Well things are finally back to normal though the workload is still bit heavier than normal since the end of the year is drawing near. Today Ms. Dee's class was dressing up as historical figures and pretending to be wax figures that came to life and listed off their accomplishments if a button was pressed in a "live wax museum." I was asked to take pictures of this and ended up with nearly a hundred or so that I uploaded onto the Ms. Dee's computer for her to use.
Afterwards I set up two new dells in her class (after installing word since I had not done anything since the computers were formatted). Because she already had so many computers we needed a power strip, because we no longer had any spares all the IMacs in the lab had to be unplugged to retrieve one. Once she had her computer Ms. Womack needed one as well, at first it seemed as if I would be unable to get it up and running since there were no visible ethernet sockets that were open, then I realized there was one behind a box (I felt a bit idiotic then).
The last activity was one that wasn't really something that ITs are obligated to handle, one of the teacher claimed that you could not hear anything once you picked up the phone. As it turned out the volume of the phone was just very, very low. It's understandable that she did not realize this as most phones do not have a button that allows you to raise and lower volume as you please.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Last Two Weeks (30 & 31)
I suppose I was a bit overwhelmed by covering the work that's supposed to take place over weeks in a couple days so I have not written in my blog for a fair bit, now that things are back to normal I'm going to go back and recount some of the duties performed in the past two weeks.
I had to install OSX on 6 different IMacs and hook up some PC's to the domain one week which took a great deal of time when you consider all the classes coming in and out. The PCs, like the ones from the week before were a mess but I was able to get a few of them up and running with XP Pro.
During the second week there was not so much to do intially so I went around to each classroom asking if anyone had any computer problems. The result was that I spent the day fixing minor problems throughout the school. The most common problem was that someone had changed the default printer of the classrooms and so they were unable to print.
There were also a few computers missing the necessary programs for AR, the reason is still unknown and it's a bit odd as the computers had been able to run AR before. For whatever reason it was nigh impossible to install these programs, simply downloading the compacted version took an absurd amount of time. In the end I went back to the lab, downloaded the programs on a newer computer, placed them on a flash drive, took that to the classrooms, and installed the programs.
I had to install OSX on 6 different IMacs and hook up some PC's to the domain one week which took a great deal of time when you consider all the classes coming in and out. The PCs, like the ones from the week before were a mess but I was able to get a few of them up and running with XP Pro.
During the second week there was not so much to do intially so I went around to each classroom asking if anyone had any computer problems. The result was that I spent the day fixing minor problems throughout the school. The most common problem was that someone had changed the default printer of the classrooms and so they were unable to print.
There were also a few computers missing the necessary programs for AR, the reason is still unknown and it's a bit odd as the computers had been able to run AR before. For whatever reason it was nigh impossible to install these programs, simply downloading the compacted version took an absurd amount of time. In the end I went back to the lab, downloaded the programs on a newer computer, placed them on a flash drive, took that to the classrooms, and installed the programs.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Week 29 (late)
Well this is late for a couple reasons, blogger acting buggy, internet going down, etc.
Last Friday was the first day this year where I have been at Rancho alone (so to speak, I am the only IT there but by no means the only person). I took a look at the list of things to do and started by trying to fix four computers, a dell optiplex, a pentium 2, and pentium 3, and and an e-machine (with a pentium 4 processor). To set these all up I had to run an ethernet cord through the ceiling down to a table in the center of the lab.
As it turned out the e-machine was completely fried (when you plugged it in you could smell that there was a problem, I mean that literally). The P2 and P3 would start up and however I could not find a way to get a display on the monitors, I looked up the BIOS beep code and and found that for both of them the video card was either mis-adjusted or not plugged in correctly. The P3 was easy to fix you merely had to adjust the placement of the video card and then tighten the screws to make sure that it would not go out of place. The P2 on the other hand seemed to be warped in some way (indicating a problem with the motherboard). Since fixing the P2 was beyond me and it was a poor computer to start I abandoned it.
As for the Dell Optiplex, I didn't have time to go more in-depth however it appears that the cd-drive is not working properly as OS disks that work fine with other computers are unable to install on it.
Last Friday was the first day this year where I have been at Rancho alone (so to speak, I am the only IT there but by no means the only person). I took a look at the list of things to do and started by trying to fix four computers, a dell optiplex, a pentium 2, and pentium 3, and and an e-machine (with a pentium 4 processor). To set these all up I had to run an ethernet cord through the ceiling down to a table in the center of the lab.
As it turned out the e-machine was completely fried (when you plugged it in you could smell that there was a problem, I mean that literally). The P2 and P3 would start up and however I could not find a way to get a display on the monitors, I looked up the BIOS beep code and and found that for both of them the video card was either mis-adjusted or not plugged in correctly. The P3 was easy to fix you merely had to adjust the placement of the video card and then tighten the screws to make sure that it would not go out of place. The P2 on the other hand seemed to be warped in some way (indicating a problem with the motherboard). Since fixing the P2 was beyond me and it was a poor computer to start I abandoned it.
As for the Dell Optiplex, I didn't have time to go more in-depth however it appears that the cd-drive is not working properly as OS disks that work fine with other computers are unable to install on it.
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