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angryrobots
Mar 31, 2005

Hadlock posted:

How many pages do you get out of a toner cartridge

We had an old battle tank HP LaserJet II in the early 1990s which weighed at least 60 lbs, literally dropped it right on it's corner unloading it from my dad's truck from at least 40" onto the concrete driveway, continued to give trusty service for another 15 years until my mom finally threw it out, looks like you can still buy toner cartridges for it to this day

Toner cartridges were about $80 ($140 in 1990s money) but you would get about a thousand pages of book reports out of a cartridge

A lot. Purchased it in January 2019, and just replaced the toner last month with fairly regular use.

I bought aftermarket toner @$26 for a two-pack. Just had to swap the Brother chip to the toner cartridge so the printer is happy.

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Worf
Sep 12, 2017

i'm OBSESSED with quibbling over minutiae!!!!!!!!
I've had great compatibility with brother printers across every platform I think. The person that mainly used the printer in the house was a Mac/iOS/ChromeOS user, but I set it up easily for them across all the platforms.

I use windows/android/ubuntu and it picked all of those up easily too.

Krakkles
May 5, 2003

PCjr sidecar posted:

Thanks for killing google cloud print, Google.
Having just learned this, ...

angryrobots posted:

The Brother laser printer I purchased last year was Mopria print certified and has worked seamlessly from our Android devices. After reading your post, I downloaded the Mopria app on my kid's Chromebook, set up the printer in the settings tab, and immediately printed a document. It took about 2 minutes start to finish. It's nice, the Mopria app will notify if there's a queue or error codes (so far only out of paper/ink). The app basically stays in the background, you just access print in whatever apps hamburger menu.

It has so far been a trouble free device. My wife's work windows laptop is connected to it via USB for ~reasons~ and we've printed wirelessly via Android, and from her computer at the same time with no issues, just queues up and goes.
... is this pretty much the solution?

(Mopria will still work next year, right?)

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007




https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/09/12/google-is-separating-chrome-from-chrome-os-its-a-big-deal-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

Google will be separating Chrome from Chrome OS. This should hopefully lengthen the lifespan of the devices.

Atomizer
Jun 24, 2007



I just hope that ends up applying to most if not all older CBs; I could see it being a thing (like Android or Linux app support) that they'd roll out to only recent devices. As it stands, the "end of support" thing is one of the biggest downsides to ChromeOS devices. It's particularly embarrassing considering you can install an up-to-date version of Windows 10 (to say nothing of one's favorite Linux distro) on pretty ancient hardware.

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007




https://www.engadget.com/google-pixelbook-out-of-stock-190724187.html

The original Pixelbook is out of stock on the US and UK Google Store.

This might be permanent as Google confirmed this to Engadget and is directing people to the Pixelbook Go now.

loudog999
Apr 30, 2006

Which Chromebook would have the best screen for cloud gaming? I bought my daughter a Duet and it is nice but the screen is a little small. It has performed well with Stadia and GeForce Now, so I am looking for something cheap with a larger comparable screen.

Bizarro Kanyon
Jan 3, 2007

Something Awful, so easy even a spaceman can do it!


Having an issue with some chromebooks.

Another school in our district called me today with 4 student Chromebooks having issues.

1 Chromebook is constantly giving an WiFi connection out of range message. Teacher took it home to test it and it worked just fine. All other Chromebooks are working just fine with the internet. I sent him how to reset network settings so hopefully that will correct it. If not, what could be the next step.

3 Chromebooks can no longer charge and turn on. When plugged in, the battery light will not even light up. We have tried the unplug from chromebook, unplug from wall, wait and plug back into chromebook and then the wall. No response. While plugged in, the Chromebook will not turn on and it will not respond to wipe commands or factory reset commands. Any ideas on what we can do?

