London Laptop Donation Drive - get involved here

Hi James
Thank You for the update and look forward to helping out where I can.
P.S. If this would help I can repair Laptop mother board ‘Ports’ i.e. USB connectors, tactile switches, earphone connectors power connectors etc.
Having a professional hotair rework station, just havn’t practiced on any large SMD chips and the like :frowning: Hence not offering to repair board level componets as such.
Not that I keep a stock, Only purchased odds and ends to repair my own equipment.

Hello
Happy to be involved. I’m in Kennington SE11
Chris

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I’m happy to help with this effort as well, particularly with software/OS issues and ultimately looking to get better versed in laptop & phone/tablet hardware repair as well. I’m located in N1 near Dalston Junction station. I’ve been to a Hackney Restart Party in Feb 2020 though mostly observed & assisted Jamie during that event.

Joe

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Hi, I’m happy to help as needed. I’m more enthusiam than skill but I can do software/OS issues. Thanks

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Hi All

I am richard and I am in the process of restarting a CIC in Colchester in essex, with the objective being to serve colchester with a point of entry to aquiring desktop/laptop computers to offer to families here in colchester that do not have access to a PC for their children to be able to work remotely from home.

I would be very interested also in the laptop donation drive…and wonder if there are any plans to extend this outside of the London area’s??

I am here to gain as much info as I can to enable me to better serve my community here in colchester, essex.

I am more than happy to volunteer my time and prepare these units for donation across colchester and north essex as required.

kind regards

rick king

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Hi everyone and welcome to new posters :wave:

Another update. Thanks to sterling work from @Vanessa_Ternes and others, the laptop repair helpdesk is now up and running and the first repairs are underway :tada:

We’ve already approached a few of you to trial the system this week. But as I mentioned in the last update, for now we’re only inviting volunteers who live within 5 miles of a partner organisation and who we know well through our community events or who were already involved in this work last year. This is while we test the system, work through some legal and liability issues and work to scale everything up.

In the meantime, everyone else can keep an eye on the Repair Help category. This is where volunteers already involved are encouraged to ask for help if they encounter any particularly tricky issues. Please feel free to offer advice there if you can help.

:bell: If you’d like to receive an email notification when someone creates a post in that category, you can customise your notification settings by clicking the bell icon at the top of the category page:

We hope to involve as many people as possible to make sure we can fix as many devices as we can. But as we’re discovering, due to logistical and legal issues, there may be some limits to the opportunities we can offer as part of this project. As before, I’ll be sure to post updates to this topic as we work our way through these challenges.

Thank you all for your offers of help and for your patience :pray:
James

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We’re going great guns in St Albans and district!

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That’s great @philip we’ve got this initiative on our national list

Where to donate your computer to local people: community reuse projects in the UK - The Restart Project

Hi everyone and thank you for your interest in the project :wave:

Now that a group of volunteers is busy repairing and the first laptops have been fixed and returned to Catbytes already, we are looking to expand the project.

Currently, we are looking for help with the following:

Help needed on site at Mer-IT, Islington :hammer_and_wrench:

Our friends at Mer-IT are currently receiving large numbers of donations and hope to get them out to beneficiaries quickly. They are looking for volunteers who can help on their premises with:
• bulk data wiping
• OS installs and occasional laptop repairs

Ideally, volunteers should be able to help out at Mer-IT’s headquarters in Finsbury Business Center, EC1R for one day per week. Full training and PPE will be provided. Covid safety is essential, and please be assured we are taking all precautions to make this work safe.

To help or ask further questions, message me or get in touch directly with @Mercedes .

Remote help with software issues :computer:

Sometimes, organisations run into problems when booting or installing a new OS. We are looking for volunteers who can help troubleshooting remotely. Volunteers need experience with
• different OS and various boot and installation problems
• the ability to have video calls with the donation scheme
• good communication skills to guide them remotely

This role is still in development - time commitments will depend on your preference and the needs of our partner organisations.

To help or find out more, please message me here (@Vanessa_Ternes)

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Hi Vanessa,

I could do one day a week at FBC helping Mer-IT with laptops.

Robin

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Hi Vanessa
I’ve been thinking about the chance to work at FBC on a day a week basis, however at this time I think I’d prefer to offer help remotely, on software issues, I appreciate this is still being developed, but would feel safer without the travelling, and can work with MER-IT or others at times that suite us both.

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@Robin_Hiley and @Graham_Rolle Thank you very much for this! I’ll send you both a message with more details. :slight_smile: