Chrome is one of the preferred internet browsers in a lot of the environments we work in. Unfortunately, it does sometimes go haywire. This was especially the case with a user recently where not even the Settings pages displayed and every single window was white or blank. So let’s quickly work through a few things you can do to fix the issue.
Another Browser
I am not going to go into which browser is better and why, there are many opinions out there and you can decide what works best for you. Regardless test all websites with another browser. It could be as simple as the Website is the actual problem and the provider needs to fix the issue on their Side.
Another Internet Connection
Similar to the above try using another internet connection if possible. Could be the IT department is maintaining a Firewall that changes were made on recently. This will work one day and the following day it stopped.
Turn Off Hardware Acceleration
The First step after having a look at the potential External issues is to turn off Hardware Acceleration. This is fairly easy to do. On Chrome choose the Three dots (Menu) in the Right corner. Do down to the Settings option. This should open a new tab Chrome://settings. On the right side of the screen, Expand Advanced then choose System.
Under System you can then Turn off the Option: Use Hardware Acceleration when Available
Turn off extensions
Next, step. Turn off any new Extensions installed or even turn off all extensions to see if the extensions are not causing the issue. Go to the three dots (Menu), choose More Tools then choose Extensions. This will open chrome://extensions
Simply move the switch on each extension to turn is off or on.
Clear Cache
Clearing Cache is a two step process. Step one is Clearing Chrome’s Cache and step two is clearing the cache of the Windows Machine you are working from
Clear Chrome Cache
Starting with Chrome cache. On your Keyboard press the following three keys at the same time. CTRL + Shift + Delete. This will open the Clear Browsing Data Windows. Choose Advanced and change the Time Range to All time and click Clear Data
Clear windows Cache
Clearing the windows cache is deleting all the temp folders created by windows. There are two locations that need to be cleared and both can be reached by typing a command in the Run dialog. The first would be the Current Logged-on user’s Temp folder. In a run dialog (Windows Button + R) you can simply type in %Temp% and ok to open the folder. While Chrome is closed Press CRTL + A to select everything in the folder and then Delete it.
The Second folder you might need administrator right for. If UAC is enabled you can just click yes when prompted. You will need to be an administrator on the PC or at least admin details to authenticate against. In exactly the same way as previously Open Run command (Windows Button + R). Type in %WinDir%\Temp and press Ok. Select everything by pressing CTRL + A then Deleted Everything. The will be files or Folders that won’t delete as it is currently in use, this is fine as long as chrome is closed when deleting.
Reset Google Chrome
Chrome can be reset within the Browser or by clearing User Local files. To clear chrome via the browser, click on the Menu Button (Three dots). Choose Settings, in the new windows choose Advanced then Reset and Clean Up.
On the Rest and clean up choose Restore Settings to their original defaults and follow the onscreen options
The Second is by clearing the User Local Files, This is not the same as the cache files. These are configurations that if you log into another machine with the same credentials it will automatically try and setup your Browser profile to be the same. To access these file you can open a Run Command (Windows + R) Type in %LocalAppData% and press Ok
Once the Window opens the address should read something like C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Local.
The User_Name will the current user logged on. Search for the Google folder and Delete it.
Once logged on it should request a reset as if it was Newly installed.
Reinstall Chrome
As a final resort, the option will be to uninstall and reinstall Chrome. The reason I suggest doing this last is that there is a Specific Process I suggest doing this. Start by uninstalling chrome then rebooting the PC. This will allow all resources being held by chrome to be released. Once logged back on, don’t open any application but go through the three steps above to Manually clear the windows files. Install chrome again and test.