Windows Desktop Replacement #1.

A coworker and I got up bright and early today for a desktop replacement appointment on the other side of campus. Being the strong independent people that we are, we decided that we didn’t need a cart to carry the equipment and that we could just power-lift the two desktops and docks across the 1.5 mile distance. Regrettable decision, since the last part of the street that we needed to pass through was under construction (and it took many loops and detours to realize this). Upon arriving at the office that was essentially a literal hole in the wall . . . could not lift my arms.

After getting ourselves situated and starting on our respective tickets, coworker and I simultaneously had an “oh shit” moment. I didn’t have the correct cables (rookie mistake) and coworker did god-knows-what on his end that warranted a re-image that he didn’t have the files for. Cue a brisk walk to the office to pick up cables and another imaging drive.

Lesson learned: Dell OptiPlex 7060’s (which is our standard replacement computer) basically only support Display Port connections so if you’re trying to hook it up to an older monitor, you’re going to need adapters for those DVI/HDMI/VGA connections.

Also, additional fun fact: some DVI cables are special snowflakes and have a cute little quirk where the solitary pin on the end is literally 0.001mm longer than normal DVI cables and will absolutely refuse to fit in your DVI adapter.

This is why I have trust issues. Bring your own backup DVI cables.

The rest of the replacement process went smoothly, and we managed to resolve our tickets about half an hour early. We made the walk back to the office, and parted for lunch. Coworker was really excited to try a Banh Mi.

Windows Desktop Replacement #2.

After a brief lunch break which consisted of me running to ShengKee and running back while trying to eat a turkey sandwich, I got to my next replacement appointment in one of the larger venues on campus. I ended up arriving on the complete wrong side of the building even though the room number corresponded with the area I was in. Apparently, I had to tunnel across the entire place and go through five doors and push three buttons to get to my last appointment of the day.

This was another standard Dell OptiPlex 7060 replacement, just like the one I had completed earlier today.

Coworker 2 hadn’t eaten lunch. Times were rough.

I completed a user data backup for the first time. In the past, client data had always been backed up beforehand. It was a pretty intuitive process; the backup was stored on an external hard drive I brought with me. I’ve learned that you can also store a data backup on the Network’s H: drive, if you wanted to.

For the printer setup, the department we were working with had special configurations. Instead of simply connecting to the main printer via the ‘Printers & Scanners’ menu, the printer was added via the department’s print server. This would ensure that all documents sent to a printer under the department’s jurisdiction would have an added layer of security. It also allows load balancing during times of high printing volume.

In the last few parts of the process, I was struggling with downloading some of the software that the client had requested because our domain’s central software allocation program (BigFix) was not giving the computer permission to download these things. I learned that this permissions issue had arose from me not clicking the suggested “Reboot Machine” button after assigning the computer to its correct office in our Post Deploy script. Note: I had rebooted eventually anyways, but BigFix was upset that I didn’t use their button to reboot.

Lesson learned: Click all the buttons you’re supposed to click. Even if it’s not efficient. Just click them.