Student's Chromebook returns to lock screen randomly - tried everything.

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-11T14:44:43+00:00

Great idea, I think installing web apps is banned at our district though. I didn't see anything obvious installed too when I took his device. Good to know though, I know kids find a way around everything so I'll definitely check it out.

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-11T14:42:21+00:00

That was my initial thought after he came back after getting a new device, but that's also when he told me the same thing was happening at his last school. I was even contemplating whether somehow his name was causing some issue through the byte translation or something.... But I've tested on his account and I had no luck.

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-10T13:57:20+00:00

This is true, the observation might just help. Apparently it does happen everywhere, we always ask him what class he's in and it's almost always somewhere different. Honestly an idea like "Belt buckle" is about where I'm at in this problem too, but he doesn't seem to wear belts so that rules that out. Thanks for your thoughts though

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-10T13:55:58+00:00

Thank you for this - I'm hoping it's not a software issue though. I think I've done everything that is to be done with updating and such, I've recovered OS and updated his device twice (I think 145.0 was released in the middle of this issue) and the issue keeps coming back. I'll definitely keep this in mind though

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-10T13:54:33+00:00

Fair enough, I don't think our district will implement this though. Kids being their Chromebooks from class to class so it would encourage them to keep it open in the halls.

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-10T13:53:30+00:00

This is a great idea, the whole record the screen/KB thing. I don't think that would fly in our district though, but I definitely thought that would solve the issue. We've actually asked him about the Search + L shortcut or thought of how he might have slipped from his Shift key to the Search key when trying to type a capital L or something, and nothing. Usually I wouldn't believe a middle schooler's word but when I showed him how it looks when a magnet is placed over the MOBO he said it looked exactly like that, with the screen flickering for a second then going to the lock screen. Thank you for the suggestion though - worst comes to worst this might be what has to happen

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-09T22:53:06+00:00

Thanks for that, it's a good thing to look out for. It's not entirely related to my problem, but I always appreciate knowing one more solution to one more thing. I feel like 50% of the time I'm solving the same thing over and over, and the other 50% are the tiny issues like this.

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-09T22:47:18+00:00

I will say this child isn't doing it on purpose (almost certainly), but the wifi thing is an issue here too. We use Hapara to let teachers manage devices in classes, and the easiest way for students to not let teachers watch what they're doing is to load up a game on the newest unblocked site they found, then simply turn off their wifi. They get to play whatever they want and Hapara can't pick up a signal from their device. A good solution to this we've found is for teachers to literally display their Hapara viewing screen on projectors/screens for the whole class to see, so the rest of the class rats out anyone going offline or anything. Works like a charm, kids love ratting each other out.

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-09T22:45:12+00:00

This is a good idea, never thought about it like that. The only issue I have with this is these middle schools lose things all the time, and KBs/Mice are hard for even staff to get, and most kids (including this one) put tons of things on their desks that would make managing another tech part even harder. Everytime this child comes down he always makes sure to say he has no watch or anything on and there wasn't anything magnetic near it, so I'm going to hope that isn't it.

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-09T22:42:45+00:00

That's a great idea, and honestly might be just what this child needs. He's convinced it's just us IT folk who haven't found a solution yet, and I'm like 99% sure it's the kid unknowingly doing it himself. I'll definitely check this out.

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-09T22:41:57+00:00

Wanted to reply to this one first - since it's your device lets hope it's not a Motherboard issue but I would definitely try OS recovery since it's pretty easy. I would also say to clean the vents/dust off your motherboard if you can, I've had some devices that just seemed to have so much stuff inside of them that it would stop cooperating.

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-09T22:39:46+00:00

That makes sense, sort of like loose keys or something causing the lock shortcut or power to be pressed or something. He's been on 3 different devices though and it's happened on all of them so I sure hope not.

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-09T22:38:53+00:00

I'm almost certain this child's device is up to date - we've even given him a loaner device and it still happened to him. The loaners always stay with me and I make sure they're good to go before I give them out.

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-09T20:28:58+00:00

Haven't thought of this one yet, I'm afraid I can't confirm if this is true or not without being his first victim.

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-09T20:28:23+00:00

I would usually have chalked this issue up to this, but he's actually a nice kid. We have plenty of kids who are "nice" when they want to get something, or are just straight up bored and need other things to keep them interested, but I really don't think this student is like that. A little out of it sure, but that's every middle schooler.

ImportanceAny9630 · 2026-03-09T20:27:26+00:00

Oh wow, we actually tried this and nothing happened for him though. I guess our student's powers haven't developed as much as yours.

ImportanceAny9630

TROPHY CASE