screen does not come on

[Guest]

I called the 800 number yesterday, gave my personal info, and then was told that an RMA specialist would call me back, date not given.
My packaging was in good shape, I don't think that's it. This is a computer that can be dropped and still work, remember ? I doubt if the unit was tested before leaving the factory.
I think this forum is shattering the myth of the OLPC project.

[Richard A. Smith]

Anonymous wrote:

Got a DOA machine here, too.

I followed all power variations suggested and I'm getting the same results as the folks above.

Question: is this problem one of manufacturing or hardware? Or is this something that happened due to jostling during shipping? I ask because the packaging seemed fairly flimsy.

The DOA issue is still unknown. However, A DOA unit was delivered to a
person local in Boston and it was brought to 1cc (OLPC headquaters).
Its sitting there waiting for me to begin failure analysis.

As I write this I'm in an an airport headed back to Boston. Weather
permitting, I'll be back in Boston tonight and first thing tomorrow I'll
dig into it.

We have had 1 report of the battery for the RTC clock popping out during
shipping. If that is what is happening then it could be shorting out
all kinds of stuff on the PCB.

I'll report back when I know more info.

--
Richard Smith <richard@laptop.org>
One Laptop Per Child
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[Richard A. Smith]

Anonymous wrote:

My packaging was in good shape, I don't think that's it. This is a
computer that can be dropped and still work, remember ? I doubt if
the unit was tested before leaving the factory.

Units are 100% tested as they leave the factory. I've spent a
considerable amount of time @ the factory making sure they are. I
assure you that solving/understanding the DOA issue is one of my top
priorities.

I think this forum is
shattering the myth of the OLPC project.

I think statements like this are not likely to further you request for
help. I for one take them personally.

--
Richard Smith <richard@laptop.org>
One Laptop Per Child
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[Jase]

I just wanted to add that my DOA XO laptop does the same as Matt91's:

Hi -


1) Battery only

no battery LED flash when booting
power LED lights after pressing power button; goes off when pressed again

2) Power only

brief battery LED flash when cord inserted
no battery LED flash when power button pressed
power LED lights after pressing power button; goes off when pressed again

3) Battery + power

battery LED lit (yellow or green)
(no additional battery LED flash when power button pressed)
power LED lights after pressing power button; goes off when pressed again

[matt91]

So, I saw this item in the volunteer 'staff meeting' minutes posted here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Support_meetings

>Announcement forthcoming about some motherboard batteries popping out during shipping / dropping, due to bad battery holder. Coincidentally, firmware update will help. Expect formal announcement later, clarifying impact etc.

Is this related to our DOA XO's?

[Charles Jacks]

Since you can take them apart without voiding the warranty, you might think about taking it apart and seeing if something came lose in shipping.
Probably quicker and cheaper than returning it if you are successfull.

[matt91]

Since you can take them apart without voiding the warranty, you might think about taking it apart and seeing if something came lose in shipping.
Probably quicker and cheaper than returning it if you are successfull.

Ya know, I hadn't even thought of opening it up -- assuming that I would be voiding the warranty.

It was pretty easy to open the case (following this and this).

I was delighted to see that the battery was slightly askew


But, alas, reseating it (and checking every connection I could) did nothing. I still have the same behavior. (I didn't have a voltmeter handy to check to see if the battery was still good; I'm just hoping it is!)

Oh well, I'll call in for an RMA tomorrow.
Matt

[Jase]

I was delighted to see that the battery was slightly askew. But, alas, reseating it (and checking every connection I could) did nothing.

Well, according to the FAQ, having the battery become unseated can "brick" the laptop:

Do NOT remove the watch battery on the motherboard if you disassemble your machine

[Jase]

I was delighted to see that the battery was slightly askew. But, alas, reseating it (and checking every connection I could) did nothing.

Well, according to the FAQ, having the battery become unseated can "brick" the laptop:

[quote="OLPC FAQ"]
Do NOT remove the watch battery on the motherboard if you disassemble your machine

[Guest]

So when the battery goes dead the machine becomes unusable? That doesn't sound great, but I suppose a lithium battery should last several years. According to the FAQ, that's only prior to the Q2D07 version of firmware. How can you tell which version of the firmware you have?

I was delighted to see that the battery was slightly askew. But, alas, reseating it (and checking every connection I could) did nothing.

Well, according to the FAQ, having the battery become unseated can "brick" the laptop:

Do NOT remove the watch battery on the motherboard if you disassemble your machine

[Chih-yu Chao]

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/How_to_check_ ... e_versions

HTH,
Chih-yu

On Jan 3, 2008 5:51 PM, Anonymous <community-support@lists.laptop.org> wrote:

So when the battery goes dead the machine becomes unusable? That doesn't sound great, but I suppose a lithium battery should last several years. According to the FAQ, that's only prior to the Q2D07 version of firmware. How can you tell which version of the firmware you have?

matt91 wrote:

I was delighted to see that the battery was slightly askew. But, alas, reseating it (and checking every connection I could) did nothing.

