Updates to Microsoft’s Windows, Google’s Chrome OS or Apple’s Mac OS usually make the news for new features, security patches and more. But you don’t often hear advice on why you shouldn’t update your computer. It seems that’s exactly the same with the most recent version of Chrome OS — version 91.0.4472.147, which users are saying has big performance issues. According to posts on Reddit and comments on the Chromium Bug Tracker, it may be a good idea to skip this update and wait for Google to fix issues in the next one. Faulty updates usually mean a quick follow up patch, so it shouldn’t be too long either.
According to reports, the update overworks the CPU running on Chromebooks, often hitting 100 percent clock speed. This presumably heats up the processor faster than usual and hence leads it to throttle, pushing the clock speed down to 0.8- GHz, which is less than half of the power you should be getting out of your Chromebook. Such numbers often lead to performance differences that users don’t notice, but in this case it seems the problems are immediately noticeable too.
Android Police reports that the problems are most often seen on 10th generation Intel chips, though some chips from AMD have also been affected, which covers a decent number of Chromebooks sold in India too. Reviewers and experts are advising users to hold off updating to Chrome OS 91 right now. Apparently, switching to a beta channel will be helpful for those who have already updated their Chromebooks and are facing these issues. You can also send feedback to Google by pressing ALT+Shift+i on your Chromebook.
If you’re not quite convinced that there’s an issue, some users have also reported problems with rudimentary tasks. A performance drop of such magnitude can indeed affect browsing capabilities, video playback and more. Users have said that typing, general UI navigation and more also is affected, which sounds like the entire PC comes to a screeching halt. And usual troubleshooting steps like Powerwash, disabling all extensions and PC restart don’t work either. Now we wouldn’t really want that, would we?
