Week 14

Monday was my last day with the Help Desk. Scott and I went to get some Desktop computers from the library and then headed back to the Help Desk. Scott told me that they were going to put a ghost image on them and were going to start working on those computers to have them ready for during the summer classes. Then, Faith showed me a computer which the sound card doesn’t work. She showed me how to check the sound to see if it really wasn’t working. Then she told me that for these types of computers, the sound card is built into the motherboard, meaning that the whole motherboard had to be replaced. She then opened the tower of the desktop so I could see where everything went, and then she gave me a motherboard so I could replace the one it currently had. I looked at everything once more, tried to remember where everything was connected, and started disconnecting things one by one. Finally I had everything disconnected and off the old motherboard. I took the old motherboard off, and then put the new one. This was the easy part, now I had to put everything back together. Before I connected anything back, I made sure to put the CPU back, I remembered Ryan had showed me how to do this on Friday. Then I started connecting things, but towards the end I got confused with two of the cables so I connected them where I thought they went. Faith came to see how I did, and I told her about the two cables. After looking she told me that everything was connected in the right place, except for the one cable, which happened to be the power cable. She showed me where I had to connect it, and then we started it up to make sure it worked. It started up fine, and then we checked the sound once more to make sure that it was working, which it was. After that, they could not find anything else for me to do, so I left at 10:30 in the morning.

Week 13

Monday was yet another slow day. It seems like things are slowing down even more as the end of the school year approaches. Most of the projects that the Help Desk has are mainly to work on when everyone leaves to go home. When I got to the Help Desk, I got to go with Scott to set up an Internet Access Point in a conference room in the Graduate Offices in Loyola. When we got there, they told us that it was needed because they were going to have a lot of meetings that required laptops, and it would be much easier to have wireless than to try to connect everyone with many Ethernet cables. We placed the Wireless Access Point, and saw that they already had an Ethernet cable in the conference room. Therefore, we connected it, and then checked through a laptop to see if it was working. When we were trying many times to connect to the internet, it wouldn’t. We then checked the connections and tried again, but it would still not connect to the internet. After trying several times, we changed the Ethernet cable and tried it once again. This time it did work. The Ethernet cable that they had was damaged. We then headed back to the Help Desk, and they were looking to see what else I could do. Meanwhile, I asked Ryan what had happened with the webcam and Skype. He told me that they tried using headsets, but even though it worked a little better, the sound was still distorted. They then decided to use Yahoo instead which worked perfectly for them. He also explained to me that Tom needed to use it as soon as possible, and that was the reason why they decided to use Yahoo instead. He decided however, that he would try figuring it out on his own time so that he would know what to do in the future. After looking for something else for me to do, Faith gave me some papers that needed to be scanned. When I was done scanning papers and was back at the Help Desk, they told me that there was nothing else for me to do, and so I left at 10:30 in the morning.

I couldn’t go on Wednesday because I had an appointment.

On Friday, Ryan and I went to see what was wrong with two of the computers in the psychology lab. They had received a complaint that students were having problems printing to those printers. When we got there, we checked the connections to the printers, we then turned the computers on, and finally printed out a test page. Then, we checked that the printers were being shared, and also that they were the default printers. There was nothing wrong with the one printer, the only thing was that the computer where the printer was connected needed to be turned on so that students can print out to that printer. The only thing that was wrong with the other printer was that it was not set as the default printer. Therefore, I set it as the default printer and it was working just fine. We then headed down to Loyola 3 to check the monitors again. The monitors kept getting some kind of shadow to everything on the screen, making it hard for people to see what they were working on. Robert informed us that he had spoken to someone from Gateway recently and the Gateway guy told him that those types of computers had a specific cable. These cables have a steadier end which is the one that is supposed to go to the monitor. Ryan and I were then checking to see if we could see the difference, and on the way tighten the cables to the monitors that were currently having problems. We could not tell which end was the steadier one, and Ryan decided that he needed Robert, if he knows, to show him what he means by steadier. We then headed back to the Help Desk where he told me that throughout any job that I hold, I should always keep a folder where I write notes to problems and solutions that I encounter. The reason for this is so that I can go back to it when I encounter the same problem, and also because there are times when I won’t remember every solution for problems. He then showed me a “Knowledge Folder” that the Help Desk has, where everyone of them write about problems and solutions that they have encountered so that they can all access it and also learn from their peers. Ryan the proceeded to show me a motherboard that they had ordered for a PC computer, this is all he could do, because the computer was being used at the moment, so he could not show me how to put it on. He did tell me, however, that it was something really simple, and that the only thing was that I would have to remember where all the connections go. After waiting to see if anything else came up, nothing did, so I left at 10:30 in the morning.

