ForumTechnical Corner ► General Computer Issues
Making this thread, because I don't see one like it. Sorry if I'm blind.

My school-issued Dell Chromebook has quite a few small, but mildly annoying issues. The more annoying of the two issues is that, when I plug the chromebook in, everything seems to lag behind. The display is delayed just enough so that it's fairly noticeable, but not unusable. The trackpad also works much worse while plugged in, not registering movements a lot of the time. When unplugged, however, it works fine.

Another, smaller issue is that both of the cameras are rendered useless. The front camera has somehow become damaged, and no longer focuses. It's basically extremely nearsighted, if you can use that analogy for a camera. The rear-facing camera the chromebook has simply does not exist according to itself, not being able to be turned on at all, or switched to. I disassembled the chromebook once before, to see if I could fix it, and it did actually work for about 2 days, when it went offline again.

Any idea what's going on with either of these issues?
  
I haven't dealt much with chromebooks, but I can try. What are the specs? (RAM, storage space, HDD or SSD, graphics card/integrated graphics, processor, etc.)
  
The charging issue is probably a hardware thing. I found a support thread with a lot of people with ASUS chrome books having that issue. Others say that it was fixed after they cleaned their computer. Either way, I'd hand it over to to the school if possible.

If not, I'd try to clean it, but you've probably already tried that.
  
I'm having an issue with the microsoft store, and I'm not sure what's causing it, if it's a storage issue, internet or just the computer in general. it's extremely slow. some apps tell me I need to update in order to use it, but when I look at the apps that need updating it doesn't show up. I deleted an app, tried to redownload it from the store but instead of the download button it was stuck as grey

it's windows 10, and it's been completely fine until my dad removed some startup processes to make the pc faster. I don't know why the store is just refusing to work though
  
Most startup processes are meant for outside startup, usually vital components, like explorer.exe for example. These are usually stored in System32.

NEVER TOUCH SYSTEM32!!!

  
it's extremely slow. some apps tell me I need to update in order to use it, but when I look at the apps that need updating it doesn't show up. I deleted an app, tried to redownload it from the store but instead of the download button it was stuck as grey

From a completely amateur perspective, it sounds like it's an updating issue. It's running from cache. Don't know how to fix it, but it's unable to communicate with the microsoft servers. Likely an issue with something your father screwed with wrt. polling or update checking.

Basically, it's syncing fuckery.
  
It sounds like your dad constantly breaks your computer.
  

NEVER TOUCH SYSTEM32!!!


YOU HAVE BEEN BRAINWASHED BY THE RADICAL (insert political affiliation)!!1!!1!! DON'T LISTEN TO THEM!!1!1!! THEY ARE TRYING TO CONTROL YOUR PC WITH SPYWARE DISGUISED AS "SYSTEM32"
  
caveat said:
It sounds like your dad constantly breaks your computer.

lol I have no clue what he does with it. he's just trying to make it run faster, it's like over 5 years old. and it's not my computer, I'm just the only one that uses it
  
Recently for the past two days, sometimes my computer, when I open it, has the light indicator still bright on the power button. Whenever that happens I keep trying to hold or press and my computer doesn't turn on.

When it does happen. I hold it until the light is off. Then I reopen it and it works.

why is this happening?

school issued dell windows 10 laptop.
  
lol I have no clue what he does with it. he's just trying to make it run faster, it's like over 5 years old. and it's not my computer, I'm just the only one that uses it

Do you know what specifically runs slow on it? (Opening applications, running applications, saving, etc.)
  
so far it's literally just microsoft store. everything about it is slow. it takes a while to load, takes a while to search things, to open things, sometimes it doesn't even work

just tried opening it, took like 5 minutes to load, the front page didn't work and everytime I refreshed it it would freeze other apps as well. whenever I go on an app the button where it says to download something is blank and still loading but never loads
  
Yeah. It definitely sounds like it's trying to sync but can't. Probably b/c your dad fucked with some internet/polling stuff.

This is why I use Linux for everything except Destiny. It's just cleaner and less filled with bloatware. Definitely a little less user-friendly, though.
  
Depending on who's using it, you can also argue that Windows is less user-friendly. When there's something wrong, it would just tell you "something happened step bro :((( 😭" and you wouldn't have a clue on how to fix it. Like reading error logs on Windows should be a separate skill only those with the wisdom of the ancients possess.
  
KylIjoy said:
This is why I use Linux for everything except Destiny. It's just cleaner and less filled with bloatware. Definitely a little less user-friendly, though.

Change of heart?
Kylljoy said:
I used Crosh and Debian for two and a half years. I prefer Windows (except for that brief, two-month masochistic window where I decided to write in C. In that case, Linux and GCC were preferable.)
  
e-bag said:
I disassembled the chromebook once before, to see if I could fix it, and it did actually work for about 2 days, when it went offline again.

Flaky connections in electronics are sometimes due to bad soldered joints. Flux is chemical voodoo that makes a good connection possible in the first place (prevents metal oxides from forming an insulating layer) but it's also corrosive and will destroy the joint over time if not cleaned well. You can remove and re-solder components in a laptop but it's not a good introductory project, consider getting help from someone with experience (and the somewhat specialized tools).
  
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