Chromebooks - absolute nightmare

[Bev]

Anyone else having problems with Chromebooks.

 

I bought 32 at the end of last year. We spent 3 or 4 days getting them all connected to the enterprise, logging in etc, and had them all working.

Come back after the 6 weeks, and none of them are working now. They have a variety of problems, not connecting to Wi-fi, not recognising passwords, and then a strange error "Login has been cancelled because some of the device settings have been corrupted."

 

I am at the absolute end of my tether with them, and ready to throw them out.

 

All other reviews I've read seem to say they are fabulous and 'just work', Am I really the only person struggling ?

[SYNACK]

do they have a factory reset then rejoin ability, might be fastest.

[Arthur]

Have you tried "PowerWashing" a ChromeBook? Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R at the sign-in screen.

 

All other reviews I've read seem to say they are fabulous and 'just work'

Not all of the reviews are positive...

 

Living with a Chromebook for a week is like 7 minutes of heaven, then 7 days of hell

 

I really want to like Chrome; I wanted to make it work. I kept finding ways to make it work for me throughout the week, but the workarounds just kept getting more ridiculous. No one that isn't a total geek is going to search for workarounds so they can open a Word document and edit it on their Chromebook. On a Windows machine, there are free programs like OpenOffice that can open any Office document. Why can’t a Chromebook when it’s powered by Google Docs, which can convert Office files? A high school near me is giving every student a Chromebook this fall. They're going to have to read all their books using it and do all their work. I feel terrible for those kids. This is an OS marketed toward schools, but it lacks functionality that Windows had in the 1980s. Give the kids something that can play Oregon Trail, at least. Chromebooks are no fun.

 

The biggest realization came for me when I turned on my MacBook Air after a week. (I had to because I needed to take a Skype call.) It was so … fast. And I could use every Chat service I wanted. And the battery life was much better than the Pixel. And it was so much lighter. And I could run the full version of Spotify. And I could open iTunes. And I could edit Microsoft Office documents without a lengthy conversion process. And I could use Dropbox. And it didn't slow down for me. And, best of all, I could use the Chrome browser, and every Chrome app I had installed, on my Mac. It was wonderful and such a relief to not have to think about what I couldn't do, or worry if my next email attachment will open or not.

 

If you really want a good Chrome experience, just run the browser on a MacBook or Windows 8 machine. Chrome OS couldn't handle the modest requests I made of it. Maybe it will work for you, but it is still not ready for primetime. I’ll be the first to sign up when it is.

Edited September 4, 2013 by Arthur

[Bev]

I had to factory reset every one before the summer to get them to connect to the enterprise. the thought of having to factory reset them all again doesn't fill me with joy, but I suspect that will be the answer.

 

Re that review. I agree with what it says, but for what we need, they should be fine. We just need internet access, and Google Docs, and that's exactly what they are designed to do. When they work, I think they are great, but if I have to go into class each time htey are used, and connect them to the network, and power-wash them etc, then they are of no use to me.

[pcstru]

Anyone else having problems with Chromebooks.

 

I bought 32 at the end of last year. We spent 3 or 4 days getting them all connected to the enterprise, logging in etc, and had them all working.

Come back after the 6 weeks, and none of them are working now. They have a variety of problems, not connecting to Wi-fi, not recognising passwords, and then a strange error "Login has been cancelled because some of the device settings have been corrupted."

 

I am at the absolute end of my tether with them, and ready to throw them out.

 

All other reviews I've read seem to say they are fabulous and 'just work', Am I really the only person struggling ?

 

They are the spawn of the devil. We now have 120. They were a complete pain to connect to the management Domain. They have not reset but then we are only just turning them on in anger.

[robjduk]

we just rolled out about 60 of the things and so far they are great with no issues.

 

They only trick I ever found was to ensure they update correctly after you register them. I sign in immediately after they are attached to the enterprise account and check on the update progress. Once the update hits they are 100% reliable in our case. Be sure you have not capped the update level in the enterprise console.

Also check the time is right on them. If over a minute out, you get issues.

[Bev]

I think there is something that is blocked on our school network. I've brought a few of them home, power-washed them, reconnected to enterprise, and then taken then back to school and they seem to be working fine.

I'm not sure if there is a site or port they need access to for the initial registration process, but fingers crossed, if I rebuild them all and reregister them out of school, then we might have success.

[robjduk]

I tethered a few to my phone one afternoon when I was fixing the time issue. Thankfully I found what was blocking it (some secure https://google.* thing in our filtering)