Computer Refurbishing Procedures

We have developed some tools and procedures which we use ourselves in HelpingTulsa, and which we have provided to some other Computer Refurbishing projects which we have helped start. The purpose of these pages are to document some of the tools and procedures we use in that effort.

When we receive a donated machine we:

  1. Check it out to see if it works. One of the main things we do is insert a Clone 4.1 disk,

    and run Syschk.

    From this one program we can see the type and speed of the processor (Pentium II, 366mhz), the amount of memory (32meg), and the size of hard disk (6 gig). Knowing these facts we can determine whether this particular computer meets our requirements for a particular application and it helps us determine which image to load.

    This machine will be ideal for our Children Image so we take a 1 inch by 3 inch label and write Children Image in large letters with a Sharpie pen, and then PII-336 (the cpu speed), 32 meg (the memory size), and 6Gig (the hard drive size):

    If the computer seems to be working, we skip to System Is Operational. We always try to remember to remove the Clone disk from the floppy drive when we are finished, but sometimes we forget, so we are always running out of Clone disks, and the Clone 4.1 disk is formatted to 1.7mb, just like the Microsoft distribution floppy disks, so we can't just Diskcopy a Clone 4.1 disk. That is not a problem, since we can use a feature on the Clone Partition of the Image Machine to make new Clone disks, and all of the other floppy disks we use.

  2. If the computer does not work, we try to see if we can fix it, using parts which have been previously checked out and verified as operational. (See step 4 for how we get those verified parts).

  3. If that fails, we scrap the computer, i.e. we take the monitors, keyboards, and all of the cables, cards, hard disk drives, floppy disk drives, motherboards, memory, power supplies, etc out of the machine, and put them with other parts, of unknown operational status, that are of the same type.

  4. Whenever we have collected enough similar parts to justify the effort, we take them to a breadboard computer, which is operational, but all of the parts are spread on a breadboard, i.e. not bolted into a case. This makes it very easy to swap parts in and out, and, if we are checking out video cards, for example, we remove the video card from the operational breadboard system, insert one of the video cards of unknown operational status, and if the breadboard system still works, we assume that video card is good, and we mark it that way, and put it with other tested video cards for use in reparing other systems. We then test the next video card in the stack, repeating the effort until we have checked out all video cards of unknown operational status.

    This procedure is not limited to video cards, of course. We use the same procedure to check out memory chips, hard disks, floppy disks, power supplies, even mother boards.

System Is Operational

If the received system is operational, or if it can be repaired using checked out spare parts, we make a note of the operating system which it has on it, and we then proceed to completely erase the harddisk, thus removing any possible personal files the donor may have left on the machine, and we transfer over a fresh copy of the appropriate operating system image. If we cannot determine the current operating system, we go with the assumption that almost all computers are sold with the Microsoft Operating System that is current at the time the machine was made, thus we presume we are not violating any copyright laws to copy a Windows 3.1 image onto a 386 (or very slow 486) system which generally came with Windows 3.1, or to copy Windows 95A or Windows 95B onto a machine which is the level of machines that generally came with that operating system installed. Currently we seldom find people willing to take machines that old, so most of our current refurbishing work is done with Windows98 Second Edition. We presume the same logic would apply to reinstalling Win98 on a machine that was originally sold with Win98, however we are members of the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR) Donation Program which enables us to install a licensed copy of Win98SE at a cost of just $5 per computer (we must buy those licenses in lots of 100).

Currently most of our refurbished computers are loaded with software using our Image Computer, where we initially used Ghost to make a Ghost Image one time, and then install that Ghost Image on multiple machines. By installing a Ghost Image, we can refurbish a computer in 10 to 20 minutes, while installing the Operating System and all application programs the normal way, could easily take 2 hours or more.

Where using Ghost is not possible, we usually use the Clone Partition of our Image Computer to select the operating system and create a custom set of application software for the refurbished computer. This approach does not save that much time over the normal way of installing from a CD, but it enables us to install an operating system and a custom set of application programs on a computer that does not have a CD Drive (and many of the computers we receive from companies do not contain CD Drives, because the companies don't want employees installing their own software).

In working on computers we often need to start something on one computer, like start GHOSTing an image on the image machine, or initiate a SETUP on a computer where we used the Clone Partition to select the operating system and create a custom set of application software, or where Drive Setup is doing a low level scan of a hard disk, and we would like to move on and start working on another computer while we wait for the first one to finish. A very good tool to do that is a TRENDnet TK-400, 4 ports KVM switch

I have one mounted on the side of my Image Machine

I can be working on one machine on the work table

while another machine is on the floor or on a chair doing something that takes a long time.

These procedures were developed over several years, and are designed to refurbish computers as quickly as possible, but to make it easier for people to understand how they work, you can check out our old procedure which describes step by step how we did things before we consolidated everything into our Image Computer.