Can you Repair Promoethean Activ Boards?

[farquea]

We have 2 boards which are faulty, the pens dont track properly. They are out of warranty so does anyone know if its worth looking to have them repaired or is it more a case of its cheaper to just buy new ones as i imagine theres not a whole lot in them which can be changed?

[bossman]

@farquea:

 

Probably just the electronics at the back of the board which costs approx £350 it might pay you to get in touch with promethean just to see what they will charge to fix.

[farquea]

thanks, that was my next step but i just thought it was a bit of a non-starter as i couldnt see us sending the board back for repair via royal mail given how big they are!

 

But ill get in touch and see what they say.

[apoth0r]

We had a go at sorting some CleverTouch boards and although fiddly it is very worth (from a 'value for money' point of view) having a go at repairing them, you aren't making it any worse if you do need an engineer in. If it works, bonus

[ICT_GUY]

I have watched one Engineer repair one board, what I observed is that there is a logic board on the back that gets replaced. Its the work of five minutes and they don't run diagnostics just swap them out.

[CESIL]

We have 2 boards which are faulty, the pens dont track properly.

 

What do you mean by "track"?

 

The most common fault I have seen is spiking...where random lines are drawn as the pen touches the board...is this what you are getting?

[elsiegee40]

Have you tried new pens? With my boards, I've only had 1 actual board fail (it started to delaminate) and 1 power pack fail... everything else has been fixed by driver updates and new pens.

[Sylv3r]

We had a couple of boards spiking - updated the firmware and all is now fine again.

[teddybear]

We've got loads of boards, I work for a local council so deal with around 36 different schools.

 

The most common problem we get is the board spiking which can somethimes be fixed by upgrading the firmware on the board itself.

 

If that doesn't work it's generally the logic board and as 'ICT Guy' says, it takes 5 minutes to fix.

 

Had a quick look on ebay which has a supposidly working board in Nottingham for 'buy it now' of £120. (PROMETHEAN ACTIVPRIMARY WHITEBOARD (PURPLE SURROUND) on eBay (end time 30-Nov-09 12:55:28 GMT))

[Ben-BSH]

interesting, we are having some boards spike here, where abouts are you obtaining the firmware?

 

Thanks

[Sylv3r]

interesting, we are having some boards spike here, where abouts are you obtaining the firmware?

 

Thanks

 

Contact Promethean they will be able to send you it on a CD.

[mrwobbly]

Search the Promethean Knowledgebase for spiking. This will bring up a page with instructions and a link to download the firmware.

[teddybear]

if your board isn't under warranty you might have problems getting the CD, just download it from the KB, much quicker :-)

[Dos_Box]

You should try clicking on teh new 'Drect Support' tab at the top and then going throughto Promethean from there. We have OpenID in place so you don't have to register for downloads etc if you go direct from us

[lordasb]

i have had to fix a few in the past.

 

new power packs, leads, there is a company we have used - they will ask you the serial number of the unit to get the right parts order but they are not over the top.

 

other options -

 

phone up other schools you might find someone storing an old board which has been damaged but the controllers are fine so you could try swapping bits to see if it helps.

[MbroTech]

Spiking can also be caused by other electrical devices in close proximity.

 

We once found that moving the monitor on the PC a touch further away from the board cured one spiking case.