I do not have "spares" of most of our desktops/laptops fleet. Management will not let me do that, they feel it is money sitting and being wasted. Whatever I do have in the IT storage room is old (what I consider crap) but I keep it so that if a system should go down I can get that person back up and running for the most part. We run Citrix here so most of what we do is installed there. I can get a junker system up and running in a few minutes with Citrix to cover while I have their system either fixed or replaced. I feel like we are headed for a disaster since most everything we have in use is out of warranty. A good portion of our systems are 5-6 years old now. All I can do is keep telling them who old it all is and to expect it to start failing. Maybe they will feel different when we have multiple failures in a short amount of time.
I do have a decent spare laptop that I can get use when a laptop goes down. At least mobile users can stay mobile. On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 8:50 AM, Jonathan Link <[email protected]>wrote: > I don't have extra machines. I do have machines that are out of warranty > and no longer in service that I can deploy to a user relatively quickly. If > you're regularly refreshing hardware (which is also something that you > should be doing) then having machines around becomes easier. > > On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 11:42 AM, John Aldrich < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Thanks... that's very good advice. We *have* been standardizing on desktop >> hardware, but still have a lot of "legacy" stuff (including some "legacy" >> laptops from the previous IT Manager who went to Walmart and bought >> whatever >> was on sale.) Also, it's hard to get management buy-in on having extra >> machines. :D But you raise a very good point. I'll have to start trying to >> move that way as we go forward. I never really looked at it from that >> perspective. >> >> Thank you. >> >> >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Sam Cayze [mailto:[email protected]] >> Sent: Monday, May 09, 2011 11:11 AM >> To: NT System Admin Issues >> Subject: RE: HP DV8000 laptop >> >> John, let me throw out a little process suggestion here: >> >> This is a business use laptop, right? Then it should (or MUST imo) have a >> warranty AND a spare identical machine avail for deployment. This is why >> it's important to have similar hardware deployed. >> >> Whenever a machine has a hardware issue, take the machine from the user, >> swap the hard drives, and have them working again in 5 minutes. Keep the >> user downtown to an absolute minimum; their time is valuable. >> >> You now have a broken PC on your desk that you can fix whenever you feel >> like it. Pinpoint the problem, call the vendor, say "Fan X is bad", and >> either they come fix it or you ship it out. >> >> For example, I just had a user complain about a video card issue. Walked >> to >> her desk with a new machine, swapped the drives... boom. She's back in >> business. 2 screws/quick update the inventory spreadsheet; maybe 5 >> minutes >> tops. >> A few days later in my spare time, I started a chat session with support, >> said "XX is happening, could be Mobo or Video Card, not sure. Have the >> tech >> bring both just in case". Next day, tech arrives, pinpoints and >> troubleshoots the issue, replaced the Mobo. Boom, now I have a good >> working >> spare avail for the next failure, and in the mean time I'm working on >> bigger >> issues. >> >> >> I realize this option might not exist at your company (yet), but it's what >> you should strive for. In the meantime, I'd suggest you hit the HP Forum >> for questions like this. It's a little more geared to questions like >> this. >> >> -Sam >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: John Aldrich [mailto:[email protected]] >> Sent: Monday, May 09, 2011 9:32 AM >> To: NT System Admin Issues >> Subject: RE: HP DV8000 laptop >> >> Yikes! I just looked at the procedure for removing the fan... gotta >> basically disassemble the whole freakin' laptop! I think I agree that it's >> time to send this out to a professional... and if they break it, well, >> they >> gotta fix it. :D >> >> >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Joseph L. Casale [mailto:[email protected]] >> Sent: Monday, May 09, 2011 10:15 AM >> To: NT System Admin Issues >> Subject: RE: HP DV8000 laptop >> >> >Anyone here have any experience with this specific laptop? >> >> Not that one specifically, but several HP's... I can say that as long as >> you >> have the correct tools and the manual (So you know where to expect snaps >> that you will otherwise break etc), it can be done. Bottom line is it >> takes >> me much longer than lowly tech that just does this every day. >> >> Send it out... >> >> >> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ >> <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ >> >> --- >> To manage subscriptions click here: >> http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ >> or send an email to [email protected] >> with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin >> >> >> >> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ >> <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ >> >> --- >> To manage subscriptions click here: >> http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ >> or send an email to [email protected] >> with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin >> >> >> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ >> ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ >> >> --- >> To manage subscriptions click here: >> http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ >> or send an email to [email protected] >> with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin >> >> >> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ >> ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ >> >> --- >> To manage subscriptions click here: >> http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ >> or send an email to [email protected] >> with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin >> > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > -- Thank you, Mike Sullivan ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
