superfletch

Sorry if this hijacks the OP - it isn't meant to. Can I ask those of you who have already implemented these sorts of systems. What did you have to do before going ahead? What I'm getting at here is... Did you need to get parents consent first (and how did you approach it)? Depending on the comms system you use - does the s/w actually hold data (and if so where is it held - local / cloud) or does it simply ask your MIS for the information as and when it needs? TIA

Scuppered again. @DosBox - Top OP, just whats needed at the moment. This site should be professional with a light hearted edge.

Get that bit in writing, otherwise they'll start complaining after a while. Nice though - a school provided iPhone...

@sakwoya Just curious whether Bossmans KB sorted it out? @Bossman - Isn't the default/installed printer thing just FMS not SIMS? Stuff to try: Detect and repair within the Office apps that SIMS outputs to and are causing you trouble. Try to run a number of other reports (predefined and school generated). Re-import your predefined reports and try the last idea again. Try the same user accounts (consider both SIMS and Windows User accounts here) on another PC that you know is okay and also try getting another user account (same approach) to test on the PC that seems to be generating this problem. Questions: Does testing the Server Connection to the Document Server Work? Is it just school created reports or are predefined ones affected. (If it's just school ones it could be a temp sims report directory / SIMS User profile problem).

In honesty I think you should stick with what you're already doing more or less. If something is a real nuisance to install across a network via GPO (or has no silent switch for the exe) stick it on the image and hope the app doesn't have frequent updates. If something is updated often and works via GPO then do it that way. I'd also say decide on what to include App by App. It might seem a bit strange but try to look at it from the point of view of what the software needs or can / can't do rather than from the "I'm a techie it's easiest to do this" point of view. Start by listing your apps and whether they do or don't install via GPO, can they be installed silently, what are they like to update, where are they needed. Then use this list to work out what goes on the image and what gets deployed.

Thanks to all the Mods and Admins who've replied on here, from my perspective this gives a much clearer picture of what edugeek is doing outside of the obvious websitey forummy bit. I had a good idea that there was a lot going on, but I wouldn't have had a clue what kind of things they were. I'd like to say that I simply appreciate the presence of Edugeek, the fact that it is available to me every day is fantastic and the diversity of it's members is incredible, there are some real experts out there too. As someone else said here already this is one of the most democratic sites I've ever visited, let alone been a member of and I'm not surprised to hear the site had a hefty valuation put on it. Thanks to all of you that moderate and keep this place going it's an amazing community, it is also a valued one and from whats been written I imagine edugeek as an organisation is also fairly influential where it needs to be. Most of all you give us all a voice and a place to stick together. Thank you.

Indeed - Chimps was maybe not the nicest choice of word though.

Did it start to respond eventually, it usually does. If it did fail I'd go with what Pete said - once you've restored the DB I'd grab the iso image of the upgrade CD and run it that way rather than downloading through SOLUS.

As if people think it's such a big deal. One bloke at work today was horrified. Chimps

It's all gone - the whole lot. Feels strangely satisfying.

You could also do it through Assessment Manager (very similar to the last way - but Assessment User Defined instead of User Defined group).

I have a (presumably very similar) Tevion 2Gb MP3/4 player which I bought from ALDI, its a perfectly functional device sound quality is good and the additional features work fine (Radio Transmitter to play to the Stereo, picture viewer etc). My only real gripe with it was that the OS for the thing was rubbish and not very intuitive whatsoever. For instance when navigating between folders you have to press a particular button to go into the folder you choose. There is a button on the device which is perfectly placed (ergonomically) to do this but whoever wrote the software decided to get you to click on the least obvious button on the whole thing. Dos box's post looks a better bet to me.

Good luck, rather u than me!

To be fair in the past the problem has always been down to a bust driver or a bad profile and represents a relatively easy fix. In honesty I hate cheque printing problems with the same level of passion as you. So far I havent collated anything about Windows update which is where I suspect the problem to be, but almost all the printers (6 of 7) are Brothers, and a small number (2 of 7) are also affected when printing reports from SIMS net (well - SIMS ouputs to Word then it fails to Print). In about half the cases logging on as administrator (machines on a workgroup) seems to resolve the problem. Antivirus is very varied, McAfee, AVG, ClamWin and Sophos are all in play. Connection to the printer varies, some USB, some Serial and some Network. A straightforward reinstall of the driver rarely works outright, although sometimes fixes the problem for a couple of print runs. I'm tempted to suggest all the schools to delete the printers outright, run windows update until there is nothing left to do, then add the printers again. Anyone??

