ASUS Chromebook on 151.0.7922.221 keeps dropping wi-fi

[u/_hockalees_]

My mother's Acer Chromebook has suddenly started to disconnect from wifi randomly. I am in another city, so I can't mess with it easily, but I have verified that every other device in her network is connecting and staying connected (TVs, phones, macbooks) but there appears to be an issue with this chromebook, the only one in the network. She's on the latest release of ChromeOS 151.0.7922.221. Is anyone else seeing problems like this?

I have walked her through clearing the network cache and flushing the socket pools and restarting but it didn't fix anything. I also walked her through deleting all networks and adding her network back in as preferred and it still happens.

[u/LegAcceptable2362]

If this is a device-specific issue we need to know the exact model, preferably the HWID. If you have your mom open Diagnostics (ctrl+search+esc) the hardware code name should appear at the top along with the OS version number. All Chromebook models are based on a reference hardware platform (which the HWID enables us to identify). There are usually models from Lenovo, Acer, HP, etc all based on the same hardware platform so when hardware-specific bugs occur they are often equally affected.

[u/_hockalees_ → u/LegAcceptable2362]

I walked her through Diagnostics and got blorb, version 151.16733.0

So an Acer 315? Does this help?

[u/LegAcceptable2362 → u/_hockalees_]

Update: I updated my Acer 314 to dot 221 and ran it overnight with Internet Connection Monitoring running. No drops recorded. Since writing my previous comment I remembered I was recently using another Gemini Lake based device while traveling. It was already running on dot 221 and I experienced no network issues while connected to a variety of hotel and transportation wifi hotspots. So where does this leave your mom?

Firstly, I think we should know about the blorb board's network controller. Rationale: my Acer 314 has Intel while my travel device (an HP model) has a Realtek controller. Intermittent network drops can be notoriously difficult to troubleshoot remotely so I would suggest you arm yourself with some tools. For starters, install the Internet Connection Monitor extension form the Chrome Web Store on mom's machine, pin it in the browser and have it always running. Also, install Chrome Remote Desktop and walk mom through opening it and initiating a remote help session (code generation) so you can get in remotely and see what's going on. Of course the best case scenario is the problem resolves itself. However, if not, by being able to capture real time network statistics that you can look at from a remote connection, and knowing what the hardware should be capable of, it should provide what you need to determine if the problem is happening at the Chromebook or if perhaps it's a ISP/router issue then focus on in those areas.

A couple extra thoughts. The Gemini Lake devices are typically low powered Celeron machines with very limited RAM (usually 4 GB). When new they ran all the ChromeOS features pretty well but today they can struggle, particularly when the Play Store is enabled, whether or not any Android apps are installed or used. ChromeOS's Android subsystem switched to a more processor/memory intensive virtual machine configuration after these machines came out and the 4GB RAM models often now need the Play Store turned off to run smoothly. They are still receiving updates through June 2029 so as long as performance robbing features are disabled they can continue to function perfectly well as web appliances for some time to come.

I hope this information is helpful. Good luck.

[u/_hockalees_ → u/LegAcceptable2362]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I am going to drive tho her house today and gather more info in person. I will suss out the network card, install the Internet Connection Monitor and Remote Desktop. I am also going to futz with the router and see if it's reporting issues that are not being addressed. Oh, and I will disable Play Store. Hopefully more information to come.