Lenovo 300e 2nd Gen MTK - spectacular failure rate

[andyt57]

In one of my schools we have 5 dead 100e 2nd Gen MTK Chromebooks. The symptom is that they initially show the ChromeOS is missing or damaged error screen and then just die. They won't take a charge and won't start up. In one of my other schools one device in a class set of 30 has just done the same aftter about 3 months of use.

 

We have some old Dell 11 Chromebooks that are time expired so have GalliumOS installed on them and are still going fine after about 5 years.

 

I'm not too impressed with Lenovo at the moment.

 

An update. The school reported 3 more failed devices in the last fortnight. Two won't charge and the third has the ChromeOS missing failure. Another failed earlier when the wi-fi stopped working.

 

Andrew

[DavR]

An update. The school reported 3 more failed devices in the last fortnight. Two won't charge and the third has the ChromeOS missing failure.

 

I've found the won't charge and ChromeOS missing faults have both been symptoms of motherboard failure. My sympathies.

 

We have some old Dell 11 Chromebooks that are time expired so have GalliumOS installed on them and are still going fine after about 5 years.

 

We've got a batch of Dell 3189 Chromebooks still going strong, that have only needed the odd keyboard or battery replacement. Credit where it's due, Dell's laptop gear has been pretty good these last few years.

[psydii]

These feel like firmware related failures.

 

We saw very similar a few years ago on the (Windows based) Thinkpad 13's, L380's and USB C Docks. Firmware updates started to come thick and fast, and resolved most of them (though no help if a machine had already succumbed to the failure). We've even had updates to these 6 year old platform in April 2022.

 

 

I note that the Windows variant of the 100e G2 devices have BIOS and EMMC firmware updates available on the Lenovo's website. I wonder if Chrome OS is getting equivalents?

 

 

On the E590's we have seen a lot of USB C charging port failures. While we did discover that the laptops are a little large for the trolleys in which they are contained, and need to be put in at an angle so the doors don't stress the charging ports when plugged in, they too have many firmware updates that might perhaps improve reliability of the platform. Unfortunately the E series does not get updates available through enterprise channels, so we didn't realize we were missing them for quite a while.

 

 

On 'identical' devices having variations like the presence or not of a M.2/NVMe slot, we were lucky enough to have some evaluation hardware and early production runs of various models shipped to use at the very start of the pandemic. When I observed the port to our contact at the OEM they advised that early runs often have motherboards capable of multiple configurations, and once the market has decided what configuration is the most profitable, the unused capabilities are removed from later runs. (i.e. I shouldn't make any decisions based on the apparent upgradability of 1st/pre-production runs of the hardware)

[londonbg]

We've just had about 40 of these machines die all within weeks of each other. Literally dropping like flies. Anyone got any (urgent) suggestions for non Lenovo touchscreen Chromebooks that can also be used as a tablet?

[Oaktech]

Wer're just looking into the Asus Flip

[PotNoodleTech]

We have about 400 x 300e and have not seen this.

 

The least reliable in our fleet have been Acers.

[londonbg]

Yeah we've literally never had an issue at all with them till the majority of them all decided to simultaneously turn themself off forever in the space of a month. There seems to be lots about this happening online having dug a bit further.

[DavR]

We have about 400 x 300e and have not seen this.

 

There are at least two variants of the 300e around - one with MediaTek chips, and ones with AMD chips. It'll say either MTK or AMD in the product name / on the label.

 

It's the MediaTek ones that have been dying like flies for us, the AMDs have been fine.

[JazzFlute]

If anyones intrested as related to this thread.

https://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/241864-lenovo-300e-2nd-gen-hard-drive-upgrade-recomendations-supplier.html

[MrEprise]

Similarly related, we've got 2 class sets of Lenovo 100e Gen 4 Chromebooks with the newer Mediatek MT7921 SoC which now has me worried, as all of our ASUS C202XA's have the Mediatek MT8173C SoC similar to the Lenovo ones with the 81QC code and we've had about 30 of these all die in the same way (i.e. No OS and they won't take a charge) with some of these all dying within the last few weeks. I've got some similar age ASUS Chromebooks which have Intel chips and are fine, which makes me wonder if there's a failure within the SoC itself.

 

I'm kind of hoping (in a way) it's just an issue with the MT8173C and it isn't a bug that affects newer Mediatek SoC's

[PotNoodleTech]

Got 130 Gen 4 and so far only screens cracked no O/S/MOBO faults touch wood.

 

They certainly aren't quite as durable as the Gen2s of which I have hundreds still going.

[mikes]

yeah we have loads of Gen1 / Gen2 - and never had any problems with them - our Gen 2's  are  81MA though. So it seems 81MA gen 2's  don't have this SoC issue (seems they have an Intel SoC if the websites I found the spec sheets on are accurate) - ours are Intel branded

 

The Gen3/4  we have are much flimsier - had over 10 screens smashed in the past 6 months just from being in bags etc.  Whereas the Gen1/Gen2  we have had 2 smashed screens in total over 5 years.  The Gen1/2 seem to have a protective covering that the 3/4's lack.

Edited March 26, 2025 by mikes
model no

[gshaw]

Was just about to make a thread about the increasing pile of these I have in the WEEE basket, all of which are there because of USB C port failures (both sides) so they no longer charge.

 

Does anyone have a similar pile of smashed screen \ faulty keyboard devices as it pains me to WEEE them whilst they're still within Chrome OS support