I have a fleet of about 200 HP Chromebook 14 G5’s that I manage at my job (among other models of machines) and I’ve been having this common fault with the trackpads where they will stop working or stutter around. I thought it was an interesting problem so I’ve decided to document it a bit more in detail here.
School
Everything relating to stuff that happens at school
Rubber Band Cars STEM Project
About the project
Firefly – Starry Night Stop Motion
Firefly 2019
Fixing a Barcode Reader Trigger
A few years ago I bought a barcode reader for use in a school Library. It was a Cino 780BT, Bluetooth, nice base station, glorious battery. It was a really nice unit.
One slight issue: The trigger switch on them sucks. The first one we warrantied and got a replacement, the second one developed the same fault after a year or so of use too. The first time it happened the switch had come loose from the board, so I resoldered it back on (it’s a SMD switch, so there wasn’t much holding it on).
I contacted the company, they wanted me to send it back to them to fix (and charge me for it), the switch would be $20 + labour to fit it. I figured since it was out of warranty I’d give it a shot and see if I could replace it.
I couldn’t find a decent switch to fit (I tried to repurpose a switch from a mouse, but I couldn’t get it to fit right), so I used a switch from my Mechanical Keyboard sampler kit (it has 4 different types of switches to try out to see which one you like).
So: Little bit of soldering and some hot glue later, I have a working barcode reader again!
Read More to see some in progress pictures!
Changing the Novell Login Graphic
Tired of looking at the words Novell plastered all over the screens of your computer when they’re not logged in? This guide will show you how to change both the banner for the “Press Ctrl-Alt-Del” screen as well as the screen where you enter your login details.
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ClickView Review
UPDATE: This article is over 10 years old! ClickView has changed a lot since then, moved to an all online format with a completely different pricing structure. I’m leaving the article up for posterity, but you’ll have to find a different review to see what it’s like now.
We signed up for this service called ClickView which allows us to stream videos to any machine on the school network. The idea is quite good, they worry about the Copyright (as long as you get their videos) and all you have to do is install the software on your server, load in the videos and then install the client on all the machines you want to use it on.
It hasn’t all been without issues though, here’s my experiences with it:
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Headphones in Schools
We have many sets of headphones, one for every machine infact, that’s over 120 sets of headphones. Every day they cop a lot of abuse, from kids chewing the cables to the fluffy bits on the ears being destroyed.
When you’re looking for headphones to use in a school environment, there’s a lot of things you need to take into consideration, see below to find out what I’ve discovered from my investigations into headphones.
Acrobat Reader 9.2 Custom Install + School Reports
This installer is a customised installer for Acrobat Reader 9.2.
It has updates disabled, Acrobat.com features disabled, Customer Improvement thing disabled, Autoaccepts the EULA, unattended and very fast install and all installs through a single doubleclick.
Continue Reading to find out why I built it
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Novell Deploy Error D018
Here is a quick guide to fixing the error that occurs when you’re trying to open a NAL Object via Novell, the Error ID is D018.