Support
Getting Started, Troubleshooting Resources
- Learn about your XO laptop and what it can do here: http://laptop.org/start
- Download a copy of the Getting Started Guide.
- For common problems, please check our Troubleshooting Guide.
- If your XO laptop was damaged—and you received it through the Give1Get program—please call 800-201-7144.
- Check our Support FAQ, which is our brand-new and quickly growing "Knowledge Base" of users' Frequently Asked Questions.
Check the Give1Get1 FAQ for "customer service" (really Donor Services) questions.
Check the longer Ask OLPC a Question for a wider range of answers, as well as the more general Official OLPC FAQ.
- If you are stuck, please email us at "help AT laptop.org"; make sure to include a detailed description of your problem! We apologize for the current multi-day delay in responding to some emails, as we staff up volunteers. Contact "holt AT laptop.org" if you want to join our Community Support Volunteers, either in-person in Cambridge, Massachusetts or online -- include your talents, motivations and a phone number to apply, thanks!
- Join our community forums—below—for more direct participation and responses.
Community/Live Support
XO laptop owners are passionate about helping each other, in keeping with OLPC's constructionist learning mission within developing countries. You too can learn about the XO and its activities, collaborating on the issues that matter to you most, by exploring OLPC's many great community forums:
- Please join our Live Chat on the web! Advanced users can download IRC chat software and explore many OLPC chat channels.
You can also access IRC on your XO laptop using the XoIRC activity.
- Join a mailing list: http://lists.laptop.org.
For example: olpc-open
For example: community-support ...or interact directly at http://olpc.osuosl.org/forum/ .
For example: community-news
For example: grassroots
- Read/Comment on OLPC developers' blogged newsbits:
http://planet.laptop.org
http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/community-news/
- Initiate/join a local users group. Online forums are emerging everywhere. About 40 new regional US/Canadian user groups have recently been announced, in addition to other new online forums. Here's a great worldwide summary of Emerging OLPC Communities. Finally independent Tech Support groups are also blossoming, such as this new Tech Support Community and the OLPC Help forum.
- Educators and others may get involved at many different levels:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Getting_involved_in_OLPC
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Participate
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Contact_OLPC
http://laptopfoundation.org/en/participate/
Or email "volunteers AT laptop.org"
Further Documentation Forthcoming
- A number of people are working on more formal manuals.
Links will be posted here when these mature, EG. see the User Guide which is making great strides.
- Up-to-date Release Notes are forthcoming, as XO software upgrades are released going forward into 2008.
Maintenance/Repair and Community-Building
Each location worldwide is encouraged to establish a tech support center for hardware repairs and replacement. We encourage the students to be involved in the repair as much as possible. Some ideas on this have been written up in the Laptop Service Program Ideas.
We strongly encourage you to get involved by initiating/joining a local users group, many of which are listed above.
Do NOT remove the watch battery on the mother board if you disassemble your machine; prior to the Q2D07 version of firmware, this can result in the computer becoming unusable.
RMS Logistics may offer Post-Warranty Repair Support at their North American repair facility, after your 30-day Warranty expires.
How do I report a bug?
We are very interested in bug reports. Please report bugs by sending email to "help AT laptop.org". (Developers, please continue to file bugs in our tracking system.)
We are also interested in your suggestions for enhancements to our system.
Community input and collaboration is vital to the success of OLPC. Thank you for your participation.
Older Support Page & Demo Notes
Our Older Tech-Oriented Support Page is increasingly dated, but may offer archival context to the technically savvy.