How to Fix Chrome Crashing on Windows 11

The Problem

Chrome closes without warning, freezes on Not Responding, or shows Aw, Snap! Something went wrong while displaying this webpage with an error code such as STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION or Error code: Out of Memory.

Four causes account for almost all of it: a misbehaving extension, hardware acceleration fighting the graphics driver, a corrupted user profile, and memory pressure from too many tabs. Work through them in that order — the first two are two minutes each.

Every app crashes, not just Chrome? Start with fix an app crashing or not opening. Whole PC freezing? See Windows 11 freezing and crashing randomly.

Symptoms

• Aw, Snap! with STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION, STATUS_BREAKPOINT, or Out of Memory.
• Chrome window goes white and the title bar reads Not Responding.
• Crashes only on certain sites, or only when video plays.

Step 1: Read Chrome's Own Task Manager

1. With Chrome focused, press Shift + Esc.
2. Sort by Memory footprint and CPU.
3. Note any extension or tab consuming hundreds of megabytes or pinning the CPU — that is your suspect.
4. Select it and click End process to confirm.

Step 2: Test in Incognito

This disables extensions in one keystroke and tells you where to look next.

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + N and browse normally for a while.
2. No crashes in Incognito means an extension is responsible — go to Step 3.
3. Still crashing means it is Chrome, the graphics driver, or the system — skip to Step 4.

Step 3: Disable Extensions and Re-enable in Halves

1. Go to chrome://extensions and toggle all of them off.
2. Use Chrome for an hour. If it is stable, re-enable half of them.
3. Keep halving until the crash returns — the last group you enabled contains the culprit.
4. Ad blockers, VPN extensions, download managers, and "shopping assistant" add-ons are the usual suspects. Remove anything you did not deliberately install: avoid malware and fake downloads.

Step 4: Turn Off Hardware Acceleration

Chrome pushes rendering onto the GPU, and a mismatched graphics driver crashes the tab process.

1. Go to chrome://settings/system.
2. Turn off Use graphics acceleration when available.
3. Click Relaunch.
4. If this fixes it, the real fix is the driver — do Step 5, then turn acceleration back on.

Step 5: Reinstall the Graphics Driver Cleanly

1. Download the current driver from NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel for your exact GPU.
2. Remove the old one completely first: clean install GPU drivers with DDU.
3. Restart, then re-enable hardware acceleration in Chrome and test.
4. General method: how to update outdated drivers.

Step 6: Reset Chrome's Settings

1. Go to chrome://settings/reset.
2. Click Restore settings to their original defaults → Reset settings.
3. This clears startup pages, pinned tabs, search engines, and disables extensions — bookmarks, history, and saved passwords are kept.

Step 7: Create a Fresh Chrome Profile

A corrupted profile survives reinstalls, which is why "reinstalling Chrome" so often changes nothing.

1. Close Chrome completely — check Task Manager for leftover chrome.exe processes and end them.
2. Press Win + R and open:

   %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data
   

3. Rename the folder Default to Default.old.
4. Start Chrome. It creates a clean profile. Sign in to restore bookmarks and passwords from your Google account.
5. Keep Default.old until you are sure nothing is missing.

Step 8: Rule Out Memory Pressure

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc → Performance → Memory while Chrome is busy.
2. If you are at 90%+ with a handful of tabs, that is the crash cause.
3. Turn on chrome://settings/performance → Memory Saver to unload idle tabs.
4. See fix high RAM usage and how much RAM do I need.

Step 9: Scan for Malware and Check Conflicting Software

1. Run a Microsoft Defender offline scan: Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Scan options.
2. Browser hijackers cause crashes and redirects together: remove viruses and malware.
3. Third-party antivirus with "safe browsing" injection is a known crash source — test with it paused.
4. If Chrome is being blocked from the network rather than crashing, see fix Windows Firewall blocking apps.

Step 10: Reinstall Chrome Properly

1. Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Google Chrome → Uninstall, ticking Also delete your browsing data.
2. Delete anything left in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome.
3. Download a fresh installer from google.com/chrome and install.
4. Sign in to resync bookmarks and passwords.

What Not to Do

• Don't install "Chrome cleaner" or "browser repair" tools. They are overwhelmingly adware.
• Don't disable Chrome's sandbox with command-line flags found in forum posts. It removes the main protection between a web page and your PC.
• Don't reinstall before renaming the profile. A reinstall reuses the same corrupted profile folder.

Still Not Working?

If a fresh profile in a fresh install still crashes with STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION, suspect the system rather than Chrome: test RAM with the steps in MEMORY_MANAGEMENT, then repair Windows with SFC and DISM.

Related: clear browser cache and cookies and fix DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NO_INTERNET.