Google Chrome is one of the most popular browsers these days, due to low foot-print and good performance. But there may be times when you find that your Chrome browser crashes or freezes randomly on your Windows 10/8/7 computer, while browsing, opening a tab, loading a page or downloading. It may end up with a message – Google Chrome has stopped working. In this post, we will show how to fix this issue.
Chrome Freezes or Crashes
In this tutorial, I will suggest to you a few tips on how to go about trying to resolve this issue.
1) First of all delete the Local State file which holds some of the Custom Settings, and see if it helps you. To delete the Local State file, follow these steps:
- Close Google Chrome
- Open Windows Explorer
- In address bar type in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data
- You’ll find “Local State” file there. Delete it
- Open Google Chrome and see if it has helped.
2) You could also try the following.
Rename the Default folder which has all the Google extensions, Bookmarks, History, Jumplist icons, etc. The reason why we are renaming it is that if it’s not the cause of the random freezes and crashes, then we don’t have to lose all this information.
To rename the Default folder, follow these steps:
- Close Google Chrome
- Open Windows Explorer
- In address bar type in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data
- You’ll find the Default folder here. Rename it to “Default.old”
- Open Google Chrome and see if this has helped stop the crashes.
Remember to rename the folder back to its original name. Now you at least know if you need to look at these factors or not.
3) You might also want to check out if the Flash extension is the culprit and causing the crashes, and see if it helps. To do so, follow these steps:
- Open Google Chrome
- In the address bar type in “about:plugins”
- Find “Flash” and click on Disable
- Restart Google Chrome and test it now
If it helps, then uninstall Flash from the Program and Feature and reinstall it. To reinstall Flash, you may follow this guide on Adobe.
4) This post will help you if Chrome won’t open or launch.
5) Check if your Google Chrome Shockwave Plugin is creating problems. Find & Disable Power-Hungry Extensions in Chrome using the Chrome Task Manager.
6) Well, if none of these steps help you, you might have to consider reinstalling your Google Chrome browser. To do so:
- Go to Programs and Features and Uninstall Google Chrome
- Then open explorer.exe and go to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\
- Delete “Google” folder
- Download Google Chrome and install it again.
This should help! If it doesn’t, you may want to reset Chrome settings.
I hope that one of these tips help you resolve your problem. If you need more help, you can always post in our forums. We will be more than happy to assist you.
Want your Chrome to perform better? Speed up Google Chrome browser using these tricks! And watch this visual guide on how to make Chrome browser run faster.
Fix Freezes or Crashes with these resources from The Windows Club:
Windows freezes | Windows Explorer crashes | Internet Explorer freezing | Mozilla Firefox Browser freezing | Windows Media Player freezes | Computer hardware freezes.
If you have Skype installed, *remove* the plugin from Chrome and don’t install it again. Skype has serious hanging and crashing issues on Chrome (and other browsers). Just stick to the client.
Thanks for sharing your experience Jsg. I’m sure lot of them might find this helpful
Thanks for sharing mate as I have been facing the issue on Chrome
Adobe Flash hangs up (freezes) the Google Chrome and Skype in Windows 7? Here’s the solution found – http://silkcode.blogspot.com/2012/07/adobe-flash-hangs-up-freezes-google.html
DO NOT RENAME YOUR DEFAULT TO DEFAULT.OLD. I JUST LOST ALL MY BOOKMARKS. YOU ARE AN IDIOT
Hey! What’re you talking about, my post is NOT about DEFAULT folder renaming 🙂 Read better!
And, my advice DID help a bunch of people with similar symptoms.
My problem with Chrome, is that I will load a page with Flash (such as YouTube), the page usually comes up fine but I am unable to scroll or interact with it in any way, and the video frame on the YouTube page is just black (even though I hear the sound of the video playing). This is very frustrating and I have yet to try these steps and see if they resolve this issue I described… but can you give me any more information about why this might be happening?
Thank you so much! I have had trouble with my Chrome on one computer only for the last couple months. I had disabled the second Flash plugin and still had trouble. So far, I am having browsing success after following your first two suggestions. Thanks again!!!
The first thing did it for me…thanks.
Hey Retard… just rename it back to what it was.
