[Olpc-open] XO Keyboard Troubles?

[Dan Krejsa]

Hi,

Just before Christmas I was happy to receive 4 G1G1 laptops. I've
already given one to a nephew (he loved it); I'm keeping one for myself
for personal use and development; and the other two will go to another
neice and nephew some time after update.1.

One of the laptops arrived with a keyboard problem, a 'sticky' alt key.
(Once the alt key had been pressed once after boot, it appeared to stay
pressed forever subsequently.)  That laptop is presently in the RMA
process.

The keyboards on the other three laptops were fine when I received them.
However, just yesterday evening, another keyboard problem has started on
the machine I'm using myself.  I noticed when using the vi editor that I
could not type a 'd' character.  In the terminal shell, I found that I
could type a 'd' but only occasionally; 'c' and 's' also gave problems.

So I rebooted the laptop and ran the boot diagnostics. The keyboard test
showed what was happening: when the D key was pressed, it actually
generated an 'alt-D' combination.  Similarly, the S key generated alt-S
and C generated alt-C; occasionally, X generated alt-X and the 'fn' key
occasionally caused the alt key to press briefly. On a subsequent reboot
and re-run of the keyboard test, I also saw the shift and Z keys
occasionally generate an alt keypress.

The laptop has not suffered any significant mechanical shocks. I carry
it in my backpack, I've done a few joyride upgrades, and otherwise I
just type, point, & click normally. (No pounding the keyboard in
frustration, either!-)

I'm wondering whether the OLPC community has any statistics indicating
whether this sort of keyboard problem is infrequent enough to be easily
manageable (in which case I just got unlucky), or if it is common enough
to be a significant problem? Is there an understood mechanical or
electrical weakness affecting some fraction (??%) of the XO keyboards?

As a G1G1 donor, I still have the option of doing another RMA, but
getting a replacement would presumably be a bit more problematic for the
actual intended laptop recipients (the children of the world).  Is this
sort of keyboard problem the kind of thing where I could perhaps repair
or replace the keyboard myself?  Are there any maintenance/repair wiki
pages that cover this yet?

- Dan