NviGate_Systems

I recently picked up a bargain on eBay for some older Wyse ZX0 (Z90D7) Thin Clients. I got them for roughly $50 a piece. They each have a sticker that says Windows 7 Embedded Standard. I have downloaded Dell/Wyse Image USB utility and flashed the current image, and Windows reports it is Activated. Now, the scripts as part of the Wyse WES7 install disable the Administrator account, create a limited user and apply a few security policies. I've disabled that for the moment to poke around. As far as licensing goes, I assume these units would have shipped with a WES7 license embedded. If I disabled the lockdown and enabled regular user accounts, could these machines be used as "desktops" and not thin clients without breaking the EULA? I'm not familiar with this area of licensing. Keep in mind these would eventually go to clients, so before I go any further, I just want to get the facts. I do have Windows 7 Pro licenses I can easily assign to the machines, but, if WES7 is legit and no toes are stepped on, why pay for more? Thanks everyone!

Batteries (specifically Lithium/Lithium Polymer) have a protection circuit which kicks in when the battery has been drained below capacity. In rare cases this can result in a battery that is hard locked and will need to be replaced. (Only the manufacturer can reset the battery) This works as a protection as Lithium batteries have a very specific working range and they don't like going beyond that. Some tips: Always ensure you are using Genuine Apple chargers and cables. Tests have confirmed that many third party chargers (other than those that are Apple Certified) can damage devices slowly simply because the power circuits are poorly designed and expose your device to risk. (There is a awesome You Tube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/bigclivedotcom where Clive shows what's really in these devices especially the cheap knock offs.) If you notice the cable starting to fray/Split (30 Pin) or kink/Bubble (Lightning) replace these as soon as possible. Always use the correct charger that shipped with the unit. iPad Mini's use the same size charger as iPhones but be sure to check the rating. iPads use larger 10W chargers. Don't let the device charge overnight unattended. This will stress the battery and cause the unit to continually re-charge the top 95-99% of the battery. (Note recent firmware updates may have changed this behaviour, I have not checked) Some newer units may have firmware that prevents this, but this is a common mistake in charging units. Most newer devices now issue an audible alert to unplug once the battery is full to keep battery healthier. Apple even has a KB regarding Mac Books that stay at 95% - 99% battery level while plugged in, this is a protection to prevent over charging and extend battery life.

The tempered glass is like a screen protector, most techy shops have 'em or buy like 500 - 1000 from china for uber cheap.

For protection, you can also get Tempered Glass for the Surface Pro screen if you plan on not getting coverage, as it does help mitigate damage. Smashed screens is the #1 tablet killer. That and water/liquid. Kinda a tie.

That or a bad PSU. Depending on brand, there were a few dodgy ones out there, caps and all.

Therein lies the problem, a few years ago I would say Lenovo T400 Series or HP Elite/Pro however, even the big names have been cutting back on quality. ASUS used to offer 3 year warranty on select laptops and they were built well, even had drainage for liquid spills. However, fast forward a few years and now those units are 1 year only. Lenovo still has good offerings but you have to check the warranty. There are Carbon X1 units that have 3 Year Warranty, and others that have 1 Year. So the landscape for units has changed. Acer Travelmates used to be business class hardware with removable batteries and decent body design using a much better material than ABS. I can't think of the name of it ATM, but it had a darker, rougher feel to the chassis than ABS does. Now, the Travelmate series is nothing more than a Aspire rebrand with non removable battery, very difficult RAM/HDD Upgrades (think teardown). Yes it's got a 2 Year Warranty, but that really doesn't cover the sudden shift in design and quality. Dell uses chip technology in AC Adapters/Battery to identify genuine Dell Products, so obtaining third party replacements can be a fruitless endeavour. Note not all products have this, but the majority I've seen has it, and using a generic charger often shows the dreaded message that your adapter may not allow you to do "blah blah blah" until you go into BIOS and disable the warning messages. Right now for clients I am always having them look at what service options the machines come with. Lenovo has units that ship with 3 Year on site service. Though, this may vary from region to region. HP still has some good offerings but I always encourage clients to supplement warranty and coverage using HP Care Packs. I use to work for Best Buy and it always amazed me the garbage people purchased retail for schools and businesses! If you must buy retail, make sure you research warranty programs from the OEM/Vendor, don't get warranty from a third party. As an example, Best Buy would always claim "physical damage, not covered" for HP M6 under extended warranty, but exact same symptom units sent to HP were repaired no questions asked. Many times OEM's have "internal recalls" where if a known issue is found, it's replaced without issue. But these recalls are not public awareness like public recalls when safety organizations are involved. That's the beauty of having a service term with an OEM, it will catch those ugly issues. As an example, Toshiba often submits errata information about models to ASP Support pages. Same goes for Apple, there are many Apple TS documents which outline replacements for items that are not under any specific repair program. As a general rule, I avoid AMD, and stick to Intel. Same applies to GPU, stick to Intel. If you have users that need more power, you can research a unit for them, but most faculty members won't ever use the power of an AMD or Nvidia GPU. If you can get business/corporate class laptops with 3 year support options, those are your best bet. Yes they are expensive, but that extra support will pay for itself. I haven't crunched numbers in a while, but I once did a cost savings analysis for a client where over a 3 year period there would be significant savings based on a 25% failure rate. That 25% failure rate is based on second/third year of operation costs such as HDD, AC, Battery and occasional full system. Plus each failure has associated labour costs which have to be factored into your annual budget. If you do decide to buy retail, here are some tips to help: Always get a unit with user serviceable battery, HDD and RAM. If you are going to support users, you want quick access to these key areas. That's it for tonight, it's 2AM and 7:30 comes really early lol.

