<strong>Your Name:</strong> Ben Hyman
<strong>Today’s Date</strong>: 2008/5/1
Reporting on most recent week
<strong>Day(s) worked or described</strong>: T, Th
<strong>Total hours for week</strong>: 5.2
<strong>The School</strong>: Canter Middle
<strong>Kind of Work</strong>: Tech General
<strong>Main Report or Narrative</strong>: Again, Tuesday was almost comical ... almost.
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I spent several hours on only a few computers, in the teacher's lounge. After installing the latest Windows Updates on E3, which hadn't been able to get them by itself, I had some free time to check out RAM, which I decided to do in the teacher's lounge. Basically, all the RAM sticks <em><strong>worked</strong></em> in the Windows 98 computer (Dell GX1), a fact which I was very happy to discover. I then wanted to test them in a W2K computer, so I opened up the Dell GX400 that was set up in the teacher's lounge. Big mistake! This computer was using RDRAM and CRIMMs, which I'd never encountered before. This wasn't immediately apparent to me, so I'd taken out the RAM modules, and when I tried to put them back in, I kept getting POST beeps. I tried several configurations, including the (previously working) one that it had been before I started, but no dice. I figured that it was a lost cause for the day, so I went to get another computer to either set it up as a replacement, or perform the RAM testing that was my original intent. I believe the one I got had a bad graphics card; I ended up having to leave, and posted a sign saying that the teacher's lounge computer wasn't working.

Thursday, I got in, did some quick research, and found the proper configuration for the GX400 computer in the teacher's lounge. I was very happy to see that work! I cleaned the area up, and then was able to do some RAM testing. A number of modules worked in another Dell '98 computer (I didn't realize it was '98 until I had started it up), and then FINALLY, I discovered that some of them worked in a Dell W2K computer. I began to wonder if the issue was actually with the Compaq computers/motherboards - I don't remember, but those may have been the only computers experiencing problems. The first Compaq computer I tried had a bad graphics card which I couldn't fix offhand. The second one had some bad IDE cables/connections which I fixed only to discover that it was a Windows 98 computer. The third one I tried, which I needed Russ' screwdrivers to open (more on that later) ... worked! I have no idea what was up earlier, or why nearly all of these modules caused errors when I've tried them over the past several months. <strong>I tested every one again, and they all work.</strong> I'll figure out how to distribute them on Tuesday, but if this actually works, it'll be very exciting.

Also, I believe the tool kit, which I'd left at the school as I usually do (in either the teacher's lounge, or the computer lab inside which students aren't allowed unattended), was stolen. This was a bit disheartening to discover, but I'll stop by CUIP at some point and get another one.

<strong>2 Questions:</strong>
 
<em>Do we have an HD enclosure from which I can recover data from the CPUs that we're going to dispose of?

There's a computer picked up by the ADM website that's on the Shoesmith domain and still connected. Do you think it would be in the MDF room?</em>

<strong>Remaining issues</strong>
<ul>
<li>Network card in 207</li>
<li>Locating spare peripherals around the building</li>
<li>Ms. Spector's blog</li>
<li>Seeing how Ms. Milton is doing with her blog</li>
<li>Sending Ms. LaCour directions for the financial-record-keeping software.</li>
<li>Making sure the descriptions on computers C3, E1, and E5 are okay.</li>
<li>Finding display drivers for E5/others.</li>
<li>Possible memory issues in room 106</li>
<li>Editing the theme for this site. That may not be something I can do too well at Canter, or at least not without my laptop.</li>

</ul>

<strong>"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he next comes to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination."
-Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859)</strong>

-Ben Hyman