Also, the teacher is wondering if the kids were able to cause this. He think they might have changed a setting to do this because 1) all 3 are buddies and 2) they are always looking to get out of doing work and this is keeping them from doing work. Without physically damaging the Chromebook, I cannot figure anything out.

blunt
Jul 7, 2005

Bizarro Kanyon posted:

3 Chromebooks can no longer charge and turn on. When plugged in, the battery light will not even light up. We have tried the unplug from chromebook, unplug from wall, wait and plug back into chromebook and then the wall. No response. While plugged in, the Chromebook will not turn on and it will not respond to wipe commands or factory reset commands. Any ideas on what we can do?

Pixelbooks were somewhat notorious for randomly deciding not to charge and this could always be resolved by doing a hardware reset - https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/3227606

I'm guessing these aren't Pixelbooks, but it's probably worth a shot anyway.

Atomizer
Jun 24, 2007



loudog999 posted:

Which Chromebook would have the best screen for cloud gaming? I bought my daughter a Duet and it is nice but the screen is a little small. It has performed well with Stadia and GeForce Now, so I am looking for something cheap with a larger comparable screen.

There are models with 15" displays (e.g. Acer, HP.) Any of those with a full-HD resolution and decent other specs (e.g. 4+ GB RAM, competent CPU, backlit keyboard preferably) would be what you're looking for.

Bizarro Kanyon posted:

1 Chromebook is constantly giving an WiFi connection out of range message. Teacher took it home to test it and it worked just fine. All other Chromebooks are working just fine with the internet. I sent him how to reset network settings so hopefully that will correct it. If not, what could be the next step.

3 Chromebooks can no longer charge and turn on. When plugged in, the battery light will not even light up. We have tried the unplug from chromebook, unplug from wall, wait and plug back into chromebook and then the wall. No response. While plugged in, the Chromebook will not turn on and it will not respond to wipe commands or factory reset commands. Any ideas on what we can do?

For the Wifi issue, try the aforementioned hardware reset. If there's still an issue, my suspicion is that the device was dropped or mishandled and perhaps one of the antennae was disconnected internally, which would explain why it worked at the teacher's house but has trouble in a longer-range environment with more interference.

How old are the other CBs with battery issues? It's entirely possible that the batteries are worn out, and perhaps are swelling up. They should still power on with external power, however it's possible that they're in the same situation as a smartphone I had to repair: the battery had swollen to the point where it disconnected the USB port internally, so the battery couldn't recharge nor could the device operate at all because it wasn't receiving power. Another option would be physical damage as above resulting in similar internal damage; you can never rule this out when talking about kids' stuff.

Bizarro Kanyon
Jan 3, 2007

Something Awful, so easy even a spaceman can do it!


Atomizer posted:

How old are the other CBs with battery issues? It's entirely possible that the batteries are worn out, and perhaps are swelling up. They should still power on with external power, however it's possible that they're in the same situation as a smartphone I had to repair: the battery had swollen to the point where it disconnected the USB port internally, so the battery couldn't recharge nor could the device operate at all because it wasn't receiving power. Another option would be physical damage as above resulting in similar internal damage; you can never rule this out when talking about kids' stuff.

They are almost a year and a half old (April of 2019)

MagicAlex
Jan 6, 2007

Is there a way I can remap my Pixelbook's keyboard keys to controller buttons for Android games? I bought Final Fantasy VI off the Google Play store, and I kind of just want to play using the keyboard rather than a bluetooth gamepad. Arrow keys work for moving the character and the cursor, but none of the other keys do anything except the Back button. I was thinking if I could just map Enter to work as a gamepad's A button I'd be set. I'm not sure if the solution is another Android app or if I specifically need a Chrome extension/app that would do it.

Atomizer
Jun 24, 2007



MagicAlex posted:

Is there a way I can remap my Pixelbook's keyboard keys to controller buttons for Android games? I bought Final Fantasy VI off the Google Play store, and I kind of just want to play using the keyboard rather than a bluetooth gamepad. Arrow keys work for moving the character and the cursor, but none of the other keys do anything except the Back button. I was thinking if I could just map Enter to work as a gamepad's A button I'd be set. I'm not sure if the solution is another Android app or if I specifically need a Chrome extension/app that would do it.