I've been in the industry for quite a few years and have noticed some trends and thought I would share them, if you have something to add, please share. Note that some of these flaws may apply only to consumer, others apply to both, but in today's market the lines can be thin when it comes to purchasing equipment that serves the educational markets. Some observations in recent years (based on units returned for service) AMD, higher temps and if vendor's design is bad, leads to early death due to SB/NB failure (Mainly HP Consumer G Series ) Typically these units only have a thin aluminum extrusion over the secondary AMD chip which reaches tempatures hot enough to burn your finger if kept there. The chip is located under the palmrest. 2 in 1 detachable units first point of failure will be docking pins/PCB (Acer's melted) Acer Switch 10's had an issue with PCB short circuit and would render dock dead. 2 in 1 detachable units are top heavy meaning they often fall over backwards Basically, the keyboards are so light they don't have the weight to stabilize the unit if you open it farther back as far as the hinges allow you. Tablets tend to be very picky about battery levels and can often drain and no longer charge unless reset Acer Switch Series, often the battery will discharge to a point where it won't turn on. You have to reset the power circuit and let it charge slowly. Power + Vol Up 30 seconds Ultrabooks that use epoxy for LCD construction (Samsung) can fail if epoxy bond weakens or simply never bonded properly, no screws to tighten Have had many a Samsung Ultrabook where the LCD is coming apart from the frame. It's all held in by adhesives. So unlike other units there is no screws to tighten or even if you wanted to replace the plastics you can't as removing the LCD would damage it. Ultrabooks and Thin n' Light with hinges (HP) often have hinge failure where the hinge rips right through the lower chassis HP is famous for this. Very common on M Series, the hinges start to fail, often the hinges "jump" as you open/close. Eventually it will rip through the chassis. Not pretty. 320GB, 640GB, 750GB hard disks have high failure rates, especially 640GB Acer had many problems with 640GB drives. It's rare to see a 640GB drive that isn't failing. Toshiba laptops suffer from poor DC Jack construction, held only by plastic and once broken jack is recessed in chassis. You can fix this once the unit is taken apart, a splash of hot glue around the DC Jack so it doesn't move. Fixed for good. ASUS T Series 2 - 1 Broken wires in Micro USB Cable, prevents unit from charging/powering on. I'll edit as I go over my full list, but these I had at the top of my head. Feel free to add.

Most chromebooks are designed after existing laptop models (Consumer) as is the case with recent HP models. This is in part to save money on design and prefab. So unless a vendor has an option for a 4 year service warranty, chances are no. Chromebooks sadly are geared towards "consumer" which means once they have been consumed, they are thrown out and replaced. They have all sorts of support for educational markets but at the core, are still consumer. Now, having said that, Acer has excellent support options if you are registered to provide warranty, which is something you should definitely look into if you have enough of their gear. You don't get money for fixing things (unless your volume is high) but you do get access to complete BOM, parts lookup and pricing. So you could in theory replace your own batteries. Most chromebooks are fairly easy to get into, aprox. 8 screws under the book and carefully slip it open. Seeing as you would probably only do this in year 2 (depending on use) not a bad option depending on what price Acer gives you. But I would buy in advance, hate to fast forward in two years and have no stock.

