Promethean Board Troubleshooting 08/28/15

This is an update to a blog post from about a year ago on troubleshooting the connection to your Promethean Board when the pen doesn't work.

• Try these steps when the following situation occurs:
• The pen won’t work on the board. 
• You can get the calibration window to appear.
• No lights appear on the top left “flame”.
• You look at the ActivManager icon on the Task Tray across the bottom of the screen.
• If it is an orange icon on a white square, then it is connected.
• If it is a red X on a white square, then it is not properly connecting.

Goal: make sure the orange icon appears (not the red X).

After each step listed below, check to see if the Red X changes to a white square with the orange Promethean man (aka John Travolta) on the ActivManager icon on the Task Tray across the bottom of the screen.

1.  "Rebooting" the Board:

• If you can get to the electrical cord for the board, try unplugging it and then replugging it into the electrical outlet again.  You can also find the connection between the Power Pack and the gray/beige cable that comes out of the back of the board. This looks like a black cable with a round plug on the end that is connected to a gray/beige cable connection.
• Doing this is like “rebooting” the board.  If it is “connected”, you should hear the familiar 3 chimes and the flame at the top left of the board should display a light.  Hopefully, it is a light blue/gray light.  This process of “rebooting” can also correct the problem of seeing a RED light on the flame at the top left of the board.
  

2.  Update ActivDriver:

• Click this link:
  \\pisdcifs02\pisdshare\Promethean\ActivBoard_Install_Items\ActivInspire\Drivers_and_Updates
• Double click the file that has a name similar to this - ActivDriver_x64_v5.x.x setup
• Click all the positive responses to the install process like Next, Yes, Install, etc.

3.  If updating the driver doesn’t work, reseat/replug (into a different USB plug) the Promethean Board USB plug in the back of the computer (this serves as a chance for the promethean board to “reacquaint” itself with this newly updated driver that you installed in Step 2 above).

4.  If that doesn’t work, unplug and replug the Promethean Board into the electrical outlet (this might be necessary if there was a power outage or power surge recently at the campus).

5.  If that doesn’t work, you might see if the board is connected to the computer via a network cable and make sure it is securely connected.  And not a bad idea to check all other cables to make sure they are securely connected.

6.  If the board connects (red X on task tray turns to an orange promethean symbol) and the lights are on from the promethean board BUT the pen still doesn’t work, you might consider getting a pen from a neighboring teacher that works and testing to see if it works on the board.  This will narrow down whether the pen is good or not.

7.  And one final thing is to check the “nib” on the end of the pen and make sure it is still in reasonably good shape.  If not, you might see about changing it out to see if that helps.
And finally, if all these steps don’t work……turn in a work order.  It could be that the board has gone bad because of a power surge or just get’n old.  In addition, it might need a “power USB” cable.  This Power USB cable is used when the cabling between the board and the computer is at our around 25’ or more.  Once the distance of the cabling gets that long, the connection is compromised and can result in a bad connection.