Are you working with XO laptops that need an upgrade?

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By Martin Langhoff, Software Architect – OLPC

Part of our focus is to support deployments that have made a long term commitment to work with us. When we have new models, we work hard to provide them as an upgrade.

This means that if you have today XO-1 or XO-1.5 laptops you can purchase an upgrade kit that will turn it into an XO-1.75. It does require that you perform the motherboard replacement, but the savings can be significant.

XO-1.75 with grid membrane and mechanical keyboard. Photo by Sandra Barragan

With this upgrade you get a modern ARM CPU, much lower power consumption (it runs long hours on each battery charge, and performs fantastically well on solar panels). Depending on options, you can get larger RAM and storage. You can also choose to get the new grid membrane keyboard.

If you are thinking of doing this, get in touch with us. If you know the SKU number of the laptops you have, which you can find in the battery compartment, that will make the process easier.

For each variant of the XO you need a slightly different upgrade kit, so it is important that we get it right. Our engineers have done quite a bit of work to plan the different upgrade kits.
Do you know of any laptop manufacturer that supports upgrading 5 year old models to the latest and greatest with a motherboard change, and at a fraction of the cost?

At this time, there is a minimum order quantity of 100 kits. If you are interested in ordering 100 upgrade kits or more, please contact Leah@laptop.org  at OLPC for further details. Make sure you indicate the SKU of the units you want to upgrade.

Unfortunately, due to packing, shipping, customs and warranty logistics, OLPC is currently unable to offer upgrade kits for orders under 100 kits. The costs of shipping individual components packed properly is high.

Order quantities of 1000 kits and larger can be processed faster and at lower cost.

If you have an early XO laptop and would like to see it run better and faster, our latest Operating System release can give it a new life, see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_notes/12.1.0 .

We thank you for your interest in the OLPC project.

17 thoughts on “Are you working with XO laptops that need an upgrade?”

  1. Someone threw this XO-1 in the garbage can, I retrieved it and the charger. My three year old son loves it. 256 MB of ram, and 1 gig storage in 2015 is ridiculous. I Would like to purchase an upgrade kit for this machine. Within my home I have a few laptops, but he only wants to use this very slow but interesting XO-1. I need help getting a kit. I’m finding it very frustrating that reading the information above.
    ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD?

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  2. Out me down for one. anyone know of what they cost? heck how much for 100? lol if we 10 of us want them split it 10 ways we all get 10 montherboards. and figure out when to resell them or helpout people we k.now i have an x0-1.

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  3. Pingback: Hardware Upgrade Available for One Laptop Per Child Devices |

  4. Upgrading the G1G1 laptops seems problematic. I would guess that every one of the 100 kits ordered would have to be the same kit.

    So, you’d need 100 people for each kind of kit to be able to place an order. Someone would have to receive the kits, rebox them individually and ship them to each purchaser. Not to mention handling any defective kits.

    Sounds like a logistical nightmare to me.

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  5. Pingback: Da XO a XO-1.75, con un kit upgrade - Netbook News

  6. Pingback: XO upgrade kit turns an XO-1 Laptop into an XO-1.75 - Liliputing

  8. I have a g1g1 XO-1. I’ve sent the email asking for info. Would love to see wiki updates about this too.

    I would like to suggest setting up a support group of volunteers who would be able to perform upgrades for others in the US who want to get the upgrade but need the tech knowhow to do it.

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  9. This might seem trivial but does the upgrade kit include a hinge cover with the number of raised dots to corresponde with the model. the reason that I’m asking this is that if for some reason you would want to sell your xo-1 upgraded laptop on ebay and you say it is a xo-1.75 and then the customer gets the laptop and thinks they’re cheated because the hinge cover is different

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  12. OK, so I’ve got a couple of X01s. How about pricing to a 1.75?

    Software compatability would be important, I’ve got several flavors of “Images” for the X01, including DebXO, PuppyLinux, and Intrepid (Xubuntu), don’t want to lose these with an upgrade.

    Thanks.

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    • I wouldn’t expect those images to work since the upgrade involves going from an X86 compatible processor to an ARM processor.

  13. I realize the text of the post does specify it is available for the XO-1, and in fact even requires a slightly different kit to make it work. My question is the same as Jerry’s – will those of us who have one purchased through G1G1 be able to purchase one-off upgrade kits, or are they only available for bulk deployments? If it is only for bulk deployments, could we organize a “group purchase” for the G1G1 participants that would like to upgrade their own XOs?

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    • Excellent idea Dan. Perhaps OLPC News could put out a call for G1G1 folks like us to sign up and form a “G1G1 Deployment” group and place one large order for all of us. I think there are about 100K of us from both G1G1 fundraising efforts. We supported OLPC then, so they should offer us a bit of support now. Please add me to this list and contact me if work is needed to make this happen. I purchased 2 XO1’s for software development and use with my kids and could really use the upgrade. I’d be willing to help with distribution and retrofitting.
      z4t@aol.com

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