If you are one of the guys who are always on the internet, I bet you use Google Chrome at least as a backup browser. As far as Browser statistics go, Google Chrome is number one.
An advanced user might have a huge number of add-ons and plugins to enable this browser user-friendly. With such great add-ons, Chrome is addictive, intuitive, and fast.
Check out the popularity of browsers as of 2012 July:
[Data courtesy: w3schools.com]
Also, this is probably the only browser that can take you across borders with all your data—all you need is sign in using a Google account and sync your local data with Google. This way, on another location, if you want the same user experience, just log into Google with that account from Chrome. Besides all these, Chrome is the native product of Google, making it perfect for a great next generation Web experience.
However, if you come across any issues on Chrome, then here you will find what you have to do. I have looked through some of the known issues in Chrome and prepared this article. If you find your issue here, the solution will help you. If not, please comment and we can work on that and update the article later.
The ‘Aw, Snap!’
This message is displayed on a number of occasions. When a web page is not displayed properly or has crashed, the message will appear. It would say, “Something went wrong while displaying this web page. To continue, press Reload or go to another page.â€
Certain security applications may cause this sort of an error occasionally. Google has identified some of these applications—Spyware Doctor, McAfee Virus Scan (also Enterprise), Comodo Firewall, etc. If you have any such application installed, you may have to create an exception for Chrome browser.
A malfunctioning browser extension could also cause this error. If you have several of them, you may have to disable one at a time to see how the browser is performing. This way, you can pinpoint which extension is causing the issue.
Sometimes presence of malware can also cause this issue. Check for malware using the free edition of Malwarebytes Antimalware.
If none of these works, go ahead and create a new user profile for Chrome. Here’s how to do it.
1. Close Google Chrome
2. Find the user data folder for Chrome (on Windows XP, go to Windows Explorer and browse to “%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\â€; on Windows Vista or 7, go to “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\â€;
On Mac OS X, “~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Defaultâ€).
3. Rename the folder ‘Default’ and restart the browser. This will automatically generate a new user profile. In order to restore the contents on the original profile, just rename the folder back.
“Whoa! Google Chrome has crashed.”
This message appears when Google Chrome has been terminated unexpectedly. In this case, just try to reopen the browser and see if it works. If not, just follow the troubleshooting steps outlined for ‘Aw, Snap’ above, and that should fix the issue.
Here’s a video from Google:
In case it’s still not fixed, you may need to check for errors on protected system files on Windows. For this, you can use the System File Checker (SFC) utility.
Depending on the Windows version you are using, just type in ‘SFC /scannow’ on the Start Search box or the Run window. In case any system file replacement is required, Windows will ask you for the installation DVD. Otherwise, the system files should be fine.
Google Chrome Not Saving Passwords
Depending on the version of Chrome you have on, you should have the option to enable saving web-based passwords. In the latest version, under the settings, get to advanced settings. From there, select the checkbox, ‘Offer to save passwords…’
After doing this, normally all passwords should be saved without any issues. Google Chrome will automatically display a bar on the top asking you if you want to save a password. If you don’t want to, select ‘Never for this site’.
In certain websites, Google Chrome neither saves the password nor auto-fills anything in username and password fields. In case, Chrome is still not asking for the password and you haven’t excluded the site from this feature, then it may be because the site itself is blocking Chrome from doing that.
If you look into the source code of the website in which password saving is not working, you may find that the autocomplete feature is turned off (this feature automatically fills in the rest of the data as you are typing into a web form). You need to enable the autocomplete option. In order to do this, right-click on the page, click ‘Inspect Element’, and then delete the ‘autocomplete=off’ option (just right-click and choose ‘delete node’).
In order to automate this process, you can also use a plugin available for Chrome. Install the ‘autocomplete=on’ plugin. This plugin automatically checks for autocomplete option and turns it on.
However, certain websites take extra measure to stop browsers from remembering passwords. In such cases, these efforts may not work.
“A script running on this page is taking a loooong time to do its job”
This long message comes up when you have a web page having JavaScript that is taking too long to respond. This is the case with pages studded with JavaScript codes. You can either let the browser wait till the script completes or stop the script.
“He’s Dead, Jim!â€
If Windows itself interferes and deletes a particular tab that you opened from memory, this message appears. This happens when you are low on system memory and the operating system has to make adjustments. You can reload the tab and see if it starts working.
Use Google Chrome’s Task Manager (different from the Windows task manager; click on the wrench icon and then click on Tools to open it) to free up memory by closing unnecessary tabs and plugins. Windows task manager also displays multiple Chrome processes which you can terminate in order to make the system faster.
When you use the Task Manager, Chrome may display error messages related to crash in plugins that you have closed. You can restart the plugin if required.
Google Chrome Is Too Slow
In case it’s taking ages to respond to a web page or if the browser is just sitting idle without any progress, reasons could be several. It may be due to a bad browser plugin, system issues such as low memory, Chrome using a proxy server, browser user profile corrupted, or due to cookies and temp files.
As a first step, try to reload the page. Delete the unnecessary browser data and cookies and try again. If this doesn’t work, look for a rogue plugin by disabling one plugin at a time. After spotting it, uninstall it to continue.
If in case ‘Resolving Proxy’ message appears on lower left-hand corner of the page, you may be using a proxy server. Google Chrome updates proxy server details from Internet Explorer or the Windows connection utility. Hence, you can directly check the proxy server details of IE and remove it or replace with a faster proxy server.
In order to change the user profile information, follow the steps outlined above in ‘Aw Snap’ troubleshooting.
Conclusion
Google Chrome is faster than ever today, even with a myriad of plugins and add-ons. You can open plenty of tabs and just browse through them in a jiffy. In case you come across any issues, just follow the troubleshooting steps mentioned here. If you still come across issues, please mention in comments.