Computer Crashes when Using Google Chrome

hiflyer · 04 Jun 2017

I've been having a problem with my machine crashing when I am using Google Chrome. This has been happening now for about 2 months. By crash, I mean that the machine stops running, ie the power shuts off and the screens go blank. Before that, I had problems with Chrome now and again in which an unsolicited popup would tell me that I my machine was under a virus attack and that I needed to call a help number. This would lock up Chrome. I could restore Chrome operation by going to Task Manager, killing Chrome, and restarting it. This happened over a very long period. At times, Chrome was unusable and I resorted to using another browser. I finally found that I could restore Chrome operation by going to Task Manager, killing Chrome, and restarting it. i did this for quite a while until I started getting the machine crash problem. Last week, it got so bad that just starting Chrome would crash my machine. I finally removed Chrome from my system. I used IE and verified that I could use it for accessing sites that were causing Chrome to crash with no problem. So then I reinstalled Chrome and is seemed to be working better. I did some internet searches and decided that perhaps the FlashPlayer popups on some sites were causing the crash. Specific sites that cause crashes are Google Maps and IMDB. Google Maps is the worst offender. So I uninstalled FlashPlayer but that has not helped. I can sometimes use Chrome which I am doing right now for several hours. But I do not use Google Maps. That almost always results in a crash.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Jerry

ICIT2LOL · 06 Jun 2017

Hello and welcome hiflyer mate I have had similar problems with chrome in that I cannot post into forums when Chrome is on board so I have clean installed the OS and am currently typing the through IE11 and in days gone by this reply would have vanished.
Now it doesn't happen on all my machines but everything checks out so the best advice I can give you in get rid of Chrome making sure the registry entry is taken out and just use another browser.

It is a pain I know but I am so sick of having this issue for more than 12 months now try IE 11 but as I said make sure the registry entry for Chrome is deleted.

hiflyer · 06 Jun 2017

Thanks for your reply. I was beginning to think I was the only one with this problem. I have seen many blogs and posts about Chrome crashing but could not find anything about Chrome causing computer shutdowns like I have experienced. This is way beyond BSOD in my view.

In the last few days, I have sort of done what you suggest except that I am using IE only for the two sites that seem to result in crashes. Those sites are IMDB.com and google.com/maps. For other sites, I am using Google Chrome without any issue.

I was thinking that maybe I had a graphpics driver problem, but my drivers seem to be up to date according to NVIDIA and the crashes do not occur when I use IE as described above. I have had the same type of crashes when I tried going back to Firefox.

It's a strange problem. It's like the machine is executing the old Branch and Bomb instruction that we used to joke about back in the days when I was writing in assembler.

Jerry

ICIT2LOL · 06 Jun 2017

3rd attempt Well Jerry your problmr is very close to mine I keep losing replies in here now and emals dropping to Drafts but I am using IE not Chrome.

Spellcheck seems to provoke it but what gets me is that my other four machines all run exactly the same and with no problems and believe you me I have tested and tried just about everything.

I am thinking maybe this is a hardware problem because the others tell me it is software

TechnoMage2016 · 19 Jun 2017

"A man once went to see his Doctor and he said "Doc, it hurts like heck when I raise my arm up".
Then the Doctor said "well, if it hurts, just don't raise your arm up!".

I think of that every time I hear someone complaining about some program that doesn't work well on their PC. Every program in the world will not work well on every PC in the world". That's just the way it is.

So if one program is causing you problems, use something else!

I don't like Chrome, or use it, or encourage any of my customers to use it, because it exhibits all the symptoms of a VIRUS. It sneaks into people's PC's and tries to take over. (like a virus).
Every time I find it on a customer's PC, I delete it. To a man, they don't know what it is or how it ever got on their PC.

Going way back, I was unable to get to a site that I needed to get to, with I.E. So I had to use Netscape to get to that site. (it was a private chat room, set up at Yahoo Groups).
Firefox is an outgrowth of Netscape and works great to get me to anywhere I need to go.

For a long time I used Google as my search engine, within Firefox, till Google announced that they would be saving all our search info for their own purposes. So I went looking for a safe and anonymous search engine. I finally found one...."Startpage.com" which saves NOTHING about my searches.

I still get Tracking Cookies, but "Super Anti-Spyware FREE" gets rid of those.

It's a Jungle out there!

ICIT2LOL · 19 Jun 2017

I think of that every time I hear someone complaining about some program that doesn't work well on their PC.

Yep well speaking for myself I wasn't complaining more a sort of wondering after a month of trying all manner of things I could think of I was about to give up. But happily I have found my problem with a little help from Brink.

As it was Chrome was not the issue it was Kaspersky not liking Malwarebytes running real time as well as itself and the emails a JavaScript issue.

Why this machine I am not sure because my four other machines all run exactly the same Chrome included. I will give you it is quite intrusive and is getting more so by the day I find anyway. Still as ong as IE11 works on this one I am a happy camper now after coming very close to rebuilding the machine (Ivy Bridge).

But I might try the Startpage.com because like you I use SAS all the time and I am not mad about Firefox either.

hiflyer · 20 Jun 2017

Hi all.

Thank goodness that my ordeal with this problem seems to be over. I decided to replace my graphics display card today in the machine and it has been running and stable now for more than 8 hrs!!

Wow!! What a relief. I had purchased a new HD and was about to a clean install of Windows 7 when one more shutdown/crash occurred. All I did was to open a photo file I had downloaded from my camera. I had been thinking that the symptoms really pointed at a graphics problem. I was thinking driver software but that seemed to be up today. I was getting crashes with IE and Chrome. The worst sites were those like IMDB.com and google maps. I was sometimes able to use these with IE but almost never with Chrome. Someone mentioned to me that the type of abrupt shutdowns like I was seeing were always hardware in his experience. Then I remembered that the NVIDIA card I was using had previously caused the same type of issue when the GPU fan stopped working and the card overheated. I installed a muffin fan close to the GPU and the problem went away for more than a year so I forgot about it. That was the final piece of evidence. Since I had a spare display card on the shelf, it just made sense to try installing it before doing a complete re-install of all my software.

I'm ready to mark this problem solved!!

Thanks,
Jerry

jltskfl2 · 06 Jul 2017

I have had this same problem with Chrome for two months now. Unfortunately, I cannot identify what might have started it, but Chrome will eventually crash the PC, especially with a few windows open.
I have swapped out the motherboard, processor, all memory, the power supply and video card. I have clean re-installed windows 8.1. All to no avail.

After I installed a new NVIDIA 10 series card, when chrome would crash I would get error messages that the video driver had stopped working. I went back to my 7 series NVIDIA card with the latest drivers, chrome is still crashing, but I don't get the video driver error message on the old card.

I don't normally automatically update drivers or automatically install updates, so I think a chrome update (which cannot be stopped) is the culprit. However, Microsoft routinely overrides the update settings, and so this could be due to a forced crap MS update or MS updating my video drivers.

This is a prime example of why I hate it when manufacturers insist on updating software against the user's wishes. My very important work machine has been rendered nearly useless for two months. I'd like to install updates on my timetable, and so I can monitor if something goes south and undo it.

So far using Firefox has gone fine. So I guess Chrome is out for a year until they happen to fix this mess.