Old chromebooks stopped working today??

[PotNoodleTech]

I'm really surprised so many members are running devices that haven't had an OS update in years - are you also running Windows 7?

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Would you not just expect Google to point you to their EOL policy?

 

Well. Ouch! Can someone take the knife out of my back pls?

 

It's a good point and I hold my hands up and take the slap in the face for it for using EOL devices - but to be frank an EOL device that still works is far better than no device which is what they would have so it is a bit hurtful to be abused for just trying to get devices into pupils hands for them to learn.

 

1) We use these devices as backup devices for a) pupils from other schools (yes, we give pupils from other schools who's school is too tight/useless to go 1:1 our Chromebook to use whilst they are studying a course with us)

2) We use these devices as "throw away" devices for the pupils that have track record of damaging/losing new expensive Chromebooks.

 

Luckily chromebooks are far more secure than windows devices so it is no where near as much of a risk as it would be if we were running windows 7 laptops.

 

Still Google have made the decision for us time for a rethink as Chromebooks have not far off doubled in price over the last 6 years and finances are worse than ever.

[Primus]

Well. Ouch! Can someone take the knife out of my back pls?

 

It's a good point and I hold my hands up and take the slap in the face for it for using EOL devices - but to be frank an EOL device that still works is far better than no device which is what they would have so it is a bit hurtful to be abused for just trying to get devices into pupils hands for them to learn.

 

1) We use these devices as backup devices for a) pupils from other schools (yes, we give pupils from other schools who's school is too tight/useless to go 1:1 our Chromebook to use whilst they are studying a course with us)

2) We use these devices as "throw away" devices for the pupils that have track record of damaging/losing new expensive Chromebooks.

 

Luckily chromebooks are far more secure than windows devices so it is no where near as much of a risk as it would be if we were running windows 7 laptops.

 

Still Google have made the decision for us time for a rethink as Chromebooks have not far off doubled in price over the last 6 years and finances are worse than ever.

 

Sorry - hopefully it didn't come across as too harsh!

 

With threads like this - https://www.edugeek.net/forums/general-chat/238015-school-cyber-attacks-up-55-year-year.html - we're doing ourselves no favours if we try to be "too helpful" by keeping old and unsupported devices running.

 

We all have our battles with finance, we're not there yet with Windows 11 and we'll be right down to the wire on it - I am fully prepared to remove PCs that aren't Windows 11 compatible after the cut off date or simply convert them to ChromeOS Flex (we have so many Chrome licences still from the DfE scheme - not sure how as they were issued 1:1 for devices but we do!) - they won't be left running Windows 10.

 

This is the risk you take when you do things like run a device beyond EOL or run Windows 11 on unsupported hardware - you come in one day and everything is broken.

 

Obviously prices have gone up, but we're not seeing a doubling in the price of Chromebooks - they're still the cheapest device that actually works by far and there's bargains to be had - XMA recently had hundreds of the Dell 3110 Chromebooks for just £100 each - they don't go EOL until June 2031!

[PotNoodleTech]

Sorry - hopefully it didn't come across as too harsh!

 

With threads like this - https://www.edugeek.net/forums/general-chat/238015-school-cyber-attacks-up-55-year-year.html - we're doing ourselves no favours if we try to be "too helpful" by keeping old and unsupported devices running.

 

We all have our battles with finance, we're not there yet with Windows 11 and we'll be right down to the wire on it - I am fully prepared to remove PCs that aren't Windows 11 compatible after the cut off date or simply convert them to ChromeOS Flex (we have so many Chrome licences still from the DfE scheme - not sure how as they were issued 1:1 for devices but we do!) - they won't be left running Windows 10.

 

This is the risk you take when you do things like run a device beyond EOL or run Windows 11 on unsupported hardware - you come in one day and everything is broken.

 

Obviously prices have gone up, but we're not seeing a doubling in the price of Chromebooks - they're still the cheapest device that actually works by far and there's bargains to be had - XMA recently had hundreds of the Dell 3110 Chromebooks for just £100 each - they don't go EOL until June 2031!

 

Yes we've already started buying used newer chromebooks I think this will be the only way forward for the two scenarios we use them for.

[PrimaryNetMan]

Have noticed the same behaviour on some EOL Asus C202s

 

I have also been receiving reports of Chromebooks not being able access Mobility Print queues since the move from App to extension. After a quick investigation this morning it would seem the new extension isn't force installing on the EOL devices (v103) we have no choice but to use.

