Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5 stuck on 116? There’s a light at the end of the tunnel

With the issues we saw in ChromeOS 118 and 119 rolling out, being revoked, and returning, it may have been a bit easy to miss the side story of the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5 being stuck on ChromeOS 116 through all of it. We initially saw this issue pop up during the ChromeOS 118 update and have been tracking it ever since. And today, we have some good news for those of you who have – or plan to buy – the Duet 5: a fix is on the way!

A fix for the issue means an update is coming

Thankfully, from the language in the Google Issue Tracker, it seems like this isn’t just a workaround. The ChromeOS team has worked with the vendor of the USB-C ports and between both of their work, not only has the issue been identified; it has been corrected with a firmware tweak. You can see the update below:

Just a short update for this following this bug so people know what to expect.

We are currently working on landing a mitigation for this issue. The mitigation will include a firmware that skips trying to update the Type C component that was causing the issue. Once the mitigation lands:

• We will be able to unblock updates for both affected boards (Duet 3 and Duet 5).
• Anyone who has a device that is stuck in the “Something went wrong” screen will be able to download/boot a ChromeOS recovery image which will make their device bootable again. NOTE: if your device was at the “Something went wrong” screen then one of the two Type C ports may only be partially functional until the final fix is ready.

We’ve also received a positive result from the failure analysis performed by our vendor. The vendor has identified the problem and has provided us with a fix. We have validated that the fix is able to fully recover the failing device that we had and are starting to kick off the processes needed to get this final fix out. Once the final fix is out then everyone’s Type C component should get updated to the newest version and anyone whose device was at the “Something went wrong” screen because of this issue should again have two functioning Type C ports.

I cannot promise any particular dates here, but I wanted to at least let folks know that an end is in sight. I’ll post again when there is more news to share.

via the Google Issue Tracker

What you can expect

From the above text, there are a few moving parts, here. First up, there is a temporary mitigation that will allow for updates to continue for the Duet 5 while skipping an update to the USB-C firmware. This means the latest updates can be delivered for the vast majority of users since the problem was really only for a small handful of units.

Next, those who are stuck at the “Something went wrong” screen will be able to rewrite their disk image using the ChromeOS recovery tool. We have an entire video on how to use it if you need to go that route. And trust me: it’s very, very simple to use.

An important note you don’t want to miss here: if you do have to recover from the USB method, you may see issues with your USB ports off and on until the final fix is out. But that should happen sooner than later as well, since it seems tests from the vendor on the affected part are successful and a fix on the ChromeOS team’s end has also been validated. That update will hopefully arrive soon.

As it is stated in the Issue Tracker, they don’t have hard dates set, but I also don’t think they would have shared this much if they didn’t feel like a solid fix was in place and close to being rolled out. We know the Duet 5 is a popular device, and that’s for a reason: it’s pretty awesome. But popularity makes bugs like this annoying to deal with at scale, and for those that have patiently been waiting for a fix on this one, the end is near.