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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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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.

macbook_air_google_chrome.jpg



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

macrumors member
May 13, 2011
83
581
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.
 

ghsDUDE

macrumors 68030
May 25, 2010
2,874
727
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) :rolleyes:
 

slffl

macrumors 65816
Mar 5, 2003
1,303
4
Seattle, WA
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.
 

digitalhen

macrumors regular
Jan 10, 2006
219
64
...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

macrumors regular
Sep 24, 2003
193
0
San Antonio, Texas
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. :(
 

slffl

macrumors 65816
Mar 5, 2003
1,303
4
Seattle, WA
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

macrumors 68000
Mar 9, 2009
1,923
0
Canada
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) :rolleyes:
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.
 

dwsolberg

macrumors 6502a
Dec 17, 2003
832
814
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.
 

sparkie7

macrumors 68020
Oct 17, 2008
2,412
200
why can't someone make an awesome browser :confused:

Firefox sucks
Chrome is weird
and Safari is just average :rolleyes:
 

ccmovies

macrumors member
Feb 11, 2010
97
51
Boston
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
 

valkata

macrumors member
Jun 15, 2010
32
0
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

macrumors member
Apr 2, 2010
75
0
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

macrumors 68040
May 29, 2003
3,854
571
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 :rolleyes:

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

macrumors 68000
Sep 24, 2007
1,565
22
Vancouver, Canada
why can't someone make an awesome browser :confused:

Firefox sucks
Chrome is weird
and Safari is just average :rolleyes:

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.
 
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