Problem with Chromebook

[jd.linklater]

My wife has a Toshiba Chromebook. She went away for 3 weeks and while she was away I plugged it in every couple of days to keep it charged but when she came back and tried to use it the screen won't come on unless it's plugged in via the charger. If she clicks the battery icon on screen it says the battery is 100% charged but it won't work without being plugged in. Any ideas?

[otherego]

That does sound horribly like a potential hardware problem, doesn't it?

Presumably you've double-checked all settings (in BIOS or whatever a Chromebook has and within the operating system.)

Until somebody comes along with something more useful, you could try a trick which occasionally helps when one of my (ancient) laptops behaves oddly.

Remove the battery. Hold the power switch for a while (say, 10 to 30 seconds) - which'll hopefully discharge all capacitors.

Replace the battery. Try the machine again.

I can't see that doing any harm, and if it's forgotten how it's meant to behave,  might just jog its memory...

[jd.linklater]

Thanks for the reply. I'm a bit dubious about removing the battery, it's not accessible without taking the whole thing apart. A shame it's only a couple of months out of warranty.

[otherego]

Goodness, but I loathe gadgets that don't allow easy battery replacement. *Harrumph*

You've probably done a bit of an internet search already, but this might be of some use, or lead to other ideas:

https://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/Toshiba_Chromebook_2_Troubleshooting

From that, a couple of ideas:

Screen Display is Blank

The power button is lit up, but the screen has no images, or the screen is too dim with only faint images.

Display Light Turned Down

Screen's display brightness may be turned too low. Press the eighth key from the left on the top row to turn the brightness up. This key has a picture of a large gear on it.

Needs to be Reset

Press the power button for 30 seconds. Then repress it to turn it back on. Once the computer boots back up, the screen should work.

No idea whether any of that will help in your case, of course. It would be interesting to hear how you get on.

[jd.linklater]

Yes I was using the troubleshooter yesterday and tried both those options, neither made any difference.

The problem is that the power button  doesn't light up unless it's connected to the mains through the charger. It really sounds like the battery is dead but it's showing it fully charged.  I don't understand why there should be an issue with the battery  after such a short period of time, like I said it's only just out of warranty.  Thanks for looking anyway.