If your Chromebook keeps restarting as stated in this Google Support thread, there are some hardware issues at stake. And, in that case, there’s only so much you can on your own (without contacting a repairman) do except maybe replace the battery. However, we decided to provide some software troubleshooting steps, just to ensure that ChromeOS is not causing the problem. Learn more below.
Table of contents:
- Check the hardware
- Perform a Hard Reset (Hardware Reset)
- Use a USB Recovery tool
- Take your Chromebook to a repair service
Why does my Chromebook keep turning off by itself?
If your Chromebook keeps restarting, you can try these solutions to fix the problem:
- Check the battery and make sure that the device is not overheating.
- Use Hardware Refresh or Hard Reset.
- Go for the Powerwash or USB Recovery Utility process.
1. Check the hardware
Let’s start with the hardware. Ensure that your Chromebook is not overheating. If it does 0verheat, turn it off until it cools down. Most Chromebooks are not prone to overheating unless you either put them through a strain for a prolonged period of time, expose them to external heat (e.g. direct summer sunlight), or some hardware malfunction causes internal heating.
The last point mostly has to do with batteries so make sure that your battery is not swollen or thicker than usual while being really hot on the touch. If that’s the case, turn off your Chromebook immediately and don’t turn it on before you replace the battery to avoid critical damage.
2. Perform a Hard Reset (Hardware Reset)
If the problem is not the battery or overheating, you can try Hard Reset. This troubleshooting option resets all peripherals so, if there’s something wrong there, the refresh should fix it. To perform a hard reset on your Chromebook, you’ll need to turn it off first. After that, press and hold both Power Button and Refresh Button (an arrow going in a circle) together until the splash system screen appears.
Release the Refresh button after that but keep holding the Power button until the Sign-in screen appears.
3. Use a USB Recovery tool
The next step you can take is the factory reset or, as it’s known in ChromeOS, Powerwash. This will delete all the local data so make sure to back up everything to Google Drive or external storage. After that, you should navigate to Settings > Advanced > Reset settings and click or tap Reset to restore your Chromebook to factory settings.
Alternatively, as the heading suggests, you can use the Chrome extension called Chromebook Recovery Utility (you can here in Chrome Web Store) and a USB flash drive to create a recovery media and, in some sense, reinstall ChromeOS on your Chromebook. We already talked about the procedure in the article about Chromebook crashing.
4. Take your Chromebook to a repair service
Finally, you should probably take your device to a repair service. Sadly, there are not many high-end Chromebooks out there and their main selling point is their low price. That’s great, but we can’t forget that the hardware on the most affordable Chromebooks will wear out faster than on top-of-the-line expensive devices. Even if the Google Software support is still there.
So, take your device for a repair, and, if it’s too expensive, consider getting a used or refurbished Chromebook that’s still under software support (8 years since the manufacturing date is usually the norm these days). Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share your thoughts, questions, or suggestions with us in the comments section below.
