Geo GeoBook 1E Education Laptops - HORRIBLE!

[smarties11]

I'm guessing you must have the GE109 rather than the GE114? As the 114 doesn't support PXE boot and that's what we have 😕

[Guest Guest]

We must have, i didn't check the model

[Norphy]

Did you have success imaging with SCCM? I'm finding it an absolute nightmare. We're booting from a USB boot stick due to the lack of PXE boot, but the problem is most of them won't see a USB ethernet dongle at boot, you have to unplug and replug it. This means the task sequence fails because at every reboot step unless you are there to unplug/replug there is no network connection. I've got one or two so far that have been successful but most not. I've tried all the options in the BIOS relating to USB, disabled fast boot etc. Tried two different types of dongle. Injected the latest USB ethernet drivers into the WinPE boot image and the driver package deployed to the laptop during TS. We've used these same USBs on other laptops no problem. I'm going to have to build an offline task sequence on a USB HDD at this rate then just add to domain at the end? I've never ever come across such an awkward machine to image in my entire IT career spanning 20 years!

 

 

We got there in the end. We’ve experienced all kinds of different issues with these things but we haven’t experienced the issues you’re describing with the USB NICs though. We’re using a mixture of Lenovo, Startech and Linksys ones from what I’ve seen. I think they all use the same Realtek chipset. They’re all USB-A NICs, rather than USB-C

 

The biggest issues that we’ve come across are:

 

When booting from USB, the USB stick gets assigned storage device zero and gets wiped by the task sequence

Sound drivers don’t get installed despite being in the driver repository

SCCM client suddenly decided it wasn’t going to install during the TS, crashing out at the ‘installing and configuring Configuration Manager Client’ step, claiming there wasn’t enough room on the device despite having 20gb+ free.

 

We managed to work around all of those. I’m willing to post my TS if you want to see it.

[itdep]

Follow up - lights are on but there's nobody home - GeoBook 1E

 

We've had a couple of these (DfE provided) devices returned by parents saying they weren't working. The power light was flashing green but no response from the power button whether plugged in or not - stuck in limbo/power save/sleep mode? Had to remove the back cover and disconnect the battery for a few seconds, after which, on plugging in, they work straight away.

[markberry]

Is that definitely a Dell Dimension? I thought they had stopped that line and they used to be Desktop models?

 

Sorry, yeah it's Latitude!

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Follow up - lights are on but there's nobody home - GeoBook 1E

 

We've had a couple of these (DfE provided) devices returned by parents saying they weren't working. The power light was flashing green but no response from the power button whether plugged in or not - stuck in limbo/power save/sleep mode? Had to remove the back cover and disconnect the battery for a few seconds, after which, on plugging in, they work straight away.

 

I had the same with one. Left it unplugged overnight and the battery must of died, it then worked the next day.

[itdep]

Yes, I’d left it 2 days thinking it would discharge the battery, but no, it was still lit up, so seeing as I’ve had a frustrating week at work (as ever), I thought I’d show it’s who’s boss and pull it apart – Basil Faulty style

[jay128k]

Found where they are sourcing them from

[Norphy]

I think that's a grave insult.

 

To market traders from Peckham. Come on, they've got a reputation to uphold!

[bigal06]

Has anyone seen or heard anything yet about a BIOS update for the GE114 to fix the forgetting admin password and PXE boot issue?

 

Was able to PXE boot both models 109 and 114 using startech USB network adapter. Can't remember exact settings in BIOS but after fiddling around it worked. Had to turn off PXE http and set a few other settings.

[smarties11]

Was able to PXE boot both models 109 and 114 using startech USB network adapter. Can't remember exact settings in BIOS but after fiddling around it worked. Had to turn off PXE http and set a few other settings.

 

Really? If that's the case I'd really appreciate if you could share your settings. GEO have told me that the GE114 won't PXE boot without a BIOS update, and they won't commit to a timescale on releasing it!

[Cazab]

Anyone else getting laptops returned because they stop booting to W10, but only to recovery?

Then after a an hour or so of charging, they then boot in to W10 fine.... what is up with these?

 

|Had this happen to 7 laptops.

[MrEprise]

Really? If that's the case I'd really appreciate if you could share your settings. GEO have told me that the GE114 won't PXE boot without a BIOS update, and they won't commit to a timescale on releasing it!

 

All of our 36 (well 35 now as one won't power up anymore and is waiting to go back) are GE114 models & they all PXE booted fine using the Startech USB adapter too.

