Screen blacks out midway during boot

[jwjarvis]

The problem started when I was testing to see if my new XO, build 650, would mount a flash drive.  After using it for a day with no apparent problems, I happened to boot with a flash drive inserted which, later, I discovered was a FAT32 format, not a FAT (if that makes a difference?).  The screen suddenly blacked out, then flashed white with hundreds of black specks scattered over it like pepper.  I took out the offending flash drive and rebooted.  The screen still blacked out about midway, after the tenth white dot.  Wondering if somehow a flash drive had corrupted the operating system, I followed the procedure on the Stable Upgrade page to upload a new operating system, build 653 (was 650), from a flash drive, this time a FAT drive.  The automatic boot seemed to be successful because I was relieved to see the complete circle drawn of all white dots.  However, after powering down and rebooting again, the same blackout repeats.  It lasts for 20 seconds.  Then the screen paint
 s white for 28 seconds.  Then the home page is finally displayed.  Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Mesh displays the boot sequence log.  There is a reported error just after the "Hello (children of the) world!" message:   Node CRC failed on node at 0x___, Read 0xffffffff, calculated 0xa0___.  Sometimes there are two bad nodes reported.  

This would seem to be a hard memory error.  I bought this XO to give to my godson in Costa Rica but I don't want to send him a prototype with error messages.  It is already a fairly complicated machine for a child without adult support, my first impression.  I could just return this XO to OLPC as a simple donation with hopes it will find a more supported environment, and instead buy my godson a more conventional Asus Eee when available.  Please advise.   Jonathan Jarvis

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