IT Support...

[Freakbro]

I know a lot of you work in IT support in one form or another, so I just want to run this past you.

One of the places I work part-time uses an outsourced company for their IT support (Hardware/Software support)

We have about 8 PCs, running Win 7 32 bit, and 1 Server running Windows Server 2012 64 bit

I have just enquired with the IT support company about upgrading the PCs to 64 bit windows (as the lack of ram with 32bit is causing issues) and their reply was

If your computers have windows 32bit installed there is no way to update them to 64bit without completely reinstalling windows on each machine.

In reality this is not really practical in terms of work and cost, the only real option is to purchase new computers with a 64 bit OS already installed.

Really?

Is it really more cost effective to buy 8 new work PCs than get someone to reinstall 8 workstations and set the domain logins up again etc.

That seems crazy if thats the case....

 

[Freakbro]

The PCs are under 2 years old - not great spec but ok for a work PC

Pentium G850 @ 2.9ghz
4Gb of RAM

 

[Freakbro]

Sounds like a small setup. The outsourced IT company, do they charge you per call?, allow you so many visits each year? They will probably charge you more per hour in labour than it would cost to replace the pc’s.

a lot of small businesses I go out to contract their IT support out to a one man band type company who then agree on so many support visits per week/month.

We pay an annual support cost - they do offsite backup of the server etc and dial in to fix anything

We got charged extra when they had to come out and install a wireless network in the new building

 

[Freakbro]

Get better IT support! Or tell them rather than ask them. You ask them if something is possible they’ll say no and offer a much more expensive long winded option.
Simply tell them what you want doing.

I did! I said I wanted to upgrade the 8 pcs to Windows 64 bit, and that was their answer

 

[Freakbro]

I guess the call-out charge to do the work could be higher than the cost of buying new PCs if you are outsourced. I'm guessing you don't have Windows upgrades as part of your service agreement.

I will see if someone can dig out the agreement and see what is covered

But I bet you put it in a nice, ‘is this possible’ type way to them. Never give them a get out!

You may have got me there....

 

[Freakbro]

he's said it isn't practical in terms of "work and cost" - well the work aspect is irrelevant to you as they're the ones doing it but why not question him on the cost of installing windows on these PCs, ask for a quote if that work isn't covered by your annual contract

Ta, will do

With that response I'd be looking at moving your support.

Funnily enough, we are looking at doing that as well...

 

[Freakbro]

How on earth did you end up with less than 2 year old PC's running 32 bit Windows 7?

I can sort of see their point (and yours also!) as they are low spec low cost machines. Keep in mind its end of support in 18 months for Windows 7.

At the time of purchase and install we had a piece of management software that only ran on 32 bit OS. We have now replaced that software

The support bods are right in that you can't run an in place upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit. Depends on how the environment is configured as to how much ballache it'll be re-installing Windows then the apps and all the settings that come with it manually.

I can kind of see the point they're making. You're looking at £120+ on a Windows license, and probably the same again in labour for each machine to get them upgraded and configured. Plus the downtime of losing the workstation. You could invest that £240 into new hardware that has Windows 10 64-bit already licensed and installed and incur less downtime.

We're a charity and I have oodles of windows 7 licences 32 bit and 64 bit that we got for peanuts under a MS scheme ages ago

 

[Freakbro]

If they are "business" OEM PCs such as HP ProDesk or Dell Optiplex, then you can request older versions of Windows through Downgrade rights. If indeed they are, then it's a case of Ringing HP/Dell and you can probably obtain the x64 install disc at no cost (and it will work with the BIOS embedded Windows activation)

No, they were just custom built jobs from a local company, and I already had licences for windows (as in my above post)

 

[Freakbro]

Oh and the server is already 64 bit (I just checked earlier)

The only programs on 7 / 8 machines would be MS Office (or not much else) mine being the 8th has Sage accounts and payroll

 

[Freakbro]

To me though, it seems a daft suggestion - yes the move from 32 to 64 would need an o/s reinstallation, but adding the machine to the domain can be done in a minute, migrating data over is a little more difficult though; you've also got the "will it won't it work" with any applications you have - I'm guessing there was a reason for going 32bit in the first place?

Yes, it was a piece of management software, but we have moved on from that now and use a cloud based one.

Ultimately, they support you, and will have to do as you say - just try to get more information on their suggestion, and then compare the costs for hardware they suggest vs their fees for updating your existing kit; remember there may also be licensing costs to factor in also.

I have 50 licences for Win 7 64 bit (a few less for the 32 bit now ) and the only real software on the machines is MS Office (apart from mine)

The server holds all the data (everyone's docs points there) and is 64 bit already.

Jeez, I could do the installs myself and I know roughly how to reconnect to the domain (haven't done it in a while though). I used to maintain the network a few years ago before we got these guys in, but it was smaller and hadn't been tweaked as much as it is now.

 

[Freakbro]

But thanks for all the replies, I just wanted to run it past you guys, as you know far more about this than I do

 

[Freakbro]

With outsourced IT support it will never be cheap though. They'll probably do half a job much of the time too.

Nail on head! There's always been something not quite working/finished.

Anyway, to try and answer the multitude of answers, Yes the machines aren't great spec but they don't get worked that hard in general. So I'm surprised how much they struggle at times.

We all use 2 screens and I have Spotify on mine too.(mine is particularly bad) and I may be mistaken but I put all the "not responding" and programs taking ages to open/close as a ram issue (It says 2.9Gb usable) and task manager shows ram maxed a lot of the time. So it felt like a ram issue.

I just thought installing W-64 was going to be the cheap easy option to get extra ram available. Obviously I was wrong

So I was surprised with the answer I received - (And pretty shocked tbh, as it's indicative of our wasteful society if buying 8 pcs is cheaper than reinstalling some software... but that's another discussion!)

What about if I got a cheap video card and sound card, would that free up the cpu, or doesn't it work that way?

 

[Freakbro]

I've just checked and we've had them for 5 years not 2!

So I've had a chat to the manager and we're going to do a rolling replacement program and get some better machines.

So as above with the spec TheOracle just mentioned, should I look for an i3 or i5 with 8gb and an SSD and that will be good to last another few years?

One thing you can try in the interim is to disable visual themes in Windows. I’ve noticed recently on some Windows 7 PCs that they’ve been adversely affecting performance, causing similar issues to what you’ve described. It’s unlikely to completely resolve your issues, but it might make things more usable for the time being.

Thanks, I found a guide to turn off some of the more intensive processes and it seems a little snappier.