Solution to Chromebook won’t wake from sleep problem

Symptoms
I've greatly enjoyed the new Samsung Chromebook with ChromeOS. The one huge problem I've encountered is it sometimes not waking from sleep. I'd open it and the power light would be on, but the screen would be dead. The only workaround was to force a shutdown and then boot up again. Very annoying.

Dead ends
I did a bit of Google searching and came across some threads that led to nowhere:
Series 3 (ARM) Black screen of near death
New Samsung chromebook not waking up
Does the Chromebook suffer from the sleep of death?
My Chrome book did not wake up when I opened the lid this morning

No real solutions in any of those threads. I thought an update might fix it, so I switched to the beta channel. No updates. I thought perhaps I'd screwed up some setting, so I did a factory reset. Didn't work. Same problem.

Real solution
I don't know how I didn't notice this before, but my time zone was incorrect. I went into my user settings, changed the time zone to the correct time—I haven't had a resume-from-sleep problem since!

I hope this information helps others experiencing this problem.

32 comments

  1. Thank you so much for this! I just got this replacement Chromebook because my last one had a stuck pixel, and it was having this issue. In my case, it was actually already on the right timezone, but I changed it a couple times and put it back in the correct one and just like that, no more waking problems!

  2. Nope didn’t work for me. Tried changing time zones and it still wouldn’t wake up from sleep properly. What seems to work (for now) is if I unplug the power supply then open the lid. That makes it wake up properly. This however is not a true solution in my opinion.

  3. What do I do if my chromebook has a black screen and the power light is off?
    So I was just on it like normal then the chrome turned off and I was like oh it must be rebooting like normal and it came on for a second the turned off
    Ive tried charging it but the charge light isnt showing up… Am alittle scared because ive just got this laptop.

    1. I feel u Lillie, I wanna throw my acer chromebook across the room, but I know that won’t make t gf e situation any better. I just cleaned my room and I thought it would look nice to put it in my desk opened cuz of it was closed it would just look stupid. I had previously charged it for about five hours and it was fully charged and working so I put it on my desk screen up dimmed all the way and it sat there over night, I’ve done this before but this time it ended badly. I’ve tried ctrl+refresh, holding power for 20-60 sec, ctrl+alt+power, alt+ctrl+i, etc I’ve literally tried everything, i wonder if throwing it across the room would actually work… probably not. I probably should not have left it open. It’s not making the fan sound, it doesn’t have the blue or amber light, it’s not overheated. Ive tried unplugging charger, opening lid, closing lid, plugging charger back in, trying to turn the brightness back up, any pattern of the steps you can think of. The bigger problem is…IT NOT MY CHROMEBOOK!! It is the schools property and I doubt they can fix it, u don’t wanna try to unscrew stuff and take out the battery because I’m afraidthings will become worse and I’ll break something, please help me!!?????

  4. same problem here, tried powerwash and usb restore. didn’t work

    this works, if you open it up and you get a black screen, close it back down, open up slowly and it should work. im guessing there is something wrong with the sensor that detects opening of the screen.

  5. I have an acer c720 chromebook, I tried to install ubuntu on it and so re-called again he turns on the blue light but the screen goes dark.
    please help me.

  6. I do not like chrome books I dnt recommend them for anyone if nothing works hit the esc. Refresh button and power button at same time it’ll make it think crash either it’ll say chrome os is missing or damaged or another screen will pop up with kinda same thing close lid and open it bck up or just hit power button nd turn it off and turn it back on

  7. Hi. I’m experiencing a similar problem. You see, anytime I turn on my Chromebook, it is on. However, my desktop will NOT load. I’m concerned, and I hope to get a solution ASAP. Thanks. ?

  8. Pls I need help with my acer chromebook.. it’s only showing the blue light and it’s not coming on…it’s not showing.. pls any idea?

    1. I have a problem with an Asus c300m. I have heard that holding refresh and power will do a factory restore, but no luck for me. perhaps it will work for you . I have also heard to hold the power button for 10+ seconds, or open the lid slowly, or set it aside while plugged in and make sure it has a full charge. If you don’t get a power light when you plug yours in, then it’s not getting power. Fix the reason why and you should be OK. In my case, there is power. The screen goes from passive to active when I plug it in, and the power light comes on. But I can’t seem to make anything else happen yet.

