Help in repairing our XO 4 Touch laptops
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Kishwer Aziz
Oct 29, 2020, 10:39:07 AM10/29/20
to Unleash Kids!, Community Support Volunteers -- who help respond to help AT laptop.org, Tony Anderson, Younus Zafar
Dear friends,
Hope you are well. Our children have been using their laptops from home over the summer, due to COVID restrictions. Now that they have returned to school, we find some laptops have developed problems.
While we have been able to resolve most issues, I am writing to you to see if you can help us with the remaining two issues:
1. many of the laptop keyboards have a few keys not working, sometimes these are the function keys on the top row for turning up sound, brightness, or changing views etc. As we do not have sufficient number of replacement keyboards, is there a virtual keyboard available for the touch laptops? If so this will allow us use the touch keyboard for these damaged machines. Can you tell us how to install the virtual keyboard?
2. Several of our laptops will not reimage or reflash with Sugar O/S 13.7.2 for XO 4 Build 19. The process stops at the screen below. The help screen is also copied below.
I am not in Pakistan now so helping the teachers remotely. Do you have any advice for us?
Regards
Kishwer Aziz
Mobile/ WhatsApp: +44 7725816209
Skype: kishweraziz
Nathan Riddle
Oct 29, 2020, 12:44:40 PM10/29/20
to Kishwer Aziz, Unleash Kids!, Community Support Volunteers -- who help respond to help AT laptop.org, Tony Anderson, Younus Zafar
Kishwer Aziz,
My suggestion is to run the keyboard diagnostics and repeatedly exercise keys to look for sticking keys, where two keys will light up when one key is pressed.
Are your keyboards membrane or mechanical ?
For membrane keyboards CTRL and Left Shift keys seem to be the most frequent culprit. Something about the manufacturing process sometimes leaves excess glue near these keys. I have been able to repair some of these by removing the excess glue.
A bad solder joint on motherboard or poor connection of keyboard cable can result in a similar bad key code.
Also, suggest trying to load upgrade using firmware fs-update u:\??? , but suspect will also fail if a key is sticking.
I do have some new XO-1.5 membrane keyboards for donation, if a way could be found to get them to you. It is my understanding that it is a compatible replacement for XO-4 keyboard without the grid key separator.
Nathan Riddle
Michigan XO Laptop Community Repair Center
xoa...@xoshare.org
> On 10/29/2020 10:38 AM Kishwer Aziz <kishwe...@banktandd.com> wrote:
>
>
> Dear friends,
>
> Hope you are well. Our children have been using their laptops from home over the summer, due to COVID restrictions. Now that they have returned to school, we find some laptops have developed problems.
> While we have been able to resolve most issues, I am writing to you to see if you can help us with the remaining two issues:
>
> 1. many of the laptop keyboards have a few keys not working, sometimes these are the function keys on the top row for turning up sound, brightness, or changing views etc. As we do not have sufficient number of replacement keyboards, is there a virtual keyboard available for the touch laptops? If so this will allow us use the touch keyboard for these damaged machines. Can you tell us how to install the virtual keyboard?
> 2. Several of our laptops will not reimage or reflash with Sugar O/S 13.7.2 for XO 4 Build 19. The process stops at the screen below. The help screen is also copied below.
> I am not in Pakistan now so helping the teachers remotely. Do you have any advice for us?
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> --
> Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Unleash Kids" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to unleashkids...@googlegroups.com.
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>
My suggestion is to run the keyboard diagnostics and repeatedly exercise keys to look for sticking keys, where two keys will light up when one key is pressed.
Are your keyboards membrane or mechanical ?
For membrane keyboards CTRL and Left Shift keys seem to be the most frequent culprit. Something about the manufacturing process sometimes leaves excess glue near these keys. I have been able to repair some of these by removing the excess glue.
A bad solder joint on motherboard or poor connection of keyboard cable can result in a similar bad key code.
Also, suggest trying to load upgrade using firmware fs-update u:\??? , but suspect will also fail if a key is sticking.
I do have some new XO-1.5 membrane keyboards for donation, if a way could be found to get them to you. It is my understanding that it is a compatible replacement for XO-4 keyboard without the grid key separator.
Nathan Riddle
Michigan XO Laptop Community Repair Center
xoa...@xoshare.org
> On 10/29/2020 10:38 AM Kishwer Aziz <kishwe...@banktandd.com> wrote:
>
>
> Dear friends,
>
> Hope you are well. Our children have been using their laptops from home over the summer, due to COVID restrictions. Now that they have returned to school, we find some laptops have developed problems.
> While we have been able to resolve most issues, I am writing to you to see if you can help us with the remaining two issues:
>
> 1. many of the laptop keyboards have a few keys not working, sometimes these are the function keys on the top row for turning up sound, brightness, or changing views etc. As we do not have sufficient number of replacement keyboards, is there a virtual keyboard available for the touch laptops? If so this will allow us use the touch keyboard for these damaged machines. Can you tell us how to install the virtual keyboard?
