dgsmith

- Flashed the BIOS, which took about 3hrs from start to finish but no change - Changing RAM hasn't helped - HDD disconnected or connected makes no difference - Different battery from known working board and new battery makes no difference Point of note is that it doesn't just seem slow in the BIOS, but it takes about 2mins to get to the POST screen from turning on, and when given options like F1 to setup etc, takes about 10-20secs to recognise that. Still getting the "CMOS checksum bad" which google suggests is nearly always battery, but I have eliminated that from suspicion! Board also is mounted on inbuilt case risers or at least I can't see any concerns with how it's been installed.

We've recently got Sarju as our new accman (though I have known about him for years as he filled in on our previous accman absenses). I don't know how he does it, but he either makes continual losses on our orders or he bribes someone! We had a hiatus from BT Business after some bad issues but the recent prices and quotes have been winning factors. Like others here, usual ones as well include Misco, Insight, CCS Media and Probrand/IT Index. Occasionally I'll also check by some of the sponsors here, but despite my continual reading that they always offer members "the best price out of anyone", I can't say we share that experience in general, bar the odd unusual exception. Unfortunately, our severe lack of purchasing (not being given funds) has significantly reduced expenditure, and alot of expenditure now is on openbox/b-grade/used.

Been running it on our RM network for 9 months (since the start of this thread) and every RM update and Microsoft Update we have installed has not affected this in any way - continues to work flawlessly on every Win7 computer. I couldn't say whether installing any update would behave this way, or indeed a SP over an existing install as we build from new images when updating service packs, but otherwise have seen no issues.

Those are worst than our oldest ones For us it's core 2/pentium dual-core (not Pentium D) minimum else we're replacing old with ancient and I know some schools will certainly be offloading machines that fit this spec of that age, as we would have ourself only 3-4 years ago..

Thanks for all the suggestions - i'm not in work until next week though I at least have a few ideas now to try when I get back!

With the summer upon on and many of you wetting yourself at the thought of new, flash and fast PCs, spare a thought for the less fortunate! If you're in the north west area (West Lancs and Merseyside ideally, but perhaps a tad beyond) and have any PCs at least dual core (core 2, pentium dual-core but not pentium D) i'd be very interested to hear, especially if you're able/willing to donate! We would try and arrange collection. If we're exceptionally lucky, we might be able to scrape togehter 1 ICT suite this summer (less than 10% chance of that happening though) when we actually have the equivilant of 3 that are in desperate need (7+ years old). Any offers of donation greatly appreciated!

Using a PS/2 keyboard doesn't help. BIOS seems to be the latest I can find, from 2009 (unless someone can easily find BIOS updates for a Pegatrom IPMEL-PRC!) - aka the RM Ascend 2050 ..and it seems even when in the BIOS, the clock only updates every 35 seconds. Something definately wrong. I also changed the batery for a known working one but no difference and still get the checksum error.

I'll try changing the battery tomorrow, though it was retaining the time/date ok. When I said I restored defaults, I meant load optimal settings too as I tried every "reset" option but to no avail. I've never known a BIOS to be so delayed when cycling through it.. it really is bad!

Just acquired a 2nd hand computer of reasonable spec, however it seems not only does it take an age to actually get the BIOS to load up, but once in, browsing between the menus and menu items has about a 5 second delay (so to move over 3 menus to say power management takes about 15-20 seconds). I've taken the battery out and replaced to reset settings then went back in and "eventually" managed to restore defaults but no difference! I've seen this kind of thing before where there may be a 1-2 second delay but nothing like this! At one point the BIOS actually froze on me and wouldn't respond to any input! The CPU temperature is also fine (when I eventually managed to get to the temp monitoring area) and the RAM has been changed but it's made no difference! Need some ideas! It's also showing "CMOS checksum bad" but I don't know if that is because of this problem or vice-versa (or just a separate issue).

It really isn't actually! I still stand by the HP DC7900 I posted on the first page - $h!t hot core2 dual-core cpu with ram available for a tenner and hard drives for £12 on ebay.. you could have a killer spec with monitor for £120. I always like to search schtrade.com now and again.. we bought some DC7900 Intel E8400 machines with 4GB ram a few months back for £49 including VAT and delivery each.. still had 6 months warranty too! These are the ones we use as our main office machines.

You really bought a bum machine there.. at best it might be a Pentium D but I don't know if they were only on 945 chipsets or better. It does sound like a P4 Prescott to me.. not worth a dime. I wouldn't even attempt really to spend money on it. You can pick up basic/first gen core 2 machines on ebay from about the £40 mark (base unit only). Even HP DC7900 3ghz dual cores with 2GB RAM go for about £80-£90. I really hate to say it but.. you may have wasted your money big time =\ Currently on ebay I have listed an Acer tower, Core2 E6320 dual, gig ram, 80 hdd with 17" flatscreen, keyboard & mouse for £100 inc post. Really should shop around more - if you see something that looks reasonable, ask here first and i'm sure you'll get honest, useful opinions. If I were you I'd look for a better machine - at least core 2 (or Pentium Dual-Core as it'd be upgradable, not Pentium D) and set yourself a max of about 100 quid, though likely can do it for about £75-£80. [edit]For example: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hewlett-Packard-Compaq-DC7900-Desktop-PC-/280920056247?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item416823e1b7 < cracking spec for about £100. We have a handful of these in the school, including the exact model for my office one and it flies. Can prob find this spec for about £80 too if you looked hard enough[/edit]

Does the controller only take a max of 6 APs? - I don't know much about ruckus or how you can tell! We're desperately looking to get managed wireless, ideally Ruckus but the cost is quite prohibitive for us! We're in Lancs too so collection may be feasible but would ideally need to be able to expend to a minimum of 15 APs..

