Need help or advice to fix Acer Chromebook 11 C740-C4PE or replace SSD if possible

provobis

I obtained a Acer Chromebook 11 C740-C4PE from a garage sale. Obviously it's a refugee from some school that discarded old class units to upgrade the school's classroom puters. When I turned it on I got a log in password screen which I couldn't use so I looked for web solutions to wipe or reinstall the OS. Also tried different things (like recover, reset, etc) but it seems I may have "bricked" the SSD according to some terms I see on the web. So now I have a SSD that's  still alive and I can actually connect to my home network, but can't enroll into the school org with an email password. Tried using the Google account option but that process tells me no Google account found with my account info. That's weird because I do have a Google account with name and email ID, but evidently it can't be found. Why? So what to do? Buy another 16gb SSD? Tried surfing for one to plug into this Chromebook but it does not seem to be available anywhere for some reason. School enterprise issues again? Maybe I should just chuck this Chromebook but it would be a shame based on reviews I've seen. Any suggestions? Anyone?

billsey

I'm not positive, but IIRC the drives on those are soldered in eMMC and can't be replaced except by replacing the whole motherboard.

provobis

Thanks billsey, but I don't understand what you're saying. IIRC? eMMC? I've had the bottom cover off and the SSD drive is removable of course, if that's what you're refering to. Only other thing I've been told (by a Google help rep) is the system has to be unlocked by a school administrator. I don't know who that might be or what school, and in any case I've tried an unlock procedure I found on the web (involves defeating "read/write") and it didn't work though the procedure was for a different model. But I have to assume that any "managed" Chromebook can be unlocked without replacing the MB, if these Acer models have a MB bios that can be accessed. I'm not that familiar with cloud devices as you can see, so that's above my paygrade as they say.

Traveller

You could try a Factory Reset.

 

If that doesn't work, you could try Reinstalling the OS.  I did this when I replaced the SSD with a larger drive.

 

Since you don't have anything on this system, you aren't going to lose anything you care about.

 

One of these should work unless there is something in the hardware that locks this system to the previous owner.  I would only try a new SSD if I had one that fit lying around, or could use it elsewhere.  The odds that a drive replacement will work when a reinstall doesn't are very low.

provobis

Thanks Traveller, I did try all that before, always kicked back to managed device needs to be unlocked, in this case evidently by a school administrator. I've been advised by others that they won't get involved in "defeating security" for managed devices and I understand why....managed school devices might have been stolen or otherwise illegally obtained. That's not true in my case but how does one prove that if it makes any difference.

 

I did find web instructions to "return it to factory" (which involves changing the internal serial number after removing MB security) so that it can be put in developer mode, but it was for a different model Acer chromebook which was not the same MB as mine and I couldn't find that procedure for my model.

 

Thanks again for your suggestion.