If you have a W7 laptop and let it sleep a few times (ie by closing the lid) while chrome is up, it starts causing duplicate processes which bog your computer down a LOT. Don’t even need to restart computer in this case, just go to task manager and force quit chrome (this way it will let you reopen your tabs if you know they weren’t what was causing your problems).
yah i know John and yes he is a retard
I’m relieved! my lap top has no freezing or crash dump blue screen now and You Tube is back up and running normally again on Chrome. I did the first 2 steps you explained and that resolved it for me. I wonder why this started happening about a month ago per this posting?
Freezes got bad enough that I just stopped using Chrome.
In most cases, for all browsers, its usually the addons or extensions which are the culprits…
I went back to Firefox. No crash, no freeze.
Duh?? If you have Google Sync account, it’ll automatically download your old bookmarks and extensions 🙂
How can I dealt with Facebook? I experiencing random freeze, hangs and CPU spikes when on Facebook.
Thank you so much…
renaming the default folder fixed the freezing problem. Thank you
I also had this problem with a black screen and totally unresponsive computer sometimes when I watched youtube videos on youtube or facebook, I tried several of the suggestion above but what finally helped was 1) to allow hardware acceleration of the videos and especially: 2) only using the speakers for all sound on the computer – actually it was Win 7 itself that finally turned off the other two options after yet another crash: Realtech Digital Output and Realtech HDMI Output.
Hopefully this helps someone else with the same problem. 🙂
Darn, it’s started crashing again. It seemed to be fixed for about a week, but now I guess I’ll either need to ditch Chrome or stop watching youtube clips on facebook.
I hope this has fixed it permanently – at least I could play a few youtube clips in a row on Facebook after installing the new Realtek drivers.
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/71CLxvV8VPo%5B1-25-false%5D
disable the one that has google chrome in its location
in fact, people are reporting various workarounds all this time, the actual reasons are different each time – on the other hand, no one would struggle that in case Chrome wasn’t so attractive, so it’s a normal process seems like 🙂
I have tried out all the ways mentioned above but I am facing the issue still. After a period of time, even if we click any links or tried to scroll, unable to do ’em. Irritating really a lot.
Thanks! It solved my freezing problem.
Deleting the local state file fixed it for me. Thanks! Your solution is the fourth one that I tried and the first one to fix it.
I deleted and renamed and still got my bookmarks back. Thanks
Nothing worked for me. I did everything, even resetted chrome… It always works for like 10 seconds and then it freezes on me. pretty annoying… What do I need to do now?
Did you follow Point 5 ? Uninstall Chrome, delete its user files, use CCleaner, restart computer and fresh install Chrome again. This seems to be the only option then. Else move to an alternate browser …
I did not restart my pc. I’ll try that later, thanks.
the first step solved my problem, thanks!
There is no Windows Explorer in Windows 8
There is… it’s just called File Explorer! 😀
I use Chrome + windows 7 and my problem is that when I go to print a PDF document from our nopCommerce CMS the print window often freezes after I have selected page size preferences. I have to bring up task manager to force Chrome to close. I’d say this happens roughly every seventh time I attempt to print. Prior to this I used repeatedly Chrome to perform this task with absolutely no difficulty for over 8 months. Uninstalling and reinstalling Chrome hasn’t fixed this. Really don’t want to use IE because it’s so much slower . . . has anyone else experienced problems with freezing print windows with Chrome and Windows &?
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THANK YOU!! It worked!
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Thanks a lot! I thought that i broke the computer, i’m so dead if my mom found out but luckily it’s now fix. Delete Local State… 1st Method fix my freezing computer. Thanks Mr. Sasindran.. and God Bless and
more power 🙂
I just tried it and it’s going smoothly at the moment, I’ll edit this posts if it keeps working for a long time or it freezes again, but thanks again, one thing that I don’t like about other browsers is that that tabs are kind of square, I prefer how it’s smoothly curved in Chrome
I CAN’T EVEN RENAME MY DEFAULT FOLDER :/
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Hi do I have to do it every time I use the PC? (The first one, deleting Local State.) Apparently the file comes back.
You have to delete it only once, not every time.
