Wadströms Lab troubleshooting
Most faults here are confined to a single station, which makes them low-risk: a station can usually be restarted during opening hours without affecting anything else in the building.
Work through the troubleshooting method first, but the ladder is short in this space — content, station PC, display, power.
Symptoms below are derived from the station inventory and general behaviour of this kind of installation. Causes and steps are informed reconstructions and should be corrected against real fault history.
Quick triage
| Observation | Jump to |
|---|---|
| One station shows a desktop or login screen | Station not showing content |
| One station screen is blank | Station screen blank |
| Touch or input not responding | Input not responding |
| Globe not running | Globe not starting |
| Content out of date after an update | Content not updating |
| Several stations down at once | Multiple stations down |
A station shows the desktop or a login screen
The most common fault in the space. The machine is fine; its content application is not running.
- Identify the station and its machine name from
Computers (Level 5, ExpLab) — for example
EXPLAB-03-Vat 172.19.55.31 runs EcoWeb Serengeti. - Connect over RealVNC or RDP — every station supports both. You usually do not need to physically go to the station.
- Log in and start the content application.
- If it will not start, or crashes again immediately, restart the machine remotely and let the content auto-start.
A station screen is blank
- Is the machine reachable over VNC/RDP? If yes, the machine is alive and the fault is the display or the cable to it.
- Check the display's own power and input selection.
- If the station is projector-based, check Projectors.
- If the machine is unreachable and the screen is blank, check the PDU outlet on PDUs and use Reset to power-cycle it.
Touch or input is not responding
- Confirm the machine itself is responsive over VNC — if the desktop responds remotely but not locally, it is the input device, not the computer.
- Reseat the USB connection for the touch overlay or input device.
- Restart the station; touch overlays frequently need the machine to re-enumerate them.
- If touch works but is offset, the touch calibration has been lost and must be redone.
Document which stations have touch overlays, the make/model, and how to run their calibration.
The globe is not running
The Science on a Sphere style globe is a projection system driven by its own machine.
This section needs real content: the globe's machine name and address, how content is selected, the start-up and shutdown procedure, and the projector arrangement inside the globe.
Until that is filled in, treat it as: check machine reachable → check content application running → check projector(s) → check power.
Content is not updating
If a station is showing an old version of its content after an update:
- Confirm the update actually reached that machine — stations are individually managed.
- Restart the content application, then the machine.
- If content is delivered through Pixilab Blocks, check the Blocks player for that station — see Pixilab Blocks.
Several stations are down at once
Independent stations failing together points at something shared: power, network or a content server.
- Check whether the affected stations share a PDU — see PDUs.
- Check network reachability by IP as well as by name. Stations are on
172.19.55.x. - If content is served centrally, check that server before touching the stations.
- Check for a UPS event — see UPS information.
Restart order for a station
- Content application
- Station computer (remotely, via VNC or RDP)
- Display or projector
- PDU Reset on the station's outlet
When to swap hardware
| Device | Swappable? |
|---|---|
| Input device / touch overlay | Yes |
| Display | Yes |
| Station PC | Yes, if a prepared spare exists — content and station role must be reapplied |
| PDU | Yes — see spare units |