CBG-516-1H-53TY Chromebook still freezes after power wash and restore

I have a one plus year old (March 2023 purchase so out of warranty I assume) 516 GE Chromebook. It has been great up until now, sans the audio going out once in a while. (Never found a fix for that :( All of a sudden last week, it started freezing up. At first it was once or twice a day, but then became more and more. I looked at my recent downloads and found only a few PDFs from clients. I don't download much at all.

Then it became much worse, where after only a minute after boot up, it would freeze. So I power washed it. But after 10 minutes it froze again. Then I restored the Chromebook. Thought I was good after about 30 minutes, and then it froze. And now it freezes up after 5 minutes or less of use. It is unusable at this point.

Is this a common issue with the GE 516? Is there anything else I can do on my own to try and fix? Any idea the cost to fix from Acer? Or should I just trash it? Seems crazy it has become a rock after only a year plus of light use.

[Edited the thread to add model number to the title]

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billsey

I'm guessing you have a CBG516-1H Chromebook, since the CBG516-2H might not have been released yet in March of 2023. Your full model number is usually on the same sticker as your serial number, it should look something like xxxxx-xxx-xxxx. We haven't heard of many issues with the CBG models here, which either means there have been very few sold or there are very few issues. Since they did a second model i8n the line I believe they probably had reasonably high sales numbers. Did you reinstall apps after the power wash before the freezes restarted, or did the freezes happen before any apps were reinstalled? When it freezes does it recover after a bit, or do you have to force a shutdown and then restart?

fluffykitty

Thank you for your reply. Yes, it is a CBG-516-1H-53TY Chromebook. I haven't reinstalled any apps after the Powerwash and restore. And yet it still freezes, after only a few minutes of use. It will not recover on it's own. I have to force a shutdown and restart.

After playing with it for a while, it's really the touch pad and cursor that freezes. I can move things around with the tab button and right/left arrows. But can't really do anything at that point. I just restored it again and one minute into the intro process adding my wifi password, it froze up. So it's getting worse.

Very strange.

billsey

If you plug an external mouse in, does that work?

fluffykitty

Hi,

Unfortunately, I don't have an external mouse. I could buy one off Amazon and try it, but I wouldn't use it going forward. This is definitely my travel laptop and I can't imagine trying to use it with an external mouse on a long term basis.

I've power washed and restored it a few more times and it still has the same issue. Sometimes at the very beginning when I'm first signing up with the device. Now, the cursor/trackpad either freezes, or the cursor disappears altogether. So the disappearing act is new.

billsey

Better yet, just pick one up at a thrift store, that should be cheaper than getting one from Amazon… Unfortunately since you are past the warranty period if the issue is in the hardware (fairly likely at this point) getting it fixed isn't likely to be cost effective. :(

fluffykitty

Thank you for your help. I will probably try to fix it myself with the help of YouTube videos. I have to think it's the touchpad at this point. Though I'm not positive with the disappearing cursor. I'll also check with Acer on a price for fixing it. It was an expensive Chromebook when new, that's for sure. To only last 18 months with light use is quite the let down. Probably my last Chromebook purchase. Was a good ride, just too short. I will post up what I find in case it helps anyone else.

Thanks again!

billsey

The only other thing I can think of is a swollen battery, pushing on the keyboard and touchpad… That should be obvious when you open it though.

fluffykitty

Was pretty easy to open up and check things out. The battery looks normal. The touchpad seems a little difficult to replace but I'll try it anyway. There are no YouTube videos of this specific model replacing the touchpad. That's my only hope at this point. I'll go ahead and order the part. It's worth $25 to try.

billsey

This should help:

So not too bad… Notice those mounting screws have really wide heads, so don't lose any.

fluffykitty

Thank you so much billsey! My 516 GE is now fixed with a new touchpad of course. It was rather easy too. Worst part was hooking back up the cable B in Figure 1 above. (Touchpad modular connector) It was very difficult to reconnect. And oddly the other one was very easy. I'm still not sure it's in there very good. But everything works for now, so I won't mess with it.

Much appreciate the help! Saved me from buying a new laptop. I don't see a lot of posts about touchpads going bad, so I assume it's rare.

Thanks again!

billsey

Yes, almost all the touchpad issues I've seen over the years were either due to a driver problem or something like a swollen battery pushing on it from below. I guess you are one in a million! :)

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