    2. I am experiencing the same problem have you had any insight I’ve tried everything my Chromebook will not wake up from the Big Sleeeep.
      I went on and on calling it the black screen of death until I heard somebody else speak of it dang it I thought I was the originator of the phrase the black screen of death. It’s been going on for about six months after I bought my Chromebook Acer 15.
      I took it to the Geek Squad and they sent it to Texas to find out that there was nothing wrong with it.
      Couple weeks later did the same thing black screen of death.
      Took it back to the Geek Squad they sent it to Texas and they replaced my charging cord.
      I’m not convinced that it was ever faulty because I have a spare charging cord that is an after-market.
      About a week later still having the trouble with the black screen of death. You see my Acer Chromebook will not wake up and when it finally does I’ll use it for a while and then it will go back to the black screen of death very frustrating.
      I’ve tried all the methods control-alt-delete.
      Escape power button rebooting nothing seems to work.
      If it ever goes back on again I will take a look at the time zone. I read in a Blog that the timezone was wrong on somebody’s Chromebook and after they switched it …it started working.

  9. My Chromebook Will not be nice with me! The whole screen is black and it won’t turn on. I’ve tried every method! :(

  10. I know this thread has been dead for a bit so this is a long shot, and I’m not quite sure what model I have, but my school loaned out Chromebooks to students for the first time this year. I make it a point to take especially good care of mine. Friday, it worked perfectly all day. I came home and set my bag, with the computer in it, in my living room, and left for the weekend. I came home last night and thought it may be a good idea to make sure it wasn’t dead, even though I had left school on a 50% charge, give or take, and it doesn’t typically lose battery after I put it into sleep mode, so I did. Opened the lid, and it didn’t come on, even though I was sure the battery wasn’t low enough to be dead. I tried clicking around. Nothing. I tried pressing the power button, and as long as I was pressing it, a light on the side would come on. Immediately after I stopped, the light went off. I plugged it in, thinking maybe it was just dead, and left it all night. Got up this morning, and had the same issue. The light on the side only comes on when I’m pressing the power button, and it flashes when I open the computer. Aside from that, nothing. I could really use some help.

  11. Great computer guy has done this 2X for me and didn’t charge me for the second time:
    Take back off of computer and make sure it is shut down when you do so or it will be dangerous according to the compute repair guy (at your own peril or find a nice computer repair person). Unplug the battery-in Samsung Chrome 4gb it is a white plastic plug in with about 4 or 5 different colored wires, about 2″ squre. Wait a few minutes then plug it back in. Put it all back together again. Turn the computer on and voila it worked : )

    1. Also forgot to say he recommends shutting down the chromebook when not using it, or send it back to Samsung.

  12. I’ve encountered the same issue, which interestingly enough did not happen on my first week of use. Powerwash didn’t help.

    My solution to this is not to let the Chromebook sleep.
    Settings as follows:

    Goto settings > Device > Power

    i. When Idle = Turn off screen
    ii Sleep when lid is closed = No

  13. OMG THANK YOU! I had my timezone set to “automatic” instead of manually and as soon as i switch it, my chromebook wakes up after sleep! Thank you!

  14. That time zone issue might have fixed my chrome book. I’m going to test it out a bit more before I dub you “Internet hero of the year.”

  15. None of those worked for me. I had an SD memory card plugged in that was causing my problem. I took it out and the sleep mode blank screen wakeup problem stopped.

  16. when we close the lid and allow it to go to sleep it will not wake up. Do not have black screen, it shows tabs that were open prior to sleep, it just will not do anything, mouse does not work, touchscreen does not work. Of all the keyboard keys only refresh works, but even after refresh it still acts asleep. Time zone setting did not help, it was wrong via wifi allowed to correct, but that has since been turned off and time zone corrected. Opening slowly does not work as described above either.

  17. last night i was just watching youtube with my charger and earbuds plugged in when my entire laptop went dark. it was at 60% charge when this happened. i am not sure what model the laptop is, but i have had it for almost five years (i bought it from my school) and have never had this issue.

    the green light on top of the lid will not turn on (tells if the laptop is out of sleep mode) but the power lights on the right side of the keyboard and lid do work. the screen will not turn on at all and opening it slowly does not work. i have also tried powering it down and turning it back on multiple times, which does also not work. the charger isn’t new either and has worked for the past three years so i don’t know what happened. would it be best to just ask the school computer guy or send it to someone and have them fix it?

  18. I am having the same intermittent issue, closing my Samsung Galaxy Chromebook but sometimes it doesn’t come back. I end up holding REFRESH then press the POWER button to bring it back.

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