OAL - Support

Support

Support Staff

Support staff are available in staffed Open Access Labs (OALs). Staffed OALs are located in the Student Computing Center (SCC), Blocker Building, and West Campus Library (WCL). To view hours of operation, please see the Daily Lab Hours.

IT Self Service

If support staff are not available, please visit IT Self Service to request help, search supporting documentation and reach other services. Their online IT Chat is available every day from 8 AM-12 Midnight.

Help Desk Central

Help Desk Central (HDC) answers computing questions any time, day or night, 365 days a year. HDC is open from 8 AM-12 Midnight and is located in the DPC/Computing Services Annex, Room 104. If you need help outside of these hours, please call 979.845.8300 or email helpdesk@tamu.edu, or visit hdc.tamu.edu.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Accounts

When do graduate students have Open Access Lab (OAL) access?

When do instructors have OAL access?

When do undergraduate students have OAL access?

What can I do if I am having problems with my account?

Printing

Do student fees pay for printing?

Student fees pay for much more than printing! They helps pay for equipment in the Open Access Labs. The fees also fund full and part-time workers, networking and other infrastructure costs that are part of providing an up-to-date computing environment for Texas A&M University students, faculty and staff. A small portion is allocated for student printing allocations. Each student gets $30 in printing per full semester and $15 for the summer.

How do I keep track of printing charges and print allocation?

How much does printing cost?

Does my printing allocation include the cover page that shows my login ID?

Why do we have cover pages?

What happens if my print job fails?

If your print job becomes corrupted, or if the print quality is poor due to some malfunction of the OAL printers, you may request a refund for your print job. You will need to fill out a Print Refund Request form (http://oal.tamu.edu/Printing/#0-PrintRefundRequest), which can be obtained from the print counter staff or online. Attach the printout to the refund request and turn it in to the print counter staff. If you are requesting a refund because your print job did not print, you can use https://aggieprint.tamu.edu to determine the information needed on the refund request.

What happens if I accidentally print?

Accidentally sending a job to the printer is not a valid printing excuse for receiving credit for the print job. For all print jobs less than 100 pages, the print job will be charged to your account. Print jobs exceeding 100 pages will be paused in the print queue and can be cancelled by you or OAL print operators.

What about the printing I do between semesters?

What about double-sided printing (duplexing)?

The charge for duplex black-and-white pages will be slightly lower than that for single-sided pages. Duplexing conserves paper, but uses as much toner as single-sided printing. Additionally, their impact on printer maintenance fees is about the same as single-sided pages because duplex sheets must pass through the same printer path as single-sided pages.

What is my printing allocation for the summer? Is it split out per summer session?

What happens if I don't pick up what I've printed?

What happens if I exceed my allocated funds for printing?

Plotter

How can I make sure my plot will print correctly?

What type of paper should I specify to plot my file?

How do I get my file to plot after I send it?

Where can I print large (over 100 pages), color, or large format (11" x 17") print jobs?

How do I map additional printers?

Where can I provide feedback about the OALs?

How does a patron activate their NetID?

What if a patron has a NetID but cannot log in to an OAL Computer?

If they are a staff member, they might need to activate their account. They should visit Manage OAL Account and log in with their NetID and password. Then, they should choose Activate Account in the upper left and then again in the middle of the next screen. Once the account is enabled (it will state Account is enabled), have them log off and wait up to 15 minutes then try to log in again. If there is a problem, call Help Desk Central to report.

How do I help someone who forgot their password?

Troubleshooting

What do I do when a computer doesn't work properly?

What if a computer is locked so that nobody can log in?

What if someone cannot log off?

What do I do if someone wants their laptop set up for TAMULink wireless?

How do I help a patron who has lost work or a file?

If the loss is due to a power outage, most installed programs have an auto recovery system. Have the patron log back into the same computer. You can also have them restore their home drive by choosing Start Button > Utilities > Home Drive Restore. If all else fails, refer them to a lab or call Help Desk Central at 979.845.8300 to open a trouble ticket. Backups, or Snapshots, are taken frequently.

Where do I check to see if a software title is installed on an OAL computer?

How does a patron save their work?

If a patron has an OAL account, they have a Home Drive. All work saved to their Desktop or My Documents saves to the patron's Home Drive. Anything saved to the C: drive will be lost when logging off the computer. Thumb or key drives, CDs, DVDs, etc. may also be used. If a patron does not have an OAL account (guest, unallocated staff) they will not have a Home Drive and must save to some type of removable media such as an external hard drive, thumb/key drive, CD, DVD, etc.

Support

When do graduate students have Open Access Lab (OAL) access?

When do instructors have OAL access?

When do undergraduate students have OAL access?

What can I do if I am having problems with my account?

Do student fees pay for printing?

How do I keep track of printing charges and print allocation?

How much does printing cost?

Does my printing allocation include the cover page that shows my login ID?

Why do we have cover pages?

What happens if my print job fails?

What happens if I accidentally print?

What about the printing I do between semesters?

What about double-sided printing (duplexing)?

What is my printing allocation for the summer? Is it split out per summer session?

What happens if I don't pick up what I've printed?

What happens if I exceed my allocated funds for printing?

How can I make sure my plot will print correctly?

What type of paper should I specify to plot my file?

How do I get my file to plot after I send it?

Where can I print large (over 100 pages), color, or large format (11" x 17") print jobs?

How do I map additional printers?

Where can I provide feedback about the OALs?

How does a patron activate their NetID?

What if a patron has a NetID but cannot log in to an OAL Computer?

How do I help someone who forgot their password?

What do I do when a computer doesn't work properly?

What if a computer is locked so that nobody can log in?

What if someone cannot log off?

What do I do if someone wants their laptop set up for TAMULink wireless?

How do I help a patron who has lost work or a file?

Where do I check to see if a software title is installed on an OAL computer?

How does a patron save their work?

Who prints to which printers?

How do I map additional printers?

How can a student check their printing allocation?

How does a patron print large (over 100 pages), color or large format ( 11x17, plots) print jobs ?

How do I report missing, unreadable, unwanted printouts?