Not that I know of, although I haven't investigated it that closely. The built-in keyboard should be seen by any OS (Chrome, Android) as just a keyboard, and assigning functions to buttons would be done in each application in the settings under button remapping. If it were done above that level (if even possible,) you'd run the risk of losing functionality of the keyboard within the OS.

Presumably, the issue you're having with the controls would be identical on a native Android tablet with a hardware keyboard of some kind.

Mouko
Nov 26, 2004

Jagwah.
I'm thinking of picking up an Acer R11 so I can finally ditch my decrepit 2014 Toshiba laptop.

I've spotted a 2018 version for sale locally (dual core, not quad core) for £140 (can probably get it for less).

Is it worth spending more on the newer quad core modelwhen all I need is reliable web browsing, word processing and Spotify?

UncleGuito
May 8, 2005

www.ipadbackdrops.com daily wallpaper updates deserving of your iPad
Is it just me or is the native ChromeOS keyboard kind of rear end? The thing mistypes much more frequently than Gboard on my phone and randomly fails to autocorrect, capitalize, etc.

Atomizer
Jun 24, 2007



Mouko posted:

I'm thinking of picking up an Acer R11 so I can finally ditch my decrepit 2014 Toshiba laptop.

I've spotted a 2018 version for sale locally (dual core, not quad core) for £140 (can probably get it for less).

Is it worth spending more on the newer quad core modelwhen all I need is reliable web browsing, word processing and Spotify?

I'd have to see the specs of the specific model you're looking at, because Acer makes a ton of laptop variants and core count means next to nothing when the CPU is unknown in addition to the rest of the specs. In fact, I'd say if it's a recent CPU, then RAM is more important, because Acer has made the R11 with both 2 or 4 GB of RAM, and the former is a non-starter. If it does have 4 GB and a recent CPU then it might very well be satisfactory.

Another consideration is that it's difficult to recommend laptops in particular in other markets. Here in the US there's a huge selection of CBs, and the one you're looking at may be a good deal there whereas it might not be something worth considering in my area because of the price or competition. That's why nowadays I generally just suggest a minimum set of specs (e.g. RAM and CPU, appropriate display resolution for its size,) and then beyond that any CB should be fine if it meets your budget and other criteria (like display size, touchscreen, convertible, etc.)

Any CB will suffice for your needs (browsing, documents, streaming) but there's definitely a noticeable difference in performance between low-end models and ones with sufficient specs.

UncleGuito posted:

Is it just me or is the native ChromeOS keyboard kind of rear end? The thing mistypes much more frequently than Gboard on my phone and randomly fails to autocorrect, capitalize, etc.

You're talking about the on-screen keyboard for touch displays? I haven't used it any time recently because of how I use my different devices in general, but for a touch keyboard I prefer swipe/slide entry anyways.

Mouko
Nov 26, 2004

Jagwah.
Thanks very much! The local R11 model only has 2GB RAM and a N3060 CPU so I will look elsewhere. I think a Lenovo S330 is a better bet for me.

Mr. Lobe
Feb 23, 2007

... Dry bones...


Hey Chromebook thread, I was thinking of getting a really cheap laptop for a roadtrip I have planned for next year. Something that doesn't need to do anything more than word processing for keeping a journal and maybe running some kind of VOIP, but even that is negotiable if I can go cheaper without it. I'm talking bottom of the barrel here, something practically disposable. Does anyone have recommendations?

Atomizer
Jun 24, 2007



Mr. Lobe posted:

Hey Chromebook thread, I was thinking of getting a really cheap laptop for a roadtrip I have planned for next year. Something that doesn't need to do anything more than word processing for keeping a journal and maybe running some kind of VOIP, but even that is negotiable if I can go cheaper without it. I'm talking bottom of the barrel here, something practically disposable. Does anyone have recommendations?

