Last week an update to the Beta channel of Chrome OS caused some very undesirable effects for a number of Chromebook users. Specifically the ASUS Chromebook Flip C302 was affected but reports from users with Acer R11s and ASUS C300’s have shown across the web as well. Version 58.0.3029.78 Beta of Chrome OS appears to have caused a loss of responsiveness on certain portions of the right side of the display rendering the touchpad and touchscreen useless.
As you can see from the thread here in the Chromebook Central Help Forum, multiple users were affected in last weeks update and I have found countless other similar posts across reddit and public forums for Chrome OS. Even this morning I received a Tweet from a reader asking about screen issues with their ASUS C302.
Many of you never venture to the Beta channel and as such would have never know there was a problem. For a lot of users, however, the Google Play Store is available in the Beta channel without any type of developer tweaking. The ASUS C302, Acer Chromebook R13 and the HP 13 G1 are among these devices.
The Good News
This bug was essentially rendering devices useless for using certain Android apps or navigating the right side of the display. Thankfully, developers saw the severity of the issue and pushed out a fix in a little under a week. Yesterday Chrome OS Beta version 58.0.3029.89 rolled out and we are happy to report that users are already sharing that the bug has been squashed.
For details of the bug you can head over to the CR Bug Tracker and get the low down.
A special thanks to Jessica for giving us the heads up on Twitter.