Week 12

On Monday, I was sent once again to place some of the orange cards with toner information on different printers. When I got back to the Help Desk, Ryan told me that he had been put in charge of the computer labs. He told me that they were going to set the printer with PCounter, which counts how many pages each person prints. Meaning that starting with the summer classes, each student will have a certain amount of pages that they can print. He showed me the PCounter software and how he could give each person a certain amount of pages that they can use throughout the semester. He showed me how he was putting PCounter on each printer and then he let me set up a printer with PCounter. Monday was a slow day, so there was nothing else that they could show me.

On Wednesday, Ryan and I headed to the library to pick up two laptops that needed to be fixed. Barbara, the librarian, told us that the problem with the one was that it wouldn’t turn on, and the battery in the other computer could not be put back in the computer for some reason. We went back to the Help Desk and started looking at the laptops. I was looking at the one with the battery problem and saw that one of the teeth where the battery would go into was bent. With a flathead screwdriver we fixed it, and then I turned it on to make sure that it was working properly. Then we turned on the other computer and it turned on without any problems, so I turned it off and we decided to try turning it on again later to make sure that it was working properly. We also took some laptops to update JStore Initiator. These laptops are the ones used by faculty and staff in the Media Classroom in the library, and so they needed to be updated. Also, four of these laptops are going to be used at the Registrars during registration week. Ryan showed me how to update JStore Initiator and other updates such as Windows, Internet Explorer, and others on one of the computers. Then I updated the rest of the computers until it was time for me to leave.

On Friday, Ryan and I took the fixed laptops back to library and picked up a tower from an older computer that was to be used to make a ghost copy to the Writing Center. While we were there, Barbara also showed us another laptop that had the same problem with the battery as one of those that we had fixed. Luckily, Ryan had a screw driver in his pocket and was able to fix the laptop. We then went to visit Joe, and Ryan told him about a problem that he was having with the PCounter. He logged in with his Immaculata account and it would not let him print, and this was a problem because the teachers would be able to print as many pages as they wanted. Joe told him that it would just bypass all of that and they would be able to print anyway, but when he tried printing a page with his Immaculata account, it would not let him. Therefore, they said if they didn’t find a solution before the Summer Classes begin, then they would give the faculty a big amount of pages so that they would not have that problem. Then we went to the Help Desk and took the four laptops, and headed to the Registrars Office to set them up and get them ready for Registration Week. When we got back to the Help Desk, we were both looking at the PCounter and were trying to figure out how to give a group, like the faculty, like a thousand pages. After looking at it, and trying many different things, we saw that the only way to add amount of pages to many people is to select everyone in that certain group and add pages. We also discovered that it would not add pages to a certain group. Unfortunately, it was time for me to leave and Ryan continued working on it.

Week 11

This week was a slow week. On Monday, Faith sent me to go to Rick’s office to pick up a web cam and a few toners that were needed for some printers. When I got back, I went with Ryan to put the web cam in the Tom’s computer at the Treasurer’s office. Ryan told me to download the software for the web cam while he watched to make sure I put it right. I downloaded the web cam and made sure that it was working. While we were playing around with it, Tom was explaining to us that he needed it to make some video conference calls. We then asked him what specific program he was going to use to make this video conference call. He said he wasn’t sure because he didn’t know what program the person at the other end was going to use. He tried calling him, but since he did not find him, he decided to let us know when he found out. We then headed back to the Help Desk and I sat around waiting for the phone to ring because Faith told me that when the phone rings I could pick it up. She explained to me how I was to answer the phone, then get the person’s information, and finally get the information about the problem that they are having. From there I was to see if I could help them out, and if I did not know what to do, I could ask Faith or one of them there to help me out. All the time I was there however, the phone did not ring, and then it was time for me to leave.

