On the scrounge...

[davidjpowell]

Hi

My partner is chair of a Pre-School www.missonpreschool.co.uk . It's a registered charity and is always on the beg...

The PC (that's right, just the one) that they use is ten years old, running Windows 98 and is showing signs of expiry.

Would any kind people here have a PC that they no longer require - I'm hoping really for ex company stock as I would like it to be reasonably up to date, running XP etc, as they would like to be able to use modern software albeit most of it is not very processor intensive.

The Pre-School would be happy to provide some sort of recognition in the form of a thank you letter (or even a picture painted by the kids), and would be happy to arrange and pay for a courier.

Kind regards

David

 

[Sp!ke]

I appreciate the charity doesnt have much funding but I dont really understand this logic.

The amount of man hours wasted trying to coax an old machine of unknown reliability to perform certain tasks strikes me to likely have a much greater cost than purchasing a new machine with licenses and a warranty delivered for... well around £300 is possible now.

I'm sure I have an old desktop kicking around that I could provide you with

But

There would be postage and packaging to deal with and then you would need to put windows on it, have associated licensing costs, you'd probably want to stick in a bigger hard disk, maybe purchase more RAM and then there's all that time taken up with configuration only to have it likely fail at some point in the near future because frankly it's already had its 20,000 hours usage and failure is imminent.

Even if it didnt fail, the operator would still be less productive than if using a more up to date machine powerful enough to run current software.

 

[davidjpowell]

I agree, especially as I get to do the repairs at the moment. But also am aware of some companies that do get rid of computers that have a lot of life in them.

This PC is the one that the kids use and runs pre-school type games only, none of which is very intensive on the CPU. The admin stuff is done on a laptop kept away from the kids. If it needs OS etc. then it's not worthwhile.

I did not mean to offend, but equally if there is a good one out there it seemed worth asking the question. Next idea will be to ask a company to sponser a PC (Don't worry I have some ideas on this that do not involve a Forum!)

David

 

[Sp!ke]

hmm...

If its to be used by children, I'm surprised that you're allowed to take in second hand electical equipment on health and safety grounds.

The schools in my area certainly can't.

 

[davidjpowell]

Sounds like a rule made by a Local Authority with money to spend... I'm fairly sure that ofsted would not have a rule on this or any of the other organisations involved.

The Pre-School is not run or supported (other than a grant) by the Local Authority, so unless the Committee decides not to accept donated computers there is no reason why not.

 

[A-AvantGarde]

Most companies don't donate / dispose of their old kit like this anymore for a number of reasons:

1. Health & safety
2. Data loss (appreciate data / disks need to be wiped correctly)
3. Licencing - In many cases the host OS (unless it's OEM licencing) can't be transferred.

 

[agatward]

1. Health & safety
2. Data loss (appreciate data / disks need to be wiped correctly)
3. Licencing - In many cases the host OS (unless it's OEM licencing) can't be transferred.

4. WEEE directive. By law, companies have to get a disposal certificate or equivalent for electrical goods.

 

[Wully]

4. WEEE directive. By law, companies have to get a disposal certificate or equivalent for electrical goods.

And can you tell me who enforces this?

For example take a lamp, say you buy it for £1, you have a WEEE charge of 15p to add to that,do they have a legal duty to take back the old one - NOPE!

 

[A-AvantGarde]

4. WEEE directive. By law, companies have to get a disposal certificate or equivalent for electrical goods.

True, knew I'd miss one

Same goes for secure destruction of hard-drives.

 

[davidjpowell]

ok guys - I understand that this can't happen, but thanks for your time in replying. Seems like a mad world out there.

 

[BTB 500]

I work for a major international company which used to donate replaced PCs to charities/schools, but doesn't any more (for all the reasons listed above).

 

[agatward]

For example take a lamp, say you buy it for £1, you have a WEEE charge of 15p to add to that,do they have a legal duty to take back the old one - NOPE!

No, but they do have a legal duty to take back the one you purchased from them since the WEEE directive came in, dispose of it in an 'appropriate' manner, and issue a certificate of disposal.

 

[Ade B]

I would happily donate one of my aging pcs (currently used as a printer server) WEEEEEEE directive or not - however I'm not sure when I'll be replacing it as current staff levels mean that I've no need for new workstations at present and it just about does its job (oh and its 5+ years old and pretty ****e by today's standards - built by my Dad from bits and bobs)..

So if you're not in a hurry.

Ade

 

[davidjpowell]

I would happily donate one of my aging pcs (currently used as a printer server) WEEEEEEE directive or not - however I'm not sure when I'll be replacing it as current staff levels mean that I've no need for new workstations at present and it just about does its job (oh and its 5+ years old and pretty ****e by today's standards - built by my Dad from bits and bobs)..

So if your not in a hurry.

Ade

Thanks Ade. I have been promised a PC by someone who is away at present so think it is sorted. Thank you for the offer though, it is much appreciated.

David

 

[merc-c]

If you need a monitor
I have a spare 21 crt you can have.
You would need to pick it up though and it is HEAVY

 

[spock500]

Isn't it a shame that we cannot help someone because of red tape.

I don't think all the politically correct responses were what the original poster had in mind but there you go.

If anyone has a PC they need to wipe before disposal use Dban which can be downloaded for free

 

[davidjpowell]

If you need a monitor
I have a spare 21 crt you can have.
You would need to pick it up though and it is HEAVY

Thanks Richard. They changed the screen for a LCD thing a while ago, I think to decrease the weight of the trolley so should be ok.

They use a village hall so everything has to go back into a storage container after each session.

 

[Geezer255]

NO NO NO, dont use the original hard drive especially if its going to somewhere used by kids, no free data removal tool will stop you from getting data back if you really want to, considering your not going to need much storage Id bin the disk and buy a cheapy from the likes of PCWorld or somewhere. This is just my opinion

 

[spock500]

That's rather an alarmist post based on lack of information.

DBAN http://www.dban.org/about is a well known utility developed by the open source community over many years.

It surpasses all of the US data destruction standards including those for the DOJ and the Department of Defense 5220-22.M standard.

Do not confuse this with software found on the covers of PC magazines which often run within a Windows shell leaving bits of files all over the place.

DBAN boots into it's own shell giving complete access to the drive locking out other write processes.

The commercial version uses the same algorithm but is for corporations who need tech support and third party indemnity insurance.

It's widely used in the UK by IT departments for recycling computers including those in schools and banks. It simply isn't practical to remove the hard disk out of an expensive laptop and destroy it when someone leaves or moves on.

This a quote from a commercial data deconstruction company;

"We utilize DBAN to facilitate our disk wipes. It's a simple yet effective tool. You may notice that this tool is based on free software, notably under the GNU General Public License.

Free software allows us to charge less, as we aren't trying to pay for expensive licenses. But don't worry, the software we utilize is well supported and in use around the world by large corporations, educational institutions, and government offices alike."


Unless you are the FBI with access to $5m electron microscope forget it, it's gone -

Some ref links;

Data Destruction

Data Destruction : a DBAN Test

Moundalexis.com: Disk Wipes & Data Destruction

 

[franey]

Dave, I have a couple here if they are going to good use for kids then they are free for you to collect.
Only up the road at Hatfield.

Cheers