#CBC-RS/TC-watchlist 

Hi David,
Does the device stay up long enough so you can file a feedback report?

CBC topic https://goo.gl/j5xn3z
New Acer R13 continually reboots on latest beta and dev builds - Google Product Forums 

and

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!private-topic/chromebook-central+rs-mentor/m6fGBwLqL8M;context-place=private-forum/chromebook-central+rs-mentor

Thank you for your feedbacks and reports on the bootloop/chrome crashes affecting some Acer Chromebook R13s.  We are very aware of the issue and are actively investigating it.

We will update this issue with more information when available.

We have discovered an issue with the version (R55) 8872.70.1 image that was briefly pushed to the Stable channel on Fri 12/9 that causes some Acer Chromebook R13 devices to enter a boot loop and/or crash Chrome often.

We have stopped pushing this image on the stable channel while we investigate the issue.  Stable is now back to pushing (R54) 8743.85.0.

For users with devices affected by problem, we recommend following the recovery flow [1] which should re-install 8743.85.0 onto the device.

[1] https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1080595?hl=en

We are still working on fixes for the Beta and Dev channel.
If you are a Beta/Dev user and are still seeing stability issues we recommend recovering to Stable for now.

OK.  Glad that you can see the problem.  On 55+ my system runs for variable lengths of time.  I should be able to file a feedback report.  However, to do that I'll need to move to beta etc.  

@#6 - we have enough feedback reports about the issue now.  Feel free to stay on Stable channel if it is working well for you.

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chrome-internal.googlesource.com/chromeos/overlays/overlay-elm-private/+/850dae97bdfdf9e45f8a2ecc5a07d81f5d0037e8

commit 850dae97bdfdf9e45f8a2ecc5a07d81f5d0037e8
Author: Nicolas Boichat <drinkcat@google.com>
Date: Tue Dec 13 10:19:04 2016

 Issue 672714  has been merged into this issue.

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/coreboot/+/c016ec4fe6c6fd27a501255563300d15901cf4f1

commit c016ec4fe6c6fd27a501255563300d15901cf4f1
Author: Nicolas Boichat <drinkcat@google.com>
Date: Wed Dec 14 09:26:12 2016

Revert "google/oak: increase the driving strength for 4GB DRAMs"

This reverts commit cf1aa5ade856af433fa056f51a20d18553ae241d, which
appears to cause random stability issues on some elm units.

BRANCH=oak
BUG=chrome-os-partner:60869
BUG= chromium:673349 
TEST=None

Change-Id: I5ce9e2673db1bc7a1f487a3c3bcce4651a5e3567
Reviewed-on: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/419863
Commit-Queue: Nicolas Boichat <drinkcat@chromium.org>
Tested-by: Nicolas Boichat <drinkcat@chromium.org>
Trybot-Ready: Nicolas Boichat <drinkcat@chromium.org>
Reviewed-by: Julius Werner <jwerner@chromium.org>

[modify] https://crrev.com/c016ec4fe6c6fd27a501255563300d15901cf4f1/src/mainboard/google/oak/sdram_inf/sdram-lpddr3-H9CCNNNBLTBLAR-4GB.inc
[modify] https://crrev.com/c016ec4fe6c6fd27a501255563300d15901cf4f1/src/mainboard/google/oak/sdram_inf/sdram-lpddr3-K4E6E304EE-4GB.inc
[modify] https://crrev.com/c016ec4fe6c6fd27a501255563300d15901cf4f1/src/mainboard/google/oak/sdram_inf/sdram-lpddr3-K4E6E304EB-4GB.inc

Any clue as to what release(s) this will turn up in and when?  Many thanks.

re #13 -- Sounds like this is targeted at R56

we actually reverted whole firmware to the previous stable version with 8438.19.0, and already merged the firmware into M55-stable staring from 8872.72.0.

We should already started to roll out M55-based 8872.73.0 on stable channel to fix this endless loop first and will look for new firmware 8438.54.0 to land on M56 and upcoming releases.

We suspect that a recent firmware change (8438.41.0) interacted badly
with the DRAM installed in a small number of Acer Chromebook R13
devices due to process variation of the DRAM components.

For R55 (current Stable channel) we have reverted back to the previous
firmware version (8438.19.0).  Thus, the latest Stable channel image
should be very stable for all devices.

We have also reverted the suspect BIOS change on R57 (see comment
#12), and generated and qualified a new firmware (8438.54.0) with this
patch reverted.  Firmware 8438.54.0 is included as of R57 9114.0.0,
and will be pushed in the next Dev channel update.  Once we have
verified this patch fixes the issue on all devices, we can also roll
it out to R56 (Beta channel).


If you are an Acer Chromebook R13 user who experienced frequent
reboots/Chrome crashes after receiving firmware version (8438.19.0)
(ie when switching to Dev/Beta channel, or after your device updated
on Stable to broken version 8872.70.1), and you still have the device
that was having the problem, we would like to ask for your help.

The latest "Canary channel" image includes the new firmware that
should work well on all devices.
If you have time, and are willing to powerwash your device, can you
please try the Canary channel and report back whether this works for
your device.
Note: This process will permanently erase everything on your
Chromebook's hard drive, including your downloaded files.

