Hardware Testing Instructor Responsibilities

Advanced Testing Tasks

• Power Supply Sorting
• Hard Drive Testing
• External Hard Drive Enclosure Testing
• Optical Drive Testing
• External Optical Drive Testing
• RAM Testing
• Motherboard Testing
• Processors
• Video Card Testing
• Network Testing
• Wireless Keyboard & Mice
• Cell Phones
• Bluetooth Headset Testing
• Wireless Cards - PCI and laptop PC Bus
• Empty Recycling Bins

Oversight Checklist

Beginning of Shift

• Prioritize tasks based on current stock, store and build needs.
• Direct volunteers to prioritized tasks.
• Hard Drives - swap tested drives, load drives to be wiped.
• Memory - swap tested memory, load memory to be tested. (if no volunteers are available to do it)
• Wall Warts Sorting - get wall warts box from receiving.
• Sorting lock box incoming in tardis into appropriate boxes.
• Sort wireless mice and keyboards into boxes by brand.
• Sort incoming optical drives

During Shift

• Be available to answer volunteers' questions.
• Tally tested gizmos going to the store and store returns. Monthly totals can be found at Advanced Testing Tally: To the Store

End of Shift

• Ask volunteers to clean up their areas.

End of Day

• Lock up all hard drives and put away testing equipment.
• Set up drives to test over night, but not on the weekend.
• Turn off all unused computers and LCD monitors.

Volunteer Inventory

• Don't forget to say hello to everyone and introduce yourself to new folks.
• Which volunteers are present during your shift? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Do they want to learn something new? Match up their interests with priority tasks.
• Appropriately engage each volunteer in an appropriate task, trying to get all tasks covered.
• Thank volunteers for their work as they leave.
• If volunteer involvement is low in your shift, ask a build instructor to refer or direct appropriate volunteers to your area.

Hard Drive Testing

• Pull and label all tested hard drives. Recycle the failed ones.
• Stock all the machines.
• Repair failed machines as necessary.
• REPORT PROBLEMS WITH MACHINES WHEN THEY HAPPEN (either to those with the know-how to fix 'em or on the AT mailing list).

Sort Incoming Network Stuff

• Match up wall warts with incoming network gizmos.
• Sort incoming wall warts.
• If a particular sorted wall wart container is overflowing, cull the off-brand wall warts (use your judgment).

Task Status

• Is a particular, overflowing task not being covered by a volunteer? Make a plan to cover it such as setting up an internship to focus on improving testing procedures.

Hard Drive Testing is SUPER IMPORTANT. Your goal is to keep TARDIS as free of unwiped hard drives as much as you can.