How To: Solve your Google Chrome Freezing and Hanging Problems
Today i will tell you how to solve your Google Chrome freezing and hanging problems, and to get rid of those frequent crashes forever.
Google Chrome has always been my first choice when it comes to browsers but it comes with its cons. Sometimes you must have noticed Chrome doesn’t behave you want it to and it completely shuts down on you. In the middle of your work it becomes totally unresponsive and the only solution is to end the Chrome process from your Task Manager.
This problem happens due to the built-in Flash Player which comes pre-installed with your Chrome. It took sometime for me to find the source of the problem but i solved it at last. The Built-in flash player adds a new process known as rundll32.exe. It automatically initiates it and the starting up of rundll32 is what causes the crashes in Chrome.
A temporary solution is to terminate this process and continue working on Chrome. You will not lose any of your tabs. But as this problem will arise the next time you wish to start your Chrome browser, i am providing you with a permanent solution given below.
Step 1: Open a new tab in your Google Chrome browser. Type about:plugins in the address bar and hit enter. Now click the Details buttons to your right to expand every plugin properties.
Step 2: Now look for your Flash plugin. There will be two files in it. In the Location field you will see a path address like the one below:
C:\Users\[your-username]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\16.0.912.77\gcswf32.dll
This is the file we were looking for. Just click the Disable button below it. Please ignore the NPSWF32.dll file and leave it enabled.
Step 3: Close your tab and restart your browser. Now go to this link http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ and install the latest version of Adobe Flash Player.
Step 4: Restart your browser again. Now you will no more have any freezing or crashing problems.
Wasn’t this easy? Apparently the gcswf32.dll was the source of all problems. Till the Google team finds a solution for the built-in flash player, this is the way to stop your Chrome from getting all grumpy on you.
Did you find this article about how to solve your google chrome freezing and hanging problems helpful? Please let us know in the comments.
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About The Author
Gamer, Blogger and a Social Media Addict. Gautam loves playing Soccer and watching TV shows. To know more about him and to get connected, check out the About Me page or mail him at gautam@revthatup.com
Again a Awesome Article Gautam Sir, I am Also Going To Fix this problem… before reading your article i was thinking that its a problem of my PC. Now i am happy for fast browsing….
yea gaurav took a lot of time of why my chrome kept crashing so often…finally found the solution…now i m using chrome for all eternity
HI mr Gautam, I haven’t tried this solution yet because I somehow feel my case is different because: Whenever chrome freezes, my next option will be Firefox..but firefox doesn’t load any pages it just says “connecting”
I don’t think this is an issue of internet connection because my “internet download manager” still downloads files at a decent transfer rate even when both of my browsers’ problem occur(like for one instance I was downloading a video BEFORE chrome crashed, after the chrome crashed, It is still downloading) I uninstalled internet download manager because I thought that it was the cause of the problem but the problem still persists
Hey U know Any Way to control the surfing and downloading speed Using PC or Browsers setting. I dnt want to use any software..
no gaurav without softwares i cant think of any way to speed up my download speed. although you can use DAP and install it as a chrome extension to improve your download speeds
I want to decrease the speed of surfing and downloading… i want to control the speed in all pc’s can you tell me any bandwith manager software which works perfectly
antamedia is a good tool for those purposes but if you are looking for a free one, try bandwidth controller i have used this one and it works pretty well.
Hi there. i do not have NPSWF32.dll plug-ins file but have this file instead–> C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\PepperFlash\11.1.31.203\pepflashplayer.dll along with the C:\Users\[your-username]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\16.0.912.77\gcswf32.dll
Disable it, or enable it?
disable the pepflashplayer dll file if you are experiencing any crashing issues
I have followed your instruction but the freezing issues still bothering me. Whenever i open Google Chrome, I can use it for only 5-10 minutes. After that, it start to freeze. I closed and reopen Google Chrome but still the problem keep appearing and make my day like hell.
try reinstalling it adri and try to clear all your google chrome files from the temp folder. after unistalling it clean your registry files too…and then install a fresh version of google chrome 17:)
Thanks. worked
where can i find temp folder and how to clean registry files?
hi mike you can find the temp folder just by typing “temp” without quotes in the run box. You can open by going to Start -> Run. There are many tools for cleaning registry files..you can use ccleaner or tuneuputilities..they both are very good softwares
My chrome crashes before I can even execute this solution. Is there another way to solve the crashing??
have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling your chrome browser?
