19-01-12 Saturday I - Chromebook Repair

I had to give my C302 back, unfortunately. Not on a permanent basis, but it needed to be fixed. I was getting fed up of having to reset it on a daily basis, hoping that the wi-fi would come back.

So what happened was, the chromebook would be connected to the internet perfectly well, but then at some point if I refreshed the page or tried to open a new tab, I would get the dinosaur page, telling me that I was “unable to connect to the internet”. If I checked the wi-fi settings everything would look okay, but if I restarted the chromebook then the wi-fi would be switched off, and it would be impossible to switch it back on. I could toggle the wi-fi on, but then it would immediately toggle back to “off”.

In order to reset the wi-fi, and ensure it connected, I would have to switch off the chromebook, and then hold down the “refresh” and the “power” button simultaneously until the screen flickered. Then I could restart the chromebook and check whether the wi-fi had been restored. It wouldn’t work every time, and it was getting frustrating.

The C302 is a great chromebook, I love the HD display and the backlit keypad, as well as the capable processor. I took it back to Argos, and they did say that they would swap it for a brand new one, since the 30-day warranty had only just expired. The problem was, though, that they didn’t have any units to swap my chromebook for – it was pretty much sold out everywhere. I wasn’t even able to order a new one for delivery. They did even suggest I swap it for a different laptop if I could identify a suitable one. The trouble was that I didn’t want to swap it for a different model, the C302 is the chromebook I wanted, and there wasn’t any alternative.

My remaining option was to request an RMA from Asus directly, which I ended up doing. It was actually a fairly painless process, and Asus’s agent in the UK has kept me informed along the way of any new developments. They thought they had fixed it, but during the testing phase they identified another issue, which required another part. So currently they are waiting for that to be delivered and I guess they’ll take it from there. Hopefully it will be returned soon and I can get back to using it regularly. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

TTFN.