Changes from Last Year

Kenn's
Tech
Notes

19990903: Changes from Last Year

September/1999
Tech Note #3

Technicians familiar with the Windows 95 workstations installed school labs last year may notice some changes this year and may mistakenly believe they are setup errors. Please do not change these settings.

a. Network Card Driver: Intel 21041 based Ethernet Controller - We are still using the D-Link DE-530 combo card. However, we do not have a Windows 98 D-Link driver. While the Windows 95 driver for the DE-530 will work, it is not a Windows 98 certified driver. The Intel driver is fully functional and Windows 98 compliant.

b. The hard drives are now partitioned with FAT32. All core software was tested with this file system and no issues were found. FAT32 allows us to use the entire hard drive as one partition.

c. The CD-ROM drive letter is set to E:. This was done partially to match last year's labs, where FAT16 partitioning necessitated a C: and a D: partition, forcing the CD-ROM to E:, but it also has the benefit of allowing schools to add a second hard drive at a later date without messing up installed CD-ROM-based software and shortcuts to the CD-ROM.

d. Previously, power management had been disabled. This year we are using a simple power management scheme to extend hard drive life. We are using the "Always On" scheme with System Standby set to "Never", Turn off Monitor set to "Never", but with "Turn off Hard Disks" set to "After 2 hours". Put simply, power management is still essentially disabled, with the sole exception that the hard drives will spin down after two hours of inactivity. In practice, that will mean that hard drives in labs which are powered up 24 hours a day will get a rest overnight, but will run more or less constantly during the day. Additionally, a CMOS setting sets the functionality of the front power switch to "suspend", unless held for at least four seconds. If you wish to power down the system, choose "shut down" from the menu. And remember, these are ATX footprint motherboards. If you are opening the case to add or remove hardware, you must power off the system and switch off the power supply using the rear-mounted power switch as well.

e. In Internet Settings, the size of the Temporary Internet Files Folder is set to 1% of hard drive size (or about 41 MB). The Content advisor password was set to the 1999 Sysop password, and that function was turned off. E-mail in MSIE was set to HotMail so that students would not have access to browser-based e-mail, except for Division-based Web Messaging. (HotMail is blocked by the proxy.) Another note about Internet Settings. Because IE5 is used, techs will notice that the Internet Settings menu item is not available within Internet Explorer for locked users, even when the session is unlocked. To access those settings, you need to use the Internet Control Panel.

f. In the Keyboard Control Panel, under Language – French Canadian was added, the default language left set to English (United States), Switch Languages left set to "Left Alt+Shift" and "Enable indicator on taskbar".

g. In the Display Control Panel, video acceleration is reduced from Full to Basic. This fixes a problem with the flood fill tool in KidWorks2, a cosmetic "shadowing" problem in HyperStudio, and a few other minor glitches.

h. ASUS Probe, a hardware monitoring utility was installed. If the CPU fan stops or the temperature gets too high, a warning message will appear. Power supply voltages are also monitored. This software should help us extend the life of the workstations and alert schools to potentially damaging lab environments.



DISCLAIMER: This document is intended for the reference of computer support personnel within Winnipeg School Division No. 1. There is no warranty or liability if procedures recommended here have an adverse affect on any systems. Use them at your own risk. Any trademarks mentioned are the property of their owners, none of whom have certified any information provided here. Opinions expressed here are personal only and do not represent the policy of Winnipeg School Division No. 1 or any other organization anywhere.


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2001 June 9


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