 

Anyone else using the new mobility print extension with EOL devices able to check if they are having the same issue?

[PrimaryNetMan]

I have also been receiving reports of Chromebooks not being able access Mobility Print queues since the move from App to extension. After a quick investigation this morning it would seem the new extension isn't force installing on the EOL devices (v103) we have no choice but to use.

 

Anyone else using the new mobility print extension with EOL devices able to check if they are having the same issue?

 

Well missed this on the migration guide - "The Mobility Print Extension requires Chrome version 114+"

[tom_newton]

Apparently google are separating chrome from chromeos in order to make this less bad in the future.

[MrEprise]

Apparently google are separating chrome from chromeos in order to make this less bad in the future.

 

They've been saying this for a while, allegedly. I've not seen anything of it yet though.

[philgreenworld]

Hi,

 

Yes, we've got a bank of Asus Chromebooks all behaving in exactly the same way - it just points you back to the login screen and never lets you log in. I've tried de-provisioning one from the Google Admin panel and that had no effect and the manual powerwash doesn't work. Somethings afoot here! I've got contacts in Google I will get in touch with.

Edited May 16, 2024 by philgreenworld

[philgreenworld]

Hi all,

 

We're a Google reference school. All our in-school devices are fine but I routinely sell off/donate devices to families for home use and I'm getting word of similar issues with lots of our old Asus Chromebooks. I've contacted the UK Google for Education head with my issues and sent her the link to this thread - I'll report back anything I hear here.

 

I'm also torn - it will be a shame for all the children these devices support but equally, safeguarding is so important and devices need software updates. They've all had a good innings!

 

Phil Cooper

 

Head Teacher

 

Brough Community Primary School

[PotNoodleTech]

Hi all,

 

We're a Google reference school. All our in-school devices are fine but I routinely sell off/donate devices to families for home use and I'm getting word of similar issues with lots of our old Asus Chromebooks. I've contacted the UK Google for Education head with my issues and sent her the link to this thread - I'll report back anything I hear here.

 

I'm also torn - it will be a shame for all the children these devices support but equally, safeguarding is so important and devices need software updates. They've all had a good innings!

 

Phil Cooper

 

Head Teacher

 

Brough Community Primary School

 

Thanks Phil that's great - please let is know what google say as I have scoured my google newsletters etc and cant find any mention of this sudden disablement of older devices.

 

You can't even unenroll or wipe or install chrome flex or anything so these devices have gone from useful (if old) straight to ewaste in literally one morning.

 

Cheers

[Primus]

Thanks Phil that's great - please let is know what google say as I have scoured my google newsletters etc and cant find any mention of this sudden disablement of older devices.

 

You can't even unenroll or wipe or install chrome flex or anything so these devices have gone from useful (if old) straight to ewaste in literally one morning.

 

Cheers

 

I think Google would say they gave enough notice with the EoL dates - devices stopping working after that is a risk you take.

 

I doubt this is something they've done deliberately, it's more likely they've changed something on the back end and these older Chromebooks can't handle it.

[FN-GM]

Have you tried loading Cloadready on these devices? Might be a way to get an updated OS on them.

[Primus]

Have you tried loading Cloadready on these devices? Might be a way to get an updated OS on them.

 

That's called ChromeOS Flex now - I'm not sure you can easily load it onto most Chromebooks though I've seen a few that you can - I think you're likely to have issues with stuff not working though.

[PotNoodleTech]

Have you tried loading Cloadready on these devices? Might be a way to get an updated OS on them.

 

Yep everything is disabled

[TomHutchinson]

I've also now exhausted all lines I thought possible to try (spoke with google, firmware, powerwash, settings, deprovision, custom/other chromeos image) and get round this issue, but it looks like its game over. We have around 200 old Viglen/XMA Chromebook11 devices which, albeit old and 4 years out of updates, still operated. With the age of them, and ones that had no battery replacements, have been great to hand to students to use from home where there was no facilities, all now completely unusable.

I'm still waiting for 'further response' after having a chat to someone in Google Workspace Device support, who unfortunately was very shy on speaking about the issue when I said Im aware they are out of update period. They definitely should have had a fall back where you could at least deprovision the device so that after a reimage or powerwash it could see it was released off the Workspace and work solo.

