Turning Dell Laptops into simple bootable web browsers

[ReBoot]

Hi all,

 

At the moment these machines are slow and Windows is always crashing on them.

 

Many thanks.

 

I have the opposite experience with these laptops. I image them with Enterprise LTSC 2019 and they work fine on my domain. Ok they are not powerhouses but fine for general use in a primary school and I have had no issues with them crashing (all drivers are available for LTSC 2019).

 

They are a bit expensive from Dell but as freebies from the DfE a very welcome addition to our inventory. I have successfully used the 64 and 128GB versions.

[Sonic007]

I have the opposite experience with these laptops. I image them with Enterprise LTSC 2019 and they work fine on my domain. Ok they are not powerhouses but fine for general use in a primary school and I have had no issues with them crashing (all drivers are available for LTSC 2019).

 

They are a bit expensive from Dell but as freebies from the DfE a very welcome addition to our inventory. I have successfully used the 64 and 128GB versions.

 

 

There were two versions of the 3190. Unfortunately we got the ones with eMMC storage and I've only heard issues with these.

 

Having turned them into web only machines now they are great for what we need them for.

[ReBoot]

I'm pretty sure all mine are eMMC. The boot in under 15 seconds and in use the performance is OK.

[Sanchez]

We got a batch of the Dell 3190's from DFE the other day and I'm trying to put Chrome OS Flex on them but I'm getting the following error after it installs and I reboot them:

 

Invalid image

Failed to read header: unsupported

Failed to load image: unsupported

startup_image() reported unsupported

 

I've tried a different USB drive with the same result. I can only guess it's a bios setting that needs changing coupled with another install attempt but I don't know which setting(s) to try.

Can anyone who has successfully done this point me in the right direction?

 

Thanks.

[Norphy]

UEFI or Secureboot?

[Sanchez]

UEFI or Secureboot?

These devices will only UEFI boot, secure boot and TPM are already turned off in order for it to install at all.

[Sonic007]

All I've had to do is press F12 and then choose " Change Boot Mode settings" and put them into EUFI Boot Mode, Secure Boot Off.

[DavR]

Having the same problem as @Sanchez with putting Chrome OS Flex on the Dell 3190. Installs, but doesn't boot, or boots to a black screen. If I select the boot partition manually, I get the "Invalid image" error. UEFI on, Secure boot off, PTT off.

 

They're listed as "minor issues expected" on the OS Flex compatibility page - https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11513094?hl=en

 

These are the 64GB eMMC versions, which I'm really struggling to find a use for. The storage is too small to take my domain Windows build, it'll just about take my standalone build, but only leaving 7GB free space after, which will be gone in a few weeks. Really disappointing as I had plans for these as domain laptops.

 

Might give Neverwhere a bash next!

[Sonic007]

I found they are great for Porteus Kiosk. Boots straight to Google Chrome and can be setup to clear all settings when turned off so none of my users are left logged in to google drive.

[DavR]

Neverwhere CloudReady is working, so @Sanchez you may find that's an option.

 

I guess I've got another batch of Chromebooks with Windows badges on. Thanks DfE, I guess....

[Sanchez]

I've made some progress and I've got a support case open with Google.

 

I too have found cloudready works but as they will auto update to flex when v100 goes to stable in April I want to get flex working.

 

Using an installer with v101 on works better. It installs and creates the correct UEFI entry (unlike my original v100 installer which I had to recreate the UEFI entry after it installed).

 

My test devices will eventually boot if I leave them long enough (can boot loop for 10 minutes sometimes). Once booted they work as expected although performance is a little underwhelming. I have them enrolled and applying policies.

 

It's just the unreliable booting! Must be fixable as it's rock solid with cloudready. We're a Chromebook school so these are only of use if we can get flex working.

[ITGuyNW]

Bringing this thread back

 

Got a bunch of these on my desk. I can install Windows 11 on them but you don't get much space left over.

 

Anyone still using these? Might try flex on it.

[DavR]

I think Flex is pretty much the agreed way to go on these now. They're barely Windows capable, and not upgradeable, so I can't see what else you can usefully do with em.

 

I haven't tried one recently to see if any of the bugs discussed above have been resolved, though. It's defo worth a go with the latest installer to find out.

Edited March 17, 2025 by DavR

[dhicks]

Anyone still using these? Might try flex on it.

 

We have ChromeOS Flex installed on a number of devices around the school (desktops, laptops, all-in-ones, Macs), it seems to work very nicely in most cases. We did have one specific model of NUC that updated to a specific version of ChromeOS and stopped working, so it's worth testing your model of device does actually work before you go to much further with any planning. If you want to use your ChromeOS Flex device as a kisok device then you'll need to have it managed by your Google Workspace, so bear in mind you'll need a £30-ish-a-time ChromeOS management license.

[GriffTech]

I put them all on Win11, we don't have ChromeOS licenses and management aren't willing to pay.

 

I literally just put Google chrome on them and that's it, they've worked absolutely fine surprisingly but flex is definitely the better choice if you can use it .

[Sanchez]

We have a number of these in circulation running Flex. Not had any come back to me in months so I'm just assuming they are running fine! I think most of the bugs had been sorted by v103 so stable for a long time.

[jhothersall]

Make sure all BIOS updates are applied. We get students to log onto the same device and local profiles are cleaned after 30days and its much better.

 

The key is to get them numbered and get staff to allocate the same device and that will speed it up.

[Lxshm]

anyone tried LTSC 2021 on 4gb laptops with 64gb space, any usability?

Edited March 20, 2025 by Lxshm