Wrong wording lol. If you search for this page, it isn't linked to from any Microsoft site I've seen. So it's hiding in plain site just for those who have the URL. ;-)

Just as an update for folks, this link is not publicly available but here you go: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench This is a techbench version for offline upgrades. The current ISO that is offered is Build 1150 November from when I last downloaded.

UEFI has it's days. At work I'm the only one who fully understands UEFI and typically if a troublesome machine has any variant of UEFI and they can't make headway, they leave it for me. Also of note is that some consumer class PC's that ran Windows 7 shipped with a Hybrid UEFI, capable of running CSM but also wanting UEFI by default for Windows. For example on some HP's (Specifically later AIO's) if you install Windows in CSM mode it only works if you can invoke it from Boot Menu. If you use GPT/UEFI, it works properly. Windows 8 fixed many of the issues regarding UEFI, but 7 is still a mixed bag. Plus, it's only supported on SP1 in AMD64 images, not IA32. Also, if you want a diagnostic disc for this R50, I have the diagnostic ISO from Toshiba Canada, as I have ASP Access. Sadly I can't look up BOM for units in other regions but usually diagnostic discs will work for other regions. It's 38MB, easily uploaded.

I'm in Canada so price/warranty is a little different here, but Acer makes some decent laptops and you should be able to get extra warranty for cheap. Here in Canada, Acer sells an extra 2 years for about $200.00 CDN, so if you think about three years of coverage it can save you big. Plus, this coverage is with Acer not some third party that insists on not replacing things that Acer would normally cover. I think Acer also does business as Gateway, eMachines and Packard Bell in the EU. Just make sure you have regular scheduled backups as I've seen so many drives fail that you would hate to lose info and end up spending big for recovery. I'm also glad you are not buying and AMD laptop.

I've been wanting to implement IP KVM into our network for a while, so I located a steal of a deal on an older Avocent IP KVM. With two Cat5 Dongles it cost us $105.00. I know it's older technology, but we just don't have the budget to fork out the massive thousands of dollars to get a modern equivalent. What I'm curious if anyone here has experience with these IP KVM's and if they have ever managed to daisy chain them with a traditional KVM, as that would really make the investment shine. We are going to install the system as a test by having two workstations hooked up, plus our DHCP PXE Server which has remote access enabled, to allow me to Remote in using TeamViewer so I don't need to bother with the hassle of configuring the SonicWall to allow direct connections. Being able to remotely go into the BIOS is a step I really am going to enjoy. The only limitation as far as BIOS support is mobile units that have UEFI, but I'm sure I can figure something out. Not having to come in on my day off will be a plus as I can tell staff to just hook the machine to the Avocent and i'll handle it remotely. Ah, the good life... ;-)

Does this error happen after it finishes copying files and is preparing to restart the machine? If so, you may have a corrupt BCD Store. I had this issue on a few machines and rebuilding the BCD Store finally got Windows 10 working.

There will be PC's in schools that may have shipped with Windows 7 / 8 and for those small numbers, it will be worthwhile to upgrade to 10 even if it does take a few goes around the merry go round. Examples will be Tablets and other one off purchases. For most though who have VL/SA they can simply re-image with VL/SA media and move on. If you have roaming profiles stored on servers your job is actually easier because you can deploy 10 and when a user logs in, everything is there. True there will be some network rumblings for large profiles, but once the initial cache is complete, no biggie. The only drawback from what I can see consumer wise is that let's say a computer isn't working all that well. The amount of effort to either try the upgrade (and fail) or backup, reset, updates and update to 10, create media so you can fresh install later. That's allot of hours of work. Microsoft should just send everyone a USB key, they are like $2 from China and like $1 stamp. Microsoft could do worse.

Just for kicks, check in Windows 8 what format the disk is in and partition layout in Disk Manager. Windows 7 plays nice with many things but some things just knock it off balance. Also I do know many drives these days are getting firmware updates, so it's worth checking if there is a firmware update too. Won't be the last time a firmware upgrade fixed wacky behavior.

You can try using Disk Part from the WinRE image, if the OS won't allow you. Using an Administrative Command Prompt type: shutdown /r /o /f /t 00 That will reboot into Advanced Startup where you can select Troubleshooting, Advanced then Command Prompt. It may prompt for a password.