For CBs, nowadays they're good enough where I recommend at least 4 GB of RAM, a decent CPU, and an appropriate resolution for the display size. You could get something in the $200 range, except for your uses you could probably get away with a tablet and perhaps a BT keyboard. Especially today & tomorrow, there are plenty of electronics sales for Prime "Day." It just depends how cheap you want to go, but you could get one of those Fire HD tablets for $50-100 and a keyboard for <$50. Otherwise, there was an Acer I think CB for sale today for around $220, but I think it's sold out.

NewFatMike
Jun 11, 2015

Anyone have a handle on picking up a Brydge G-Type? I've been desperate for one and I can only find it on their UK site, but it won't ship stateside.

E: they're unlisted, but if you chat Brydge they'll sell you one via chat lmao

NewFatMike fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Oct 15, 2020

RichterIX
Apr 11, 2003

Sorrowful be the heart
This might be the wrong thread for this but has anyone had any luck with Moonlight on a Chromebook? I tried both the Play Store app and the Chrome extension on a Lenovo Duet. The Play Store app works but the latency is bad, and I can't get the Chrome extension to work at all, I just get audio and a black screen.

Opera Bitch
Sep 28, 2004

Let me lull you to sleep with my sweet song!

I am headed back to teach after being out this year on maternity leave and was told that the laptop they had set aside for me that can connect easily to our smartboard is MIA. The school gave me a Samsung Chromebook but I am not having luck finding the right dongle/adapter that connects into the Smartboard's VGA cable and plugs into the chromebook (and no one at our school knows any. It doesn't have an HDMI outlet: just the two in the pics below.

Tankakern
Jul 25, 2007

Opera Bitch posted:

I am headed back to teach after being out this year on maternity leave and was told that the laptop they had set aside for me that can connect easily to our smartboard is MIA. The school gave me a Samsung Chromebook but I am not having luck finding the right dongle/adapter that connects into the Smartboard's VGA cable and plugs into the chromebook (and no one at our school knows any. It doesn't have an HDMI outlet: just the two in the pics below.



guess you could use one of those usb 3 dockings with displaylink hdmi outlets

Lib and let die
Aug 26, 2004

by Fluffdaddy

(and can't post for 21 days!)

Is there a way I can have my chromebook toggle the "convert top row to function keys" if it detects an internal input device connected, either through clever bash or python script or some Other Function?

TITTIEKISSER69
Mar 19, 2005

SAVE THE BEES
PLANT MORE TREES
CLEAN THE SEAS
KISS TITTIESS




Any noteworthy Black Friday deals on Chromebooks?

Maneki Neko
Oct 27, 2000

One of my kids changed their google account password like 2 days ago and her chromebook will still only accept her old password. Is there some magic trick to making it notice this or something? My google skills are failing me and all I'm seeing are "OH HERE'S HOW TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD" result garbage

EDIT:

Well apparently posting about it was the fix, because it finally noticed about 15 minutes ago

Maneki Neko fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Dec 8, 2020

Al2001
Apr 7, 2007

You've gone through at the back
Are there any Linux distros that will run well on an Acer CB5-311 (ARM based: Nvidia Tegra K1)?

Google is not helping.

(As soon as I wrote that I realised they're not helping in 2 ways: 1. No search results for my problem, and 2. They withdrew ChromeOS support from a laptop that still functions well!)

Tony Phillips
Feb 9, 2006
Posted a version of this in the tablet thread, but the answer may well be a Chromebook so slight edit and repost:

Need some advice with picking something for my mom. She's 75, and her eyesight isn't the best anymore.

She has a 3 year old Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet. Her use is pretty limited in scope. She uses it as a kindle, and does usual old person internet things. Email, online shopping, facebook. To my knowledge that's about it. I asked if she ever watched movies or tv on it and she said no.

