Fix Chrome freezing and then beeping

Martin Brinkmann
Mar 4, 2013
Google Chrome
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10

If you are running Google's browser Chrome and noticing freezes when you open web pages in it, you may have tried a lot to resolve the issue. Most users report that Chrome freezes for a few seconds before they can continue working with the browser, while others mentioned that the browser may freeze for up to 20 seconds in which it becomes totally unresponsive. Even more puzzling, those users hear a beeping sound when the browser becomes available again.

The Internet is full of suggestions as to what affected users should do to resolve the issue. Scan their hard drives, reinstall Chrome, use a different user account, scan the RAM, install more memory, and so on.

German blogger Günther Born seems to have found one of the main causes for the freezes that may resolve them for Windows users. The automatic proxy detection settings seem to cause the freezes in the Chrome browser somehow, and while it is not clear why this is the case, it certainly fixed the hangs and beeps in Chrome for some users.

Fixing the issue

Open the Chrome web browser as usually and click on the settings icon on the right part of the main toolbar. Select Settings from the context menu, or if you prefer to be faster, load chrome://settings/ directly in the browser's address bar.

You should see a Show advanced settings link at the very bottom. Click on it to load additional preferences and settings that are displayed here once you do.

Scroll down until you reach the Network group. Here you need to click on Change proxy settings which opens the Internet Properties.

google chrome proxy screenshot

Click on Lan settings under Local Area Network settings to open the proxy configuration screen. Note that Chrome uses the same proxy settings that Internet Explorer uses on Windows.

chrome fix freeze beep screenshot

Uncheck Automatically detect settings if checked and click on ok. You may also want to check the proxy settings here. If Chrome should use a direct connection but proxy server is selected, it may be causing the issues for you.

The new proxy settings are used automatically from that moment on. Note that this can resolve the issue in all Chromium based browsers, not only in Chrome itself.

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Comments

  1. L00py said on April 17, 2020 at 4:51 pm
    Reply

    It’s 2020 now and this is still an ongoing issue within Windows and chrome users! I followed your instructions and will give it a go from there. Only other piece that comes to mind is to try removing HW acceleration and keep it to SW rendering.

    1. The Baron Obi said on March 25, 2021 at 8:38 pm
      Reply

      It’s 2021. I just bought a pre-built monster desktop PC. And here I am. Black screen, beeping, Chrome claiming it ran out of memory on a computer with 16GB ram and a few programs running. Just disabled Proxy auto-detection. Fingers crossed.

  2. Scott said on May 2, 2015 at 1:02 am
    Reply

    I’m with spaceboy,
    I am using Firefox as well and every so often I will get a freeze, it typically is due to an overloaded web page.
    What I have been getting more recently is the beep.
    The beep started after I signed back up to….

    Facebook!

    dun, dun, d-a-a-a-a-a-h!

    (Looks back and forth quizically)

    Where is that music coming from?!!!

  3. Tik said on January 27, 2015 at 10:00 pm
    Reply

    Thank you for sharing this tutorial.

  4. spaceboy said on October 9, 2013 at 4:30 pm
    Reply

    Hi Guys,

    I have Chrome on my pc but never use it. I do use Firefox and have the same problem. Screen freezes for several seconds then a beep. It’s not terribly annoying but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t some kind of spyware.

    Thanks for the info.

    Jason

  5. Brian said on March 12, 2013 at 2:57 am
    Reply

    I was reading on some website that todays web browsers are using a BIG amount of RAM to load website pages. I say that plus, being a lot on that website will make the pages freeze up. I have seen very little here in the last while. ( knock on wood ) !!

  6. Brian Piper said on March 6, 2013 at 7:39 pm
    Reply

    Hello,

    I have been having a rough time lately while browsing on Chrome, of having the system freeze for a bit at times. I did not get beeps, although I usually have on ear phones so maybe beeps have occurred without my knowledge with my ear phones off.. So I did apply the solution to “Fix Chrome freezing and then beeping”. I thought the problem was due to high memory usage, but I could not correlate to that as the problem at hand.

    In “Lan Settings”, I cleared the check regarding “Uncheck Automatically detect settings if checked”, and proceeded to Uncheck my “Use proxy server”.

    In other words I followed directions here and my response time seems improved. It is not freezing at this time.

    Thank you for the information. I would never have figured this out myself.

    Brian

  7. Brian said on March 4, 2013 at 4:20 pm
    Reply

    I use Google Chrome for my emails, which i open Geek News websites links to the many things they post about. every once in a while my Win 7 PC will freeze up for a minute. I am not able to move the mouse or open Task Manager. I don’t have any of the connection problems, i connect directly to the web. I say it is not my PC doing the trouble. It is congestion on the website that is loading ( over loaded in use ) or spyware coming threw the network. I have done different scans for health, finding nothing . I believe it is a overload of traffic or spyware coming to my computer being the trouble. The only other thing maybe is my RAM has a hidden problem that a scan can not find it.

  8. Mike said on March 4, 2013 at 11:45 am
    Reply

    Well, I’m having the freeze problem (without the beep) but my LAN settings were already set to no auto detect, so that obviously isn’t the cause of my problem.

  9. Reggie said on March 4, 2013 at 6:07 am
    Reply

    Thanks for this info, Martin. Appreciated. This is a problem that regularly causes me much frustration with Chrome. I’ve followed the instructions and remain optimistic that the days of prolonged freezes are over. Thanks again.

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