Hardware
This short-term memory is measured in GB, and we need at least 4GB of it.
What is RAM?
A 6-year-old laptop with 8GB RAM and a 128GB drive.
Accept
When a laptop first arrives, you stick one of these on it so it can't get mixed up.
What is a label?
This gap between people who have computers and internet and people who don't is what we're shrinking.
What is the digital divide?
This kind of drive has no moving parts and is fast. The older kind spins.
What is an SSD?
A 12-year-old laptop with 16GB RAM that works perfectly.
Reject: over 10 years old
To see if it works at all, you plug in the charger and press this.
What is the power button?
This nonprofit, WCE for short, receives our working laptops.
What is World Computer Exchange?
The last triage step is to do this on the docs site.
What is log the result?
This three-letter part is the processor, the laptop's brain.
What is the CPU?
A 4-year-old laptop with 2GB RAM.
Reject: under the 4GB minimum
To be accepted, a laptop must be no older than this many years and have at least this much RAM.
What is 10 years and 4GB?
Before a laptop leaves us, we do this to the drive to protect the donor's data.
What is wiping (erasing) it?
Before asking someone for help, you should check here.
What is the docs website?
These two names, one older and one newer, describe the built-in startup software that runs before the OS loads.
What are BIOS and UEFI?
A 9-year-old laptop with exactly 4GB RAM, a 32GB drive, and a dead battery.
Accept: meets the age and RAM minimums, 64GB storage is only ideal, and the battery makes it a Fix
Once the drive is wiped, you put this on the laptop so someone can actually use it.
What is Linux (or Ubuntu)?
Give the full name behind the letters SPEC.
What is Students Providing Electronics Club?
Name one key you can press while a laptop starts up to get into the BIOS.
Any of F2, Delete, F10, or F12 (it varies by brand)
This small coin-style battery on the motherboard keeps the clock and BIOS settings when the laptop is unplugged.
What is the CMOS battery?
A laptop that is exactly 10 years old, with 4GB RAM and a working battery.
Accept: it's not over 10 years old, and it meets the RAM minimum
Name three things you try out on a laptop after the OS is installed.
Any three of: keyboard, screen, ports, Wi-Fi, speakers, battery
Our club refurbishes donated laptops, then hands them to this organization, which ships them to schools and communities with limited access.
What is World Computer Exchange?
Name one BIOS setting you must check or change on every laptop.
Date and time set correctly, or safe boot (Secure Boot) turned off