Lately, she's been complaining about having trouble navigating sites. She has to increase the font size a bit to read things well and with a 10" screen, she ends up zoomed in too much for her liking. Apparently missing details on order pages and has done things like accidentally signing up for recurring orders, ordering 500 of something instead of 50. Annoying dumb things.

She mentioned wanting to get a laptop instead so she could have a bigger screen to help out. She also said she expected it would cost $1500-$2000. This is when I pleaded to her not to order anything until I told her what to get.


I can't imagine that she needs anything near a full laptop. I've looked into tablets, but to get the screen size she's looking for - things get what seems to be unnecessarily expensive. So I'm thinking that a Chromebook might be a better bet.

So recs please? Would like as large a screen as possible. 15”+ preferred. 1080 resolution would be fine. Enough RAM that she’s not going to get annoyed at programs running slow. Not really concerned with harddrive/memory space – she’s all but guaranteed to not be running out of room.


Edit : Been looking around at what's available and called to talk to her about some things.

She 100% wants a touchscreen since she's used to her tablet. I described 2-1s to her and she doesn't really care if it folds into a tablet, but that would be nice as well.

Going to assume that a 15" 2-1s are less common and likely on the higher price end - more computer than she needs, but that's OK.

Tony Phillips fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Dec 13, 2020

Atomizer
Jun 24, 2007



Al2001 posted:

Are there any Linux distros that will run well on an Acer CB5-311 (ARM based: Nvidia Tegra K1)?

Google is not helping.

(As soon as I wrote that I realised they're not helping in 2 ways: 1. No search results for my problem, and 2. They withdrew ChromeOS support from a laptop that still functions well!)

Aside from it being an older device, it's still possible that you could enable Dev mode and use Crouton to install a Linux distro. I have even less experience about doing this on an ARM device, but it's still possible. There's info in the OP. As long as the software runs on ARM, the process is the same.

Tony Phillips posted:

Posted a version of this in the tablet thread, but the answer may well be a Chromebook so slight edit and repost:

Need some advice with picking something for my mom. She's 75, and her eyesight isn't the best anymore.

She has a 3 year old Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet. Her use is pretty limited in scope. She uses it as a kindle, and does usual old person internet things. Email, online shopping, facebook. To my knowledge that's about it. I asked if she ever watched movies or tv on it and she said no.

Lately, she's been complaining about having trouble navigating sites. She has to increase the font size a bit to read things well and with a 10" screen, she ends up zoomed in too much for her liking. Apparently missing details on order pages and has done things like accidentally signing up for recurring orders, ordering 500 of something instead of 50. Annoying dumb things.

She mentioned wanting to get a laptop instead so she could have a bigger screen to help out. She also said she expected it would cost $1500-$2000. This is when I pleaded to her not to order anything until I told her what to get.


I can't imagine that she needs anything near a full laptop. I've looked into tablets, but to get the screen size she's looking for - things get what seems to be unnecessarily expensive. So I'm thinking that a Chromebook might be a better bet.

So recs please? Would like as large a screen as possible. 15”+ preferred. 1080 resolution would be fine. Enough RAM that she’s not going to get annoyed at programs running slow. Not really concerned with harddrive/memory space – she’s all but guaranteed to not be running out of room.


Edit : Been looking around at what's available and called to talk to her about some things.

She 100% wants a touchscreen since she's used to her tablet. I described 2-1s to her and she doesn't really care if it folds into a tablet, but that would be nice as well.

Going to assume that a 15" 2-1s are less common and likely on the higher price end - more computer than she needs, but that's OK.

I would definitely say that a 15" Chromebook (the largest display size that I'm aware of in a CB) would work for her, and there are touchscreen options, but not as a 2-in-1/convertible, because that would be pretty huge and unwieldy and a niche use-case. I have seen 15" Windows convertibles (e.g. Acer Spin/Flip, HP 360, etc.) but they'll cost more and I fully endorse ChromeOS for its security and ease-of-use, especially for a momputer (momtop?) Even I use "Ctrl-+" to scale the browser windows to make things easier to see for myself.

