Where to get FHC computers upgraded

Hello, Please bare with me I am a new Assistant Stake Clerk - Technology Specialist. And I am also over FHCenters. Who did you go through to get computers to be upgraded with? Our Stake Presidency was unsure as well, and the FHC I am most concerned with has 3 pc's 2 vista machines with a meg of memory at max. and the one not vista is XP and all three are donated machines that are driving our users away from the FHC and this does not help the mission of the Church in any way.

Sorry no rant meant, just if you have a direction to point me in it would be great.

Br Townsend

[Moderator note: This thread was split from the Heads up on FHC image now shipping thread because the topics are different. Please follow the Code of Conduct which states, "Do not start a new topic in an existing thread; instead start a new thread."]

The discussion in the thread Comprehensive source for FHC policies/procedures? may be helpful.

FHC has their own support channel. You can call them at 1-866-406-1830 or visit https://help.familysearch.org/help/contact (you may need to log in to see the page).

As STS I just ordered new (well, refurbished, not new) machines for one of the FHCs in the stake - all I had to do was complete a form specifying what was needed and get the stake president's signature. Finally the Vectra running Windows 98 will be going away.

search the site for cascaded computers - New computers are controlled by the FHC and they and only they determine when you get one.

The process for getting a cascaded computer is where a university or other church entity has replaced a bunch of their own computers (because they are really old) - those really old computers are shipped out to you to have nice, new computers, but are likely better than what you have.

I wouldn't expect a whole lot with the cascaded computers.

To influence the FS deptarment, you should get them an active floorplan of your center (if you haven't already done it) - Your directors should be logging their monthly report online. patrons is a big reason you can jump to the head of the line. also make sure your computers are communicating correctly with SLC - have all the right tools, etc...

Last week, I sent a Hardware and Software Order Form and a check to FamilySearch Support for Windows 7 licenses ($71.60 each). Today, they called me to say that much has changed, effective 1 Feb 2014.

The cost for Windows 7 licenses is now only $7.00, and they will pay that cost, along with the cost of memory upgrades (2 GB is needed to run Windows 7). All we need to do is send them a Hardware and Software Order Form that lists the make, model, and memory size of each FHC computer we want to upgrade to Windows 7.

The form should also list the older computers that need to be replaced by cascaded computers. Those are generally the single-core processor computers, which can't be upgraded to 2 GB memory.

Also, with the change in Windows 7 licenses, they are finishing up a new Windows 7 FHC image DVD, which includes all current Windows updates, and will not ask you to enter the product code from the license key during installation. All we need to do is ensure FamilySearch Support knows how many Windows 7 upgrade licenses we are using.

Here is the PDF for the Hardware and Software Order Form.
https://help.familysearch.org/kb/fhc_di ... ftware.pdf