Chrome/System Freeze Issue

superleeds27 · 12 Feb 2020 at 15:19

Hi all.

Bit of a tricky one here.

Sometime last week,Chrome froze on me. I went to close Chrome however i couldn't. Started task manager and that opened but wouldn't let me do anything. I ended up having to restart the PC using the button on the front.

These scenarios keep happening and i can't figure out what it is that's causing it.

Event viewer basically shows nothing at the time of the crash/freeze.

Chrome is running the latest version and my gut feeling is that? If it happens only when i'm in Chrome, something in there must be causing this issue?

Chrome Version: 80.0.3987.100

Has anyone else had anything like this happen?

ExRayTed · 12 Feb 2020 at 15:44

Checked for malware? Tried the same pages in a different browser? How much system ram do you have? Does the issue happen only when multiple tabs are open or does it happen randomly? Have you tried opening up task manager before opening chrome to see what resources it's using up until the crash?

superleeds27 · 12 Feb 2020 at 15:58

Checked for malware and nothing
Firefox seems to be fine
16GB RAM

It's hard to say. When chrome freezes I can get into task manager but nothing looks abnormal, it's almost as if it's down to the GPU or a visual issue?

I can't say when the crash will happen I could be browsing and then all of a sudden it happens. I do get the feeling it's down to video though.

It normally seems to trigger when I have twitch open. Twitch in Firefox is fine, twitch in Chrome is when it seems to happen. The stream will almost stop and then chrome locks up.

I've disabled hardware acceleration in chrome to see if that changes anything.

The only thing that's changed is;

Chrome update to 80
Nvidia drivers for the 2070 Super.

I'm gaming every day and pushing that card to the max and it never skips a beat, which makes me think it's Chrome!

ExRayTed · 12 Feb 2020 at 17:07

You could run memtest but that won't tell you much I suspect as I don't really think your ram is the issue. As you can pretty much recreate the crash by running twitch sometimes with other tabs open (and I'm assuming that's the only time it'll crash?) then outside of clearing the chrome cache and cookies I'm not sure what else to suggest really. If it were me I'd swear a lot and just use Firefox, but that's me

superleeds27 · 12 Feb 2020 at 17:33

ExRayTed said:
You could run memtest but that won't tell you much I suspect as I don't really think your ram is the issue. As you can pretty much recreate the crash by running twitch sometimes with other tabs open (and I'm assuming that's the only time it'll crash?) then outside of clearing the chrome cache and cookies I'm not sure what else to suggest really. If it were me I'd swear a lot and just use Firefox, but that's me

Yeah I think it's down to hardware acceleration and Chrome. The fact chrome updates that often in the background it'd be hard to figure out which exact update caused it.

Turning off hardware acceleration on chrome makes the scrolling look like crap too.

I'll maybe start looking at Firefox again, just not a massive fan of their don't rendering, seems to be quite fuzzy/blurry compared to chrome

Mcnumpty2323 · 12 Feb 2020 at 17:37

try using one of those chrome extensions that
suspend the inactive tabs
see if it helps

superleeds27 · 12 Feb 2020 at 19:15

Mcnumpty2323 said:
try using one of those chrome extensions that
suspend the inactive tabs
see if it helps

It can happen when I only have one tab open.

It has to be down to hardware acceleration I think, so far without that turned on, no crashes. Just crappy scrolling!

So either Chrome is bugged, or the latest Nvidia drivers are bugged, or, both are?

ExRayTed · 12 Feb 2020 at 19:20

@superleeds27 Isn't there a smoothscrolling extension that you could try? Have a look here - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/smoothscroll/nbokbjkabcmbfdlbddjidfmibcpneigj?hl=en

superleeds27 · 12 Feb 2020 at 23:10

ExRayTed said:
@superleeds27 Isn't there a smoothscrolling extension that you could try? Have a look here - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/smoothscroll/nbokbjkabcmbfdlbddjidfmibcpneigj?hl=en

Ta'. I'll have a look. Smooth scrolling is still.on I think, it just doesn't feel as smooth with HW acceleration off.

Will try that and see how it goes. If not. Firefox I guess or dare I say it.... Chromium edge

superleeds27 · 13 Feb 2020 at 10:44

ExRayTed said:
@superleeds27 Isn't there a smoothscrolling extension that you could try? Have a look here - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/smoothscroll/nbokbjkabcmbfdlbddjidfmibcpneigj?hl=en

Doesn't seem to do much really.

I'll maybe just carry on with Chrome with HW acceleration enabled. Maybe the next Nvidia drivers or Chrome release will fix whatever has happened. It's rare that i watch Twitch and it seems to be that which was causing the issue.

I'll maybe look at resetting Chrome too

ExRayTed · 13 Feb 2020 at 10:52

I think that's about the only option you have left

superleeds27 · 13 Feb 2020 at 11:14

ExRayTed said:
I think that's about the only option you have left

Yeah. tbh, it could have been like that for months and i'd have never have known! Technology eh! ¬¬

Zeebedy · 13 Feb 2020 at 13:06

I done a fresh install on new hardware yesterday, and I had the same issue of Chrome locking up. So I just went to Edge and so far so good..

Mcnumpty2323 · 13 Feb 2020 at 13:45

That's why I never rely
Solely on 1 browser
Could always try the canary version
Of chrome see if it's the same

superleeds27 · 17 Feb 2020 at 14:07

rip-the-jacker said:
I done a fresh install on new hardware yesterday, and I had the same issue of Chrome locking up. So I just went to Edge and so far so good..

Oh really.

I did a fresh install of Chrome last Thursday. The system just froze again when Chrome was open but minimised (As i was writing an email in Outlook)

However, in Chrome i didn't have any kind of Video open, just a logged in WP site.

Its hard to pinpoint, i couldn't get into task manager fully, its almost like the GUI just freezes/lags? Right clicking the desktop is fine i can click something on there, but it doesn't load, however taskbar isn't responsive.

Not sure if this is Chrome or something else. Always seems to happen when Chrome is open though?

I'll remove the extensions i have enabled, see if that helps at all.

Dashlane
Nimbus Screenshot

superleeds27 · 19 Feb 2020 at 14:08

Thinking the culprit might have been SteelSeries Engine.

Uninstalled that and had no issues so far, also noticed my monitor now goes to sleep when it should too.

EsaT · 19 Feb 2020 at 17:25

superleeds27 said:
Thinking the culprit might have been SteelSeries Engine.

Uninstalled that and had no issues so far, also noticed my monitor now goes to sleep when it should too.

Yeah, those gaming/RGB etc bloatwares aren't exactly well coded...
Including bogging PC down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzAeAFudylI

superleeds27 · 6 Mar 2020 at 13:19

EsaT said:
Yeah, those gaming/RGB etc bloatwares aren't exactly well coded...
Including bogging PC down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzAeAFudylI

Hmm, maybe not. Has literally just happened again.

Chrome and everything was basically frozen, yet the audio from the podcast i was listening to in a chrome tab was playing fine?

ExRayTed said:
You could run memtest but that won't tell you much I suspect as I don't really think your ram is the issue. As you can pretty much recreate the crash by running twitch sometimes with other tabs open (and I'm assuming that's the only time it'll crash?) then outside of clearing the chrome cache and cookies I'm not sure what else to suggest really. If it were me I'd swear a lot and just use Firefox, but that's me

Dumped chrome and went with Edge.

It's happened again.

So, it's either a Chromium issue, or something else altogether?

Only other thing i had open was Outlook? Composing an email?