Yeah, I’ve also tried doing the default folder thing. It completely freezes up before I can type anything into the address bar.
After doing this Chrome won’t play any flash at all… did I do something wrong?
…and leave gcswf32.dll disabled after the steps you’ve outlined above? Am hoping this resolves my intermittent freeze issues with Chrome. It’s awfully annoying.
i am glad that you got it resolved brian..thanks for dropping by!
what should i do if there is 3 files in my flash plugin?
thanks I think that has made a difference I hope so as it’s so annoying
I had a problem with Facebook today, I can only scroll down for a few seconds before the window completely freezes ( just Facebook) the other sites were running slower as well. Tried your solution and it works again! Don’t know if it’s the real problem, but thank you very much for the article!
thank you very much the browser now is free of stuck , your advice was very helpful, i hope to continue help others because you make a great work.
Your method of disabling Flash has stopped the page freeze problems on google chrome browser, good work. ***** 5 stars
Worked like a charm! Thanks much!!
Thank you very much. I was going to re-install it but your article saved my day.
many thanks
I did what you said and it still freezes and crashes. It’s making me want to throw my computer out the window!
its working fine for me, may i ask which operating system are u using?
Awesome article. Unfortunately, Chrome freezes also on Java-only applications. Best solution to Chrome Freezing problems? Switch to Firefox.
thanks but my favorite is google chrome always
I have Vista. I can’t use Chrome at all now. As soon as I open it and type
in anything it freers. I did exactly what you said. Chrome use to be my favorite
too. Now I have it use IE because Chrome just freezes my entire computer.
have your tried reinstalling chrome because it fixes majority of problems…i had suggest you to use firefox instead…best alternative to chrome is firefox because unlike ie it is secure and compatible with many browser extensions on the web.
So far, so good. Not only is Chrome not freezing the way it was before, it has also speeded up to what it used to be. I don’t know what they did to Chrome a few weeks ago, but I was about ready to give up on it since I was having to switch to Explorer every single session. Thank you.
Nice article Gautam, now the problem is resolved…Thanks
i m hoping i can stop my google chrome from crashing,it did not crash first 10 min.fresh download,and now within past thirty min.repeatedly AGAIN! UGH…mi amigo,here tonight whose also trying on his netbook,so we will both try it out!
We are right now,going to try this,thank you i pray it works.
adios.
Tis was great. I think you are a trained in google chrome
Thank you so much!
thank you very much! this totally did the trick!
First off thanks. I also find it remarkable that neither Flash nor Chrome have lifted even the slightest finger to assist in this problem which clearly has affected a great number of people. Chrome should have someone on their staff looking for issues that people have taken the time to post on the net. My problem MAY have been slightly different only because I never saw anyone mention that directly after tying to load the first intolerably long loading page I would use the simple work around by simply hitting the exact same load again. The SECOND attempt is immediate. However I have followed your suggestion and will assume it will work the next time I do a reboot.
Unfortunately, after a reboot, this did absolutely nothing to solve the problem.
no need to do a pc reboot damian just exit chrome and then restart your browser.
so i didn’y find that path address, instead i found this: C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\22.0.1229.79\PepperFlash\pepflashplayer.dll
the other one is this : C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\NPSWF32_11_4_402_278.dll
what should I do?
Great! It worked! Thanks so much Gautam!
