Tech Rep Information



Tech Rep - Apple

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Tech Rep Listserv - Apple

Welcome the the new Tech Rep Information page for Apple products. In the weeks to come we will be adding information for tech reps specifically dealing with Apple products at LAUSD. You can also check the Apple Education web site for general information about Apple.

For information on ordering of Apple hardware under the LAUSD District contracts, call 800-800-2775 x46838. You can also visit the custom Apple Store for LAUSD to make District or personal Apple purchases. (You will be required to login to Inside LAUSD with your SSO/Email account and password.

Helpful Information from Apple Staff

The Apple team supporting LAUSD has a web site to make it simpler for anyone in the District to find information about Apple more easily: http://lausd.apple.com. From this link, users can find LAUSD related contact information, links to their podcast page, as well as new information as it becomes available.

Important Vendor Information

Documentation

Restoration disks, MacShield, and proper AirPort Base Station Configuration on New LAUSD Mac Computers - Under a previous contract with the District, it was required that Apple provide a way for computers to restore themselves when something goes wrong.

The idea of this was not to stop administrators at a site from making necessary changes, but rather to keep the general user population from causing the usual issues that create the need for a complete restore.

To this end, Apple shipped all of their products with the ability to restore themselves completely upon each reboot of the system using a product called MacShield. The only changes that are saved are those specific to the two pre-defined users, "User" and "Administrator." Any system-wide changes are not saved. This includes AirPort and Printer settings.

However, if you have the administrator account of the system, you do actually have the ability to make changes to the system that will hold through a reboot. First, disable MacShield. Once you make the changes, you can then enable MacShield, once again, and the machine will be shielded from further changes by users. All systems should go through this process for specific wireless and printer connections when they arrive at your campus.

Customers who are the only users of the machine, i.e. a laptop designated just for them, can disable this feature if they feel it will hamper their overall usage of the computer. You may need to speak with the technical contact at your site who can login as administrator on the system and disable MacShield.

Note: On more recent purchased machines, the MacShield software was not installed. These computers were shipped with a hidden partition that allowed for the full restoration of the computer's OS and software to the state it was in when purchased.

The following document describes proper AirPort Base Station settings and MacShield - how to enable and disable it: Mac Instant Restore with MacShield and AirPort configuration

Notices

AUTO STARTUP ISSUE SOLUTION FOR LAUSD MACS
Some LAUSD schools have reported that their Intel based Macintoshes with Mac OS X Leopard and Microsoft Office 2008 are unintentionally turning on at 5:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time. This issue is currently under investigation and does not appear to be unique to LAUSD.

For more information on this issue, and how to temporarily fix this issue, review the information in the following article: http://lausd.apple.com/groups/lausd/weblog/fc4c6/Auto_Startup_Issue_Solution_for_LAUSD_Macs.html

MACBOOK AND MACBOOK PRO BATTERY UPDATE 1.2
Apple has recently discovered that some batteries used in its MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks may have battery performance issues. Apple is offering a software update that is designed to address these issues

For more information review the information found at Apple's Support Site: http://www.apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/batteryupdate/

If you suspect your battery is not fully charging, follow these steps to resolve the issue:

Ensure that have installed the Battery Update 1.2 that was released to address battery performance issues. Please refer to Apple Knowledge base article: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305256
If you have verified that the battery update 1.2 has been successfully installed and continue to experience one of the following symptoms:
- Battery is not recognized causing an “X” to appear in the battery icon in the Finder menu bar.
- Battery will not charge when computer is plugged into AC power.
- Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.
- Battery pack is visibly deformed

Apple will replace the battery if the machine is currently covered under one of the LAUSD custom Apple Care warranties. Please open a request using Customer Self Service and the Service Desk will open a warranty request with Apple on your behalf. Be sure to add the words: Apple Warranty Replacement in the incident details.

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