HTCPCP

I have noticed with RM machines, the machines in the same batch have the same problems, but in another batch they have been absolutely fine. Had 3 screens go within a week (all adjacent s/n's) and then had a few with boards fail on them within a few days of each other. As for the build errors, I find if you unplug and take the battery out and then press the power button a few times. Then restart WDS, reconnect up and try again if you are PXE booting.

Have you tried asking RM - Managed to get a rechargeable pen and charging unit from them at the end of last year. Picked up the off pen for them off ebay too so worth a look there too.

Suit if i'm in the office without a tie - got them caught just once too many times while leaning over a machine. If i'm out of the office it's shoes, smart trousers and a branded polo. You still get people moaning that we don't look smart enough with them not realizing that tie's are not the safest thing to wear in the IT environment.

Iris only works with Internet explorer, rather than good browsers such as Chrome etc. Setting it up originally was really easy, until we got VLANs installed, when some problems occured. If you have it just in 1 room then that would make your life a lot easier, as it's not the lightest. We reackon at work that it's about 15 or 20 minutes each time it is used to set up, check and get the teacher logged on. Was bought without any consultation with us, and then was lumbered on us, so we aren't it's biggest fan... We run the software off a laptop that we hard wire to our network in each room as running it over wireless can mean that the video cuts out. Similarly if the computer locks then the video goes strange too. All in, not a huge fan.

We never bother with the HD projectors, as they aren't needed unless they regularly hold meetings there. We have HD projectors in the Hall, Conference room, Heads office and in the university style lecture room where they hold film studies. We just use the cheapest Epson with decent brightness and have quick corner. Until they discontinued it it's the EB X-11 with the 3 year lamp warranty.

if the excess is going anywhere in particular, put it in some trunking. And the advantage to that is that when it comes to changing the odd cable it can be a bit of a faff, but then again no real issue. If you use Velcro, then usually some kid takes great enjoyment in taking all the velcro off, in a similar way that they enjoy unplugging everything etc. Heaven forbid when they work out that you can open trunking...

we have loads of Zoostorms, and if you are willing to replace parts yourself, then call them and agree that any damage done is your own fault and then send them the faulty part. The only bits they can't do that with are cases with faulty switches, motherboards and CPUs. We have a couple of boxes behind the core switch in case, but we have sent machines to them in loads of companies boxes. They use cheap parts, but what do you expect for an i3 machine with Windows 7 for £250!

We had the same thing, and it came down to the googlevideo.com being blocked by the Local Authority proxy on some of our IP ranges. If you are on a proxy, send them an email, or if you have your own, add it to the allow list for the feed that is needed. The other problem that has caused that for us this year was a poor connection. Is it linked to just one switch/IP range or is it across the site and linked to all the IP ranges?

I think Millgate deserves a visit. You guys clearly know IT people well!

Insulated thermos mugs are always good for people who have to travel a long distance to work, still got the one RM gave me last year! As are 8GB or higher USB Sticks, still got a couple left from last year which we have build disks or killdisk on.

we did a major refresh in the Summer term half term while moving to VLans. All HP managed here, had a small amount of help from the LA, but apart from that it was just us working very very hard! Was well worth it, and we then tidied the cabinets in the summer. HP may not be the cheapest, but in terms of reliability can't fault them.

we tend to use Misco for quotes. Our Account manager gets the response back really quickly, no fuss, and some of the savings even on smallish orders can be quite large, especially for schools with limited budgets. We will tend to stick with misco, as every time we check prices with competitors they are very competitive, delivery tends to be next day and I don't think we ever have to pay any postage with them. Another advantage is we have never found any problems with minimum spends throughout the year to keep an account manager, and for some schools we have, they might only buy 1 laptop and a couple of keyboards or mice a year!

ShadowX, we haven't had any problems PXE booting them, except from finding the right drivers for them. we use them in 2 ICT suites that get some fairly heavy use, and they don't seem to have had much in the way of damage, except kids have pushed bits into USB slots and microphone jacks, but that can happen to any other computer. I'd suggest putting them on the desk rather than underneath them though... I think one might have had someone trying to prise the front panel off, but it seems to still be intact though.

We have probably over 100 of these so far, mostly to replace RM Ones, and yes, we have had a couple of problems, but not really anything out of the ordinary. The odd dodgy stick of RAM, 1 faulty power supply, 1 dead motherboard and 1 dead hard drive so far, and all are currently out in heavy use. They aren't hugely noisy, and seem quieter than the old RMs that we have got rid of. The motherboards tend to be Asus or Gigabyte motherboards and the RAM is just generic value ram. Support wise, all seems to be fine, yes you do have to give them some diagnostics, and you do have to pay postage for sending stuff back, but they are willing to let you do things like change the power supply, RAM, Hard drives etc. For most networks, if you have a Windows site license, then for £170 for a base unit, there's not much wrong with that. Yes, the parts are entry level, but you aren't paying 3-400 for the same computer! Another plus for Zoostorm is that they provide you with a keyboard and mouse with it too. On the otherhand, the cases aren't the most robust in the world, and the thumb screws can be a lot easier to get into than most schools would like. After a fair bit of discussion we have also replaced out workhorses to new Zoostorm units too, so if in a couple of months I start moaning then you know that they dont cope well with really heavy use. However under normal use, the oldest machines are now over a year old and still working nice and smoothly.

we have a couple of Chromebooks at work, and use the guest account on there instead of using school accounts. We have been told that the management system for chromebooks isn't available in the UK a few weeks ago, and call centre staff aren't hugely clued up about them. One thing to think about is how you are going to use your proxies. On the guest account you have to tick a box every time you sign in, and i would think the same would be for every other user...

We have a load of zoostorms, good spec for the price, but you will get a couple that wont build or have some faults develop, but for £190 ex VAT for 6GB of ram, a 250 GB hard drive and a Pentium G840 processor, they aren't bad. We've had a couple of faults, mostly a dodgy stick of RAM, and hit and miss customer support, but only 1 has needed to be sent away for repairs. There's no OS license supplied, but that's not a huge issue if you have a site license. Can easily build to a RM CC4 network too, with the driver helpfully on the disk provided. Best bit is they also provide a free keyboard and mouse. Won't win any awards, but performance on the network seems quite good.