Weird WLAN problem after stupid upgrade attempt

[John Watlington]

Tom,
    I would RMA the unit, going through Adam Holt instead of the
normal process.  We want to see this unit ourselves before sending
it back to the manufacturer, as we haven't seen this problem in the
past.

The WLAN is a separate module, surface mounted to the motherboard.
There have been occasional cases in the past where insufficient paste
was present to properly solder it down, but they were caught in board
level testing before assembly, and haven't been seen on mass
production units.   Given the lead-free soldering process we are
using, solder cracks are also a possibility.

If you decide to take a look yourself, all you need is one #1 phillips
head screwdriver.   I wouldn't even disconnect the LCD, just move it
enough to get to the four screws holding on the back cover located
behind it.  A total of twelve screws need to be removed to get to the
motherboard.

Cheers,
wad

On Jan 9, 2008, at 9:13 PM, Tom Seago wrote:

> Well, darnit.  Looks like things are flaky.  Here is the procedure and
> the results I just got.
>
> - Flash q2d07.rom
>
> test /wlan worked fine
>
> - Flash q2d08.rom  (to verify that 08 is causing problems)
>
> test /wlan fails - device not found
>
> - Flash q2d08.rom (because I wanted 07 and mistyped the filename)
>
> - Flash q2d07.rom
>
> test /wlan fails - device not found
>
> - Pull battery and AC, wait 20 seconds
>
> test /wlan fails - device not found
>
> - Flash q2d07.rom again
>
> test /wlan fails - device not found
>
> test /usb - shows port 0 in use, same as on my working machine. This
> is with no USB sticks connected. When a USB stick is connected, then
> ports 0 and 1 are in use.
>
> So now that test /wlan is failing with '07, that encourages me to
> believe a simple hardware issue is occurring.  Although the WLAN card
> is a USB device, I'm assuming it is surface mounted and there isn't
> any sort of physical connection that could have shaken loose is
> there?  I'm not opposed to the use of a screwdriver, but I haven't
> bothered yet since I doubt that I could do anything.
>
> 										(-: Tom ;-)
>
>
> On Jan 9, 2008, at 4:27 PM, Mitch Bradley wrote:
>
>> If you revert to Q2D07, does "test /wlan" work again?
>>
>> Q2D07 and Q2D08 have different versions of the wlan firmware wad.
>> Perhaps there is something about your wlan hardware that works with
>> the wlan firmware image in Q2D07, but not with the one in Q2D08 and
>> not with whichever version is in your OS version.  That is one of
>> the only two hypotheses that come to mind.  The other on is the
>> possibility that there is something flaky about the onboard USB
>> connection, so that the device sometimes enumerates and sometimes
>> doesn't, depending on subtle factors.
>>
>>
>> Tom Seago wrote:
>>> I've updated to the Q2D08 firmware now.
>>>
>>> Whereas the '07 firmware seemed to run the test /wlan ok, but the
>>> wlan card wasn't visible to the regular OS, now when I run the same
>>> command on the '08 firmware I get
>>>
>>> ok test /wlan
>>> Device /wlan not found.
>>> ok
>>>
>>> So what's the verdict. Do folks think I should RMA this thing?  It
>>> seems like it got busted merely via software - which one would
>>> normally not expect to be possible.
>>>
>>>                                        (-: Tom ;-)
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jan 6, 2008, at 12:56 AM, Tom Seago wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Mitch.  I got my developer key and ran "test /wlan" at the ofw
>>>> prompt.  That seemed to work!  At least, it scrolled a fairly
>>>> large amount of info up the screen which appeared to be the stats
>>>> of various visible wifi networks.  However, all my problems where
>>>> the OS can't see the card remain.
>>>>
>>>> It makes me happy that this appears to be software not hardware.
>>>> It still confuses me how I managed to get into this bizarre
>>>> situation though.  Is there a way to do any more complete of a
>>>> device wipe beyond the normal reflashing procedure using the
>>>> signed build from a usb stick?
>>>>
>>>> I appreciate your help. I hope we can figure out what's up with
>>>> this thing.
>>>>
>>>>                                        (-: Tom ;-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Jan 4, 2008, at 10:22 AM, Mitch Bradley wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Tom Seago wrote:
>>>>>> ...
>>>>>> Another thing I have done is run the POST diagnostics by holding
>>>>>> the  left rocker button during boot.  I did this on both
>>>>>> machines at the  same time to diff the results.  Both say that
>>>>>> usb port 0 is in use -  good.  But the working machine did
>>>>>> scroll some wlan diagnostic  information up the screen at the
>>>>>> end of the the video tests that the  broken machine did not do.
>>>>>> The broken machine did not report an error  - but it clearly did
>>>>>> not run the same wlan test.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Chris Ball wrote:
>>>>>> Hi Tom,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Once you have your developer key, please run:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ok  test /wlan
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If that fails too, it should be clear that we need to RMA and
>>>>>> replace
>>>>>> your laptop.  Thanks!
>>>>>
>>>>> The POST diags that Tom ran include the "test /wlan" step.  That
>>>>> diagnostic info that scrolled by is a dump of the access point
>>>>> scan info.  It happens just before the touchpad test.
>>>>>
>>>>> My recommendations:
>>>>>
>>>>> a) Remove all power - AC and battery - for a few seconds to reset
>>>>> the wireless really well, then reboot and try the POST diags  
>>>>> again.
>>>>>
>>>>> b) If that doesn't fix it, email me when you get your developer
>>>>> key and I'll work with you on IRC to see if we can learn more
>>>>> about the failure details.
>>>>>
>>>>> Mitch Bradley
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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