Acer Chromebook 14 CB3-431-C3WS Troubleshooting

When you touch the trackpad it either doesn’t respond or takes a long time to respond.

You might have some dirt stuck under the trackpad causing it to not “read” your touch as well. Begin by taking a thin card (business cards work well), and put some rubbing alcohol on it. Push the card between the bottom of the trackpad and move it side-to-side around the whole trackpad to clear out any gunk that might have snuck under there.

Your trackpad may have gotten bumped or nudged and misaligned. You can begin by turning your Chromebook off, and then using your fingers to try to nudge the trackpad back into place until you can feel it click more easily. You may also want to try removing the trackpad and realigning it from the inside for a more permanent solution. You can find the guide for this here.

Audio is either not working or sounds distorted either through the laptop speakers or through headphones.

If audio sounds distorted through the headphones but not the speaker, the headphone jack or the headphones themselves may be faulty. Test the laptop with 2 separate pairs of headphones to conclude the problem is definitely the headphone jack. Audio that cuts in and out is often the sign of a loose headphone jack, so make sure it is fully and properly installed on the computer.

If the sound is not coming out of one or both speakers, the audio driver may be corrupt. Since this is meant to update automatically, make sure you are connected to the internet so updates may occur. You can also try restarting your laptop. If this still doesn't work, your speakers are likely damaged or broken and will need to be replaced.

If the audio sounds fine through headphones but sounds distorted through the laptop speakers, they may be damaged or broken. You can find the guide to replace your speakers here.

Your computer doesn’t respond when you press the power button, despite having a full charge

If the computer is not responding to the charger, first ensure the charger is plugged in and the battery light is on. If the battery light is orange, this means the laptop is charging. If the battery light does not turn on while the computer is plugged in, the charger may be faulty. Consider purchasing a new charger.

First, try doing a hard reset of the laptop by holding the power button for 30 seconds. If the laptop does not turn on, the battery may be faulty. The battery can be replaced following this guide.

Despite being charged, your laptop doesn’t power up at all. Your laptop may instead, have a black screen with unfamiliar symbols on it when turned on.

Press the escape, and F3 keys on startup to take your Chromebook to developer mode. Once in developer mode, press Ctrl+D to turn off OS verification, then press enter. Once your Chromebook restarts, when prompted, press enter to turn Chrome OS back on.

If resetting your Chromebook factory settings doesn’t help, you may need to replace your motherboard. You can find the guide for this here.

When you turn your computer screen on, you either are unable to see anything on the screen despite hearing sounds of the computer working properly; or there are missing pixels or screen distortions.

Try pressing and holding the ESC key, pressing F3, and then pressing the power button.

If your screen does not have a y display at all, has a distorted display (colors may be muted, or not appearing correctly; lines may appear on the screen that makes it difficult to see; the image on the screen may be titled, or appear as if in an “oil spill”), or missing pixels, you may need to replace the screen on your device. The screen can be replaced following this guide.