Avice, you just disable the pepflashplyer.dll file and do what Gautam suggested get new version of Adobe flash after that, It really worked!
so i didn’y find that path address, instead i found this: C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\22.0.1229.79\PepperFlash\pepflashplayer.dll
Your steps have finaaly solved my chorme freezing problem. I have been using Chrome for some time, but only in recent weeks this freezing problem took place. Now the problem is fixed. Thanks a lot.
please help me google chrome is causing so much trouble it is not starting/ opening and even hangs and becomes unresponsive and stops ongoing downloads, and then i have to restart the pc to open chrome at that time it opens but after a few minutes the same problem starts again everythings works fine except google chrome,i’ve posted and reported many times on google but no response have been received, please help and provide assistance.it is constantly showing ‘shockwave plugin unresponsive’ or it has crashed stop plugin etc..ive updated the shockwave and flash players…
hi aditya did u try to go with my method?? the flash that comes with chrome has to be disabled for that problem to go away…
yes i’ve tried but the problem remains, do i have to uninstall it and install a new copy…?? i’m afraid to do a new installation because i have all my passwords saved in this version, bookmarks , extensions etc all my stuff is there , so if i uninstall this one every thing will gone, what to do…..?
you can backup chrome bookmarks using this post and for passwords go to C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default and look for Login data file…this is where your passwords will be saved.
Great post Gautam. Actually I’m working with FLEX development and have same crashs with shockwave. I’ll try your cookiebook and my thank you for now!
I didn’t know if this was a recent article or not, I was just wondering if this was still an issue or if Chrome has resolved it yet?
I was seeing similar issues but mostly on only a few webpages. I’ll give this a try and see if it helps. Thanks!
Thanks a million! It worked! I’ve been struggling with Google crushing and shockwave crush messages forever until last week, when Youtube started gurgling and growling in the middle of the video playing and subsequently completely freezing my laptop so the forced shutdown was the only solution. Yep, Windows 7, 64-bit here. Sony Vayo. I just played Youtube for a few hours with no problems. Hope this solution is permanent!
Thank you- your solution worked… the screen freezing was driving me nuts
After i updated chrome i had to to what is suggested in the article so videos would play properly, but then noticed the ‘clear private data’ tool in chrome hangs, gets stuck, does not work. I did everything you said to do here (AGAIN) and the little circle indicator that spins around never stops and i suspect the cache and other items are not getting proper clearing. Can this be fixed? Thanks.
Well I just tried it, and it worked for me. Thanks allot!
Thanks Gautam, that worked! Hope it stays this way!
Chris
Thanks very much. It appears to have solved this problem which appeared only a couple of weeks ago. There was no date on any of this discussion, so I couldn’t tell if this was a recent issue or if I had stumbled upon something that happened, say, a year ago. You might consider dating your articles.
Thanks again.
dude you are awesome thank aloooot
Didn’t work.. I disabled the pepperflash.dll and still my chrome is not working. I work on n-computing and the other guy is also facing the same problem… Please help…
Hi thanks for the fix is also possible for MAC? coz my facebook freezes using Chrome when I am on Mac,
thanks
yes it works for mac too
Is there a fix for mac?
it works for mac too tracey
it works for mac too tracey
Hi i dont seem to have the folder or whatever appdata on my computer?
hi angela there’s an easier way to access the appdata folder…just press the Windows key+R when in Desktop to open the Run box, and in there type “appdata” to open your appdata folder on your computer directly!
try –disable-accelerated-compositing in the command line start up, or add it to chrome shortcut after chrome.exe –disable-accelerated-compositing.
fixed it clean for me.
Gautam- You’re a genius! I know very little about computers and thank you so much for the step-by-step directions and the visual was so, so helpful. I followed them without any problem, and if I can anyone can
It is so frustrating when there’s a problem and one doesn’t know what to do. No more crashing -You cannot imagine how greatful I am that I found your fantastic article, and believe me, I looked for hours for an answer to the problem. Thank you a million for your expertise, help, knowledge and extreme patience.
I found about this fix a few months ago (I have that stupid pepperflash file) and up until a couple of days ago it was working fine. Now, every time I open Chrome, I have to disable the file again which I guess is okay, except I never remember to do so until the website I’m on starts to slow down. Is there anyway to get the pepperflash to stay disabled once I close the browser?
hi bridgett…the plugins can easily be disabled by visiting chrome://plugins from the address bar of your browser…may i know how you are disabling the chrome plugins?
