How to Get Help in the Lab
If you are working in the 12th floor public labs and having any problems, help desk staff should be available to help you. Sometimes the labs may not be staffed at all hours, but typically, the labs will always be staffed. Generally, problems can be divided into three types:
Common Problems
Common problems include things like: printer out of paper or jammed; not knowing how to log on or access software; not being familiar with commonly used software; and, worst of all, machine lockup. Help Desk staff will be able to load paper and to fix jammed printers. Help desk staff will be able to tell you how to log on to the system and to access the software you need. They will also be able to help you use most of the common software packages.
Printing problems
Currently, laser printing is available in both of the labs. It is $.10 per page for black and white and $.70 for the color. We request that you please pay careful attention to which printer that you choose to print to. If you accidentally print to the color printer, you will not be refunded the $.70. Duplexing and PDF files are $.15 per page. For information on how to print, please go here.
Lockups
Lockups can occur on computer systems. Windows may lock up if it runs out of environment space or if a program running under it crashes. The best advice is to save your work often. If the software offers an automatic timed backup, select that option. Most importantly, do not save your work to the hard drive on the windows 2000 machines in the labs. They are automatically cleaned aobut once a week. Always save your work to a floppy disk, zip disk or to your personal network account when you have completed your work for the session.
Desktop
Shared Course Files (the courses folder)
COURSES FOLDER Files for courses and assignments will be made available for class-related work as read only in the COURSES folder under sub directories that identify the department and course name by call numbers. You are free to copy these files to the STUDENT folder if you need to make and/or save changes. When you are finished working on any files, you can simply copy to floppy A:\ or to zip D:\ to take your files with you. You should NEVER attempt to use files directly from the courses folder, if you do you will have severe problems.
Student Workspace (the student folder)
You should always use the STUDENT folder to work from rather than a floppy disk or zip disk.
Using a floppy/zip disk is not advised while you are working. When you complete your work copy (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V) to put your files to STUDENT from your floppy A: or zip D:. A file copy or move can also be done with the mouse by doing a simple drag and drop method.
Working from the STUDENT folder is advised especially if you are working with large files, such as MS-Access databases, PowerPoint presentations, or large Excel spreadsheets with graphics or large Word documents. When you are done working simply, copy the new or newer files on to your floppy/zip disk and confirm the replace if necessary. You are strongly advised to always work from the student folder to avoid data loss, insure virus protection, and increased performance. When you're done working with a file and you have saved it- just use the mouse right click to select the files you want to keep and right click to use send to floppy or zip to copy them to your diskette/zip.
Special Problems
System or installation problems.
Technology changes mean that lab systems are updated often. New software versions may be installed and new equipment put into service. If you observe a system or software problem in the labs, report it to help desk staff. Perhaps the issue can be resolved with help from the staff. If not, our technical support staff can investigate the issue and determine alternatives to resolve or to minimize the problem. Occasionally, complex problems involving the system or requiring changes to new software may take time to resolve. Every effort is made to perform minor work behind the scenes and to schedule major changes during non-peak periods. How can you help? Communicate system problems to the help desk staff.
Hardware Failure
Computers and other hardware may occasionally break down. Lab equipment does experience its share of wear and tear. Our technical support staff and our hardware repair contractor attempt to return to use as quickly as possible all equipment reported for maintenance. How can you help? Report equipment problems that you experience to the staff. Unless a machine is signed with repair information, it's best to assume that no one else has reported the problem. Working together, we can keep the labs functioning at the highest level.
Class Assignments
Help desk staff can help with the problems you experience with the computer while doing your assignments, however, help desk staff cannot provide help with the content of your class assignments. Individual tutoring takes time and help desk staff are not trained in the content of all your classes. Please see your teacher or TA for more information on help with the content of class assignments.
Finally
Just remember, if you can't access the software you need, the printer isn't working or is jammed, the screen suddenly went black, anything - look around for the help desk staff.. The help desk staff should be seated at the main desk in the office next to the lab-- or they may be at a work station helping another user. Help desk staff are trained to assist you in many ways. They do not, however, know everything. Some staff have more experience than others and may be able to help you with very complex problems, but others may not. Please realize that they cannot possibly know how to do everything you might need to do. However, if the help desk staff cannot solve a problem, they will try to get additional assistance.
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