More than one tab would be just great

August 20, 2013 10:21 AM

Laptop freezing semi-regularly with internet use, need suggestions.

I have an HP G62 laptop that runs Windows Vista. Lately (as in the last few days) it has been locking up on me whilst in the middle of an internet session. Sometimes it will freeze and let me still move the cursor (giving me hope), other times it will freeze everything. I have installed AdAware to help with any spyware issues and given the laptop a pretty good cleaning with the compressed air to help fan issues. I have also noticed that my CPU usage is higher than what I feel it should be for normal tasks such as having more than one tab open in Chrome. I have open the computer in safe mode and it ran fine if that helps.

What can I do to get my computer back on track? Please assume basic computer skills, with anything beyond defragmenting needing a detailed explanation. Thank you!!

posted by carnivoregiraffe to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

For quick n' easy, I like housecall free online virus scan.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 10:27 AM on August 20, 2013

Do you use Chrome for your browser, and is it always certain specific types of sites - ones that have a comment capability, or a lot of buttons that let you share things on twitter and facebook and etc. - that make this happen?

If so, try waiting a couple minutes to see if it just un-freezes. It very well may.

And if it does - fortunately, it's nothing wrong with your computer, but unfortunately there is no solution to this annoyance. This is a known conflict between some string of code in those "sharing" functions and Chrome. My most recent Google search for this kind of thing turns up only that the Chrome tech-heads know it's happening, and that it's something about Facebook or Disqus that makes Chrome freeze up, but they don't know why - and it is also a temporary thing. My own computer does this, but usually un-freezes after about a minute.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:29 AM on August 20, 2013

unfortunately there is no solution to this annoyance.

You can definitely block Disqus along with lots of cross-site "sharing" systems using add-ons like Ghostery, AdBlock Plus, and Shut Up.
posted by bcwinters at 10:44 AM on August 20, 2013

Do you have a lot of extensions installed on Chrome? Installed any new ones lately? Browser freezing issues tend to be related to that stuff. Also if you don't have a lot of RAM, multiple tabs will cause both Chrome and Firefox to freak out. Also like EmpressCallipygos and bcwinters said, try installing some extensions that block ads, scripts, and social sharing thingies to see if that helps. You might want to block Flash (until you need it) as well.

Wait, on reread, is it just your browser freezing or your whole computer?
posted by katyggls at 10:48 AM on August 20, 2013

I actually already have AdBlock Plus, and there was a theory that Ghostery and AdBlock were causing these freezes as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:58 AM on August 20, 2013

Response by poster: Chrome is my main browser, I notice the problem happens more often when I'm watching Netflix and have more than two or so tabs open. When the computer freezes everything is frozen, not just the browser. I've tried waiting to see if the computer will unfreeze itself, but I always end up having to take out the battery. I don't have a lot of extensions or anything installed, just some basic stuff like BetterPopUpBlocker, AdblockPlus, and the one that lets you preview images on Craigslist. I've never had a problem watching movies and browsing the webs at the same time until now.
posted by carnivoregiraffe at 11:25 AM on August 20, 2013

I would clean the cooling fan and vents. Google for a how to.
posted by BenPens at 11:31 AM on August 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Chrome as of late has been a mess. Under the best of circumstances it uses a lot of resources. but as of 4 or 5 moths ago it became unusable for me. I had initially suspected a new solid state drive I had installed, but after some hunting around on the interwebs I found that there has been a resource leak, where chrome will essentially use a resource (in this case memory), be done with it, and for whatever reason not release it back to the system. I want to say that I first began experiencing the kernel panic issue with Chrome version 26. I'm using Win 7. I went to the beta version, and that was a little better, but it got bad again so I said screw it and started using firefox again as my main browser. Unfortunately the panics still show up every now and again, because I use Google's Cloud Print service. This keeps a partial instance of chrome running after printing from firefox, so I've had perhaps 2 panics in the past three weeks. But this is better than the 4 or 5 times a day I had them when I was using the Chrome browser.

While it is entirely possible that there are driver issues or other things going on in your instance, after a lot of combing through crash logs and eliminating other possibilities in my instance I am 99% certain that my kernel panics were directly related to a problem within Chrome. Ditch it, and try again in 6 months and see if they sorted it out. This will be the second time in two years that I've had to stop using Chrome due to poor behavior on its part (last time was due to excessive CPU usage), so I may very well be done with it. Good luck.
posted by chosemerveilleux at 7:14 AM on August 21, 2013

Response by poster: Thank you all for the suggestions, I tried running a bunch of anti-spyware/malware and it didn't help. The computer even froze up while I tried to defragment, so I finally did a system restore. So far at least this seems to be helping. Thank you again for all the ideas.
posted by carnivoregiraffe at 11:25 PM on August 22, 2013