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Basic Chromebook Troubleshooting for Families

 

The best place to start with any Chromebook troubleshooting is to turn it all the way off and back on again. Just closing the lid (ie-”clamshelling”) does not fully turn the device off. In the bottom right, select the clock then click on the power button to do a full shutdown. If that doesn’t help, here are some common solutions.

 

Canvas has some kind of authentication error or simply will not load documents

  1. Visit this link to go through several troubleshooting steps for Canvas.

 

Sites won’t load or the Chromebook is really slow

  1. At the top right of the Chrome window, click the three dot menu 

  2. Choose More Tools, then Clear browsing data

  3. At the top in the Time range, select All time.

  4. Next to 'Cookies and other site data' and 'Cached images and files', tick the boxes.

  5. Click Clear data.

  6. Restart your chromebook.

 

Microphone is distorted, unclear, or not picking up any audio

  1. At the bottom right, select the time.

  2. Next to the volume slider, select the arrow to bring up Audio settings.

  3. Under Input, click and drag the microphone slider left or right.

  4. The microphone sound will be garbled if the volume is all the way up. Around halfway is a good setting.

 

Won’t Power On

  1. Plug the device into the charger.

  2. Hold the power button for 30 seconds. This will reset the battery.

  3. Press the power button again and it may turn on.

 

Keys won't work, or are typing different letters

  1. Click the clock in the lower right corner.

  2. Under Keyboard it should say US. If it says anything else, you’ll need to change it back to the US Keyboard.

  3. Click the word Keyboard, then choose the US keyboard from the menu.

 

Camera not working

  1. Open the Camera app by choosing the open white circle in the lower-left.

  2. Type Camera and then click the Camera App. If the camera does not automatically display within a few seconds, there is a hardware problem and you’ll need to request help from the tech department. When filling out the form, please let us know you checked the camera app.

If none of these work please contact Mrs. Nichols at nicholss@wdmcs.org.

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