 

Another irritating thing I've noticed is that on a couple that have come in, the screens dim for a while then go back to full brightness again regardless whether on battery or mains and you can't do anything about it.

[grahamd22]

Can anyone advise where we are best to get new keys/keyboards as students are already damaging them?

[nuttingd]

We've got 5 of these GeoBook 1Es . . . one of which has died. No response to anything at all, no power LED coming on, nothing on the screen, totally D E A D.

 

Power supply looks good - 12V coming out of it no problem.

 

And when plugged into the GeoBook, the area at the top left of the keyboard starts getting warm as though SOMETHING is doing SOMETHING inside.

 

I've tried leaving it to charge for quite a long time . . . then tried leaving it to discharge on its own . . . or with a weight on the power button to see if that forced it to discharge (as I've had other devices where that drained the battery fairly effectively, which then reset the BIOS / UEFI) . . . but none of these had any effect on bringing it to life.

 

Anybody got any ideas of anything else to try that might resurrect it?

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[bigal06]

Really? If that's the case I'd really appreciate if you could share your settings. GEO have told me that the GE114 won't PXE boot without a BIOS update, and they won't commit to a timescale on releasing it!

 

Sorry, I've not got one in the office at the moment only a 109. One I have one in then I will let you know,

[edumezz]

Hi all,

 

Sadly we're seeing a lot more of these Geobook 1Es with backlight failures (and a few smashes). If you're interested, I opened 2 laptops. One had no identifiable markings, another was labelled as BOE NV116WHM-T03 v3.0 which seems to be a generic 11.6" screen.

 

They are stuck down in the plastic frame with the usual double sided tape and the connector ribbon is hot glued at the bottom which makes it interesting to remove.

 

If you're attempting a replacement the two rubber feet near the monitor hinge are also hiding screws (as well as the 4 rubber screw covers on the front of the screen). It is awkward to remove the screen bezel due to the bottom clips, I removed the screen entirely from the base first to make it easier.

 

There seems to be compatible replacements available on Amazon (£45) but I'm awaiting confirmation from the supplier. The BOE screens have three tiny plastic shims on the left hand side and one in the top right corner so you probably need to keep them to make the new screen fit too.

Edited February 9, 2021 by edumezz

[bigal06]

Hi all,

 

Sadly we're seeing a lot more of these Geobook 1Es with backlight failures (and a few smashes). If you're interested, I opened 2 laptops. One had no identifiable markings, another was labelled as BOE NV116WHM-T03 v3.0 which seems to be a generic 11.6" screen.

 

They are stuck down in the plastic frame with the usual double sided tape and the connector ribbon is hot glued at the bottom which makes it interesting to remove.

 

If you're attempting a replacement the two rubber feet near the monitor hinge are also hiding screws (as well as the 4 rubber screw covers on the front of the screen). It is awkward to remove the screen bezel due to the bottom clips, I removed the screen entirely from the base first to make it easier.

 

There seems to be compatible replacements available on Amazon (£45) but I'm awaiting confirmation from the supplier. The BOE screens have three tiny plastic shims on the left hand side and one in the top right corner so you probably need to keep them to make the new screen fit too.

 

We replaced a smashed screen with a 'generic' one off eBay. £39.00. Problem is that it had brackets top and bottom. Only the ones at the top got in the way so I cut them off and screen worked fine.

 

We had a GeoBook in yesterday with screen failed. Once opening it up the connector was not on properly due to the odd way the connector was glued on which caused it to disconnect so this one was repairable.

[MCrawford]

Has anyone else with GeoBook 1Es seen a high number of cracked screens?

 

I've got 95 of these things out with students, and just this week I've had three come back with cracked screens. Before looking at charging for repair I'm wondering if they really are so cheap and nasty that they break with normal use, or that the kids are actually abusing them.

Edited February 9, 2021 by MCrawford
spelling

[Norphy]

Has anyone else with GeoBook 1Es seen a high number of cracked screens?

 

I've got 95 of these things out with students, and just this week I've had three come back with cracked screens. Before looking at charging for repair I'm wondering if they really are so cheap and nasty that they break with normal use, or that the kids are actually abusing them.

 

Probably a bit of both. They're not the most robust looking devices that I've ever seen but they're not that flimsy compared to other devices in their price point either.

[smarties11]

All of our 36 (well 35 now as one won't power up anymore and is waiting to go back) are GE114 models & they all PXE booted fine using the Startech USB adapter too.

