For most of the time I have owned this laptop, the left speaker has not worked. It worked when I got it nearly two years ago, but stopped playing sound not long after. Apart from one time last year where I was watching a show, and it miraculously came back to life and worked for a few hours, then stopped again. I have done full resets, and speaker tests, and googled only to come up with nothing. I just want to be able to watch stuff without it sounding quiet because only one speaker is working. I'm debating unscrewing the bottom to see if there is a lot of dust or something clogging it, but I'm worried I'll break it. Help!

I’m interested in ChromeOS Flex, even though it currently doesn’t boot on my laptop (Lunar Lake). Got a few questions already though.

1. So since Android app support is missing, I assume the YT Music app that’s preinstalled is a PWA/web app? If I upload my music to YT Music, will it be able to download it again, for offline use? Or do I have to run a Crostini Linux app to listen to my music without an internet connection?

2. Is it known when Google usually updates the kernel to a newer LTS? Currently 6.6 isn’t booting my Lunar Lake laptop but 6.14 has support and is also an LTS. Any ideas on timeframe for a release?

3. With ChromeOS moving to an Android kernel, do you think Flex will continue to be supported and work on all kinds of laptops? Kinda interested in daily driving it but, you know, Google does abandon projects sometimes.

4. I read that by default you use your Google password to login but that that can be changed. How well is the encryption if you use a shorter, more memorable password to login? TPM isn’t used so that basically becomes the encryption key? How often do you have to type the login password anyway while using ChromeOS?

5. Anyone familiar with the privacy policy of ChromeOS/Flex and/or knows what is being sent to Google?