Thanks Phil, I did ask at the helpdesk but they were unable to help due to the diverse range of hardware that could potentially be affected, I was really asking them in order to see if anyone else had reported similar. I've been collating information about the problem sites, the majority are using XP sp 3 with Brother HL-**** printers connected to the machines in differing ways. I think it is unlikely to be firmware related so I'm tempted to point the finger at Windows update. Some are successfully running cheques when logged in as admin (which has happened historically too) and others not. We'll sort it out, it's just giving me a bit of a headache at the moment.

Just done the update to 7.124 (on a Release Candidate Win 7) and System Manager now works. Thanks Phil.

Hi folks, I work for a LA, and over the last few years we have always had occaisional problems where schools Cheque runs freeze or fail to start etc, however these are usually few and far between. Within the last month we have had a large number of instances of this problem in different schools where the usual KB (35865) that resolves this either fails to help or only resolves the issue temporarily. I was wondering if any other LA's or Support providers had noticed such a problem recently or if anyone was aware of any issue. Capita are understandanbly unable to test against the wide range of hardware available so they can't really comment. Given that all the schools have been affected very recently I thought it might be a Microsoft update had knocked something out and felt you guys might be in the loop as to what the problem was. It isn't an issue with the FMS upgrade as schools have reported it running different versions of FMS. The antivirus clients and printers in use seem to vary also. Anyone know of anything or experiencing similar?

Oh yes - sorry, missed that. Another one would be to try as administrator, FMS printing can be a bit funny with peoples profiles (usually around cheque printing though).

FMS 6.91, surely thats pretty old?? Is the SQL Native Client package installed on the PC concerned, might be worth a shot - Search google for sqlncli.msi and download the appropriate version from MS

It won't. At least, not yet. Most of it works fine but not system manager: Capitas people released this a couple of weeks ago... A number of customers have asked for clarification regarding our Support for SIMS and FMS on Microsoft’s two new Operating Systems. We have carried out a considerable amount of developer investigation and testing with the Autumn Main release and whilst we are happy that the overwhelming majority of the SIMS software suite will work fine on Windows 7, we have not yet completed all of the testing that we would need to confirm 100% compliance with Windows 7 and to obtain the Windows7 Kitemark from Microsoft. As such, Windows 7 is not currently supported but will be fully tested and supported as a client Operating System alongside the SIMS 2010 Spring Main Release. Windows Server 2008 R2 is not supported. We are currently investigating this Operating System and will announce our intended date for supporting it in due course Regards, Jonathan Wood SIMS Product Manager (Technical and Releases)

Emptying the recycle bin after deleting files (or shift+delete). How to remap their home drive. (+ how to check they are connected to the network) Changing proxy settings (if allowed) to use home internet. Right click on the scroll bar (for instance on the right hand side of IE) and clicking "scroll here" instead of scrolling all the way down the page. Click in a folder then type the first letter of the file you are looking for to move to files starting with that letter. Tabs in internet explorer. Using rules to help sort email (might be a bit advanced). What applications open what files - For instance: Using windows explorer to find files then opening them from there (so the right app opens by default) rather than opening a random application, searching for a file of a different type and wondering why it wont open.

Reinstalling SIMS sounds like a good move. "Object reference not set to instance of an object" sounds like the Workstation is out of sync with the Server (has the SIMS Database been upgraded recently?). You might get away with running these at the affected workstation from the setups folder: SIMSApplicationSetup.exe SIMSManualSetup.exe SIMSAMPARKSetup.exe Another thing to look at is the .net frameworks (have you got the latest ones) I have 3.0 + sp2 and 3.5 + sp 1 generally. Also is SQLNativeClient installed? If none of the other things help stick it on...

Where can I find out more about the FITS courses? I'd be keen to do one, but I'm out on a limb in little old Cornwall.

I bought one off ebay (not nearly as fancy as the pictured one) - it cost 1.99 but only does a standard headphones/speaker jack and a microphone jack. Quality was superb for something that only cost £2 and installation (on XP) was just a plug it in affair.

Remove / Rejoin domain? +1 more for IE Enhanced Security Config, sounds like a good shout.