Frequently Asked Questions & Helpful Information

Submitting a Technology Work Request is easy. If you have a technology problem, first check support.ortn.edu or the district website under Online@ORS – ORS Help Desk for important system status updates.

Select Technology Work Order to submit a work order. Please ensure that the form fields under Incident Description are filled out to the best of your ability. The asset tag is located on the top of most desktop computers and on the bottom of the laptops (see example below).
We appreciate you filling this online form out completely. This gives us the specific information we need to help you more effectively. You will receive an automated confirmation reply email from the help desk tracking system with a work order number assigned to your request ticket.  You may reply to this email with updates, questions or new details. Please do not change the email subject line when replying to this automated email message.

We recommend restarting about once a week. When you leave at night you can either logoff or lock the computer. When you leave on Friday you can restart it so it’s ready to be logged onto Monday morning. Restarting weekly clears your computer’s RAM (random access memory) which will help to keep it running smoothly.

Make sure the monitor is on. If no power light (green or orange light) is seen on the monitor display try pressing the power button until it comes on. If your computer monitor was on and you stepped away from the computer and upon returning it was black it’s likely that the computer is asleep. Try moving your mouse, clicking the mouse buttons, and/or pressing any key (space bar) on the keyboard to wake it up. Make sure that the monitor is connected properly to the back of the computer. If there is still nothing on the screen contact the ORTN Helpdesk.

First make sure the sound is not muted. Check the volume control in the taskbar (next to the date in the lower right corner of the screen). If it’s muted there will be a red circle with a line through it and when you hold your mouse pointer over it a tool tip will show up displaying ‘Speakers Muted’. If they are not muted, click on the small speaker icon and check the level of the volume. If it happens to be all the way down move the slider up to the desired level. If you still don’t hear sound contact the ORTN Helpdesk.

The first thing you should do is either shutdown or disconnect your computer from the network, then contact the ORTN Helpdesk by going to https://support.ortn.edu.

When a computer is frozen, often the best thing to do is allow the machine extra time to process the last set of commands it was given. If that step fails, the next option is to try to find which program is not responding and end the task. This can be done with the Task Manager.

Press Control+Alt+Del and choose Task Manager. In the left column, look for any program with “Not Responding” as the status. Select it and then select “End Task” from the bottom right corner of that window. Most of the time, this will return your computer to normal. If ending the task fails or you cannot access Task Manager, try shutting the computer down by pressing and holding the power button for several seconds until the screen turns black. Once you’re confident the computer is off, press the power button one time to power it back on. Select “Start Windows Normally” if that option shows on the screen.

Every file has an extension that tells the operating system which application to open the file with. Most of the time, if the computer doesn’t know which application to open the file with, the computer will suggest options. If the option you want is not available, right click on the file and select “Properties.” You will see “Type of File” and “Open With…” options. Click “Change”. If you believe the file could open with Acrobat (the file extension is .pdf) then you can choose Adobe Reader from that list. Likewise, if you believe the file is an image file (the file extension is .jpg) you can choose Photo Gallery. If these options do not open the file, it may actually have become corrupted. If this happens, please contact the ORS Helpline to put in a work order for assistance.

Changing your desktop is a fun way to customize your computer’s appearance. Windows already has some themes that can be used, or you can set a personal picture as your desktop. To access the Windows Themes, simply right click any open area of the desktop and select “Personalize.”

In Windows 8, there are three Windows Default Themes (Windows, Lines and Colors, and Flowers). Beneath those are optional High Contrast Themes. Select any that you like and Windows will change it automatically. There are also other themes available from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/themes. If you’d like to use a personal digital photo as your desktop, open the photo and right click on the image. Select “Set as desktop background.”

Your Oak Ridge Schools 1:1 device will print to any printers that you have set up while on the school premises; however, any home printer you wish to use will need the specific print drivers.

Sometimes just connecting your printer via the USB cable will be enough to prompt Windows to install the drivers for you. If this happens, the printer will be listed in the Control Panel>Devices and Printers folder. If it does not appear in this folder, you will have to download and install the drivers from the printer manufacturer’s website. For example, if you have an HP Deskjet 1112 Printer at home, go to www.hp.com and click on the Support-Software page. From there, you can enter the printer model number and then search for the drivers. The page will ask which operating system your computer is running (Windows 10). Select the driver, and choose either Run or Save from the dialog prompt that opens at the bottom of your browser window. If you choose to save the drivers, they will be downloaded to your Downloads folder. You may then install them by double clicking the file.  Selecting Run will install them automatically.

If you are having trouble connecting to your home Wi-Fi network, select the Wi-Fi symbol that appears in the lower right corner of your computer’s desktop.

You should see a list of connection entries and their statuses:

If you find your home network and the status is listed as “Disconnected,” right click on the entry and select “Connect.” You will also have the option of selecting “Connect Automatically.”

There is a known issue regarding printing large documents to HP Laserjet 1300 printers. These printers do not have the memory to handle large print jobs and print jobs over a certain size will fail. Most of the failed print jobs involve printing PDF documents. To work around this, make sure you have first saved the PDF you need to print.

After opening it, click on the print icon and select the Advanced option after the print dialog box opens.

Put a checkmark next to the Print As Image option.

This will allow the printer to print the PDF document. Note: printing as an image will print more slowly than normal.

https://www.ortn.edu/district/technology/help/faq-knowledgebase/known-issue-regarding-printing-large-pdf-documents/

Occassionally, Outlook will not open properly if it was not exited completely the last time it was closed. Check the taskbar (next to the date and time) to see if an Outlook icon is still there. It will be grey instead of the usual blue color. If you see a grey icon, you can either restart the computer or open the Task Manager. Press the Control+Alt+Delete keys, then select Start Task Manager. In the left column under the processes tab, look for one that says Outlook and select it. At the bottom of the Task Manager window, click the “End Task” option and close Task Manager. Outlook should now open normally.

If none of these suggestions work, please submit a work order at support.ortn.edu.

Please submit a ticket to the ORTN Helpdesk by going to https://support.ortn.edu.

Under the Service Catalog, click on Incident Requests (Submit a work order to the Technology Department).

Click on the Web Filter Change Request tile.

Provide the necessary information by filling out the three text boxes in the form:

• Building Location: Your Current Location
• Request Type: Block or Unblock and who is affected (students or staff).
• URL of the website, original requester’s name, email address and reason for the request.

When you have finished completing the form select Submit.

Occassionally, Outlook will not open properly if it was not exited completely the last time it was closed. Check the taskbar (next to the date and time) to see if an Outlook icon is still there. It will be grey instead of the usual blue color. If you see a grey icon, you can either restart the computer or open the Task Manager. Press the Control+Alt+Delete keys, then select Start Task Manager. In the left column under the processes tab, look for one that says Outlook and select it. At the bottom of the Task Manager window, click the “End Task” option and close Task Manager. Outlook should now open normally.

If none of these suggestions work, please submit a work order at support.ortn.edu.

OneDrive will not synchronize files that contain certain characters in the file name. The following special characters should be removed from any file names in order to allow synchronization to occur:

/ : * ? ” < > | # %

Additionally, a file or folder name that begins with a tilde (~) is not supported.

For more information see the following article:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2933738

If you receive a suspicious email, DO NOT OPEN the email (by double clicking it) or any attachments or links within the email. These can expose our network to a computer virus. Immediately contact the ORTN Helpdesk.