DrBeaker

Is it something like this you're looking for? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403675649976 Otherwise it's a Dell repair or simply the device is now beyond economical repair (considering downtime, labour, costs, etc).

Congratulations to both you and your wife Dave! Got the best deal of your life right there! All the best

To date - the others haven't come back with an answer to me for "is this for work or on the side?" question I asked them. That tells what you need to know really.

Depends on your space and setup 22" Full HD is good enough or two if you have the space. I have some of the older Dell business ones I brought myself. Amazon have some good cheap monitor stands for them

YMMV but for us we're already severally stretched thin enough as it is with actual work for the schools. So there's simply no way AFAIC we could justify any time or resources spent on this request, as it doesn't benefit the school in any way. Only the teacher themselves. If we in IT started using work computers for personal financial gains via software we installed ourselves as IT, I'm sure there'd rightly be complaints from the schools. Don't mean to sound harsh at all, but they (teachers) can't have it all their ways all the time.

Does seem an easy cop-out for AQA to just say "contact your IT department". AFAIC for us - the laptop is to be provided whilst you are working for the school for school roles. As they aren't working for the school, in that capacity, we have no mandate or requirements to install the software as it does not benefit the school. A teacher has admitted today this is a job on the side for extra money and whilst I do see both sides of the request - the reality is we simply HAVE to draw the line somewhere as IT support. The generally higher wages of teachers compared to support staff, means if they want to do this, they can more easily purchase a device out of their own pocket to do so.

All, If this https://www.aqa.org.uk/information-for-examiners-and-moderators/tools-and-pc-requirements/emarker-2 is the one. It says here https://www.aqa.org.uk/information-for-examiners-and-moderators/payments "How we pay you", which to me implies they're doing this as supplemental income but using a school device which to me would be against school IT Acceptable use policy of said IT equipment. Just my 2 cents.

I'd recommend simply putting a dedicated one in each location. That's what I've done at every place. The cost of the clicker simply isn't worth my time and solved a big headache. We have 3x dedicated locations/clickers for those areas and if staff lose them I simply charge them for another one.

Should be a ticket and ALWAYS a ticket for it Opened on request. Closed when equipment returned. Depending on the equipment if it's not returned, I'l lock it out or disable accounts etc.

I just disable booting everything except HDD and PXE/LAN booting. We have passwords on the BIOS too. Can you check those options at all? If there is a need for USB booting - it's only ever going to be me doing it, even that's rare with PXE boot etc. I happily toggle it on/off again during the work if doing USB. Otherwise it comes back to the office with me to do where I can do it without the kit being messed with.

Hi, I'd like to standardise on the classroom TFT's a bit more and upgrade them. I'd prefer a 22" Full HD screen at Full HD of 1920 x 1080. Using VGA primarily and HDMI next, so we can 'future-proof' the monitors to a point when we upgrade screens etc. After something with a decent viewing angle as well. Most of our current ones work but simply need upgrading to a better standard as they're 1400 x 900 so an odd resolution. Between Dell, Iiyama and Acer at the £100 end I don't have a preference but after something reliable. Anybody have any recent experience with any particular models etc they've found meet their needs? Thanks

We had similar and still do if I'm being honest. I put some things in place which stopped the knock on the office door saying "can I have an account?" and not having a clue who they were. However I push it back to HR/Admin etc as it's their job. ESPECIALLY as ours is all provisioned via SIMs into Office 365 and everything. They add them to SIMs, they get provisoned, they make them a leaver, they get disabled. That pushes it back to HR to do their job.

In classroom areas we have a block on external dialling without the pin code. Would likely do the same with these couple of ones, but also need to physically secure them with some kind of lockbox so it's evident kids shouldn't access it. Only thing I've come across is electrical enclosures [emoji53]

Hi all, Anybody used any kind of enclosure for a VoIP Phone that's mounted to a wall? Already have the phones, it's an NEC VoIP phone DT920-series. We can either use a PoE injector or direct PoE. We need a case of some kind, secure enough so only 'authorised' (read staff with a key or the lock etc) can use it, not students. Just secure enough so they can't simply pick it up and dial, they have to open the case. Wall-mounted, so you can open the case, use the phone and close the case again. To be used in an area with a LOT of student traffic (the dining area is one of them) Struggling to find anything like this to be honest. Thanks

We have some RM Ecoquiets Core 2 Duos for eWaste soon. That's about it

Not AIO's but Stone i3-2nd gen SFF baseunits were some of the best most reliable brand I've ever worked with. We had 2x IT suites full of them and only every had a couple of failures. 1x was a CPU fan blade fractured and replaced under warranty. The other 1/2 were hardware failures out of warranty. Looked at the AIOs but did seem a bit more fragile compared to other brand who seemed more heavy duty. Went with some other SFF's in the end simply due to budget.

Thing is - surely this is a problem the government has created and just washed their hands off by the looks of it? That's my 2 cents. We're all now having to look for a tech solution, to a problem, which was never a school problem to start with - and raises the undervalued IT staff issue that's topical at the moment with a lot of IT pros by schools having to commit limited time and resources to find a solution?

How did you overcome this challenge though? I've never found a solution to it. What do you mean here? For years of houses like they had years ago?

We're not here to argue just to raise different viewpoints and experience and you know how text can be misunderstood.... My experience with site team quality varies immensely in how helpful they are towards other support staff.

Not trying to argue, It's a fact... Site team staff get paid higher than IT at some schools. Site security = their responsibility = as they manage (or should do) the site, so it's a risk with their job. Even with CCTV, someone could be hiding in a blind spot or a cupboard all night rendering the whole argument pointless. Security have to escort people out, do they argue about taking unnecessary risks? It's part of the job.

Exactly. They could be showing it to their Mrs or partner at home, whilst on the sofa and with some people I've worked with I had my suspicions about their ethics and morality. That's kind-of part of their job though - site security. That's a risk with the job - to a point. I know I've had people onsite at points who shouldn't have been there when challenged and it could have been nasty, especially being by myself and I'm only IT.

They might "do a Netflix" and cancel it after one series

I've taken disks apart and used the magnets on my whiteboard and to hold a stack of post-it notes on my Kanban board.

Might be easier just to get a data destruction company to collect and wipe them.

I bet a LOT of schools haven't even considered this with the routers....don't even know if the admin got ours back, that was down to them and SLT not IT. We know the HP laptops 4GB/128GB are essential scrap once kids break the keyboards. As the time and materials to replace them is more than the cost of the devices.