Upgraded the keyboard and touchpad on my OLPC XO-1

Yes, I still use my faithful OLPC XO-1! It’s amazing that, even after all this time, the readability of the XO-1’s screen still bests that of mainstream notebooks.

Today I picked up my XO keyboard+Touchpad replacement part CL1B from the always-great ilovemyxo.com. This part actually comes from the next generation OLPC (the XO-1.5), but perfectly fits the OLPC XO-1. I was mostly interested in getting the upgraded touchpad, which was always flakey on the original generation computers.

From start to finish, it took me about 20 minutes to do the disassembly and replacement, following the instructions at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Disassembly and with a single Phillips screwdriver in hand. My 3-year old daughter watched excitedly beside me and “helped me” as I upgraded her computer.

I plugged in the computer, held my breath, booted it up, and everything worked flawlessly. And yes, the new touchpad is much better than the old one!

Here’s a picture of the new keyboard and touchpad. Fingers are my daughter’s, not mine!

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And for comparison, here’s the old keyboard.

IMGP2883

Thanks, OLPC and ilovemyxo.com!

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