On Wednesday, Ryan and I went to Tom’s office again. He finally found out what program the person at the other end of the video conference call was going to use. When we got there he told us that they were going to use Skype. Ryan let me download Skype and set it up. To make sure that it was working properly, Ryan went to the Help Desk where he signed on to Skype, and then I called him through Skype. Once he picked up, I could not see him on the video window, but he could see me. We also tried the sound, but we could not hear each other, instead all we could hear were strange sounds. Fortunately we could still communicate with the chat option on Skype. I was checking the sound options and all of the options on Skype while Ryan checked his video on his end. He finally got the video to work, but we still could not hear each other. Ryan told me that the software from the web cam should have downloaded something for the sound, and that it should work. Instead, it was distorting the sound. We kept on trying to figure out what was distorting the sound, however, I could not help him find the problem because it was 11 AM and time for me to go.

Friday was a slow day. Faith sent me to place some orange cards that stated what kind of toner to order for each specific printer. I went to many different rooms in Loyola to put the cards on the printers. I also had to go and drop off a fixed laptop to the library. When I got back, only Robert and Faith were there, and they didn’t have much work for me. I then waited for the phone call to ring so I could pick it up. The one time that the phone rang, however, it was a phone call for Robert, so I didn’t get to do much. The time passed by and then it was time for me to go.

Week 10

On Monday, I got to shadow Joe. Before we began doing anything, he told me that there are so many things that he could not show or tell me because it’s a lot of confidential and password protected information. We began by him showing me the servers in the library and told me that they had so many because they each are for many different things. There were some for example that are specifically for Outlook, another is a web server, and another is just for the specific folders on the network such as public and mars. He also showed me how the room where the servers are is kept cool with air conditioner in order for them to not get hot since they must work continuously. He told me that checking the servers each morning is part of his daily routine to make sure that they are all working properly and also to make sure that the air conditioner is still working. He mentioned that sometimes the air conditioner would get ice, and so maintenance would have to come to fix it. After checking out the servers and making sure everything was fine, we headed back to his office. He told me that unfortunately there wasn’t anything else he could show or tell me because of what he had mentioned earlier, so he did some clerical work that he had, and I sat in his office until something would come up. Finally, he got an e-mail from Scott from the help desk telling him that there was a broken fan in one of the servers in Loyola. We headed over to check how bad it was. When he opened the door to where the servers are, we could hear the fan and even though it sounded really bad, he told me that it wasn’t that bad and he could leave it until that fan died. He explained to me that each switch has 4 fans, and when that one goes down, the other three can keep the switch working and cool enough. The switch would not be replaced until all fans went down and the switch could no longer be used. The reason for this is because it is not under warranty anymore, and because he would have to shut all of the switches above that one off so that he can put a new one in. After that, we went back to his office and he let me go early because there was nothing else we could do.

