AI, Californian or human?

-
Conversations with Google on Pixel support kind of look like they might not be entirely human... is Google using AI filters to help with customer support on Chromebooks?

Hi ????,Thank you for contacting Google.It appears that you're requesting support for your Chromebook, but I'm unable to address your issue from the details that you have provided. Could you clarify what you mean by 'cold starts', and provide additional details as to what is happening to your Chromebook Pixel? Any additional detail would be greatly appreciated.
If you have any more questions, please include them in your reply. I'm happy to help!
Thanks,
Erika
The Google Support Team

Erica, 

When I close the lid, the Chromebook should go into "standby" and when I reopen it, be in the state I left it. 

Instead of that, about 1/3rd to 1/2 the time when I open the lid it starts from cold, requiring me to login again before opening Chrome and refreshing tabs.  I end up more or less back where I was but the point of "standby" is I'm immediately back where I was, and don't have to wait for login and Chrome to start.

Wait a minute I'll check there's nothing odd with Power saving settings...

Regards, 

Hi ????,
Thank you for replying, and providing me with the additional information. What I'm going to have you do is perform a hard rest. This will not touch any saved user data on the Chromebook itself. All it will do is cause an internal reset, which can cause the Chromebook Pixel to reallocate the power. 
To perform the hard reset, please tap on the Power and Refresh key at the same time. The Refresh key is the circular arrow generally located above the 4 or 3 key on your keyboard. Allow the Chromebook to shutdown and reboot. Test out to see if this resolved yourissue. 
Please reply directly to this email with the results. If you have any additional questions, please include them in your reply. I would be more than happy to help!

Me...

That seems to be good so far. Thanks. I'll get back on this thread if I see it again (after a hard reset first.)

Good to know this is not a hardware fault. Speaking of which, I'd like to know if I did something wrong with the first Pixel or if there was something I could do to avoid it happening again.

Regards

Hi ????,
Thank you for replying. I don't think it would have been anything that you have done to the Chromebook. Sometimes, devices have to have an internal reset in order to allocate power properly. It's the same as taking the battery out of a device, and putting it back in. 
If you have any more questions, please reply to this email. I'm happy to help!

Me:

Thanks, understand that the reset might have been necessary on this device. 

I wanted to know what happened with the previous Pixel, the one I had to return to you, for which a full recovery wouldn't work. Don't want to go through that again, especially in a couple of years time when this device is out of warranty. I want to know that the cause has been diagnosed and addressed. 

Regards

Hi ????,
Thank you for replying. There are several issues that can arise when using any device. From what I see, you had a Recovery Reason Code of 0x5b No bootable kernel found on disk. This can be an indication of either software failure, or hardware. I do not have the ability to access your previous Chromebook, and have as much information about the situation as you do. 

Erika, 

Your systems will have the serial number of the failed Chromebook which I don't seem to have a record of. Just taken a photo of the new one... just in case. 

Using the serial number can you track what the diagnosis was? I'd really appreciate knowing, or at least knowing whatever caused it has been addressed and cannot happen again. I was told you'd had a number back in an unrecoverable state. 

Regards

Hi ????,
Again, I have the information that you had received a Recovery Reason Code of 0x5b, and that you received a replacement. I do not have the answers you are looking for, as we do not get detailed information on if anything is found when the Chromebook is returned. 
Whenever a common issue occurs, our developers and engineers look into a resolution for the future. What you experienced was likely hardware related, which can be caused by various things like jostling of the device itself, or a failure in the wiring, as the bootable kernel of the Chromebook was not found when powered on. 

Me:

OK, thanks for that info anyway. Don't like the sound of jostling though. I bought a Pixel as a "road-warrior" machine. I'm careful with it but if it won't take a few knocks and bumps I might as well have bought a plastic "throw-away"... the kids now have the two HP 14-q004sas.

Ah well, I guess there's nothing else you can do for me, thanks for sorting out the power down issue, I'll know what to do if it recurs.

Regards, 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scotrail "smart" cards?

-
Image
A few years after London made its Oyster smart card unnecessary by integrating contactless bank cards for Tube and bus journeys, Scotrail has finally enabled Flexipasses on their own proprietary smart cards. My home station is a ticketless station. I feel there are a couple of aspects of the scheme for smartcards that have not been user-tested from the point of view of users of small rural commuter stations. Of which there are many on the Glasgow-Edinburgh lines and many more throughout Scotland. I'd like to always arrive with plenty of time for my train in the morning, but sometimes the train is even early. At Kirknewton, Scotrail have placed the Edinburgh-bound smartcard reader by the main car-park entrance, halfway along the platform, about 50m from the entrance nearest the road where late arriving passengers - some detained by the level crossing - scramble for the train. Maybe Scotrail's business analysts imagine that everyone always arrives for a train with 90 second...
Read more

So wind is the answer?

-
UK generation Look at any day, week or month. See the red line? That's gas turbines.  Burning gas is better than coal for soot, but carbon is carbon. Methane plus oxygen generates heat plus carbon dioxide. https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/environmental-impacts-natural-gas The blue line, that's wind. There's about 14GW of total capacity in the UK at the moment. That's about half the UK's average demand.  https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ Except on Tuesday, when it was almost zero. So it is on any hour, day, week or month you look at.  Electricity demand varies a bit, but the red line is almost a mirror image of the blue. That's because electricity can't be stored in any great quantity. The pumped storage and batteries on the grid at the moment are used only for smoothing, not covering major gaps in the wind.  Every time the wind turbines stop, the gas turbines start In a BBC News report yesterday, the 9th of June 2020, a screen showed a picture of coal gen...
Read more

Kirknewton level crossing needs a pedestrian crossing!

-
A recent post by the Met Office caught my eye. 40% of UK citizens caught out by severe weather Kirknewton's "new" level crossing , installed in 2013, makes it impossible for pedestrians to cross the line when the crossing is down.  Most evening commuters arrive on the Westbound platform from Edinburgh, often to get to their cars parked in the station car park on the north side of the crossing.  If the crossing has failed - a frequent occurrence - such commuters may eventually seek an alternative route .  In bad conditions that could be 3km through the snow. After departing the village via the underpass, commuters would be navigating an unlit farm lane, probably by now buried under several feet of snow.  Kirknewton needs a permanent pedestrian crossing at the level crossing!
Read more