Design quirks, limited parts, and other ways Chromebooks frustrate repairs

Google should really be forced to unlock the firmware on all of their abandoned devices.

I foolishly purchased my parents a "reconditioned" Google Chromebook from Lenovo.

The device was covered in black plastic sheets to conceal scratches and markings on the casing. When we activated the device, it was out of support.

I gave them a fresh HP Chromebook to replace it.

Avoid "reconditioned" Chromebooks.

Schools bought millions of Chromebooks in 2020 — and three years later, they’re starting to break

https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/21/23691840/us-pirg-educatio...

I don't really get their headline.

Google extended the AUE to 8 years. They're complaining that most Chromebooks only have 4 years of software life left. Are they buying devices released 4 years ago? Or refurbished devices?

"The sample size could have been larger". Yeah, like _way_ larger. So could the institutions represented. _Scarsdale_? Really? What about NYC, LA, Chicago? As others have written here, you would have to be insane to think a $200 device like that would last more than a couple of years. Or a school administrator who got and keeps their job by sucking up to an even more clueless district superintendent, under the not-so-watchful eye of an idiot school board. "A fool and his money are soon parted".

It's weird to see Google getting picked on for this. Other manufacturers are a lot worse and provide a lot less guarantees about updates.

Now this is by no means unique to Chromebooks, but my recent experience may explain why the repair pipeline may be clogged a bit.

I have a brand-new Chromebook which is still within the vendor return period.

I was having trouble with HDMI/sleep mode, so I contacted Google One Support. They don't really do much ChromeOS support, so after misdirecting me a couple times, they referred me to the manufacturer.

So I contacted the manufacturer, and with a little troubleshooting (and a bizarre keypress combo that the support rep would not explain to me, he said "just press it and it will resolve glitches") they determined that it must be a hardware issue and prompted me to begin the RMA process.

Now I was offended, because they didn't actually know what the issue was, they had just exhausted a few very simple troubleshooting steps with my cooperation, and they were out of ideas, so it must be defective hardware for RMA!

I have also run into similar support issues with my phone, where the first troubleshooting step is to factory reset. No effort at identifying the cause, just nuke the thing from orbit. (In that case, it was a very recent system update to blame, and of course there is no way to roll back system updates on non-rooted Android phones.)

But I digress. If I had sent my Chromebook back to the factory, they would've decided there is no hardware failure (I can do diagnostics just as well as they can) and it would go back on the shelf or back to me with no modifications. And then I would have lost time with my computer, the repair place would've wasted time with diagnostics, and my HDMI/sleep issue would still not be resolved.

I am contacting Support for issues that are not showstoppers. They are not preventing me from starting the computer or getting work done. It was just an annoyance that the computer stays awake. I found a workaround already. Just try not to do these silly RMAs, OK?

I have two Chromebooks, both over 8 years old. The eldest, an ASUS, I gave to my dad and he uses it everyday. Aside from the odd security issue (he'll install any extension he's told to) it works just as well as it when it was new.

The other, a Toshiba, I've dragged around the world with me, has had one repair, a battery replacement, and, again, works fine.

Chromebooks are cheap but reliable devices that ought not to, in all honesty, last as long as they do.

I've had two ThinkPads in the same time, one was stolen and the other I use daily without issue. I buy reconditioned so the cost scale is comparable, as is the utility and reliability.

Non-story!

This is a deeply stupid paper that isn’t supported by the sources it cites. According to the source data, the only Chromebook with a firm number for greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing is the Pixelbook, and according to the same data it has the least embodied carbon of any laptop in their database. Other laptops in their list have as much as five times as much embodied carbon.

I wonder how many people will use the headline to defend chromebooks without reading the article itself...

> having to replace an entire Chromebook keyboard because a single key doesn't work.

Stopped reading there.

I'm typing on a Lenovo Thinkpad L430; it has a couple of defective keys - they're arrow keys, the keys I use most often, because I like to scroll using the keyboard.

I bought replaccement keys online, and had to buy them from Poland (Lenovo don't sell them). You have to go through a rigmarole to select your model, and then you have to select the key you want, and then eyeball the key and compare it to closeups on the order form.

Two weeks later they arrived; they look OK, but they don't fit. They're too big. You can't tell just by looking, but they're a fraction of a millimetre bigger than the hole they're supposed to fit in.

I gave up, and replaced the Thinkpad (a replacement keyboard would have cost as much as the Dell Inspiron I bought second-hand).

You get what you pay for

Crapware. Just like Android.

4 years isn't that bad. I'd wager the average Intel Macbook is going to run out of support sooner.