Google Chrome Causing Freezing and Crashing on New Mac Notebooks

[MacRumors]

Over the past several days, Gizmodo has been highlighting freezing and crashing issues on several of its staff's new MacBook Air models, linking the problems to Google Chrome. Switching to Apple's Safari browser eliminated all of the issues, and thus the site recommended that owners of the new machines avoid Chrome for the time being.

Google has now issued a statement to Gizmodo acknowledging that Chrome is the culprit and discussing the steps it is taking to address the issue. While Google has disabled some of Chrome's GPU acceleration on an emergency basis as it seeks to deploy a permanent solution, the company has also filed a bug report with Apple as such issues should not be able to cause an entire system to freeze or crash.

"We have identified a leak of graphics resources in the Chrome browser related to the drawing of plugins on Mac OS X. Work is proceeding to find and fix the root cause of the leak.

The resource leak is causing a kernel panic on Mac hardware containing the Intel HD 4000 graphics chip (e.g. the new Macbook Airs). Radar bug number 11762608 has been filed with Apple regarding the kernel panics, since it should not be possible for an application to trigger such behavior.

While the root cause of the leak is being fixed, we are temporarily disabling some of Chrome's GPU acceleration features on the affected hardware via an auto-updated release that went out this afternoon (Thursday June 28). We anticipate further fixes in the coming days which will re-enable many or all of these features on this hardware."

With the issue affecting all systems using Intel HD 4000 graphics, all of Apple's notebook models released earlier this month are susceptible and owners of the new MacBook Pro models are indeed also reporting the issue.

First launched in September 2008, Chrome has steadily gained in overall popularity among desktop Internet browsers and is currently running neck-and-neck with Firefox for the second position behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Article Link: Google Chrome Causing Freezing and Crashing on New Mac Notebooks

 

[IMPOSSIBLEMAN]

LOL


Listen Apple, you gotta make it available to set chrome as a default browser in ios because I ain't comin' back to safari what so ever.

 

[wordoflife]

am i the only one who uses chrome?

 

[ghsDUDE]

Google Chrome sucks...still waiting on gestures to be updated since Lion came out. Would be a great browser if I could take advantage of hand gestures while I'm using it.

I'll stick to Safari until it's updates (if that ever happens)

 

[slffl]

I can't stand Chrome! I've been using it on my work PC for a while now, and it's ALWAYS locking up and crashing, and most of the time it's while browsing Google! Especially their RSS reader. It's horrible and I'm amazed so many people think it's so great.

 

[DaMike8]

GG.

And that's why, you don't use Google software.

 

[digitalhen]

...the company has also filed a bug report with Apple as such issues should not be able to cause an entire system to freeze or crash.

This really is the key part of the article. There's no way that this should be happening in the first place.

 

[Toeknee]

I have a 2008 Unibody Macbook and mine KPs when using Chrome. Again, switching to any other browser fixes it. Shame too because I like Chrome.

 

[Dragonmount]

Listen Apple, you gotta make it available to set chrome as a default browser in ios because I ain't comin' back to safari what so ever.

What does this comment have to do with mac notebooks?

 

[Jayse]

Firefox represent!

 

[slffl]

LOL


Listen Apple, you gotta make it available to set chrome as a default browser in ios because I ain't comin' back to safari what so ever.

Really? Why? Because from here Safari destroys everything about Chrome for iOS. It's not even in my top 3 iOS web browsers (Safari, Dolphin, iCabMobile)

 

[adder7712]

Google Chrome sucks...still waiting on gestures to be updated since Lion came out. Would be a great browser if I could take advantage of hand gestures while I'm using it.

I'll stick to Safari until it's updates (if that ever happens)

The only gesture I use is the two finger swipe, which is supported by Chrome (along with cool eye candy) and Firefox.

I don't think this warrants a news article, all programs have their own glitches. And, if your Mac has something other than the Intel HD 4000, don't fret, keep using Chrome.

 

[wordoflife]

Firefox represent!

I really liked Firefox up until version 3.

 

[dwsolberg]

Good.

Having Google Chrome open gobbles up battery power because of the way it enables GPU acceleration, causing the dedicated graphics to fire up.

Ironically, this update to Chrome is probably a good one for all users with a MacBook Pro because it will likely increase battery life.

 

[JonD]

Hey, a radar number. Nice.

 

[tech4all]

am i the only one who uses chrome?

Nope Chrome user here. Far better than Safari and Firefox. Never crashes or freezes on me. Go figure

lol at Google-haters on here. I think sometimes Apple fanboys hate Google more than M$.

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

All your kernel are belong to Google!

 

[sparkie7]

why can't someone make an awesome browser

Firefox sucks
Chrome is weird
and Safari is just average

 

[ccmovies]

I also was getting kernel panics from the start. I created a discussions forum which recently has exploded: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4028778?tstart=0

 

[adder7712]

why can't someone make an awesome browser

Firefox sucks
Chrome is weird
and Safari is just average

With every vendor claiming their browser is "awesome". I'm at a loss too.

 

[wizard]

I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole!

am i the only one who uses chrome?

It is Safari all the way for me.

 

[valkata]

The worst and the most funny thing is that user space application manages to crash whole "most advanced desktop operating system"... OSX is not so stable after all, Linux and windows do better...

 

[Gib]

Oh, the irony...

No joke, the ad featured right under this article has the Google chrome logo (at almost directly in line with the icon in article pic) and says to download Chrome today...

Awesome.

 

[wizard]

It is not hate for Goggle but rather for Chrome

Nope Chrome user here. Far better than Safari and Firefox. Never crashes or freezes on me. Go figure

lol at Google-haters on here. I think sometimes Apple fanboys hate Google more than M$.

Chrome is just not all it is cracked up to be. I may hate somethings Apple does but that doesn't mean I hate Apple.

 

[kockgunner]

why can't someone make an awesome browser

Firefox sucks
Chrome is weird
and Safari is just average

I agree. I made a post way back about the lack of good browsers for OS X and people thought I was trolling.

Safari is OK, but it has memory issues and makes my computer beachball a lot.

Chrome is usable, but there are constant problems with flash like videos either being black or not appearing or being able to see my desktop background where a video should be. Flash always crashes in Chrome too.

Opera just feels weird mainly because scrolling is choppy.

Firefox is just slow and scrolling is choppy as well and no proper support for gestures. Swiping with two fingers to navigate back and forward is too sensitive and I often overshoot and go back a few pages.

During the little time I use Chrome and Firefox on Windows, everything seems fine.