I am regular user of Chrome although I also use Edge too

For months, I was seeing Chrome tabs crash, and I did not even have as much as a half dozen open. Edge tabs would also crash when I occasionally used that browser.

I thought it was related to a dying HDD, so I replaced storage with a SSD (first time for this storage type for nearly 8-year old laptop)

And I am still seeing the crashing of Chrome tabs

Here's what's been done
  • Chrome troubleshooting suggested pulling out extensions, not that I had very many anyway. The only extensions I have in now are Google's own: Application Launcher for Google Drive, Web Developer, and LastPass password manager. And extensions would not be an issue causing the tab crashes in Edge either.
  • windows memory diagnostic: no errors results in Event Viewer
  • sfc /scannow : no integrity violations found
  • drivers: video adapter was the only recently needed update, which corrected major problems when SSD installed; all other drivers current
  • Often, closing the browser and restarting it makes it work for a while, and then the symptoms appear again (memory leaking? no, couldn't be: we don't live in the mid-1990s using Windows 9x)


Another thing I have noticed: windows of all kinds, but sometimes just the tabs on the browser, can be unresponsive to mouse cursor clicking to bring window in focus. When I open the Task Manager, the ability of the mouse cursor to activate/focus windows/tabs is completely restored. I haven't figured that out yet, and it might be related to the browser memory issues.

It is an 8-year old laptop, but I have no indication that hardware is failing in any respect but the usual end of life on HDDs I have used in past.

Win 10-1909 (build 18363.657)