Hi all, I am new here. I am not even sure I should be asking this question? I apologize if I shouldn't. I know very little about computer restrictions.... but need some advice and I bet someone reading this post can help me. I am a public school high school teacher (translation...limited funds). Two years ago, my school district issued me a used laptop and within a few days it was dropped by one of the students....did I mention I teach ED special education? Well, IT said it wasn't worth repairing and they couldn't replace. So, for the past 2 years I have only had usage of a desktop computer in my classroom. Well, this summer our district collected all broken computers for recycling. While I was dropping off my broken laptop, I saw another laptop which looked pretty decent. It was old but very clean. The worker (not district employee) said I could take it to see if it worked, and it does!! I ran Diagnostics and it passed all tests. Everything works! It is a Dell Latitude D 600 - Model PPO5L, running XP Professional with Pentium M...don't laugh....but I am thrilled! Problem, I am unable to log on. The normal sequence for logging on is C + Alt + Del. Then I enter my user name and password. On the 3rd line I need to designate 'district'. After I enter my info, a message pops up which states the 'domain is not available'. I have tried the other 3rd line choices and none work. I am assuming that this particular computer was taken off the server. Here is my predicament, if I ask IT to connect my 'new' computer to server, they will say no, take it away and not let me keep it because 'it is too old and can't be maintained'. So, here is where I need the help.....is there any way I can reconfigure this computer so I can have the students use this laptop in my classroom? I would like to load with educational games and use for positive reinforcement. It is a shame for it to just go to a third party vendor when my students could get positive use out of it. I do have access to local wireless service. Thank you Comp Clueless
It might be worth it to reinstall the laptop with windows xp so you can start with a fresh install. Is the oem key sticker still visible on the laptop? Looks like this.
Unless you are connected to the network in your school the domain will not be available. Chances are it will have long since been removed however. The best thing to do would be to start afresh and re install Windows as Rick has mentioned. Even if the I.T. department do not let the computer on the network you can still put software on it and use it as a standalone machine.