Build Instructor Guide

Buildteacher duties

--Camc 16:50, 2 October 2007 (PDT)

Before the shift begins:

1. • Check the signup sheet at the front desk to see who's expected today, and note how many slots are open. Often people show up without a reservation and you should have some idea of how many stations are available.
   • Check the whiteboard for today's special instructions. Also check the numbers of the various types of machines that are fully built and that need QC and encourage builders to work on the more needed tasks.
   • Make sure supplies are available:
     1. RAM: Replenish supplies from the Tardis.
     2. Hard drives: See what size hard drives will be needed for the build shift and get the appropriately sized wiped drives from the Tardis. Do imaging throughout the session as you get a chance, mark imaged drives with a red marker dot, place in the hard drive box for builders.
     3. Button batteries if needed. Get them from Eval. Keeping them in neat piles rather than in a jumble greatly lessens the chance of shorting out a good battery. Beware the digital voltmeters; when their internal 9 volt battery dies, they give false positives such as reading 3.04v for a battery that is really only 2.61. The analogue voltmeters aren't accurate enough to decide between 2.97 and 3.03 but they are useful to compare readings with the digital voltmeters.

   Dave and Martin are resources. Try not to abuse their good natures.

During the shift:

1. • Greet people as they arrive, get their name, introduce yourself as their instructor and identify the build assistants.
     1. If a person is new to build, make sure they have already gone through pre-build. If not, direct them to the prebuild instructor.
     2. Persons starting their first QC should have their own personal record sheet available in the bulid room. If their shett isn't there, it may still be in prebuild. If at all possible, start the first QC with a very ordinary box that is unlikely to have interesting problems. We don't want total puzzlement to be the student's first experience with build.
     3. Persons who have finished their QC's and are starting their first build need to be shown where to find boxes in the warehouse and what to look for in the boxes: no missing case parts, CPU size, FG-PDX, etc. Please have them record the BIOS entry key on the build sheet so that the beginning QC'er can find it, and record hardware details as build progresses for when support is needed in the future.
     4. During the session, keep an eye out for people, especially new ones, who look lost or troubled. Help gently. Try too, to make sure that people are going through the process (checklist and instructions on the sheets in the plastic protector envelopes) and not just drylabbing.

At the end of the shift:

1. • Start cleaning up for the next shift, perhaps 15 minutes in advance. This is especially important at the end of the morning session if there are no empty stations for any early arrivals for the afternoon shift, to minimize the chaos of two flows of builders moving in contrary directions. It's also important at the end of the afternoon shift to get the builders out on time so the staff can go home too.

Howto Checkout QCed Boxen

• Make sure all of the slots and bays are covered and that the cards and slot covers are not loose
• Check the box over carefully both for specs and cosmetics. Make sure that any Microsoft certification stickers and their glue gunk are removed.
• Check for updates (System=>Administration=>Update Manager, click check for updates, then click install updates)
• Check if it rattles when you shake it
• If you haven't seen it boot up fine, reboot it (some people see that it says press F2 to continue, so they do it with out ever fixing it)
  • tip - Unplug all power to the box before doing that reboot to see if it retains BIOS settings. -- MW 14:40, 27 March 2008 (PDT)
• Look inside and see if it's dusty. If it is, have the builder vacuum it.
• There's more :D