ChromeOS 85.0.4183.108 update had an unintentional effect on Google Play’s ‘com.android.vending:download_service’ service. Used to download the latest updates from Google’s store, it started utilizing 100 percent of the CPU. Not only did this cause affected devices to become incredibly hot, but it also crushed the Chromebooks’ performance and battery life.
Google says it has now pushed out a temporary fix for the problem. In a now-locked bug report, the company explains that it was caused by a missing file being unable to report UID proc times.
“After review, users are experiencing this behavior because CrOS is unable to determine delta changes in UID proc times due to missing files,” wrote a Google engineer.
Another Google employee has posted a workaround in a Google support topic. It involves replacing the Google Play store with the factory default version.
Not every brand of Chromebook is said to be affected by the issue. So far, users of Acer and Galaxy Chromebooks have reported experiencing excessive CPU utilization, as have owners of the Asus Chromebook Flip.
Google said it would continue posting updates to its forum support topic, and the company plans to fix the flaw permanently via a future update.