> 2. Several of our laptops will not reimage or reflash with Sugar O/S 13.7.2 for XO 4 Build 19. The process stops at the screen below. The help screen is also copied below.
> I am not in Pakistan now so helping the teachers remotely. Do you have any advice for us?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
> Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Unleash Kids" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to unleashkids...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/unleashkids/12e201d6ae01%243e57a560%24bb06f020%24%40banktandd.com (https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/unleashkids/12e201d6ae01%243e57a560%24bb06f020%24%40banktandd.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer).
>
T Gillett
Oct 29, 2020, 6:53:06 PM10/29/20
to Kishwer Aziz, Unleash Kids!, Community Support Volunteers -- who help respond to help AT laptop.org, Tony Anderson, Younus Zafar
Hi Kishwer
1. On the assumption that these are XO-4 devices from Australia, then I have a quantity (~25) of replacement keyboards (mechanical, non-membrane) that I am happy to donate.
Please contact me to arrange shipping if this is of interest.
2. If you think the keyboard may be affecting the re-flashing process, you might try removing the keyboard completely and then flashing the device.
Regards
Terry
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Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !
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Kishwer Aziz
Oct 30, 2020, 11:41:12 AM10/30/20
to Nathan Riddle, Unleash Kids!, Community Support Volunteers -- who help respond to help AT laptop.org, Tony Anderson, Younus Zafar
Nathan,
Our keyboards for the XO4 from Australia have mechanical keyboard not membrane. Any advise for those? It’s the top row that is not working for a few.
Does silence on the topic of virtual keyboard mean the XO 4 has no digital or virtual keyboard?
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/unleashkids/242930141.68577.1603989876420%40email.ionos.com.
Our keyboards for the XO4 from Australia have mechanical keyboard not membrane. Any advise for those? It’s the top row that is not working for a few.
Does silence on the topic of virtual keyboard mean the XO 4 has no digital or virtual keyboard?
Nancie Severs
Oct 30, 2020, 2:28:24 PM10/30/20
to James Cameron, Unleash Kids!, Kishwer.Aziz
Hi James!
I don't know if you are still see this email address but if so, hello & I hope that you are well! I'm forwarding Kishwer's email to you with questions about some of the XO-4 laptops that need repairs in Pakistan. These laptops originated in AU. Her Pakistan project received was a huge gift of them (I think 6000?) and during the Covid lockdowns, the children have been taking them home to use for learning at home. That alone, warms my heart.
I'm sure you can advise Kishwer if you think a firmware update is needed, and answer her question about a resource for a virtual keyboard.
All the best to you and yours,
Nancie:)
Nancie G. Severs
Treasure Each Day
Treasure Each Day
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Ellen Zimmerman
Oct 30, 2020, 4:13:29 PM10/30/20
to Unleash Kids
Hello,
I have about 12 XO-1's that I am trying to find out what to do with. Can someone tell me if there is still a need for these or how best to recycle them? Thank you!
Ellen Zimmerman
Janissa Balcomb
Oct 31, 2020, 1:25:11 PM10/31/20
to Unleash Kids
Ellen Zimmerman:
Are they working and do they have functional batteries?
Contact Laptops to Lesotho at laptopst...@gmail.com. They are still using XO-1s.
If your XOs aren't working, they may still be interested in having them for parts.
Janissa Balcomb
Ellen Zimmerman
Oct 31, 2020, 8:46:31 PM10/31/20
to Janissa Balcomb, Unleash Kids
Thank you!
Ellen
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T Gillett
Nov 12, 2020, 2:25:51 AM11/12/20
to Kishwer Aziz, Unleash Kids!, Community Support Volunteers -- who help respond to help AT laptop.org
The following information about the Virtual keyboard facility is courtesy of James Cameron.
The keyboard is available when the XO is folded into the "tablet" configuration.
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Virtual keyboard is activated by tapping on a text input widget while the display is rotated and folded back.
A magnet and sensor detects this configuration.
Software component is called maliit.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_notes/13.1.0
"Tablet mode (where the laptop screen is rotated around and folded down, physically obscuring the keyboard and mouse) is very usable with a touchscreen - especially with the work we've put in. When in tablet mode, if you select a text input area, an on-screen keyboard will pop up: touch the keys to type away as normal. We've also taken some initial steps to make sure that the region of the screen where you are typing is made visible if it would otherwise be obscured by the on-screen keyboard. "
A magnet and sensor detects this configuration.
Software component is called maliit.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_notes/13.1.0
"Tablet mode (where the laptop screen is rotated around and folded down, physically obscuring the keyboard and mouse) is very usable with a touchscreen - especially with the work we've put in. When in tablet mode, if you select a text input area, an on-screen keyboard will pop up: touch the keys to type away as normal. We've also taken some initial steps to make sure that the region of the screen where you are typing is made visible if it would otherwise be obscured by the on-screen keyboard. "
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