Well, according to the FAQ (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Support_FAQ#D ... arranty.3F), having the battery become unseated can "brick" the laptop:


OLPC FAQ wrote:

Do NOT remove the watch battery on the motherboard if you disassemble your machine

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[matt91]

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/How_to_check_the_OS_and_firmware_versions

HTH,
Chih-yu

That's difficult to perform on a DOA unit, though.

Perhaps someone could just tell us what firmware shipped on the G1G1 units.

Matt

[matt91]

Assuming that the firmware in question was included in the G1G1 units (I searched for a minute or two and didn't find it, but I'm sure it's posted somewhere), this really appears to have been the problem:

From http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Firmware_q2d07:

If, when you try to power on your system, the green power light comes on, but the screen doesn't light up, it is probably because of this bug. Unless you have one of the special serial debugging adapters (available only to select developers because we don't have any more of them), your only option is to return the machine for repair/replacement.

This is exactly the problem we are experiencing (power light, but that's all). And taken together with the fact that I know my battery wasn't seated well (see photo above), it appears that I/we were bitten by this firmware bug.

This leads me to another thought...how many other G1G1 units (with the 'bad' firmware) have a battery just waiting to pop out and brick the units?

edit: It does appear that the G1G1 units have the suspect firmware. From another post:

Yeah, all of the G1G1 donors probably get their machines from the same mass-produced batch, shipped with Q2D06 and build 650.

[Richard A. Smith]

matt91 wrote:

This is exactly the problem we are experiencing (power light, but
that's all). And taken together with the fact that I know my battery
wasn't seated well (see photo above), it appears that I/we were
bitten by this firmware bug.

This leads me to another thought...how many other G1G1 units (with
the 'bad' firmware) have a battery just waiting to pop out and brick
the units?

I've been preparing my "official" post on this but since you seem to
have all the pieces stuck together I'll just respond in this thread.

I finished a root cause failure analysis on the DOA laptop I received.
The cause is indeed due to the RTC battery coming loose.

On laptops with system firmware <=Q2D06 if the clock gets cleared a
value of zero in the month value causes the firmware to stop early
on in the boot process. So the laptop boots but never gets to a point
where the user can see any visible activity.

Unfortunately the only way you can recover from this is to disassemble
the XO, attach a serial connection to the serial debug port and set the
clock manually.

[Or You might be able to power up the XO and wait 31 days until the
month value changes from 0 to 1, but I doubt anyone wants to do that]

Attaching a serial port requires you to have a 3.3V TTL to serial
adapter and the special small connector to mate with the connector thats
on the motherboard.

Unless you are a electrically inclined I don't recommend it as the
recovery method. If you have the "no screen" or DOA problem then I
suggest you RMA the laptop.

The root cause of the battery coming loose is that one of the suppliers
of the battery connector had a factory with a mold that was worn out and
had not been replaced.

Based on all the data we have right now we think that less than 500 XO's
were affected. Knowing a more exact number is difficult. We think that
all of the affected XO's went to the G1G1 program.

Laptops with Q2D07 does not have the page fault problem. We fixed the
RTC bug by then. The mold problem was also found an fixed by the
manufacturer fairly quickly. There is a small window of overlap where
the XO's got Q2D06 firmware _and_ a mix of bad/good connectors.
Those are the laptops that have a chance of turning into a brick if the
battery comes loose.

If you have Q2D07 all that happens is that you lose your date. Which is
easy to fix.

My recommendation for the community is to first upgrade your system
firmware to Q2D07. (Procedure below) That will keep you from ending up
as a brick.

Then if you find that you are constantly losing the system date then to
disassemble your laptop re-seat the battery and add a bit of hot glue on
the edge of the connector to keep the battery in place.

The procedure for upgrading your firmware is:

1. Make sure your battery is charged
2. Plug up the XO on external power
3. Open the Terminal activity
4. wget http://dev.laptop.org/pub/firmware/q2d07/bootfw.zip
5. su -
6. cp bootfw.zip /versions/boot/current/boot/
7. reboot

The laptop will then reboot twice more on it own. Once to enable
writing to the flash and then a 2nd time after its done updating.

step 4 can also come from a USB key if you don't have networking available

Steps 1 and 2 are NOT optional. The XO will not upgrade system firmware
unless it has a battery and external power. To do unsafe firmware
upgrades you have to have developer key. If you lose power during a
firmware upgrade you will brick the laptop.

Rather than try to find out what firmware you have I would just do the
upgrade and not worry about what version was there previously. The XO
will only upgrade the system firmware if it finds that the current
version is earlier than whats in bootfw.zip

You can also just wait for Update.1. Update.1 will have Q2D08
(unreleased as of now) system firmware.

If you wish to verify that you have really upgraded your firmware then
open up the terminal activity and:

cat /ofw/openprom/model

You should see the string "CL1 Q2D07 Q2D"

Thanks.

--
Richard Smith <richard@laptop.org>
One Laptop Per Child

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[matt91]

Thanks for the informative post, Richard.

I appreciate knowing what the root cause is.

Matt

PS Any idea if Brightstar will be repairing our XOs (with the aforementioned serial cable) or if we'll just be getting a new one?