+1 for us - have done since approx 2006. My only gripe is that they simply will not implement the ability to pre-filter the printer list on the release web interface (not release station, but where you can login to any machine and release jobs "held" in a queue, such as in the classroom). Otherwise, great piece of software and I do not doubt that many schools and indeed businesses use it successfully.

Think it's important to query this, as it'd only be legal if either you're not running Windows on them (unlikely) or if you have 70x retail version of windows licences which you plan on arranging with Microsoft to carry over to new hardware (even more unlikely).. You may not know, but even if you do it's useful for those that don't.. Windows volume licence doesn't mean you can buy PC without base licence, it's upgrade only! [edit]beaten to it in a post above [/edit] If doing SSD, i'd seriously consider going to a 128GB HDD. Some say they only use ~30GB now, but then you may regret it further down the line, and it's always easier to get the additional funds now when you're buying them new than in 3yrs time. Otherwise that is practically identical spec we would like to get for our next replacement.

Primarily, office phones and we do have our own extensions but only to provide 2 physically separate lines - only the office know the individual extension and for everyone else there is a single number which rings both and is the most commonly used method of communication. Email is a close second, for those either without a phone in their room or where they have so much to say they'd rather write it down! A helpdesk is something we need to do really.. going to be a massive culture change for everyone as we still, to an extent, get stopped on corridors! ..and sometimes the brave meet us face to face in the office(!)

The person who posted that.. if you turn the "f" in their username upsidedown, it'd describe them perfectly.. It was 2yrs ago so hopefully they have got clarification by now, heh. But yeah.. I like that one

Unfortunately we didn't have the luxury of a flexible budget and had to opt for the cheapest supplier. We paid £285 + VAT for the X11 and will get a further £30+VAT off with the trade in, so pretty good I say. I think it's the standard EDU line which comes with 2yrs limited warranty, 3yrs lamp warranty, but to be fair we have just replaced 8yr old projectors after they finally started giving us grief, so we have had more than our moneys worth. Also to point out 3yr deinstall/reinstall is not the same as a 2yr limited warranty.. Very happy with the X11s.. look neat, alot lighter and compact and image quality is fantastic over the old S1Hs they replace. Also got an new open box bulb from Misco for a steal so we're reasonably well covered

Insight have them for £293 + VAT each, so they have come down a bit over the last day or so, as that now equates to £263 + VAT with the trade in offer. We're buying 4 of them tomorrow.

Well it's cheap enough to buy HDDs on ebay if the machines cost buttons or nothing. Also helps our old P4s already have 80GB sata drives which can be utilised as a stop gap, so in that sense we can avoid an obstacle. Problems really is where, or how to start a querying process..

Thanks for the replies; I can understand most big corps will be scaling down their replacement cycles so perhaps machines that are 3yrs old rather than 1.5/2.. heck even 4yrs old will be better than our oldest, at 7yrs. Unfortunately, we're based in a small village town surrounded mostly by farms(!) so there aren't any big inner cities close by or indeed HQs of big companies. biggest building is the Tesco built a few years ago Our LA tends to offer their old equipment but never for free, and always over 5yrs which is no use to us at all. Really anything older than 3yrs isn't worth taking, though we'd stretch to 4yrs probably. I'm not a big Dell fan anyway.. too unreliable, but then the 745/755s are core 2 capable/equipped and as we still have P4s, these would still be welcomed but my main query was how to go about approaching companies. Our last disposal a few weeks back had a chap come straight from another school and had piles of Dell 745 CMTs in the van.. I felt like asking him to do a swap, as at worst they'd have been Pentium D!

Has anyone ever done this? I saw something not long ago that sometimes if you approach for instance a bank, they may be able to give you their relatively new desktops (seeing as their replacement policy is ridicolously short in some cases). Has anyone ever tried or know anything about doing this? Is it even at all likely the big corporations will even consider doing this, even if the school did press releases etc providing publicity? As well as trying to find bid/grant funding, we need to be looking at other ways to upgrade our hardware and this crossed my mind as a possibility, but not if there isn't a cats chance in hell! Doesn't help I wouldn't have a clue where to start, who to contact etc..

Until they break/stop backing up. Prob get about 4yrs from them but some we have longer, others shorter (more longer than shorter though).

Fundraise the money to even consider projects! We've love managed wireless and a new ICT suite mainly, but it seems we're out of luck again, for the 4th year running.. Are you back in the UK now then or still down under?

The latest version will be released in 2 days time according to the release date, but I highlighted a bit in bold which sounds applicable. Perhaps you should upgrade when available and see if it fixes your issue?

The Epson EB-X11 is available for £275+VAT including the trade-in offer (£30+VAT for your old projector, not sure if just Epson or any). We are hoping to replace a batch of 8yr old projectors with the EB-X11. I don't think widescreen is worth the extra money, especially for us as we're moving back to desktops rather than laptops to drive projectors!