Intro'd the online labs that we will be doing our question sets on. For those without a book you need to get one asap. There is also a pdf version of the book when you login to the website. Kinda nice esp if you don't want to always carry the book with you.
We then took a little stroll over the the lab and had a lengthy quiz on the parts of a motherboard. Looks like there better be some studying going on. Lots of missed answers and blanks.
To wrap things up we checked out the items I carry in my tool kit. You do not have to buy anything for this class. That was not what the show and tell was for. The first chapter in the book covers tools and I was just elaborating on what I use all the time.
No homework for the weekend. For those with a itlabs login you might want to start in on answering some online questions. Don't forget your articles.
Met and intro'd the course. We managed to go over the syllabus, scorchedsilicon, and take a little pre-test to see what your skill level might be. For next time have your 2 daily articles ready. Just email them to me.
Finished up any remains of the last chapter in the book. Worked on several machines that were left over from the computer tune up day.We will have the exam for the last chapters on Thursday.
Went over the majority of the last chapter in the book. We took apart several printers to check out their inner workings. Then checked out a few youtube videos by Lexmark to see animations of how the entire laser printing process works. To wrap up we downloaded several files that we need for Free Computer Tune Up Day. See you guys Thursday bright and early.
Great lab day today! We managed to get the entire room cleaned and organized for next week. Not only that but we also fixed 5 broken computers in the process! Sweet! If we would have had one more power supply (on its way back) and a couple of sticks of ram (I'll steal them from somewhere) We could have gotten another machine up and running. We managed to pull off in 2 hours what I've been trying to do all semester. Good job guys. We will pull apart some printers on tues and start talking about what will go on during the clean up day. Have a nice weekend.
Yeah today's exciting lecture was brought to you by the letter L. L is for laptop. All of chapter 11 focused on laptops and working on them. Just as with desktops the care and maintenance is approximately the same. There are a few extras to be concerned about but nothing common sense won't take care of. You do need to be aware of how to track down and use a service manual for them as laptops can be a bear to take apart and put back together correctly. We will spend time in the lab junking some printers and performing a general clean up for next week's tune up day.
After having a hunk of cake we took a little mini field trip over to the old building and checked out the wiring closet behind the elevator. Lots of cool stuff in there. What was much cooler was going into the server room and checking out the equipment there. Lots O' expensive toys in that room!
We came back and worked our way through the majority of chapter 9 and then headed over to the lab to install some wireless networking cards and usb nics. We will finish that lab out when Thursday rolls around.
I think my days are beginning to run together. I can't remember if we watched the second video in the Nerds series today or on tues. It doesn't really matter. I just know we watched it and then spent the rest of the class talking about chapter 9. Although long it it probably the easiest chapter in the book. I wrote some questions on the board for you guys to get done over the weekend. Click the pic for a larger version.
Chapter 8 focused on I/O devices and trouble shooting. We had gone over the RAID info previously with the hard drive chapter. We spent a little time in the lab taking things like a LCD and a CRT apart to check out the inner workings. You guys should by now have emailed to me your answers for the pc builds we went over in class the other day. Make sure your online question sets are up to snuff.
Not much going on today. We spent the first hour of class finishing up the pc budget shopping then we went on to talk about part of chapter 8. Have online question sets up through chapter 8 done by 4/6.
Wow! In nearly 8 years I don't believe I've ever had a class with just one student. I think my record was 2 which I've hit several times, but never just one. So Aaron and I went over RAID and what each level consists of. We then took the time to install an IDE controller card and setup several RAID senerios, including using windows to create a dynamic disk. There won't be any shopping work over this weekend so you guys can have more time to study for the exam on Tues. I'll have the study guide up shortly. Man....today was a good lecture to. For those that missed it was really important info that I just won't have time to go back over.
After a quick pit stop for some free pizza I lectured on chapter 7. Lecture seems so much better with food.The chapter was on hard drives and a little on floppy disks and drives. We will be going over RAID in the next class and if there is time left over I hopefully with give you guys another lab assignment on shopping for parts. I think we are finally at a point where you can pick the correct parts to order, to get a machine up and running. There will be an exam on chapters 4-6 on Tues 3/20. I'll post a study guide asap. By Tues have your online question up through 6 done.
Man it was quiet today. Only 2 people showed up again. I wish we could get the regulars + the sporadics to show up all in one day. Then the 4 people that I actually know could be called a class! Anyhoo we finished up the 1st Nerds video and then went over the chapter on RAM. It is the shortest chapter in the book being only 22 pages in length. No lab today. Get your question sets worked on up through the RAM chapter over spring break.
Small class today with only 2 guys showing up. That's ok. We still managed to get though chapter 5 and check out cpu-z, gpu-zm and hardware monitor. We finished up the day by watching the majority of the first Triumph of the Nerds videos. We will have to get to SiSoft Sandra and the end of the video on Thursday since we ran low on time. BTW the video below is just a little reminder of the smell that was going on out in the hallway this afternoon.
Great lab day today! We managed to get the entire room cleaned and organized for next week. Not only that but we also fixed 5 broken computers in the process! Sweet! If we would have had one more power supply (on its way back) and a couple of sticks of ram (I'll steal them from somewhere) We could have gotten another machine up and running. We managed to pull off in 2 hours what I've been trying to do all semester. Good job guys. We will pull apart some printers on tues and start talking about what will go on during the clean up day. Have a nice weekend. 
Yeah today's exciting lecture was brought to you by the letter L. L is for laptop. All of chapter 11 focused on laptops and working on them. Just as with desktops the care and maintenance is approximately the same. There are a few extras to be concerned about but nothing common sense won't take care of. You do need to be aware of how to track down and use a service manual for them as laptops can be a bear to take apart and put back together correctly. We will spend time in the lab junking some printers and performing a general clean up for next week's tune up day. 
After having a hunk of cake we took a little mini field trip over to the old building and checked out the wiring closet behind the elevator. Lots of cool stuff in there. What was much cooler was going into the server room and checking out the equipment there. Lots O' expensive toys in that room!