If she can make do with a ~14" convertible, there's a couple on sale right now at BB: this HP for $480 or this Acer for $630. (The cheaper HP should more than suffice.)

Al2001
Apr 7, 2007

You've gone through at the back

Atomizer posted:

Aside from it being an older device, it's still possible that you could enable Dev mode and use Crouton to install a Linux distro. I have even less experience about doing this on an ARM device, but it's still possible. There's info in the OP. As long as the software runs on ARM, the process is the same.

Thanks, I might try this. I think eventually I need to completely replace ChromeOS if at all possible though. Does anyone know the likelihood of this working well?

Like if I followed these instructions* (but using Manjaro's ARM distro) what are my chances of bricking the laptop?!

*My bad, those were designed for intel-based systems only. Is there a way of flashing the BIOS on ARM systems?

Al2001 fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Dec 15, 2020

Tony Phillips
Feb 9, 2006

Atomizer posted:

Aside from it being an older device, it's still possible that you could enable Dev mode and use Crouton to install a Linux distro. I have even less experience about doing this on an ARM device, but it's still possible. There's info in the OP. As long as the software runs on ARM, the process is the same.


I would definitely say that a 15" Chromebook (the largest display size that I'm aware of in a CB) would work for her, and there are touchscreen options, but not as a 2-in-1/convertible, because that would be pretty huge and unwieldy and a niche use-case. I have seen 15" Windows convertibles (e.g. Acer Spin/Flip, HP 360, etc.) but they'll cost more and I fully endorse ChromeOS for its security and ease-of-use, especially for a momputer (momtop?) Even I use "Ctrl-+" to scale the browser windows to make things easier to see for myself.

If she can make do with a ~14" convertible, there's a couple on sale right now at BB: this HP for $480 or this Acer for $630. (The cheaper HP should more than suffice.)

Thanks. Ended up reading more chromebook articles than I ever thought I would and went with the ASUS Flip C434. She'll be fine with 4GB ram and 32GB storage, so even the base model will work out well for her. 14", but the overall dimensions make it probably a better size for her compared to the one 15" that I was looking at.

Shipping it to myself to get everything set up for her since she's not used google/gmail in the past. Acting as her tech support over the phone is going to be an adventure.


edit : of course I'm now instantly wondering about 8GB of RAM. She's honestly not going to multitask. May very well not even use multiple tabs. But still.
That HP isn't on sale anymore, but the Acer is at $549 - only $55 or so more than I paid for the C434. She would NEVER need 128 gigs of storage, but that ram is tempting. I'm probably just over thinking this.
Hmmmm. Looks like that processor is also considerably better. Half an inch of screen for double the RAM and what appears to be a considerably better processor.


Edit 2 : JFC. Decide to switch over. Get Acer in cart at Best Buy. Go to Aamzon - Asus hasn't shipped yet. Request cancellation. Back to Best Buy - go to check out and get told it's actually out of stock. Immediately get email from Amazon confirming cancellation. Rad.


Edit 3 : I swore at the browser and just kept re-trying until it worked. Order placed. Thanks, thread. I'll leave you alone now.

Tony Phillips fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Dec 15, 2020

Atomizer
Jun 24, 2007



Al2001 posted:

Thanks, I might try this. I think eventually I need to completely replace ChromeOS if at all possible though. Does anyone know the likelihood of this working well?

Like if I followed these instructions* (but using Manjaro's ARM distro) what are my chances of bricking the laptop?!

*My bad, those were designed for intel-based systems only. Is there a way of flashing the BIOS on ARM systems?

I'm not as familiar with the ARM Chromebooks, there really haven't been many of them. I do know that some users replaced ChromeOS entirely with GalliumOS, although I haven't done that myself. I don't think you're going to brick your device, not that I'd be too worried about a cheap, unsupported CB anyways; if anything, this is a device you should feel comfortable experimenting on.

