New Laptop Docs: Laptop Eval glossery

Laptop Catagories

Recycler: Any of the following:

No USB

Doesn't POST, isn't useful for parts

Doesn't meet any of the specs

Extensive physical damage

Parts machine

Has an outstanding issue we can't fix, but is (or has parts) rare/valuable enough to hold onto, and salvage as needed.

As-Is

One of 2 criteria

It does POST, but has a Pentium 3 or Athlon XP processor, or below

It does POST, but has an issue we can't fix

Scraptop

Doesn't even POST, sold with the As-Is.

Uncovered Electronic Device

Donations from buisniesses/orginizations with 10+ employees. Marked with a Uncovered Electronic Device sticker, and goes into the bins labeled Uncovered.

Covered Electronic Device

Donation from individuals or small buisiness (under 10 employees). Goes into bins marked Covered. Characterized by no sticker.

Types of Storage

Hard Drives

IDE

The older of the two most common Hard Drive/disk interfaces. Characterized by two rows of exposed pins.

SATA

The newer of the two most common HDD interfaces. Characterized by two rows of pins set in seperate plastic tabs.

2.5"

The form factor for smaller, laptop size hard drives.

3.5"

The form factor for larger hard drives for desktops.

Imaged

A hard drive that has a OS and is ready for use.

Unimaged

A hard drive that does not have an OS. It may have nothing on it, or if it hasn't been wiped clean yet, could have personal data on it.

RAM Types

SD RAM

The oldest variety of RAM one could expect, it has a notch that is ~3.8cm from the side, when measured from the side closer to the notch. It is orginized by clock speed, such as PC100 (100MHz) or PC133 (133MHz)

DDR 1

The first version of DDR RAM, still common at Free Geek. Orginized by it's data transfer rate such as DDR-200 or DDR-333. It has a notch at 1.5cm from the shoter side. With laptops, the full name is SO-DIMM DDR.

DDR 2

The second member of the DDR family, it has a notch that is 1.6cm from the closer side.

Tools

Net(work) boot

Getting an OS from over Free Geek's internal network

Mem(ory) test

Used to test that RAM is free of defects or errors, used via netboot.

Hardware ID tool/Hardware Detection tool

Used to acquire information about various hardware componets, used via netboot.

Basic Check

Used during the build process to check that hardware and software componets are working correctly, run from the command line with the command 'basiccheck'.

Stickers

Asset Tag

Stickers placed on a laptop by a previous owner to indicate ownership, such as a name or inventory barcode. Common with corprate donations

MS Sticker

Sticker from Microsoft that have software license keys.

As-Is stickers

Label for the store to indicate a laptop is being sold As-Is, includes processor type, speed, and if an AC adapter is included or not.

HDD Removed stickers

Affixed to Recyclers to indicate the Hard Drive has been removed.

Keeper Label

Affixed to laptops that will be kept and built. Includes system specs and how far along it is.

Parts Machine sticker

Affixed to parts machines, includes notes about why it became a parts machine and what componets have been removed.

Charts and steps

Laptop Evaluation checklist

As-Is Checklist

Laptop Recycling checklist

Laptop Build checklist

Optical Media (CDs/DVDs)

Optical media