On Wednesday I was back at the Help Desk and working with Ryan. We worked a lot with Outlook again. First we went to help one of the sisters out with her e-mails. She was getting e-mails with a gray background and she wasn’t sure why that was happening. She wanted to have a white background again. We showed her that she had to go to tools, then options, and under the mail tab make sure that ‘none’ was selected for background. Ryan then sent her an e-mail to make sure the background was white again, but it didn’t work and was still coming up with a gray background. We looked at the options again and Ryan saw that at the top there was an option where we could choose if we wanted to receive the e-mails in an HTML format or rich text format. Ryan chose the rich text format and then sent an e-mail again. This time, she got the e-mail with a white background. He then told her that the e-mails that she had already gotten with the gray background were going to stay with the gray background because that was the way she received them. However, the e-mails that she would receive from that point on would have a white background. After that, we headed to the CLL offices to check on a printer. Someone was having a problem printing because every time she sent a document to the printer, it would show on her computer that it printed but nothing had printed out. When we got there, however, there wasn’t much we could do because she had not arrived to the office yet, and the computer that she uses is a laptop which she takes home with her. Ryan decided that we could still go to her office and see if we could see anything wrong with the printer. After checking it, we didn’t see anything wrong with it, but still checked that the connections were tight. Ryan left her a note so that she would call him when she got there to see if that did anything at all or if there was something wrong. After that, we headed to the Bruder Center. They have a new secretary and everyone at there wanted to share their calendar in Outlook with her. Ryan showed me how to go to the Calendar section in Outlook and from the person’s calendar put it to be shared to specific people. Then we had to go to the new secretary’s computer, and from there search the shared calendar and then add it. We then headed back to the Help Desk and it was time for me to go.

On Friday, Ryan showed me the inside of a computer again. He was taking out a hard drive from a computer so he could replace it with someone’s computer at the Registrar’s. The computer at the registrar is in good shape, but the sound card doesn’t work. Therefore, Ryan just replaced the computer and placed then let me put the hard drive from the registrar’s computer in the replacing computer. This computer is meant to be a temporary computer while gets a new motherboard to replace it with. The reason for this, he explained, is because her type of computer has a motherboard which has a sound card built in. he told me that he could just put a sound card in, but the problem with that is that the card is too big for that small computer box. We then headed back to the Help Desk and played around with the inside of the computer until 10 in the morning. Then I left because since there was no school, I had a meeting to go to.

Week 9

On Monday, I went to scan more papers including student’s requests to fix their computers. When I got back Ryan, Scott, and I went to Loyola to get more monitors and keyboards. They had enough towers in the Help Desk and were running out of monitors. They explained to me that this was the first year that they offered the computers that they no longer used to the faculty. Therefore, they hoped that next year, they will have a better technique in knowing what works and what doesn’t, and maybe they wont have to transport all of the computers to the help desk to get checked. When we got back, I helped Ryan put the monitors and keyboards away. By the time we were done, it was time for me to leave.

On Wednesday, Ryan and I went to bring even more monitors to the Help Desk. He told me that hopefully that will be the last of transporting monitors; because he thinks that the amount that we brought to the Help Desk today is all they need. When we got back to the Help Desk, we started checking that the monitors worked, until Ryan got a phone call from Brian in Financial Aid. We headed up to Financial Aid while he explained to me that Brian was having a problem sending out an e-mail because it kept telling him that it was too big. Ryan told me that it could be a problem of saving e-mails in Outlook and not in his Z Drive. When we got there, Brian explained to us that he was trying to send a 13 Kilobyte e-mail to first 8 staff members, and then to about 430 students. We told him about saving e-mails in the Z Drive, but he told us that this would not be possible because the e-mail that he was trying to use is a departmental e-mail. This meant that if he were to save e-mails to his Z Drive, only he would be able to see it. He then decided to go through the e-mails and erase whatever was not needed. He erased a lot of e-mails including the e-mails in the deleted folder and the sent folder. This made a lot of space, but when he tried sending the e-mails just to the 8 staff members, it did not go through. After looking at it for a while, Ryan thought that their e-mail did not have enough space to handle so many e-mails. He checked it again and tried sending the e-mails. He noticed that there would be one confirmation e-mail for each e-mail sent, then a return e-mail for each as well, and finally a copy of each e-mail in the sent folder. This meant that there were a lot of 13 Kilobyte e-mails in Outlook that took up space, and a reason why Brian could not send his e-mails. Ryan told Brian that his only option was to call Joe or Dave to request more space in their Outlook. Brian called Dave and told him his problem. Dave decided to see if he could give them more space and told him that he would get back to him. Ryan also talked to Dave and in their conversation Dave told him that he would try to give him more space if only at least for half an hour while Brian sent out his e-mails. Then in the meantime he would try to figure out how to give them more space. We were then waiting for Dave to call back in a few minutes so that Brian could e-mail it once again and see what would happen. By that time, however, it was already time for me to leave.

