Question

A transport logistics company (using trucks) is planning to purchase 30 laptops for its employees.

(i) Explain (in detail) what is meant by the term “total cost of ownership” in this acquisition?

(ii) For support purposes, you are asked to prepare a plan to prevent users from encountering problems (or even misusing) the new laptops. Select five different end user problem types and describe the common issues and preventative measures.

Answer 1

1.) Total Cost of Ownership:

  The total cost of ownership (TCO) is the purchase price of an item and also the costs of operation. In the above scenario it is the cost of buying all 30 laptops and also the cost of maintenance of those laptops in future. The item with the lower total cost of ownership is the better value in the long run.

2.) Problems and their Solution:

1. Problem: Loud fan or heating up followed by shut down. Laptops get moved around a lot. This can lead to limiting air intake to the fan. It also gives them plenty of opportunities to drag dust and foreign particles into their cooling system via their fan portal.

Solution: We need to use  laptop on hard, flat surfaces; Avoid putting it on soft surfaces that may block air passage. Clean out your fan with compressed air.

2.   Problem: Laptop running slowly. This happens quite often and could be related to hard drive space, malware or the first signs of equipment failure.

  Solution: There are lots of ways to try to tackle speed issues like reducing items that run on startup,removing programs no longer in use,cleaning drive,scanning and removal of malware or viruses etc.

3.   Problem: Battery doesn’t last. One of the best features of a laptop is that it’s wireless. But, we live in constant fear of draining our battery and running out of juice, so we are constantly hard on our battery.

  Solution: One of the greatest fixes of all technology is simply to fully drain the energy from it and try again, the computer equivalent of a good night’s sleep.

4.   Problem: No internet. Laptops are notorious for losing connection to the internet, which can be a major hassle. Before assuming some sort of equipment failure, we need to try some basic steps.

Solution: On most laptops, there is an actual wireless button or switch to activate the connection, find it and make sure it’s in the ON position. Then we need to re-boot router, again using the drain the power tactic; we need to unplug router, let all the juice drain out for 10-20 seconds, then plug it back in.

5. Black Screen. We open up our laptop, power it on, hear it running, but the screen is black.

  Solution: We need to unplug the power, remove the battery and then hold the power button for 30 to 60 seconds. Reattach the power cord and re-boot. Then shut down again, put in the battery and re-boot.

These would be some of the end user problems and thier issues with prevantive measures.