By opening Chrome, typing in about:plugins which changes to chrome://plugins (this was how I was told to do it) then I find the file that has the pepperflash and click disable. If I close the browser then open it back and back to the plugins page it’s enabled again. If I leave the browser open, it’s fine.
you are doing it exactly right but that shouldn’t be happening…try running a registry cleaner utility such as ccleaner or tuneup utilities and cleaning out your temporary files which are left behind…maybe that’s what causing the problem..let me know how it goes out.
I used ccleaner last night and just a few minutes ago and it still went back to being enabled. I also cleaned out the cache in the chrome browser before running ccleaner.
I have the same problem as Bridgett, followed all instructions installed adobe but page still freezing and pepperflash is there. Is there a way to stop enable coming back for good?
Thank you SO MUCH!!!!
I know all about pepperflash, shockwave, update, disabling, testing uninstall, re0install, test some more etc etc etc. I get no relief. Supposedly everything is “working properly” It is so darn frustrating… I just attempted to do the appdata folder suggestion, I DON’T EVEN HAVE AN appdata folder. It’s like nothing suggested will work. It used to 6months ago. Now we are on flash and shockwave players 11.5 and 11.6 and it seems worse
I was using comodo dragon where I had relief in the beginning then the same thing happened with it as google chrome. Now, i uninstalled comodo dragon, re-installed chrome, but instead of it just having a shockwave issue, the entire browswer locks up and shuts down completely, doesn’t even re-open.
OH Gautam – I could hug you !! Your fix worked like a charm and was simple to do. Thank you for taking the time to find the fix and educate others!
I AM A SPEEDY SURFER AGAIN – WOO HOO !!!!!!!!!
Many many thanks !!
glad to know everything is now perfect patrice…thanks for dropping by!
So as you know, I was having the problems with the pepperflash in Chrome. I uninstalled Chrome, installed Mozilla and it was still really slow. So I uninstalled Mozilla and reinstalled Chrome and just started disabling pepperflash as soon as I opened the browser. It was still really slow. So I decided to try something else. I opened the browser and instead of disabling pepperflash, I disabled the other shockwave. I didn’t expect it to work and it didn’t so I changed it back, but now whenever I open Chrome and go to disable pepperflash, it’s already disabled!?! It’s really weird and makes no kind of sense. And the stupid website is still slow, but that might be because of the website and not the pepperflash…
which website is slow..can you share the url? maybe i can check it on my end and confirm it using pagespeed…
The thing I use Chrome for is play facebook games, so facebook and zynga.com. And I just checked my browser and it’s still disabled without me having to disable it. Go figure
Worked a treat – thanks for that. Much appreciated.
I have always problems with chrome freezing and hanging but i dont have this file you mention above, my shockwave entries point to pepflashplayer.dll and NPSWF32_11_6_602_171.dll
How can I solve it?
hi andy just disable the NPSWF one and see if it works out fine!
i disabled pepper flash as per your instruction and installed anew flash player, but after this no flash program is working and it shows that flash player is disabled please help me
Hi Gautam, I bought new notebook with Windows 7. I use Google Chrome, but there were many problems with freezing. I disabled pepper flash and installed flash player from Adobe, as you advised. Since then my notebook works better, but there is still some problems… When I use more tabs opened, and close one tab, the other tabs will froze. This happens when any application opens in new window too. I close new-opened window, and all tabs are frozen. What can I do??? Help me, please.
To fix it, add the following parameters at chrome command line:
–disable-gpu –disable-software-rasterizer
after that, the google chrome works like a charm.
thanks a lot for pitching in jonathan…your suggestion might help a lot of readers over here!
Cheers,
Gautam
The solution is Firefox.
Thanks million for the help! Finally something that worked! Cheers!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you….:)
Brilliant – very well described instructions – lets hope it works!