Help for Student Laptops

Today a student came in with his laptop in recovery mode just as he needed to finish and print a paper.  Of course, it's a painful lesson in copying work to flash drives or mailing it to yourself to not lose any data, but I also wish I knew more and could have helped him.  (Carmel was out with a sick baby, so I couldn't appeal to our cyber expert.) He had already been to the lab in E building, but they couldn't help him and sent him to us. This brings up two things for us to remember:

1. Do not touch a student computer because in doing so, you may incur liability for your actions.  This is also official OIT policy in the labs, though they are often able to talk students through to a solution.
2. OIT has a service called techSPOT which offers direct support for student laptops.  The trouble for us is that it's only available on Clarkston and Newton campuses and only Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 AM to 2 PM. URL http://www.gpc.edu/oit/jagspot/techspot

Since I didn't remember the hours of techSPOT for the student who was panicked and in a hurry, I gave him the Service Desk number (678-891-3460) and told him he might need to go to Clarkston. Thankfully, it's Wednesday, and hopefully he could get the help he needed.

Jag Talk (Wireless) Login

Please be aware that students have only one login at a time for the wireless network. We've had some problems of students not being able to get on the wireless for unknown reasons.  If they have been working on a wired computer or have the wireless automatically opening on their cell phones, they will not have another login for a laptop.

If they are attempting a second login on the laptop, they will receive a message--way down the page-- that they must discontinue the older login before continuing. They can do that by just clicking the link, terminating the Pharos session, or turning off that wireless network on their phone.

FYI- all staff have two simultaneous logins, so you can be on the FacStaff Jagtalk from multiple devices.