wanted/needed: another (reliable) office computer

Shannon · **Posted:** Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:03 am

We could really do with another computer in the office. It doesn't need to be fancy. It just needs to do email, word processing and the books. It does need to be extremely reliable.

We are losing a lot of good admin juice, wasting time, hoping to get on a computer. It would be good for productivity and admin happiness to get this sorted quickly. If there aren't any solutions for cobbling something together quickly, I would propose we spend a bit of money and get set up.

Can anyone help?

mirja · **Joined:** Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:23 pm **Posts:** 820

i have a pc, dell, it's fine but just not needed,
i don't know much about it ( was my sons) but i can bring it in.
theres nothing wrong with it so emails etc should be absolutely no hassle,
but it has no monitor at the moment.

needed?

martinmckenna · **Posted:** Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:41 pm

maybe ,

am going to try and zap ubuntu on the office pc as has no present use.

martin

martinmckenna · **Posted:** Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:04 pm

I tend to think mirja bring it in . the other comp in the office is netbook atom power thing, which I suspect is is pretty slow.

martin

mirja · **Joined:** Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:23 pm **Posts:** 820

will drop by tonight

chombee · **Joined:** Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:01 pm **Posts:** 1325

I'll come in tomorrow morning and if no one has done it already I'll ty to install Ubuntu on the Acer. If the Dell from Mirja is there I can try installing Ubuntu on that at the same time as well.

chombee · **Joined:** Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:01 pm **Posts:** 1325

Installed Ubuntu on the dell from Mirja today, it's setup in the office. Thanks Mirja!

Unfortunately I couldn't get the acer working yet. I wiped windows from it but then the ubuntu installer kept crashing, so now it has nothing on it. I backed up the files that were on it first, even though everyone seems to think they're unimportant. I'll come in some time and try again to install Ubuntu on it, but I don't think it's urgent as the office has two computers now and there isn't a third keyboard, mouse or screen anyway.

I also got Shannon and Catalina to make dropbox accounts and set them up on the office computers. So they've now got their files such as the EVS files backed up, shared between the two of them, synced and available on both office computers and their own laptops or from any computer via the dropbox website. Very useful.

Other people who have important forest computer files -- Chris, Martin, and I don't know who else -- you need to get on top of the dropbox, make yourself an account, set it up on the office computers, share your files with others on dropbox. I can walk you through this, will take about 15 mins.

swithun · **Joined:** Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:24 am **Posts:** 2451

Can I have the Acer nettop back, if it doesn't have Windows on it? I think this model has a buggy BIOS, which Linux doesn't like.

chombee · **Joined:** Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:01 pm **Posts:** 1325

It booted the ubuntu installer and installed the base system just fine, then kept crashing on installing the rest. I think my USB drive, not the computer, might have been the problem.

But yeah, I don't see why you shouldn't take it back right now, it's not in use.

We have two working desktop PCs in the office now ... It wouldn't hurt to have one or two spares stashed away and ready to go somewhere too.

swithun · **Joined:** Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:24 am **Posts:** 2451

If you want another go at installing Ubuntu, then that is OK. My parents got one of these Acer bad boys (on my recommendation, after I got this one for the office), and they had trouble when they put Ubuntu on it. It was freezing a while after booting - there would be a nasty hard disk noise, and then they would be stuck. Does that sound like your experience?

I had the same sort of trouble with my Samsung N130 netbook, but then a kernel upgrade came out, and it had a patch to work around this non-ACPI crap which would put the disk into power saving mode.

I half wanted to get my parents' box for the challenge, but they managed to get it returned. My plan was to try a newer kernel (was it 10.4 you were installing?) and if that failed, take out the hard disk, use a USB stick for the OS disk and have an external hard disk for extra storage.

chombee · **Joined:** Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:01 pm **Posts:** 1325

That could possibly be what happened to me, yeah. The installer kept getting so far and then just giving up.

I think you should take it away, but we should look out for one or two more PCs that we can have for spares. The minimum spec we're interested in is 1GHz CPU and 1GB RAM, and in good condition.

It was 10.04.2 I was installing yeah.

martinmckenna · **Posted:** Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:04 pm

there is also a nice hp 1280 x 1024" flatscreen monitor on balconies that is ours that we could use.

martin

chris · **Posted:** Fri Mar 04, 2011 1:02 pm

lettuce yooz eet.

Catalina · **Joined:** Thu Mar 04, 2010 2:39 pm **Posts:** 445

There seems to be a problem with the new computer, aka chewbacka. It doesn't crash just when attempting to switch user, it does it randomly as well. I've worked on it all day yesterday and it crashed about 3 times while I was working on a document or writing an email.

It is great to have it so even if there is nothing to be done to fix it, then just be aware of that and constantly save your work while on it!

C xx

mirja · **Joined:** Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:23 pm **Posts:** 820

is chewbacka the dell i brought in?
if so, i will ask my system manager for some additional info.

chombee · **Joined:** Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:01 pm **Posts:** 1325

Running a memory test on it...

System manager?

mirja · **Joined:** Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:23 pm **Posts:** 820

eh my familial 'systems manager'...however, he intimates it's not a problem with the hardware, but "you use ubuntu, you got to live with it..." ...just meaning, i translate, that we did not experience any crashings so the problem's likely solvable.

chombee · **Joined:** Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:01 pm **Posts:** 1325

I was running memtest on this computer overnight, but when I came in today to see the results it was turned off. Did someone turn it off? I'm trying the test overnight again tonight.

I'll try to run more hardware tests on it over the next few days, if I find the problem maybe the part can be replaced. If I don't find anything then we'll keep using it and see whether or not the crash still happens. I've replaced the monitor, that might fix it if the problem was a broken monitor. I've also updated the software, so if it was a software problem that might have fixed it.

The problem Catalina described (now and then the screen just suddenly goes blank for no apparent reason) sounds likely to be a hardware thing to me.

ChaoticReality · **Posted:** Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:33 pm

I got a text from an unknown number at 5:30 asking about what was running on the computer. I replied it wasn't naything to do with me and to talk to you. Beyond that, I know nothing, sorry.

Forest BB

wanted/needed: another (reliable) office computer

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