The Canary channel updates continously (without extensive testing) and
is notoriously unstable.
Thus, after trying it out to verify the new firmware, we highly
recommend returning back to the Stable channel.

If you would like to experiment with a newer release, we recommend
waiting for the new firmware to roll out to the Dev and/or Beta
channel over the coming weeks.


============================

Instructions for switching to Canary channel:

 (0) First prepare a recovery stick to return to Stable Channel after
experimenting on Canary
  (a) Find an SD card or USB stick that you do not mind erasing.
  (b) Sign-in to a Chromebook.
  (c) Install the "Chromebook Recovery Utility" Chrome app:
      https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromebook-recovery-utili/jndclpdbaamdhonoechobihbbiimdgai
  (d) Launch app.
  (e) Follow the on-screen instructions to create the recovery media.

 (1) Enter Developer Mode
     Note: This step will powerwash your Chromebook, erasing any local
media files, screenshots, Android Apps, etc.
     Please back-up (e.g. copy to Drive) any files you want to keep
before continuing.
  (a) Press Esc+Refresh+Power
  (b) At recovery prompt, press Ctrl+D
  (c) Accept prompt to disable boot verification
  (d) When Chromebook reboots, press Ctrl+D again

 (2) Sign-in (guest ok)
 (3) Start the crosh shell (Ctrl-Alt-T)
 (4) At the crosh> prompt, enter the command: live_in_a_coal_mine
 (5) Answer 'y' when prompted.
 (6) Navigate to chrome://settings
 (7) Click "About Chrome OS" to show the "About" box.
 (8) Click "Check for and apply updates"
 (9) Wait for update to download and install
 (10) Click Restart to reboot.
 (11) (Maybe) Wait for "critical update" to complete.
 (12) Press Ctrl+D at the developer screen
 (11) Sign in (guest ok)
 (12) Navigate to chrome://settings
 (13) Click "About Chrome OS" to show the "About" box.
      The Google Chrome OS logo should be a Gold Chrome ball.
 (14) Check that the Canary image has updated device firmware to:
      Google_Elm.8438.54.0

Please let us know if you still experience any reboot loops or
frequent Chrome crashes when using firmware 8438.54.0.

At this point, you may continue to live on the edge and use the Canary channel,
although the experience may be quite unstable, and will vary from day to day.
We therefore recommend you return to the Stable channel for now.

(15) Return to Stable channel.
  (a) If you have anything connected to this Chromebook (such as a
mouse, SD card, or external hard drive), remove it.
  (b) Hold Esc+Refresh then press and release the Power button to
enter Recovery mode.
  (c) Insert the Recovery stick you created in step (0).
  (d) Follow the on-screen instructions.

Whether you returned to Stable or stayed on Canary, we recommend re-enabling
Verified mode:

(16) Re-enable Verified Mode
  (a) Reboot
  (b) At the "Developer Mode" firmware screen, press "Space", and then "Enter"
      to re-enable verification.

OK. Two things.  Firstly the new / old firmware on the stable channel has been bullet proof for me, at work and at home for weeks now.

Secondly, I'm running the canary image and that is showing no signs of rebooting.  It's been running for a couple of hours and I've seen no signs of the reboot problem.  The beta lasts a few minutes if I'm lucky.  I've tried all sorts of activity, especially with Android applications, to provoke it and it's been fine.  If there's anything specific to try, please let me know.  As proof, here's what I'm running:

Version 57.0.2965.0 canary
Platform 9129.0.0 (Official Build) canary-channel elm
ARC Version 3601409
Firmware Google_Elm.8438.54.0

So, thanks for this, I'll stick with the canary image for a while but will switch to beta / stable as those are released...

Hi David,
Thanks for confirming!  Unfortunately, Stable channel (M55) does not support the Play Store at the moment, so if you do want to use Android Apps, your best bet at present is to stick on Canary.  Early next year we will have a chance to update Dev & Beta channels with the fixed firmware.

Hi David,

Thanks a ton for testing this out, that's a tremendous help to us since we haven't been able to reproduce this issue ourselves.

Happy New Year!
Conrad

No problem, happy to help / test. It's still fine and I've been using it all day, loading apps, downloading media etc. 

For what it is worth, a folding, touch sensitive chromebook with Android apps is a really good solution / experience for work (www.linaro.org) and home. 

Happy New Year to all.

I'll echo David. I've been on Canary for about an hour and a half and so far it has been stable. Before the stable channel was fixed, I was crashing every 30-45 minutes. I'll stay on canary for a while and report back if I see any crashes.

Version 57.0.2965.0 canary
Platform 9129.0.0 (Official Build) canary-channel elm
ARC Version 3601409
Firmware Google_Elm.8438.54.0

Fixed firmware should now be live on all official channels:
dev-channel     (R57) 9150.0.0
beta-channel    (R56) 9000.50.0
stable-channel  (R55) 8872.70.3

Thanks.  I can confirm that the dev channel (R57) works fine.  No sign of random and repeated crashes.  Android applications working well.  Good job and thank you.

Verified on build 9173.0.0