XO Troubleshooting Guide

This is a troubleshooting guide for the XO laptop. It is geared toward troubleshooting production units running firmware version Q2D03 or greater.

Still very much a work in progress!! Feel free to add

Problems powering on

For an introduction to the different boot options selectable while powering on, see the Cheat codes.

All of these tests assume that a known good source of power is available, either a charged battery or power adapter. To debug problems with the power source, and battery charging issues, see Power and Battery problems.

Is the Power LED On ?

When the power button is pressed once, the power LED doesn't turn on.

Please try Resetting the Embedded Controller.

If that doesn't work, test that the power adapter and battery used in the test are working (using another laptop). A laptop may be unable to power itself from its battery or power adapter (for a number of reasons).

If both power sources are working, then the motherboard is broken. The possible failure modes are numerous, and deserve a second troubleshooting guide.

The display doesn't light up

When the power button is pressed once, the power LED turns on, but the screen doesn't light up.

and no boot sound plays

This usually indicates a broken motherboard.

If no boot sound is played, but the machine boots normally and has audio, it is likely that the user has changed the default boot volume to 0. While the boot sound is playing, a user can adjust the volume using the volume adjust keys. This modified volume setting is saved and used for future boots. Try increasing the volume right after starting the laptop a few times, and see if the boot sound returns.

If no boot sound is played, and the machine boots normally but has no audio see Audio Problems.

and the boot sound plays

If the display doesn't light up, but the boot sound plays, see Display Problems.

The display says "Connect to power to proceed"

Not quite the correct wording. Anyone remember the exact words ?

Early versions (before Q2D14) of the firmware would stop execution if a firmware update was scheduled, but two sources of power (a battery and a power adapter) aren't present ( [#5422]). If this is the problem, provide both sources of power and reboot. The laptop should proceed with a firmware update and boot normally.

The display is showing an XO icon

This means that Open Firmware has started the boot process.

with a single dot below it

If laptops powers up, but stops when just displaying the XO icon in the middle, with a single dot below it, it means that something is wrong when the Linux OS starts operation.

One solution to try is upgrading or re-install the software.

with a "sad face"

This means that Open Firmware couldn't find a signed operating system on the internal flash memory. (It will also look on USB memory sticks and SD cards.)

Try upgrading or re-install the software.

with a serial number and three icons below it

If the laptop powers up, but stops when displaying the XO icon in the middle of the screen, followed by a serial number (e.g. CSN74902B22) and three icons (SD disk, USB disk, Network signal strength), it is looking for its activation lease. This should eventually print "Activation lease not found" at the top of the screen and power-off soon thereafter.

The solution is to re-activate the laptop. Obtain a copy of the lease (or a new lease) from your country activation manager, place it (named "lease.sig") on the root directory of a USB key and boot the laptop. See What to do with your activation keys.

Display problems

The display doesn't turn on

Use a strong light shining on the display to confirm that the problem isn't that the backlight won't turn on.

Use a known good display to check whether the display or the motherboard is broken.

If the known good display also does not turn on, the motherboard is broken and should be replaced.

One half of the display looks bad

Is the display cable properly connected ?

Disassemble the laptop to access the larger flex cable from the display to the motherboard. Make sure that it is properly seated in its connector and properly clamped down. The white stripe on the cable should be close to and parallel to the black tab clamping the cable down.

Photo needed here, a closeup of the display connector

If the connector is broken (the small black tab fails to stay in place), the motherboard will need replacement.

Is the display broken ?

Use a known good display to check whether the display or the motherboard is broken.

If the known good display shows the same problem, the motherboard is broken and should be replaced.

The backlight isn't even

In this case, a vertical pattern of light and dark is seen on the display. The difference between light and dark regions being strongest at the bottom of the screen.

Is the backlight cable properly connected ?

Disassemble the laptop to access the small flex cable from the display to the motherboard. Make sure that it is properly seated in its connector, and properly clamped down.

Photo needed here, a closeup of the backlight connector

If the connector is broken (the small black tab fails to stay in place), the motherboard will need replacement.

A temporary solution is to wind a small strip of paper several times, jamming a small piece of it into the connector to hold the flex cable in place. A piece of tape covering the connector provides additional stability.

Is the lightbar broken ?

If the cable is well seated, then it is likely that the actual lightbar in the display has failed. This lightbar can be replaced (the display itself is probable fine.)

Is the motherboard backlight driver broken ?

If replacing the lightbar fails to correct the problem, it is a motherboard problem. Check the voltages across R147, R148, and R149 when the backlight is operating. They should be equal. If they are not, replace the corresponding switch transistor (Q13, Q14, or Q15, respectively) with a generic NPN low power switching transistor (2N3904).

Common Procedures

Rebooting the Embedded Controller

The XO embedded controller (EC) occasionally becomes confused. To reset it, remove all power sources from the laptop:

1. Take the battery out and remove the power adapter
2. Wait 10 seconds to allow the embedded controller to lose power and reset
3. Replace at least one source of power (battery or power adapter)

The battery LED should flash orange momentarily (about a quarter of a second) when power is first reapplied. If you do not see this flash, you either have a motherboard hardware problem or faulty EC firmware installed. The general solution to both of these problems is to replace the motherboard.

Boot options

Different boot options are available through pressing buttons around the screen during the initial boot process (immediately after pressing the power button).

• '✓' (check) game pad key: forces a more detailed display while booting. See Startup Diagnosis for more details. This is useful for debugging activation problems.
• 'O' game pad key: alternate between the current boot image and a previous one. In laptops which have never been upgraded, there is no previous boot image to use.
• Rocker left: invoke laptop diagnostics. If using firmware later than Q2D08, you can pause between individual tests by holding down the "rotate" button. This is useful in debugging motherboard, audio, camera, USB, keyboard and touchpad problems.

These are included here for completeness. More information is available at Cheat codes.