 

Another irritating thing I've noticed is that on a couple that have come in, the screens dim for a while then go back to full brightness again regardless whether on battery or mains and you can't do anything about it.

 

Hi,

 

I concur! I ordered a couple of different branded USB ethernets on Thursday out of desperation, including the StarTech. I'm back on-site today and the GE114 does indeed PXE boot from the StarTech. It also recognises it immediately at boot unlike the Realtek chipset based ones which don't appear until they are re-plugged, even with the latest driver which is meant to prevent this.

 

So for anyone else imaging these - you need the StarTech USB31000SW if you want to PXE boot them (or likely any other adapter based on the ASIX AX88179 chipset). I've tried two types of Realtek based ones, a TP-LINK one and this is the only one that works so far.

 

[nuttingd]

Hi,

 

I concur! I ordered a couple of different branded USB ethernets on Thursday out of desperation, including the StarTech. I'm back on-site today and the GE114 does indeed PXE boot from the StarTech. It also recognises it immediately at boot unlike the Realtek chipset based ones which don't appear until they are re-plugged, even with the latest driver which is meant to prevent this.

 

So for anyone else imaging these - you need the StarTech USB31000SW if you want to PXE boot them (or likely any other adapter based on the ASIX AX88179 chipset). I've tried two types of Realtek based ones, a TP-LINK one and this is the only one that works so far.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60786[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60787[/ATTACH]

 

Slightly off the wall thought . . . based on an entirely different scenario, but just conceivably might be relevant here . . .

 

I have an Aeotec Z-Wave controller running on a Raspberry Pi - but if you plug it into the Raspberry Pi directly it won't work - you have to put an external USB hub between the two to get it to function.

 

The problem apparently is that the Aeotec device doesn't accurately follow the USB 3 power protocols - but the Raspberry Pi does - so when plugged direct, the Raspberry Pi correctly detects that something isn't doing what it should and shuts off the power - the external hub just supplies power pretty much regardless and everything works fine. So it is the Aeotec USB device that is at fault, not the Pi.

 

I'd also vaguely been aware for a while that some USB Ethernet adapters worked when PXE booting other (non-Geobook) laptops though some occasionally didn't, but never really thought about it much.

 

Is it possible that it is some of the USB Ethernet adapters that are actually the problem - and some laptops notice and fail to boot / recognise them - and some laptops don't care and let them work anyway?

 

I've no particular evidence one way or the other on this, but might it be worth investigating?

[smarties11]

Slightly off the wall thought . . . based on an entirely different scenario, but just conceivably might be relevant here . . .

 

I have an Aeotec Z-Wave controller running on a Raspberry Pi - but if you plug it into the Raspberry Pi directly it won't work - you have to put an external USB hub between the two to get it to function.

 

The problem apparently is that the Aeotec device doesn't accurately follow the USB 3 power protocols - but the Raspberry Pi does - so when plugged direct, the Raspberry Pi correctly detects that something isn't doing what it should and shuts off the power - the external hub just supplies power pretty much regardless and everything works fine. So it is the Aeotec USB device that is at fault, not the Pi.

 

I'd also vaguely been aware for a while that some USB Ethernet adapters worked when PXE booting other (non-Geobook) laptops though some occasionally didn't, but never really thought about it much.

 

Is it possible that it is some of the USB Ethernet adapters that are actually the problem - and some laptops notice and fail to boot / recognise them - and some laptops don't care and let them work anyway?

 

I've no particular evidence one way or the other on this, but might it be worth investigating?

 

This is certainly possibly the case with your other devices, however I'm not so sure with the GEOs. They have confirmed to me in email that the GE114 doesn't support PXE boot, and they are awaiting a BIOS update from the motherboard manufacturer. The older GE109 revision works. I suspect there's something missing in terms of the range of devices supported. I've three or four different types of USB ethernet here that I've used loads of times to PXE boot various non-ethernet-equipped devices that won't work on the GE114! We have tried using a USB hub, all of the various BIOS options etc to no avail, except with the StarTech

[smarties11]

Just to add that the StarTech USB31000SW (white) also comes in the USB31000S variety (black), which is cheaper

[Boredguy]

both same price at Insight, so depends if you want it to match I guess.

[smarties11]

Black one only £14.99 Inc vat at amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com-Gigabit-Ethernet-Network-Adapter-Black/dp/B0095EFXMC