Last time, I wrote about a Chromebook used by a single person that was experiencing multiple problems. The problems were specific to the Google useron that Chromebook, when they used a different Chromebook, all was well. And, when the problematic Chromebook was used in Guest mode things were fine too.
My solution was to powerwash the Chromebook, a process that removes all traces of Google users from the machine. This worked at first, but after a few days the problems re-appeared.
The most conspicuous problem was the message that "Your profile could not be opened correctly". Most annoying to the user, was that pictures attached to email messages could not be displayed. In EarthLink webmail, clicking on the link to display an attached picture, opened a new, blank tab. Even worse, the system would sometimes freeze.
Is it a hardware or software problem? Is there one underlying problem or many?
I usually make an image backup before giving away a computer, as protection against just this sort of thing, but there are no image backups of Chrome OS devices.
My first reaction was to install bug fixes. The problems started under Chrome OS version 49, but by this time, version 50 had been released. Updating the OS made no difference.
Then, I removed a couple extensions I was fairly sure the Chromebook owner didn't use, but that didn't help either.
This is partially why people stick with their favorite operating system; on a new OS, you have to start from scratch when it comes to debugging tools. I suspected there was an I/O error and would haveloved to see the SMART data from the hard drive, but I don't know how on Chrome OS.
The Chrome browser has lots of internal-use-only URLs. I blogged about one that can update Flash (chrome://components)just last month. To see a full list, enter chrome://chrome-urls in the address bar.
The list varies based on the operating system and Chrome OS includes one that Windows does not, chrome://drive-internals.
Drive Internals on a Chromebook
Sadly, it was Greek to me and there were no SMART statistics.
Next, I poked around the chrome://system output and found multiple log files: eventlog, syslog, chrome_system_log, bios_log and chrome_user_log. The Chrome system log had lots of errors, but none that I could understand. And, apparently errors are normal, there were quite a few on a well-behaved Chromebook too.
Chrome OS storage info
There was also a storage_info section of the system report that seems to have hard drive information (above), but again, I could not interpret the data.
Clearly, I am in over my head, this was getting me nowhere.
Sometimes, however, working around a problem is good enough. Not every problem needs to be fully understood, explained and fixed.
HAPPY ENDING
My hunch, again, was that the underlying problem was a hard drive read/write error. The system also felt sluggish, which couldbe hard drive related. If I'm right, the current Google account on the Chromebook is occupying the hard drive space with the problem. So, another Google account on the same machine might be just fine.
It was. And, that's our happy ending.
I created a brand new Google account on the Chromebook and, after verifying that it worked flawlessly, started turning it into a duplicate of the first account. For starters, it used the same password.
The Chromebook owner uses EarthLink webmail, so all I had to do there was bookmark the site and tell Chrome to save their password. Had they been a Gmail user, I can think of three ways to handle the transition, there are probably even more.
Fortunately, there weren't any other saved website passwords as those would have to be re-created manually.
There were only a few bookmarks to migrate, so I just re-created them manually. Had there been hundreds, the bookmarks could have been exported from the old account to an HTML file using Bookmark Manager and then imported into the new one.
On Chrome OS, one user can never see another users files, so I manually copied over the locally stored files using a USB flash drive. As I wrote last time, there were just over 200 megabytes worth.
I left the problematic Google userid in place, again, on the theory that it was occupying the bad disk space. It has been a couple weeks and, so far, so good.
WORST CASE SCENARIO
But, what if this second Google account has problems in the future?
In that case, the biggest hammer in the software toolbox is a total refresh of the Chromebook, wiping out, not just the Google accounts, but the operating system as well, before replacing it.
This is done by downloading a copy of Chrome OS to a USB flash drive or SD card, then booting the Chromebook in a special "recovery mode". The fresh copy of Chrome OS (referred to as the "recovery image") is created using the Chrome browser on a computer running either Windows, OS X, Linux or Chrome OS.
First you need to install the Chromebook Recovery Utility, then you point it at either a USB flash drive or an SD card. The recovery image needs 4GB of space and the Recover Utility over-writes everythingon the flash drive/SD card.
For instructions on booting the Chromebook in "recovery mode" seeRecover your Chromebook.
Any problems that persist after a total Chromebook refresh are, almost definitely, hardware related. That's half the battle right there.
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