Laptops

How To Unfreeze A Chromebook Laptop?

A Chromebook is a faster and affordable laptop that has capability to perform all the tasks that a normal laptop does. However, sometimes it may get frozen or become unresponsive because of running high-end applications. If you are experiencing the same issue then in that case you will probably look for a solution to overcome the issue. In this guide, you will know about the reasons and solutions for the frozen screen in Chromebook.

Causes of frozen Chromebook

Following are the reasons for the frozen Chromebook screen:

  • Chrome OS issues
  • Hardware issues
  • Malfunctioned external device that is connected with Chromebook
  • Background application taking too much memory

How to unfreeze a Chromebook laptop?

Follow these methods to unfreeze the frozen Chromebook laptop:

  1. Refresh Chromebook
  2. Close unresponsive application from Chromebook Task manager
  3. Disconnect external drives
  4. Reboot Chromebook
  5. Hard reset a Chromebook
  6. Drain the battery

1: Refresh Chromebook

If the Chromebook is stuck on a specific tab then simply refresh the Chromebook by Ctrl+Shift and R keys once, this will refresh the Chromebook and resolve the issue.

2: Close unresponsive application from Chromebook task manager

When the Chromebook is not completely frozen then there might be an issue with an application running in the background that is consuming the memory and power of the CPU. In this situation simply close the background running applications using task manager by pressing the Shift+Esc key. The task manager will open and will show the details of how much energy an application is using, simply close that application to solve the issue.

3: Disconnect External drives

Remove the externally connected devices e.g. USB, headphones, and external hard drive, this will also cause the issue happening with the Chromebook.

4: Reboot Chromebook

You can reboot your Chromebook to resolve the frozen issue, simply press the power button on your Chromebook till it shuts down and then press the power button again. This will reboot the Chromebook and possibly solve the issue.

5: Drain the battery

First, plug out the charger or any other external power source from your Chromebook and let the battery drain out completely, after the Chromebook turns off, plug the charger in and turn it on to use, this will also solve the issue.

6: Hard reset a Chromebook

Press the Refresh+Power button for five seconds to hard reset your Chromebook if it does not boot up.

How to prevent your Chromebook from freezing?

Follow these precautionary measures to prevent your Chromebook from freezing:

  • Don’t open too many tabs as they take up more memory and Chromebook can’t handle serious multitasking
  • Don’t run processor-intensive applications like photo editing apps
  • Don’t connect a lot of external devices with your Chromebook
  • Always use the task manager to keep a check on system resource usage

Conclusion

Every machine has a specific purpose and Chromebooks have different specifications when compared to normal laptops. It is designed for simple tasks and has a less powerful operating system. Due to this, sometimes the Chromebook freezes but nothing to worry about, there are many methods through which you can bring your Chromebook to a normal state. For that follow the above-mentioned tips to overcome the freezing issue.

About the author

Zainab Rehman

I'm an author by profession. My interest in the internet world motivates me to write for Linux Hint and I'm here to share my knowledge with others.