700-1090 Chromebook OS missing/damaged

[Bruce Allen]

I originally posted this in the Chromebook Central Help Forum but was advised to post this here. 

I've got a two-year old Acer Chromebook 700 which is in the "Chrome OS is missing or damaged" screen. 
 
I've gone through and tried the USB recovery, but it fails. I've contacted Google support, and they say, based on the error message that it is a hardware issue and that I need to go through Acer for support. 
 
I'm not keen on sending it in, or bringing it somewhere where it is going to cost me close to the same amount to fix as it would just to buy a new Chromebook. 
 
I'm wondering if folks here could help me decipher the error code and tell me if it is worth repairing. I don't mind trying stuff out on it, I'm in the IT field and will tinker with it. I have reseated the HDD. 
 
When the recovery screen boots up, you can hit Tab to display an error code. This is what comes up:
 
HWID: ACER ZGB ZETA-US 5219
 
Recovery Reason 0x42
8-bit boot counter 0x02
POST code history: A7 A7 42 27 <-now
breadcrumb history: 24 24 46 46 <-now

Any clues from this on what the "hardware issue" might be?

 
Thanks for any assistance.

[Richard Barnette]

On 6/23/14, 11:12 AM, Bruce Allen wrote:
> /I originally posted this in the Chromebook Central Help Forum but was
> advised to post this here. /

>
> I've got a two-year old Acer Chromebook 700 which is in the "Chrome OS
> is missing or damaged" screen.
>
> I've gone through and tried the USB recovery, but it fails. I've
> contacted Google support, and they say, based on the error message that
> it is a hardware issue and that I need to go through Acer for support.
>

If you have a Linux system handy, there's a log written to the
USB recovery stick. You can get at it by mounting partition 1
from the USB stick and looking over the various log files. The
file you want will be named 'log/recovery.log'. That log may say
more about what went wrong.

> I'm not keen on sending it in, or bringing it somewhere where it is
> going to cost me close to the same amount to fix as it would just to buy
> a new Chromebook.
>
> I'm wondering if folks here could help me decipher the error code and
> tell me if it is worth repairing. I don't mind trying stuff out on it,
> I'm in the IT field and will tinker with it. I have reseated the HDD.
>
> When the recovery screen boots up, you can hit Tab to display an error
> code. This is what comes up:
>
> HWID: ACER ZGB ZETA-US 5219
>

The model you've cited doesn't have an HDD; the boot device
is an SSD...


> Recovery Reason 0x42

In the firmware sources, this code has the name
VBNV_RECOVERY_RW_NO_OS

My best reading of the source is that this problem relates
to a corrupted kernel image on the boot device. Recovery is
supposed to fix that sort of problem, though.

One obvious explanation of the failure is that the boot device
is corrupting data. Reseating the device connection is an obvious
thing to try. Failing that, replacing the part is the next most
obvious thing.

> 8-bit boot counter 0x02
> POST code history: A7 A7 42 27 <-now
> breadcrumb history: 24 24 46 46 <-now
>
> Any clues from this on what the "hardware issue" might be?
>
>
> Thanks for any assistance.
>

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--
--jrb

[Bruce Allen]

As a follow up on this, I had tried reseating the SSD, without changes in the results.

I found a duplicate on eBay for $28, bought it, installed, ran recovery and all seems well. 

Thanks!