Week 8

On Monday, I went with Faith, Ryan, and Scott once again to get monitors, towers, keyboards, and mice to bring back to the Help Desk to get them ready to give to faculty members who have bought a computer. It was also to check what works and what doesn’t so they know the exact amount of computers left to sell. When we got back, Faith showed me a laptop where she was going to run different antivirus software programs to check for anything corrupt. She ran Norton first, and then she scanned the computer with Ad-Aware, which is a spyware program. She explained to me that she could not run both software programs at the same time because it confuses the programs and does not catch everything. While that was going on, Ryan got a phone call from someone in the Student Affairs office because there was something wrong with her Outlook Express. On our way there, he explained to me that he thought her problem was probably that she was saving all of her files in Outlook, which saves everything in an exchange server, which only gives each person a limited amount that they can use. Instead, people should save files and e-mails on their Z Drive because it gives them more space. He explained to me that in order to do this, he would have to create a Personal Folder in Outlook that saves things onto the Z Drive. When we got there however, we found out that her problem was a different one. The message that she kept getting was that she had no more space in her Z Drive, which Ryan said was not true. He said that this was the first time ever that he had seen that message. He therefore decided to create another Personal Folder for her in which she could keep the most recent e-mails. She would start working from this personal folder, and if she ever needed anything from the previous years, she could still access her first Personal Folder. Ryan explained to her that he had never seen that message and that they would go with that for now to see if it works and lets her save things onto that folder. In the meantime, he said he would talk to Joe about it and see if he knew anything about that problem and get back to her if the problem continued. While we were there, it seemed to be working fine by the time we left. When we got back, it was 11 and time for me to go.

On Wednesday, once again we transported monitors and different computer hardware back to the Help Desk. Since the weather was getting much better, they decided to get as much as possible so that they would have to do the fewest trips possible when it would get warmer. Therefore, it took us a while to get back to the Help Desk. When we got back and found a place to put everything, Ryan and I went to Sister Bruno’s office because she was having a problem with opening Acrobat Reader. She was trying to open a pdf file from a website, and a message kept coming up saying that she needed to install the add-ons. We then proceeded to install that for her, and then checked to see if the file opened up. It opened, but what sister wanted was another section in the book, which according to her should have opened as well but was not there. She showed us in her hard copy book the section that she wanted. We went to the French website to see if we could find that section, however after looking at all the possible links and all the possible files to download, we could not find it. We told sister that we thought the company did not put that section on the website. She thanked us, and told us that she was going to call the company and find out where she could get it from or they were going to put it eventually in the website.

On Friday, I went with Ryan to the Treasurer’s Office, because someone was having a problem with her computer. Whenever she tried opening a Microsoft Office File it would lag for a while before opening. Ryan explained to me how he was unsure about what to do because he had never come across that problem. He told me that he had talked to Joe earlier in the week and he gave him a list of possible things that he could do. We went over with the list and set ourselves to find out what would work. The first thing he did was to find all of the temp files that had nothing in them and deleted them. Then, he went onto Internet Explorer and changed the disk space given for the temporary files to 50 because temp files should not be given so much space. After that, he looked for a file called normal.dot that is needed by Microsoft Word in order to run properly. He was looking for this file to change its name. He explained to me that by doing this, Microsoft Office would create another one since it would not find it, and this way making sure that it uses a file that is not corrupt. After doing all of this, we restarted the computer and checked to see if the files would open without a big lag. We checked many files, but found that there was still a lag. Ryan then went to the last option that he had which was to turn off the antivirus software. We then opened files again to see if that worked, and we saw that there wasn’t much of a lag. He explained to me that he did not want to do this option because he is now leaving the computer without antivirus software. He told her to work with the computer as she usually did for about half an hour to an hour to see of that did in fact help the lag, and if it did, he would install a McAfee, a different antivirus software. By the time we left her office, it was 10 in the morning and time for me to leave.