Thanks Anand, it seems that if I fail to do it, it would always freeze or even crash my whole system. But to do it every time that’s too troublesome. I’ll observe a little more. Maybe I should try the other methods.
for me, the problem is that when I am working on Chrome in Windows 8 Mode and I go to work a Microsoft File or anything else, it closes itself and restarts again, also when I close the lid for a while and open it I have to open all the sites again. I haven’t used any solutions but, I’ll try one by one then I’ll relpy.
FINALLY FIXED DAMN IT!!!!
I was reading somewhere that the Realtek Audio drivers might be the culprit. I checked my audio drivers and they were up to date. I systematically checked other drivers in my system and they were all up to date except for my Intel video driver!!!!! Go to Start>right click on My Computer>select Properties and then Device manager. Then click on Display adapters. Mine happened to be Intel(R) HD graphics 3000 but I think it was an Intel driver before but not the same number. Long story short I right clicked on the Intel(R) HD Graphics and selected update driver. Rebooted after it installed and my Chrome is back!!!! This was such a frustrating thing to have happen. I have fixed endless computer problems for years mostly with east but this was a real pain in the ass!!!! Problem solved. I hope this helps! Enjoy.
Renaming the Dafault folder helped for me. The Chrome browser window would freeze whenever I moved it and whenever I opened or switched between tabs.
Thanks!
I purchased a machine in April that was probably built in September 2013. I have a 3 year care pack I purchased this summer. Can I simply skip all these steps to see if both of 2 machines, purchased 3+ years ago can be repaired by HP care pack?
thanks… i rename the Default and it works! 🙂 I was having issue with this since 3 days ago.. information at this page helped a lot 🙂
I have windows 7 64-bit and upgrading to the Google Chrome beta version is the only thing that helped me. I tried a lot of other fixes that didn’t help.
There is an alternate solution — have a second browser on your hard drive. I have both Chrome and Firefox on my machine. I use Chrome only for reading because of the way Chrome behaves, and Firefox for the REALLY important stuff. Firefox is rock solid, and when Chrome acts up, it is nice to go to Firefox and continue what I was doing.
thanks for sharing this valuable information….I think my problem is solved …coz it is not crashing anymore..
Thank you so much.
My PC was freezing because of Chrome.
I restarted the PC several times and nothing worked. Finally, after a long time, I was able to use Firefox and followed your instruction and it saved my life!!!!
***********************************************************************************************************
In address bar type in %USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser Data
You’ll find the Default folder here. Rename it to “Default.old”
***********************************************************************************************************
Thanks a LOT!!!!
at-last it got fixed …..thanks a lot
please delete default folder then rename default.old to default
me too
this is page is great, I had this problem several times, this time I got it fixed when I turned off Hardware acceleration from Google chrome settings (advanced) … previously deleting the default folder fixed it…this is the best page ever … I booked marked it. thank you all
I am having a problem with my Google chrome which is whenever i launch it the browser will freeze but if i minimize it and restore it back it will become OK but only for a while. The same problem will happen again if i do a new search or open a new tab, and if i minimize it and restore back after opening a certain page the whole browser display will turn black i will have to click restore down and drag the browser all around the screen to load the page. happens all the time no matter what version of chrome i install
😀
as if it was a f ing MUST to change the names as well. HAAATE w8
how do I check the drivers? ( im a total dummy) could you be more specific?
I try everything and ALL is F-d! I usually have lots of tabs open for my research ( not all starred so lost all) , suddenly I kept getting a WOOPS something ,something message from chrome.
I tried a few things and then uninstalled chrome ( I have kaka windows 8) Now I have been trying to re install it but suddenly realized my Firefox and IE have some issue with the java.. I could hence not download the chrome ( need java from the sites I had found) anyways not I seem to have worked around it somehow, and I can click the download, but once it is done the following message appears:” Couldn’t create temporary directory. please check for free disk space and permission to install software. ” ?????ahhhhh? I have been stuck here for a week and i just don’t understand what happened?? PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!!
Have been using Chrome for over two years and sometime around April Fool’s day, I started seeing random, intermittent screen freezes for approx 4 to 6 seconds. During the freeze, there was no response to keyboard entry nor mouse clicks but audio was unaffected. Also Chrome took a long, long time to launch!!
Renaming the Default folder cured my problem. Most painful part was populating the empty “Other Bookmarks” from the Imported bookmark folder (created by the Import process).
