Chrome freezes PC running Windows OS after Windows 10 April update

Some Chrome users are reporting freezes and timeouts after the installation of the Windows 10 April Update, let’s see what has happened

After the installation of Windows 10 April Update I observed continuous freezes while using the Chrome browser with one of my PCs, in some cases, I was not able to reach the websites I wanted to visit, apparently for connection problems.

I was reading some posts when I found a post written by Lawrence Abrams on Bleeping Computer that claims some Chrome users are reporting freezes and timeouts after the installation of the Windows 10 April Update.

“When these freezes occur, it turns the screen black and Windows becomes completely unresponsive until the user reboots the computer or restarts their graphic driver.” wrote Abrams.

The same problem was reported by many users that shared their experience in a Reddit post, some users have tried to update the video drivers or using differed Chrome versions without success.

Personally, I forced the sleep mode by pressing the power button on my laptop, then turning on again.

Lawrence explained that according to two tickets opened at Google, there are two distinct problems associated with the April 2018 Update (build 1803) and Chrome.

The freezing problems are the result of the crash of video driver and the problem may be related to a site that needs hardware acceleration. According to a bug ticket the issue affects Chrome version 66.0.3359.139 running on Windows 10, disabling hardware acceleration would fix the problem.

A second issue is associated with connections to SSL websites, according to a second ticket the problem could be a Registry permission problem with the Windows Cryptographic services (CryptoSvc).

Microsoft has published a post to provide a temporary fix to the freezing problems.

“This Answers post advises users that they can use the Windows logo key + Ctrl + Shift + B keyboard combination to resolve the issue when their computer freezes. This keyboard combination causes the video driver to restart, which will cause the normal Windows screen to appear again.” added Abrams.

“Unfortunately, this just resolves the issue of the driver crashing, but does not actually resolve the problem and users will continue to see these black screens when the video driver crashes again.”

In my case, uninstalling the video driver and installing it again apparently solved the issue.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Windows 10 April update, Chrome)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.