C720 turns on, but won't boot.

I got my chromebook on September 3rd, 2014, so it conveniently broke down less then a week out of warranty. Smiley Mad

When I turn on the laptop, it displays the yellow exclamation screen, saying "Chrome os is missing or damaged." I tried the recovery image several times, but it encounters an error each time. I tried to do factory resets, but they also don't work. I looked at the recovery reason, it says "0x5b No bootable kernel found on disk."

I was wondering if replacing the SSD would fix the problem, I wanted to upgrade my drive space anyway. I'm not interested in the data on the drive I have now, or the chrome os, really. I'd be happy just installing Ubunut 14 on it, if that's a possibility.

Anyone have any options to offer?

Accepted answers

Cory-Acer

Some regions may have issue with the broken seal. Luckily in the US as long as the unit has not been damaged as part of opening the case, it normally isn't an issue. Worst case, they'll receive your unit and if they have issues, they'll contact you and go over options before anything is done. If you don't want to do any of those options, we'll ship it back to you.

All comments

Cory-Acer

Hi benji0nics,

I'd be glad to get our support staff involved, we won't leave you hanging a week out of warranty like that. With that said, there are a few options.

The Chromebooks work on specific hardware IDs so upgrading the SDD yourself may create problems for you down stream in terms of getting updates, but it can be done. We don't qualify the upgrades, but others have reported success.

What I would do first thought is try to create USB recovery media. We have a video on how to do this, which I'll link below, and then there is a followup. If the OS image got corrupted on the SSD and the TPM it could be as simple as doing a full restore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Qq1DGMqH0

Let me know if the recovery works or shoot me a PM with your contact info and Serial Number and I'll ask our team here to give you a call.

Thanks,
Cory

benji0nics

Thank you so much for replying.

The youtube video you linked to gives a URL that doesn't work anymore, now they ask you to use this link instead:

https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1080595

I have tried this already, and I get an error, prohibiting the recovery process.

I tried calling ACER support, but I was told that since the warranty had expired, they would need to charge $120 to repair.

Some time after that, I contacted ACER support through live chat, repeating to them the exact same issue, and they excused the expired warranty and offered to repair it for free, which was GREAT!

But here comes my concern: After I got off the phone with ACER support the first time I contacted them, I wanted to see if I could open up my chromebook, and check if there were any obvious problems that I could fix myself; like, maybe the SSD got dismounted, or maybe it just needed to be replaced. So I broke the warranty seal, but I couldn't find a screwdriver, so I ended up not opening it anyway.

Now that I was promised by the live chat person that they would forgive the expired warranty and repair it for free, I'm kinda kicking myself for breaking the seal. Do you know if they'll care that the seal is broken, even if I didn't get inside the chromebook anyway?

Cory-Acer

Some regions may have issue with the broken seal. Luckily in the US as long as the unit has not been damaged as part of opening the case, it normally isn't an issue. Worst case, they'll receive your unit and if they have issues, they'll contact you and go over options before anything is done. If you don't want to do any of those options, we'll ship it back to you.

benji0nics

I was just notified from the Acer Repair center that the repair was successful and my machine is on my way back home.

Acer is pretty awesome.

Thanks for your help!

Joemoney

I have the same problem. Missing or damaged chrome os. But I don't have Ian or a sdcard. I tried the recovery steps but it stops at fully rebooting and goes back to yellow exclamation point. I'm running Google Akron yuna.6301.59.5 on my 3 year old Acer 7600 chromebook. Please help. Thanks.

Quick Links

Top Members

Weekly

Puraw 145

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™