Screen blacks out midway during boot

[Richard A. Smith]

jwjarvis wrote:

> 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!"

Your DCON has a RAM issue when it goes into "freeze" mode.


> CRC failed on node at 0x___, Read 0xffffffff, calculated 0xa0___.
> Sometimes there are two bad nodes reported.

These are normal.  It means that jffs2 found a node that did not pass 
checksum probably because it was powered off during a write.  They are 
harmless.

> 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.

Its a memory error but its not what you think it is.  The RAM on the 
display controller has a problem.  You need to request an RMA.

> It is already a fairly complicated machine for
> a child without adult support, my first impression.

Your first impression is not correct.

We have thousands of these machines in pilot tests in countries where 
the children (and adults) have never see computers.

The children do _just_ fine with very little instruction.  In fact a lot 
of time it is the children that show the adults what to do with the XO.

-- 
Richard Smith  <richard at laptop.org>
One Laptop Per Child