Just like students, staff are responsible for taking care of any school-owned technology assigned to them. Repairs to damaged school-owned devices will be billed to the associated staff member, and are only partially subsidized by the school. An outline of applicable charges is below. Please take the following steps to help prevent damage to school-owned technology. Download the PDF here: Care and Feeding.pdf

Cable management:

Macbook chargers will get damaged due to improper use and are expensive to replace. To keep them in the best working order, remember these two things: wings and loop. The wings are the plastic taps that pop out of the corners of the charging “brick.” The Magsafe cable is designed to wrap around the wings and clip onto itself. Before winding up the cable, put a 1” loop in the cable first. This prevents the cable from being strained at its connection point with the brick and fraying. Without the loop, you’ll start to see a little collar form in the cable at that connection point. This indicates the cables inside are beginning to disconnect and charging will become intermittent until the cable breaks completely.

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The 3-prong extension cable (“Sea Monster”) can be gently wrapped around the brick, or tied in a lose knot, or disconnected from the brick and carried separately.

This same concept extends to iPad chargers. Wrapping the cable tightly around the charger causes the cable to strain and break, evidenced again by a collar forming.

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iPad chargers are also susceptible to fraying when handled by the middle of the cable. As best you can, try to connect and disconnect the 30-pin USB cable by holding on to the plastic connector instead of the cable.

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Please keep cables away from pets and rolling chairs, which both like to chew up and destroy them.

Ventilation

Macbooks stay cool via a fan that sucks air in through the spaces around each key and blows it across the hot processor. The vents at the display hinge expel the hot air. The processor can run comfortably at temperatures that are quite uncomfortable to you, so it’s not a good idea to use any part of your body as a desk. Also, don’t obstruct the airflow by operating the computer with a keyboard cover on and/or blocking the vents in the back.

Food & Drink

This section is simple: Computers do not like food and drinks. Crumbs and grease from food can damage the internal and external components of the computer. Drinks will damage computers instantly and should be kept away from computers at all times. We understand accidents happen, but liquid damage is 100% preventable. Keep drinks away from your computer.

Technology repair costs (as of 6/2014)