DrBeaker

We've offered them to local schools etc and I've been told apparently nobody wants them. There's nothing wrong with them. Up until the past few months, they were still in full daily use by students in our IT suites. We've simply upgraded from 19" to 22" TFTs as part of some upgrades. I'll try to take some pictures and update the thread with them. Would you be able to collect? if it can be arranged? What sort of number? Again I'll need to get it all approved by the SBM but if they're funny about it I'll let you know.

Hi All, Knowing how cash-strapped most schools are in the UK - I thought I'd see if anyone was interested in this. We have some TFTs that we don't really need anymore due to upgrades. They are mostly the same type of monitor - silver HannsG HW191D I believe.(https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000GYHS6Y/?coliid=I1TD89D29666W3&colid=3IVYZUA6JR74O&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it) There's probaly at least 30-40x maybe. Not sure of exact numbers yet, most are in used good condition. I've got rid of any that have been damaged or scratched etc. But are any schools in need of some monitors? Would anybody be interested in a collection of them? We're in the West Midlands. I'd have to speak with our School Business Manager for their decision, but I'd imagine they might be free. Seems a shame for them to be sitting there gathering dust otherwise.

We used to have a similar RM device like that one - the RM equivalent of the "Panasonic Toughbook". It was a similar spec I believe but it wasn't used much in the latter years expect in dire emergencies due to it's spec. Fantastic build quality and ruggedness though I agree.

That CPU was launched in Q3'10 according to https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/50176/intel-pentium-processor-p6200-3m-cache-2-13-ghz.html. Can I ask what are the reasons behind trying to upgrade such an old laptop?

Good info, my new thing for the day. We disable hibernation, fast startup etc. We have WOL start, restart, shutdown and sleep is the only power mode we have enabled.

What about settings in the driver itself?

The pics are useful. If it cost £1000 when new that's roughly £111 a year at roughly a £10 a month - it's now costing more in labour, parts and time per hour than the device is now worth. The return isn't worth it for "production" use. As a personal challenge, if you've got the time - go for it. E.g. I've a UPS that is 17x years old and one that is 6x years old and both have failed (no surprise there). I'm simply going to request new units for both with an estimated lifespan of 5x years and maybe 2-3 battery swaps during that time. It's cheap insurance. Ours did about 5-6x years before we started to have this issue - we lucked out and got 3x I think changed under the extended warranty, after that it was swaps for brand new ones. However the image quality was already deteriorating on them despite new bulbs etc so I think they got their monies worth.

Ah-ha - version history!

I'm seeing it on the help still here? https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1066447?hl=en&ref_topic=2954345

Ditto there, no handover is NO FUN believe me. Talk about swimming against the tide! Can I come work for you?

Which will also knock out your Internet connection.

I've watched a few episodes, it's not that good IMHO. I've given it chance but it's not growing on me, it's just substantiating that image of gamers and geeks etc.

Who's asking? Electricians, PAT-testers, Head, Business Manager etc? What sort of servers? Physical, Hosts with VMs? Which ones - non-critical, critical etc? It can take anything from 10-mins to 2x hours to do a proper shutdown of servers and their services depending on what they're running. IMHO needs authorisation from IT/Head depending who's in charge of IT.

What I want to do versus what I actually get done are two different things

Yep, they just need something simple. I've used Movie Maker countless times to do quick and sometimes very complex videos. I still use it now, despite also using more advanced packages. I doubt many of us are going to be replacing video cameras anytime soon, so Movie Maker will probably be good for another 3-5x years at least doing WMV, MP4 formats etc. I've no need to do 4K video anytime soon. Movie Maker should be good for a while yet, As long as the next W10 update doesn't break it.

Yep and they can increase charges as much as they want or even shut the service down. To those who think this doesn't happen, see the below articles. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47810367 https://www.droid-life.com/2019/04/05/artist-hub-for-google-play-music-shuts-down-on-april-30/

Way too much of a minefield. It's bad enough with BYOD's that don't play ball with the network, security, filtering etc. Never mind kit I'm not sorry to see go. I remember one WEEE waste disposal company telling us the once if it's stuff like i3's, i5's it might have some value. I had to tell her the stuff we were chucking out was literally way past the end of it's useful life and pretty much falling apart by the time we got it - that is was basically zombie kit just waiting to be killed off.

Completely agree. Especially with unless you tell them the old kit they refuse to upgrade is going to impact on exam results. Again it can't just be me sick to the back teeth of being proactive and not being acknowledged for it, nor given any more budget as a result. Those cost savings and improvement should be recognised. In private sector and industry you used to get bonuses for that.

Which is fair enough, the teachers are there to teach, we're there to support - to a point. Those two are sort of intrinsically linked. In order for the teachers to teach, they need to listen to us on how IT stuff should or is best used. We need to listen to them as to what they want and we'll see how it could be made to happen - sometimes what they want is not always possible. I've worked with people who wanted Ritz-level service on Travelodge prices, simply not gonna happen. Then on the other hand we have support and teachers working together, then sometimes it's the 3rd party, exam board etc that causes the issues.

Good idea. If there's an issue with the encryption or they can't access it, I guess that is an IT issue. Not having any polices in plan FOR encryption of said work IMHO is a management issue, not IT technical.

Isn't a height-adjustable monitor part of a risk assessment now on desks etc? Surely it must be?

Got ya. We had one like that once - an Epson projector which had long outlived it's projected lifespan. When me and another tech did some investigation, it turns out because the teacher literally switched it on about once a week for 10x mins, then turned it off. Mystery solved.

Hang on a minute, this is the same department that "... is using 10 different IT systems to manage academies" https://www.tes.com/news/exclusive-dfe-using-10-different-it-systems-manage-academies This tech news is nothing new and really isn't something most techs haven't already been doing. They'll be saying "we recommend virtualisation of servers" next, only 10x years behind the times then

SLT normally due to "this is the way we've always done it"

How old is that projector though now? Tech-to-tech how can you justify the time and labour involved in fixing such an old bit of kit though?