[Primus]

I've also now exhausted all lines I thought possible to try (spoke with google, firmware, powerwash, settings, deprovision, custom/other chromeos image) and get round this issue, but it looks like its game over. We have around 200 old Viglen/XMA Chromebook11 devices which, albeit old and 4 years out of updates, still operated. With the age of them, and ones that had no battery replacements, have been great to hand to students to use from home where there was no facilities, all now completely unusable.

I'm still waiting for 'further response' after having a chat to someone in Google Workspace Device support, who unfortunately was very shy on speaking about the issue when I said Im aware they are out of update period. They definitely should have had a fall back where you could at least deprovision the device so that after a reimage or powerwash it could see it was released off the Workspace and work solo.

 

They're so heavily reliant on the cloud that it's not like an old iPad running an OS from years ago still chugging away (and even then you'll get problems).

 

If you're 4 years beyond their EoL date then it's definitely time to move on.

 

This is why Google publish EoL dates etc.

[TomHutchinson]

They're so heavily reliant on the cloud that it's not like an old iPad running an OS from years ago still chugging away (and even then you'll get problems).

 

If you're 4 years beyond their EoL date then it's definitely time to move on.

 

This is why Google publish EoL dates etc.

 

I'm fully aware of this, but with funding being hard to get having a device that was still working great in the environment then its a resource that sad to see no longer operate. The point is the way in which it's a hard lock out.

 

Shouldn't have to be EoL just because new OS/firmware is (not*) being released, but a nudge to be unsupported.

 

*edit

Edited May 21, 2024 by TomHutchinson

[PotNoodleTech]

They're so heavily reliant on the cloud that it's not like an old iPad running an OS from years ago still chugging away (and even then you'll get problems).

 

If you're 4 years beyond their EoL date then it's definitely time to move on.

 

This is why Google publish EoL dates etc.

 

Just bare in mind the EoL dates have always been sold to us as the date they stop getting updates, not the date they suddenly stop working out of the blue. This is a purposeful and uncommunicated change from google.

[Primus]

Just bare in mind the EoL dates have always been sold to us as the date they stop getting updates, not the date they suddenly stop working out of the blue. This is a purposeful and uncommunicated change from google.

 

EoL is EoL - you cannot expect something to continue working indefinetly and people are asking Google for support which is definitely way beyond what you'd expect of an EoL device.

 

They also didn't just stop working the day after, we're talking about devices here that are acknowledged to be 4 years beyond their EoL date.

 

If you're using devices this far beyond their EoL date you're potentially going to have issues all over the place.

 

You've no evidence that this a purposeful change - given their reliance on the cloud if Google make a change on the back end they can't be expected to test that change with devices that are way, way beyond their EoL date - if you expect them to do that then you're expecting support beyond the EoL date.

Edited May 21, 2024 by Primus

[Primus]

I'm fully aware of this, but with funding being hard to get having a device that was still working great in the environment then its a resource that sad to see no longer operate. The point is the way in which it's a hard lock out.

 

Shouldn't have to be EoL just because new OS/firmware is (not*) being released, but a nudge to be unsupported.

 

*edit

 

If you're running equipment that is no longer getting OS and security updates then there's a significant problem with that, unfortunately sometimes you have to be the bearer of bad news, just because you *can* do something doesn't mean you *should* do something.

[PotNoodleTech]

Your not getting it - it's the lack of communication that is the problem now that thousands of Chromebooks around the country have suddenly and inexplicably stopped working.

 

These chromebooks are now not able to be disabled or repurposed so are Ewaste even though they actually work fine? As the headteacher above has pointed out devices donated to exceptionally needy pupils are suddenly unusable?

[Primus]

Your not getting it - it's the lack of communication that is the problem now that thousands of Chromebooks around the country have suddenly and inexplicably stopped working.

 

These chromebooks are now not able to be disabled or repurposed so are Ewaste even though they actually work fine? As the headteacher above has pointed out devices donated to exceptionally needy pupils are suddenly unusable?

 

What lack of communication?!

 

You had the EoL date for years - once you are beyond that if you choose to run them it's at your own risk of something like this happening!

[PotNoodleTech]

What lack of communication?!

 

You had the EoL date for years - once you are beyond that if you choose to run them it's at your own risk of something like this happening!

 

I can see I am "arguing on the internet".

 

Oh well.

[Chockster]

I would have always taken the EoL date to be the date they'd no longer be supported, not the day they'd surprise you by bricking your devices.

[PrimaryNetMan]

If they are Viglen 11C then you could try the custom coreboot firmware https://mrchromebox.tech/#devices and try and see if Flex OS runs. Still unsupported though.