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06/11/2007 Archived Entry: "Tuesday 29th May 2007 to Friday 1st June"

Making a PC with Gavin

Day One: Tuesday 29th May 2007

Gavin briefed me and Giovanni on the plan of building a NYPO PC and making a map through that for anyone else to follow. It was to be a practice for us and a learning session for Gavin on computer maintenance. We had assembled a rough list of what we needed and where from. We went through some specifications that Gavin had acquired from a magazine (PC Answers). We had to make sure every component of the PC was compatible before ordering. We then went to talk to Irfan at the Techshop, this was about the Go-Karting course we were to do after our NYPO projects in the summer holidays. Irfan advised us to order from microdirect.co.uk, we gave it a try and it was brilliant. Irfan said that we could use his card to order the items by phone and repay him later. We thanked him and went to Beckton Globe to talk to the financial person, we didn’t find her but we still talked to others about our next project at the Mayor’s Town Show on the 14th July. On the way back we got something to eat and discussed what to do next. We finalized our components and sent them to Irfan via e-mail. We went to the Techshop to order the products but found out that Irfan hadn’t received the e-mail. This meant we had to search our products again. This disaster was helpful as we found out that some of our chosen products were sold out. We chose some available products and sent them to Irfan again who ordered them.

Day Two: Wednesday 30th May 2007

I joined Giovanni and Gavin at the youth centre and we discussed where to go from there. As we waited for the delivery of the components we thought we might as well help out Gavin with his work. He took us to the Hamilton Road centre where he works from. We collected some NYPO pens, looked through folders containing some of our previous work and took new laptops ordered for NYPO. We went into a quiet room and opened up the boxes. We took down serial numbers and other details about the equipment while playing Inkball on the PC. We took out the waste packaging and put the rest into the car. We also took some posters which appealed to teenagers in some issues such as pregnancies and road deaths. We wanted to get feedback on those posters as we thought some of them weren’t suitable enough to be displayed. We will send out e-mails with the posters where we’ll require a yes/no response with a little comment on why/why not. After the workshops, we discussed how the workshops went with the teachers and ended there.

Day Three: Thursday 31st May 2007

We re-grouped at Little Ilford Youth Centre and discussed the components. Me and Giovanni decided to make a component layout chart with their model names and specifications and uploaded it on our e-mails. Then we talked about what we were to do when we got the hardware delivered. We went to collect the hardware from the Techshop where Irfan is based. He asked us to check the quantities of components with the delivery list. We also took one copy of the delivery note for reference. We then packed the components up and loaded them in the car and took them to LIYC. We broke for lunch for about an hour. When we got back together we opened out the packaging and laid out the components so that we can start assembling our computer. We explained each step to Gavin and he done a fair bit keeping in mind this was his first time doing this. We were impressed by how much Gavin took on so early. There is a flowchart (MAKE YOUR OWN COMPUTER) to help you with the steps, this will be published on the NYPO site and could be sent out to people who request it. We were nearly finished but had problems on connecting the front panel wires, there were loads! We thought we done the job and powered up the PC, nothing came up. We had to open it out and reassemble those wires, we knew it was those wires as the rest was fine. We tried our luck again and it worked. We had finished building our own computer from scratch, in about 50 minutes. Then we installed the operating system (Windows XP), programs and some drivers. The computer was functioning fine and we were very satisfied, we would like to thank Jamal as he helped us through the process. We were ready to pack away and end a fruitful day there.

Day Four: Friday 1st June 2007

We met up at LIYC and found out that Spike had worked very hard and had assembled all kit needed for the day. He had put up all machines, monitors, server connections and started to install the networked games we were going to play on the day. Our PC was supposed to be the underdog compared to the other shuttle computers, but it installed the game fastest and the game actually worked on it. The others had taken some time installing but they kept crashing. Spike tried our PC as the server computer from where all the computers were to be connected. We tried and tried but the computers kept crashing. Finally we decided to give them some time and found out that the games didn’t completely crash, they paused for a bit and continued working. We let them continue and they worked. That was great. It was time for the break and I tried out the game. It was great setting up something for others to enjoy. The members of Spike’s group played on the PCs while I spent time on the X-box downstairs. It was a great week and I must thank the teachers and the coordinators who ran the whole course. We all had fun and learned something. I am sure that most of us would come back and do some more courses in the next half-term and in the summer holidays.