Where is the write protect screw chromebook C730

Hi John,

The C730 model spanned a time frame from 2014 to 2019. However, with the advent of the C50 security chip in 2017, Chromebooks no longer came with a write protect screw, so it's going to depend on exactly when your laptop was made as to whether it has a write protect screw or not. A site called MrChromebox.tech has a good writeup about the various Chromebook write protect schemes in use.

Firmware Write Protection on ChromeOS Devices

Generally it is clearly marked on the motherboard, and I don't see one on yours, so I'm guessing you have a later model that uses the security chip instead. All may not be lost, however, as they point out that early models using the chip would allow you to disable the write protection by unplugging the battery. Here's a quote from their site.

On most early CR50 platforms, the CR50 sets the WP state to follow the battery sense line, so disconnecting the battery cable from the mainboard will disable the hardware write protect.

Obviously the laptop will have to be plugged in, but according to this you may be able to bypass the write protection by running without a battery until your upgrade is complete.