap test back and forth on a working board it seems the problem is with a small control board located in the top left hand corner of the board on the back. Now, is it possible to purchase a replacement board that we can replace ourselves? There are various numbers on the board as follows: 62018271152 525206105-09A M 94VO 0546 Hopefully this signifies the part I'm looking for. Can anyone please help or advise?

Thanks for the suggestions. In the end I ended up using Acronis True Image trial in the end. The others might have worked but only during the process I realised the HD I was writing to, was playing up.