Acer Chromebook CB3-111 ,Chrome OS damaged, need recovery utility download

Marie333

 I have an Acer Chromebook model GNAWTY C2A-E3N-Q21 .. MFG date is 2015/09/09.. when I power it on shows a white screen with the following message: Chrome OS is missing or damaged. Please insert a recovery USB stick or SD card" .. It also gives a web address "For help visit http://google.com/chromeos/recovery"... As that site suggests, I went to the google chrome store to download the "chrome recovery utility" and it just does not work for me..it downloaded the Chrome extension, but the extension did not work, it does not reach the stage where it is suppose to ask for my model number. Is there another site online where I can download the "chrome recovery utility" onto a USB drive so I can save my chromebook? I can't afford to throw it away. This Acer website not supply a download of the utility software, I checked for available downloads for this chromebook and nothing was shown.

 I also viewed a video on youtube that showed how to restore the chromebook to factory settings, but the chromebook will not go through all the stages, it just stops. I called Acer support and when I entered the model number the recording said I am out of warranty and it directed me to a third party tech service that wants to charge $49.99 to help. I can't afford that . Any help or suggestions appreciated. Thank you.

P.S...after doing google searches, I discovered that this error message frequently happens to many other people with the same chromebook and they too said the utility at the chrome store did not work.

billsey

I'm going to guess at this point the issue is a hardware failure with the drive. If the recovery can't write to the drive successfully it'll throw that type of error. Unfortunately the drive is an eMMC chip soldered to the MB and is likely not cost effective to replace. With a 2015 manufacture date I assume you are no longer in warranty, so it's time to shop for a new machine.

billsey

That will work, the higher end model sometimes do have replaceable drives, usually M.2 SSDs.

Marie333

UPDATE...I finally got the Chromebook Recovery Utility to download onto a USB drive, so I put when I use the recovery USB on the Chromebook,  it starts the recovery process then stops with this error message "an unexpected error has occured"    ...is there anyway to install Chrome OS onto this chromebook without having to do it through recovery? is there a mass graveyard of Acer Chromebooks that power on but don't work and display the white screen of death? I am ready to just give up .A lot of people that purchased this chromebook model have the same issue. My next chromebook will not be an Acer.

billsey

I'm going to guess at this point the issue is a hardware failure with the drive. If the recovery can't write to the drive successfully it'll throw that type of error. Unfortunately the drive is an eMMC chip soldered to the MB and is likely not cost effective to replace. With a 2015 manufacture date I assume you are no longer in warranty, so it's time to shop for a new machine.

Marie333

Thank you for your comment billsey, you are correct. After I posted my comments I found a post online showing the identical issues  with the exact same error message, if you get the error message that says Chrome OS is damaged, you can press the "Tab" key and the tech problem message appears on screen. The way to fix this chromebook issue is to replace the SSD or hard drive, but sadly there is no SSD or hard drive , instead it is emmc chip soldered onto motherboard. I will probably buy a new Chromebook, but will make sure it has an actual hard drive or SSD in case I get a similar problem with it.

billsey

That will work, the higher end model sometimes do have replaceable drives, usually M.2 SSDs.