My grandmother gave me a Chromebook in 2020 that was really cheap, around $90, from one of those sketchy daily deal sites. It worked decently until about 2021, but then it started lagging really badly. Back when I used it, I was about 11 and I frequently visited various websites, even some odd chatrooms that I quickly left when I noticed my Chromebook starting to slow down. I tried resetting it, but now I'm worried that it could be compromised or have some malware lurking on it. Even though I never visited any malicious sites, the origins of this device make me anxious about potential hidden threats. I just booted it up after four years and I didn't see anything obviously wrong, but I'm still a bit concerned about whether it's safe to use or if anything could be wrong with it.
2 Answers
It's super unlikely that anything harmful is on your Chromebook. They generally have low specs, so performance issues might just be due to age rather than anything malicious.
You might want to consider doing a Powerwash on the Chromebook. Just press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + R, and it’ll reset everything to factory settings, which should clear out any old junk or potential issues.
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