OLPC XO 1.5 overheating problems

[Tiago Marques]

Hi Ed,

On Sat, Oct 3, 2009 at 5:59 PM, Ed McNierney <ed at laptop.org> wrote:
> Tiago -
>
> All comments, notes, observations, etc. about this machine should make it
> exceedingly clear that this is a B2 pre-production machine.  There are lots
> of folks on this list who could tell stories about the XO-1's B2 situation!
>
> We're not done yet.  The purposes of a widely-distributed B2 machine are to
> encourage software development/porting and to encourage widespread testing.
>  We need that work now so we can find and fix as many problems as possible.
>  The problems we already know about are not particularly interesting to us;
> several folks at OLPC and a thermal engineering team at Quanta have been
> aware of and working on them for a while.  We're just not done yet.
>  Likewise, the fact that WLAN doesn't properly resume from suspend is also
> well known and is being worked on.  You should reasonably expect that the
> problems we announce and advertise on our wiki, described in detail, are
> ones we're going to fix.
>
> I am much, much more interested in the problems we don't know about yet.
>  That's where we need the help.  Thanks!

I see, glad to hear!
Best of luck with all the work that remains, hope you all can get the
final version to manufacturing soon. I hear that the Classmate's 2nd
year in elementary school here in Portugal has gone bad and they
aren't distributing any of them. Perhaps this time around Intel will
actually not interfere with your goals while they're busy dealing with
ARM and the iPhone. Has someone heard something similar from other
parts of the world?

Best regards,
Tiago Marques

>
>        - Ed
>
> On Oct 3, 2009, at 12:16 PM, Tiago Marques wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Oct 3, 2009 at 4:19 PM, Ed McNierney <ed at laptop.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Tiago -
>>>
>>> Well, everyone gets to contribute something to thermal problems :-)
>>
>> Indeed!
>>
>>>  But the CPU's the main source and also provides internal throttling
>>> mechanisms to
>>> manage it (along with the external heatspreader mechanisms, of course).
>>
>> I hope that the heatspreaders might fit in your budget for the
>> machine. I've seen all kinds of bad happen to machines where
>> throttling was necessary.
>>
>>> The A-phase boards were designed to get the thing up and running, and for
>>> A-phase machines (produced only in the dozens) it's completely OK to tell
>>> folks to do all kinds of funky things to keep them running.
>>
>> Of course. I was hoping a more robust solution would be put in place
>> for the subsequent versions but I was a bit apprehensive when I read
>> the report on B2.
>> I know it's not much, or anything even, but if someone there ever
>> needs any help with issues like those, do contact me, I'd love to help
>> where I can(brainstorming solutions maybe?). I have a good experience
>> about cooling electronic components from years dealing with parts not
>> very well engineered from perhaps every computer hardware manufacturer
>> there is.
>>
>>>
>>> No, the FTL is integral to the microSD card itself, so we're not using
>>> (and
>>> don't need) an external FTL for it.
>>
>> Ok, tks!
>> Keep up the great work.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Tiago Marques
>>
>>>
>>>       - Ed
>>>
>>>
>>> On Oct 3, 2009, at 10:56 AM, Tiago Marques wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Ed,
>>>>
>>>> I was wondering if it's related to the CPU or Northbridge. I said the
>>>> description was unclear to me because it didn't mention where the
>>>> overheating was from, or if you had already found the problem. Some
>>>> videos of pre production units were shown running with just a square
>>>> of thermal interface material acting as an heatspreader and I found
>>>> that odd, even for alpha level units, that Quanta was shipping them
>>>> back to you that way.
>>>>
>>>> Also, I'd like to ask something off topic(better to post another
>>>> mail?) but I couldn't find any description on the wiki about the flash
>>>> controller. Are you still using one - and if so which - or are you
>>>> just using the microSD card's FTL?
>>>>
>>>> Best regards,
>>>> Tiago Marques
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Oct 3, 2009 at 3:34 PM, Ed McNierney <ed at laptop.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Tiago -
>>>>>
>>>>> Sure, but what kind of elaboration would you like?  These are
>>>>> pre-production
>>>>> machines and have an assortment of problems, this being one of them.  I
>>>>> think the description is pretty clear; if you have a question about it
>>>>> please let us know - thanks!
>>>>>
>>>>>      - Ed
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Oct 3, 2009, at 10:13 AM, Tiago Marques wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hope this is the appropriate list to post this, I apologize if not.
>>>>>> Please be kind to redirect me to the appropriate one if so.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Referring to:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "The B2 prototypes have shown a tendency to overheat. We are working
>>>>>> on a more respectable solution than simply throttling back the
>>>>>> processor. In the meantime, be aware that the laptop may begin to
>>>>>> function erratically if it gets too hot. This usually manifests itself
>>>>>> as problems reading/writing the internal SD card. "
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Can someone please elaborate on this?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Best regards,
>>>>>> Tiago Marques
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Devel mailing list
>>>>>> Devel at lists.laptop.org
>>>>>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>