I’ve been researching a reader question about some odd mouse behavior and I wish there was a better way to diagnose it. Oh wait, there is! Or at least there will be. The Google Chrome OS Diagnostics app will let you test input devices and other peripherals in the coming months.
All of these new cards in the Chrome OS Diagnostics apps are hidden behind experimental flags. I had seen some in Chrome OS 100 previously, but they didn’t add any functionality. ChromeUnboxed took a recent look and reported there are both more flags and some are now working.
I double-checked on Chrome OS 102 and I see them as well:
Added since I last looked are options to test the touchscreen, the trackpad, input devices, and external keyboards. All of the experimental flag URLs are in the above image, so be on the lookout for them in future Chrome OS updates.
Unfortunately, this Diagnostics app update is still in the early works.
I connected a Bluetooth mouse, an external SSD drive, and a USB camera to my everyday Chromebook, but the only tests I see are these:
And of those two, only the keyboard test is currently working as of today.
For now, it lets you tap keys and shows a visual representation on a virtual keyboard. If you’ve got some sticky or non-responsive keys, the Diagnostics app may help troubleshoot the problem in the future.
For now, I wouldn’t bother enabling any of the extra flags to see the additional Google Chrome OS Diagnostics app cards. You’re not going to see much, if any benefit, just yet.
I’ll keep mine turned on so I can see the progress Google makes going forward though. Hopefully, aside from hitting the basics, there are some advanced and detailed hardware data captured on all of these tests.
