Mindboards

Hi,

I discovered my sons old Mindstorms NXT (product 8527, not the v2.0 one) and thought I'd play with it. When I turned it on the motors took turns turning a bit but nothing came on the screen. I put in fresh batteries and it moved some more and a voice came out of it but still nothing on the screen, then it went silent. Now when I try to turn it on nothing happens. When it was originally connected to the PC when I first turned it on the PC recognized it and loaded the driver but now the PC doesn't seem to know it's connected (the Mindstorms NXT software doesn't "see" the device) so I suspect it isn't turning on. I tried resetting it with the button under the USB port without any change in behavior. Any suggestions on how to revive the unit?

Dominique

The LCDs are notorious for going out on the older NXTs, so it's probably just the screen. The Lego company seems to be really good about replacing the NXTs for free, so I'd suggest you start by calling them. I don't know of any other common issues that would cause this type of problem. If you want to test to see if the NXT is working properly (other than the screen), you could use the NXT Screen tool that is included with BricxCC.

I second that. The exact same thing happened to my NXT and I sent it to LEGO. They replaced it for free after more than three years, without a receipt (lego customer service rocks).

I third that! call them first and see what they say. they seem to be pretty good at replacing them.