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Google Chrome - Strange Behavior

Foolmewunz

Grammar Resistance Leader, TLA Dictator
Joined
Aug 11, 2006
Messages
41,468
Location
Pattaya, Thailand
GC is my default browser. Sometimes the IP provider or Google's minions in Thailand have a few hours of downtime, but when that occurs I can't even get onto Firefox. Today, I could get onto Firefox, so I just used that browser for a while, but when a few hours later I still couldn't get the little GC icon to get me past the loading screen (no "cannot find"... it just freezes up), I tried to get into GMail and Chrome through web searches and I can not only get into them but access my profile and details.

I'd prefer to get my old GC screen back, though. First, it's now a wasted icon on the startup bar and that's just tacky. Secondly, I've got all kinds of bookmarks on there, many for recipes I've stashed away for future experimentation.

I presume I can just reload Chrome? But I'd prefer an "instant fix", of course. Anyone have any experience with anything similar?
 
Your bookmarks and add-ons should be safely backed up by Google synch (assuming you haven't shut off that default setting), so you should be able to reinstall Chrome without losing anything. It would probably be a good idea to uninstall it first though.

If that doesn't help I would suspect an OS problem. I recently had to wipe and reinstall Windows on a friend's machine due to the fact he had it so hosed with malware nothing I did would make his Chrome or many other apps work properly or at all.
 
GC is my default browser. Sometimes the IP provider or Google's minions in Thailand have a few hours of downtime, but when that occurs I can't even get onto Firefox. Today, I could get onto Firefox, so I just used that browser for a while, but when a few hours later I still couldn't get the little GC icon to get me past the loading screen (no "cannot find"... it just freezes up), I tried to get into GMail and Chrome through web searches and I can not only get into them but access my profile and details.

I'd prefer to get my old GC screen back, though. First, it's now a wasted icon on the startup bar and that's just tacky. Secondly, I've got all kinds of bookmarks on there, many for recipes I've stashed away for future experimentation.

I presume I can just reload Chrome? But I'd prefer an "instant fix", of course. Anyone have any experience with anything similar?

I wonder if your connection dropped in the middle of an upgrade and left you with a broken install. I would uninstall Chrome and then download/reinstall it.
 
Thanks. I suspect it was something during an update, too. All kinds of sites are asking me to reinstall Adobe Flash, also. I've always had it and probably need to do the same thing there... uninstall and then reinstall. I run MSE regularly and there don't appear to be any problems. Ran it again last night just to double check if there was crap lurking in there over the last four days since the last run.
 
Thanks, team....

Uninstall/Install did the trick. And apparently it was Firefox causing the requests to install FlashPlayer because I don't get them any longer. I've lost all the icons on the home page, but I remember the sites I visited every day (duh, 'cuz I visit them every day) and that screen will replicate itself shortly.

And my bookmarks are still there.

All's right in the world, evidently... or at least the tiny part of the world that my Google Chrome was the lynch pin for.
 
FMW,

Find a way to export those bookmarks and put the exported file on a flash drive.

Right NOW, this minute, immediately if not sooner, and yesterday.

Is there danger of losing them? My "favorite clicks" (the picture icons on the Google Chrome home page) all disappeared, but the bookmark toolbar and the bookmark files* are all still there.

*Yeah, I still like to keep things in files. And then files within files. It sure makes searching a lot easier. I can't do a tree on here 'cuz I'm to much of a computer klutz, but my "Other bookmarks" has about four files. The primary one, as an example, is Caffe Marcello Links

Under that I have folders for:
Coffee Roasters/Growers
Recipes
Advertising/Promotion
Equipment/Appliances
Contractors

Under, say, Recipes, I tree down. I have about seven sub-folders and some of those sub-folders have sub-folders.

But I'm not a fan of the overall concept of cloud computing. If there's a chance I lose all those links, I'll chase down a method to back it all up. It's not that I'd be lost without them, but it'd be a mighty big inconvenience.
 
Foolmewunz,

As it happens, yesterday I was trying to download a particular program.

"Somehow" (that is, because the download website was ill-intentioned), AVG Secure Search installed itself on my browser, and asked me to choose one of several alternative behaviors. There was no way to cancel this short of using Windows Control Panel to remove the program.

After I removed the AVG mess, I ran Malawarebytes and found five instances of a virus. I can only assume they were part of the same download package.

As I always do in this situation,* I then disconnected the computer from the Internet, and restarted the computer in safe mode. Then I ran Malawarebytes again, then a rootkit killer, then a Microsoft Security Essentials scan -- and then to be safe, repeated the entire sequence.

When I started the computer normally, my calendar program would not load. When I did finally get it to load, all the entries were gone, including dental appointments, information about several motel reservations, reminders of people's birthdays, etc. Most of this will be findable, but only if I can remember what it is ... which is the reason I use a calendar in the first place.

I am culpable in not having a backup of the data on a flash drive or an external hard drive, but I never thought of that particular program as one that would be a target of a virus. I do back up some data to the cloud, but I think now I will have to subscribe to Carbonite or equivalent and back up everything. (Does this lead to a Catch 22? Back up all and you also back up the viruses.)

xterra


*Not that it happens often; this is the first virus that has gotten through in two years. On the other hand about once a week, I go through that process just in case.
 

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