#How to Run a Diagnostic Scan on your Chromebook

People tend to use their computers longer than other gadgets in their life, which means it’s important to keep an eye on the device’s health. Chromebooks have a handy “Diagnostics” app that makes this super easy to do.

The Diagnostics app was introduced in Chrome OS 90 in April 2020. It’s a big upgrade over the previous method that required viewing an internal system page. There are also some useful tests you can use to make sure everything is running smoothly.

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How to Open the Diagnostics Apps

You won’t find the Diagnostics app in the launcher app drawer, but there are two other ways to launch it. First, select the circle launcher icon in the taskbar.

Enter the search box or simply start typing “Diagnostics.” Select the “Diagnostics” app when it appears in the results.

For the second method, we’ll open the app from the Chrome OS Settings. Click the clock icon in the taskbar to bring up the Quick Settings panel. Then, select the gear icon to open the Settings menu.

Next, select “About Chrome OS” in the Settings sidebar.

Now choose “Diagnostics” to launch the app.

That’s all there is to launching the Diagnostics app. Let’s dive into what it can actually show you and do.

What Does the Diagnostics App Do?

The Diagnostics app is broken up into three sections: Battery, CPU, and Memory. Each one provides an overview of information and can run a health test.

The “Battery” section shows the size of your device’s battery and tells you how long you have left at the current battery level. Underneath that are three different metrics:

• Battery Health: The capacity of batteries can decline over time, meaning they won’t stay charged as long. This number tells you how “healthy” the battery is. You want to see a high number here.
• Cycle Count: The number of times your Chromebook has gone through a full charging cycle—from 0-100%.
• Current: The rate at which the Chromebook is currently being charged or discharged.

You’ll see the option to “Run Discharge Test” or “Run Charge Test,” depending on if your Chromebook is plugged in. These tests will measure the rate at which your device charges or discharges.

Next up is the “CPU” section. It shows information about your device’s processor at the top and you can see a real-time graph of CPU usage underneath. There are three metrics here as well:

• Current Usage: An aggregate percentage of how much CPU is currently being used.
• Temperature: Current temperature of the CPU.
• Current Speed: How fast the CPU is currently running.

To get more information, click “Run CPU Test.” This will run a number of tests to make sure the CPU is running fine. You want to see green “Success” messages here.

The last section is “Memory.” A blue progress bar shows how much of the total available memory is being used. Click “Run Memory Test” for some additional details. Be warned that this test takes 15 minutes. Again, you want to see green “Success.”

At the very bottom of the page, you can click the “Save Session Log” button to get a readout of all the diagnostic data at this point in time.

That’s all there is to it! This is a handy little feature in Chrome OS to help you keep an eye on your device’s health and troubleshoot issues if they should arise.

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