Thanks
John, Igor has tried his best to help. If you are not satisfied, you can at least tell him in decent language. This is the problem of the world now-a-days. Intelligence and knowledge has increased but the stone-age mentality has not gone away. Very sad.
Google chrome freezes and most of the time it shows error as ” he is dead jim” googled it already and tried but nothing helped again and again shows same errors. Not able to open any of the webpage.
ok this may or may or may not help some of you. ok i have had a issue for a few weeks playing a game not at home enough said. i tried uninstalling and reinstalling google even did a regedit and deleted anything that said google in it out f the registery. google would still hang-up. i was sure what the heck was going on google had always worked. then i started looking at some other thing like virus programs and firewalls..sure enough work had done a update a couple weeks back and changed system and security setting the update had change programs allowed through. i clicked change and it updated to my programs including google and flash player. relaunched google and it’s working fine now. sometimes i am so stupid. i should have thought of that right off and had forgot about them updating
hello guys i wanted to say if non of them working and you don’t under stand why it might be because of your memory (RAM) try to take out 1 memory from the mother board and check that way if it works. The problem might be that your computer/laptop cannot handle the ammount of ram you have in there. or if you don’t want to take it out thenk do the following. start/msconfig (type it in) and/ boot click on your system and go to advanced options then find memory ram and make it smaller every time your pc work properly ohh and also it might help other freezes as well i hope i helped you
I am using google chrome notebook. My muse freezes and does not function. Restarting the computer activte the mouse for short time and freezes again.
Can you help?
Thanx..a lot…
The method that I used seems working for me for google chrome and freezing and crashing.
I just went to chrome setting – advance setting – unselect use hardware accelaration when available.
I never had anymore more problem with chrome even the latest version 50.0.2638.0 (BETA).
I’ve got this idea when most of my staff office 2013 and office 2010 keep crashing and freezing for unknown reason. The same method applied here and its working.
Why don´t the brains¿? in Chrome think about giving the consumer a reliable product? Isn´t that what the whole business is bout?
How about all Chrome users NOT HAVING TO GO through all of these steps to fix a bug that is embedded in Chrome?! How about Google and Chrome doing this leg work instead of users??
etron usb controller in your device manager. disable it , and download a newer version. It Works!!! Why , I seen it at another website, but it works… I went to hell and back, but this crap worked.;
tutnt
Its awesome that Chrome Help Forum lock all the complains. They don’t solve the problem and don’t let people discuss it either. I changed to Opera and its the same as Chrome plus with some native features that I had to use an extension in Chrome like adblocked. Plus no freezing.
Hi, renaming the default folder resolved the freezing. What should i do about it? What does this mean about the source of the freezing?
Chrome Customer Care 1 800 585 2494 Toll Free
Thanks for the information. Only tried one fix and it worked!!! I’ve been complaining to Google for about a year with the Crash problem; then Chrome started running extremely slow. Glad that I found your suggestions.
Thanks a lot 😀 it really works
Thank You SOOOO MUCH THIS not only stop the crashing but also Improved Chrome Speed so thank you, your work is magic 😀
thank you so much renaming the folder helped and saved me countless amounts of hours figuring how to fix chrome
these seem like good tips but I rather not risk losing my saved stuff to chrome by renaming or deleting important files that keep the info. I deleted the local slate file and a new one loaded in it’s place. The crashing and freezing chrome is doing to my PC is mostly freezing control on chrome or other programs open for 1-3 minutes and then welcoming me to a blue screen saying that there was an error and that the computer crashed. I have to hold down the power button until the computer is off and I can turn on the PC again. BUT! This does not solve the issue, I’ve been having it happen to me about 4 times this month and I’ve been trying to get an answer for days now.
DO NOT RENAME DEFAULT FOLDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good day. Chrome kept crashing on my notebook which led me to this thread. I renamed my Default folder and as a result I don’t have access to my bookmarks in Google. When I try to rename it back to default, my windows explorer freezes. Is there an alternative way to rename the folder? Any assistance will be greatly appreciated as this is most frustrating.
Changing folder name from default to default.old seems to have fixed my issue. What should I do next?
None of these helped, I even deleted all of chrome and reinstalled, Still getting this problem. Chrome freezes for about 5 seconds every 20 seconds, It is very frustrating and nothing seems to fix/help it.