Faulty computers delayed enrollment Monday for hundreds of Kansas University students.

Officials had the computers running again by 3:30 p.m., but by that time hundreds of students lined the halls of Strong Hall, waiting for their turn to pick classes.

Kansas university students line up to enroll for fall semester classes at Strong Hall. More than 600 KU students had to wait a bit longer than usual for their turn to enroll Monday because of computer problems that started Sunday.

“It’s like harvest time in the wheat season and the combines broke,” said Richard Morrell, university registrar. “You never know when equipment’s going to fail on you, and it always seems to fail at the most inopportune time.”

Morrell said about 300 new graduate students were scheduled to begin enrolling at 8 a.m. Monday, with 300 more new undergraduates enrolling in the afternoon. Enrollment was supposed to be complete by 5 p.m.

After the breakdown, Morrell said he expected all the students to be through enrollment by 9 p.m. Monday. That would put the enrollment office back on schedule today.

KU officials realized there was a computer problem about 5 a.m. Sunday, Morrell said. At first they thought the problem was limited to two hard drives on the department’s mainframe computer. However, they also had to replace two computer data cards, which didn’t arrive until Monday afternoon.

Morrell said the data was backed up, so no information was lost. But time was lost for the 600 students who had to wait their turn in line.

Bobby Bierley, a Topeka sophomore, drew number 314 and expected to wait hours.

“I was going to go back home and get stuff to move in,” he said. “That’s shot for now.”