OLPC XO-4 Touch Troubleshooting

You cannot turn the laptop on.

The problem may be that the battery is not charged. Plug your XO-4 into a power outlet. If the LED on the battery turns yellow after being plugged in, then the battery is charging. Wait until the LED turns green signaling that the battery is fully charged. After the battery has finished charging, try turning the laptop on again.

The Embedded Controller chip may have crashed, preventing the laptop from working. Reset it and try again.

If the LED on the battery turns red or does not light up at all, it is possible that the battery is dead. To check if the battery is dead, try removing the battery, plugging in the charger, and turning the laptop on. If everything works fine with just the charger, then the battery is dead and must be replaced.

It is possible that when you plug in the external power for the first time, the battery does not charge. This may be caused by the battery charge getting extremely low during shipping. The solution is to remove the battery, turn on the laptop with the charger plugged in, and then reinsert the battery. It should then charge normally with the yellow charging light on.

When you turn on the laptop, the boot sound should play. If it does play and nothing shows up on the screen, it is possible the screen is broken and must be replaced.

The problem may be that the power button is broken. In this case, the power button must be replaced.

The laptop turns on and the display powers up (including the backlight) but no text or graphics appear.

If the laptop freezes on a blank white screen, the operating system or firmware may be malfunctioning (see The display remains blank on OLPC's wiki). If restarting the Embedded Controller didn't fix this, hold down the check button while powering on the laptop, and look for a big blocky number on the screen. This is an "early error code" related to the Open Firmware and/or the Embedded Controller's Flash ROM.

The laptop turns on, but the screen is dark.

The problem may be that the brightness setting is too low. Press "F10" on the keyboard repeatedly to increase the brightness setting. Press "F9" to decrease the brightness.

Shine a light onto the screen. If you can see the background and text after shining a light on the screen, the backlight is broken and the screen must be replaced.

If no text is displayed after shining a light on the screen, it is possible that the screen is broken and must be replaced.

If you hold down the rotate key while pressing the power button, the laptop will enter the firmware prompt instead of booting. In this case the screen won't start but the power LED should light up green. To get out of this mode, turn off the laptop and turn it back on (without touching the rotate key). See OLPC's wiki for more information about this.

The laptop does not play sound.

The problem may be that the volume is too low. While holding "Fn" (on the lower-left side of the keyboard), press "F12" repeatedly to increase the volume. Holding "Fn" and pressing "F11" decreases the volume.

The problem may be that the speakers are broken. Check the audio by plugging in headphones into the headphone jack under the left antenna and play a sound. If there is no sound, the sound card may be broken and must be replaced. If there is sound, the speakers may be broken and must be replaced.

The camera does not take pictures or record video.

The problem may be that the camera is broken and must be replaced.

"Laptop Does Not Connect to the Internet."

The problem may be that the laptop is not in the range of a wireless network. Check to see if another laptop nearby is within range and can connect to the internet. If another laptop cannot connect to the internet, you may need to move closer to a wireless network.

If another laptop nearby can connect to the internet, the problem may be that your laptop's antenna is broken and must be replaced.

If replacing the antenna does not fix the problem, the wireless card may be broken and must be replaced.

The on-screen arrow does not move.

If you cannot get any response from the touch screen, the problem may be that the touch screen controller has broken. Make sure that the touch screen's cables are securely inserted into the motherboard. If this does not fix the problem, the touch screen may be broken and needs to be replaced.

The problem may be that the mouse controller is broken. Check to see if you can get any response from either the mouse buttons or the touch pad. If you cannot get any reaction from these, you may need to replace your mouse controller.

Laptop still does not work after replacing parts.

If the EC controller throws a fit, do a full power reset to restart it. According to OLPC's wiki:

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

Assuming the EC controller is still functional, the laptop should work properly after a reset.

If the laptop is still not working correctly after replacing all other parts associated with the problem, then the problem could be that the motherboard is broken and needs to be replaced.