RE: 3M Self-Check 6210--hints, tips or tricks to making it more reliable?

["William Gray" <wgray at greenwichlibrary dot org>]

That's a neat idea--I'll definitely look into it.

Thanks,

--Will 

-----Original Message-----
From: innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org
[mailto:innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org] On Behalf Of Todd Humble
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 9:09 AM
To: IUG INNOPAC List
Subject: RE: 3M Self-Check 6210--hints,tips or tricks to making it more
reliable?

Use one of the rollup keyboards and leave it inside the cabinet.

If you haven't seen these they are made of rubber and can be rolled into
a tube shape.

 Not sure if it would fit in, but they only cost about $20.00 to give it
a try.  We leave our mouse inside all the time.

 

Todd J. Humble

www.library.nrhtx.com <http://www.library.nrhtx.com/> 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: William Gray [mailto:wgray at greenwichlibrary dot org]
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 11:31 AM
To: IUG INNOPAC List
Subject: RE: 3M Self-Check 6210--hints,tips or tricks to making it more
reliable?

 

Hi Jan,

 

Sounds like a handy setup. I'll take a look to see if we can do the

same, but offhand I don't believe we have room in the machines to do

this. We do have cabinets below our machines, but the keyboards aren't

likely to reach, and if they did, I know some of our younger and more

curious patrons might start playing with the cables.

 

Now I'm wondering if wireless might be viable...

 

Thanks again,

 

--Will 

 

-----Original Message-----

From: innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org

[mailto:innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org] On Behalf Of Jan Sapp

Sent: Friday, February 11, 2005 1:26 PM

To: IUG INNOPAC List

Subject: RE: 3M Self-Check 6210--hints,tips or tricks to making it more

reliable?

 

We also had lots of problems with the keyboards--pins breaking, etc.  I

finally solved the problem by leaving the keyboards plugged in and

putting them in the cabinet below the machines.  The cables are just

long enough to be able to pull the keyboards out and place them on the

cabinet for use when needed.

 

Jan Sapp

Electronic Resource Coordinator

Carrollton Public Library

972-466-3591

jan dot sapp at cityofcarrollton dot com

 

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----

From: innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org

[mailto:innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org] On Behalf Of William Gray

Sent: Friday, February 11, 2005 12:05 PM

To: IUG INNOPAC List

Subject: RE: 3M Self-Check 6210--hints,tips or tricks to making it more

reliable?

 

 

Thanks for the tips.  I was actually going to try for a USB keyboard

(mostly since other staff who have tried plugging in the ps/2 keyboard

managed to break the pins of one keyboard and have almost done in the

second...); unfortunately, since we're using Win95 on both SelfChecks,

USB is pretty much out of the question without a bit of a software

workaround (Win95 doesn't support USB), the installation of which would

probably violate the warranty.  But we do keep the keyboard handy.

 

Thanks again,

 

--Will

 

-----Original Message-----

From: innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org

[mailto:innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org] On Behalf Of John Kenny

Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 3:25 PM

To: IUG INNOPAC List

Subject: RE: 3M Self-Check 6210--hints,tips or tricks to making it more

reliable?

 

Will,

In general I agree with your rant.  We've had lots of problems with our

6210 machines including the thermal print units and their very finicky

paper feeding mechanism.

 

One good tip...use a USB keyboard.  With a USB keyboard you can keep

your keyboard close by and connect it without having to reboot your

machine.  This saves a tremendous amount of time...because our machines

take a long time to come back up.

 

Another tip is to make sure that your system is setup for SIP II.  If

you are experiencing lots of problems it might be a good idea to check

with the III HelpDesk and see if you are actually using SIP II.

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----

From: William Gray [mailto:wgray at greenwichlibrary dot org]

Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 8:30 AM

To: IUG INNOPAC List

Subject: 3M Self-Check 6210--hints,tips or tricks to making it more

reliable?

 

 

This will come off as a bit of a rant, and I apologize in advance (not

to 3M though)... If you feel you must skip the rant portion, I've

delineated the non-rant portion toward the bottom. The following are my

experiences and opinions in terms of operating and maintaining the

machines, and should in no way be considered the official stance of my

library (just the guy who has to fix them all the time).

 

And just in case you're wondering, I'm no newbie when it comes to

computers--I've been using them since I was in fifth grade, and I am an

A+ Certified Professional (PC technician). If there was an obvious

solution to the following problems, I like to think I would have seen

it.

 

***Rant on***

For the few years we've had our 3M 6210 SelfCheck machines, they have

been very undependable. I'm talking about frequent program freezes,

paper jams, items failing to check out (when there's nothing wrong with

them), etc.

 

Just now I was in the middle of giving a patron a tutorial on using the

machines; I had to skip our first machine because the start screen was

frozen and would not respond to keypresses (I later restarted the

program). With the second machine, we managed to check out her first 3

books okay, then the machine indicated a problem with the fourth book

(nothing very descriptive, mind you, just "bring it to the desk"). So, I

go to check the item out to the patron using a Millennium session, and

there's nothing wrong with the book at all.  This happens a *lot*.

 

Never mind that one machine has had 3 (perhaps 4--I've lost count)

computers swapped through it because each one failed for whatever

reason, as well as three printers (also, could be 4...) because of

printer hardware failures. If that machine was a car, it would be a

lemon, and after all our complaints about it a reputable dealer would

have replaced the whole machine (yes, we have a current service

agreement).  One machine came with Windows 95; the other we got later

and it came with Win2K. The Win2K version crashed about 5 times as often

as the Win95, so we had that machine downgraded to Win95, which reduced

the number of crashes significantly.

 

We've followed 3M recommendations, i.e. shut the machines down at night

and start them again in the morning--I did this for a number of weeks,

and it resolved nothing.

 

To top it all off, at the IUG last year, when I (as well as some of you)

were attending a session on getting the most from our 3M SelfChecks, one

of you indicated some of the problems you'd had with your machine(s).

Then another spoke up, and another, and I did as well. At which point,

the 3M rep in the room stood up and asked for people's names and contact

info so he could follow up with all of us and resolve our problems. Were

any of you ever contacted? Because I sure as heck wasn't.

 

The 3M-designated service people who come out to fix the problems I

can't (or am not allowed to) fix, are great. I have no quarrel with them

or their abilities. But 3M corporate seems to care less now that they

have our money. After every time I have to place a service call, I end

up getting one of those "how are we doing" surveys and I give high marks

for the service people and low ones for the equipment. I've been

contacted once by a 3M sales rep, who wasn't able to do anything for us.

We're talking 3-4 years here. ***Rant off***

 

My question now, is, have any of you (who have had the same types of

problems with their machines) come up with any fixes or workarounds to

get them to work more dependably? If so, I'd love to hear from you (you

may want to post to the list so we can all benefit). As it stands, we've

been trying to encourage more use of the machines, but I can see that

all it's going to do is cause more problems for our patrons (and us) if

they have to come to desk staff every time they go to use one of the

machines because the machines failed in one way or another.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

--Will

 

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