I've never flashed the BIOS/EFI on a CB; I'm assuming if that's ever done it's done during a full, Google-provided ChromeOS update. You can, however, use dev mode and disable secure boot to try installing other OSs on it, aside from any BIOS issues (you shouldn't actually need to update.) Again, though, this may be more challenging and/or less supported on such an ARM device.

Tony Phillips posted:

Thanks. Ended up reading more chromebook articles than I ever thought I would and went with the ASUS Flip C434. She'll be fine with 4GB ram and 32GB storage, so even the base model will work out well for her. 14", but the overall dimensions make it probably a better size for her compared to the one 15" that I was looking at.

Shipping it to myself to get everything set up for her since she's not used google/gmail in the past. Acting as her tech support over the phone is going to be an adventure.


edit : of course I'm now instantly wondering about 8GB of RAM. She's honestly not going to multitask. May very well not even use multiple tabs. But still.
That HP isn't on sale anymore, but the Acer is at $549 - only $55 or so more than I paid for the C434. She would NEVER need 128 gigs of storage, but that ram is tempting. I'm probably just over thinking this.
Hmmmm. Looks like that processor is also considerably better. Half an inch of screen for double the RAM and what appears to be a considerably better processor.


Edit 2 : JFC. Decide to switch over. Get Acer in cart at Best Buy. Go to Aamzon - Asus hasn't shipped yet. Request cancellation. Back to Best Buy - go to check out and get told it's actually out of stock. Immediately get email from Amazon confirming cancellation. Rad.


Edit 3 : I swore at the browser and just kept re-trying until it worked. Order placed. Thanks, thread. I'll leave you alone now.

Heh, sorry you had to go through all of that. In short, 4 GB is the bare minimum, and it should suffice for her, but I'd certainly prefer 8+ for myself. ;) You really shouldn't need to ship it to yourself first to set it up, as setting up a Chromebook solely involves signing into a Google account, and if you don't have one it lets you create one on the spot. I went through this process with my own Mom, but really, there's nothing to "set up." You sign in, use it, and reboot when it tells you there's an update. That's it! :)

CerealKilla420
Jan 2, 2014

"I need a handle man..."


This is the best product I've found for multiple displays over displaylink/USB C - I tested it with my Acer Chromebook 11 (C732) and it worked with 2 external displays extended and mirrored. It also charged the chromebook while it was plugged in.

I've been using this with my work from home setup since last July. I also use this dock for my home studio setup with my 16in Macbook pro and it works great.

I had to go through about 5 different docks before I found one that actually wanted to play nice with the display link drivers (which they all claim to do).

It's really sad and there needs to be better standardization.


Also - I had to send my macbook pro back for a battery replacement and so I've been using the Chromebook more around the house. After I uninstalled most of the chrome plugins I have on it and installed crouton, it's actually pretty sweet. I finally remember why I liked my series 3 chromebook so much in college lol.

Atomizer
Jun 24, 2007



64bit_Dophins posted:



This is the best product I've found for multiple displays over displaylink/USB C - I tested it with my Acer Chromebook 11 (C732) and it worked with 2 external displays extended and mirrored. It also charged the chromebook while it was plugged in.

I've been using this with my work from home setup since last July. I also use this dock for my home studio setup with my 16in Macbook pro and it works great.

I had to go through about 5 different docks before I found one that actually wanted to play nice with the display link drivers (which they all claim to do).

It's really sad and there needs to be better standardization.


Also - I had to send my macbook pro back for a battery replacement and so I've been using the Chromebook more around the house. After I uninstalled most of the chrome plugins I have on it and installed crouton, it's actually pretty sweet. I finally remember why I liked my series 3 chromebook so much in college lol.

That one looks similar, in functionality and price, to other USB-C docking stations, and I'm curious if any of the ones you tried were Plugable models (which I think are fairly well-known.)

The thing is, DisplayLink is an older technology used to create a virtual video output over USB; it works, I've used it with both standalone monitors and USB video adapters, but it does indeed require special drivers. On the other hand, USB 3.1 and the Type-C connection introduced Alt Modes, which route actual HDMI, DP, TB3, or MHL connections over a USB-C cable. That means that a docking station like that should not require DisplayLink drivers, at least for the native Alt Mode connections; there's still some ambiguity over which devices (i.e. both the host PC and the display) support which Alt Modes (e.g. does your shiny new laptop output DP, HDMI, or both?) I could see maybe a docking station like that doing, say, the DP output as an Alt Mode and the HDMI ports as DisplayLink-enabled, however.

MrNemo
Aug 26, 2010

"I just love beeting off"

Out of interest question: how much have Chromebooks actually moved on tech wise in the last 3-4 years? Basically if I'm thinking about getting a new one just because my 3 year old Chromebook is starting to suffer from daily use, would say a reconditioned 2017 Pixelbook with top specs be potentially better value than a Pixelbook Go (assuming it is actually reconditioned so not factoring in much wear)?

silence_kit
Jul 14, 2011

by the sex ghost
I'd worry about the old device's battery not being good.

I'm trying to see if it is possible to get a replacement battery for my ASUS C302 chromebook. I haven't tried contacting ASUS yet, but just from Googling and going on the ASUS website, I feel like there is no way to purchase official replacement parts for the device--you have to buy something off of eBay and hope that it isn't an old or used battery or a bad part.

Humerus
Jul 7, 2009

Rule of acquisition #111:
Treat people in your debt like family...exploit them.


MrNemo posted:

Out of interest question: how much have Chromebooks actually moved on tech wise in the last 3-4 years? Basically if I'm thinking about getting a new one just because my 3 year old Chromebook is starting to suffer from daily use, would say a reconditioned 2017 Pixelbook with top specs be potentially better value than a Pixelbook Go (assuming it is actually reconditioned so not factoring in much wear)?

I can't comment on a comparison between the two but my Pixelbook Go is incredible. I have a pretty high end PC for games and the PBG seems just as fast with web stuff, if not faster. I have the cheapest one too, the M3 I think?

MrNemo
Aug 26, 2010

"I just love beeting off"

Good to know on that for options. And yes, my biggest worry with an older machine would be the battery state. Not sure how quickly they deteriorate even if its an unused but older battery that's been put in it. I guess especially considering the lack of need for a super fast machine it might not really be worth valuing specs over battery life.

CerealKilla420
Jan 2, 2014

"I need a handle man..."

Atomizer posted:

That one looks similar, in functionality and price, to other USB-C docking stations, and I'm curious if any of the ones you tried were Plugable models (which I think are fairly well-known.)

The thing is, DisplayLink is an older technology used to create a virtual video output over USB; it works, I've used it with both standalone monitors and USB video adapters, but it does indeed require special drivers. On the other hand, USB 3.1 and the Type-C connection introduced Alt Modes, which route actual HDMI, DP, TB3, or MHL connections over a USB-C cable. That means that a docking station like that should not require DisplayLink drivers, at least for the native Alt Mode connections; there's still some ambiguity over which devices (i.e. both the host PC and the display) support which Alt Modes (e.g. does your shiny new laptop output DP, HDMI, or both?) I could see maybe a docking station like that doing, say, the DP output as an Alt Mode and the HDMI ports as DisplayLink-enabled, however.


Very interesting. I have had this dock for about a year and a half now and it works very well with my work laptop and my macbook. I did not know about the new standards.

I figured this dock was just a generic one with a random brand name slapped on it. Still I went through a bunch back when I bought it and this was the only one that did what I actually wanted it to do.

I would still personally recommend it if you're looking for something that does the job for under $200.

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SurgicalOntologist
Jun 17, 2004

My 2017 pixelbook is still going strong, although being stuck at home I don't know the last time I really tested the battery.

Re: docks, I've been using this one from Lenovo, it's been great. With two monitors it doesn't support their full resolution, but I thought that was a bandwidth limitation over usb-c.

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