HN Explorer

Ask HN: What is wrong with Google Chrome?

66 points by isthispermanent ↗ HN
https://imgur.com/Yqh9ILg

I've been seeing this on multiple sites. The blue/green/purple text in the divs changes as I mouse over them

36 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 83.0 ms ] thread
theandrewbailey
Are you sure you don't have a hardware issue? (overheated?) That looks a lot like GPU artifacting.
henriquez
Ya, Chrome uses the GPU and that looks like GPU memory failure artifacting. So it’s likely either a problem with the chipset or CPU if OP is on integrated graphics, or whatever discrete GPU may be installed.

Worth updating all drivers before you buy a new computer / GPU though!

asveikau
About 12 years ago I had a laptop where some pins on the GPU were coming loose. It looked a bit like this. If I held it down with my hand on a strategic part it would temporarily resolve the issue.

A heat gun also temporarily resolved it, but not for very long.

ashtonkem
That’s how we fixed my T42 with a similar issue.

Well, until I got drunk in college and fell on it. Heat guns don’t really fix that.

colejohnson66
Can’t really do things like that anymore (unfortunately) what with the massive heat sinks and the GPU manufacturers switching to BGA to pack more pins in
rootusrootus
Would a hardware problem show up in a screenshot?

It could be a picture of the screen, but the alignment is perfect.

cbg0
Yes, it would show up, as that's how it's rendered, artifacts and all.
bipson
Interesting argument.

In fact if the fault would lie only between screen and the 'last mile' on the GPU you would be correct. But GPUs are slightly more than simple display renderers (at least nowadays), so (vast simplification) multiple renderings happen before the actual display output is generated and sent over the wire to the display.

E.g. a failing memory on the GPU might only corrupt the output of a single window/application, since this window is using the GPU to render content, while everything else is fine.

CountSessine
Depends on where the hardware defect is. If the defect is before the frame buffer (shaders, triangle setup, rasterization), then yes it will show up. If it’s after the frame buffer (CRTC, resampling and DAC), then no it won’t show up.
rootusrootus
Now that is the answer I was hoping for. Thanks!
anaphor
What operating system / graphics backend are you using? Do you have multiple screens? E.g. you can encounter issues with hardware acceleration on Linux if you have multiple screens.
isthispermanent
MacOS 15.14. I run two screens and hardware acceleration appears to be the issue
abnry
You have seen past the veil. You must forget you've ever seen this. Some things are too great for a human to know.
thomasjudge
The image translators work for the construct program. But there’s way too much information to decode the Matrix. You get used to it. I don’t even see the code. All I see is blonde, brunette, red-head..
mschuster91
Last time I've been seeing this was back in 2010-such with the infamous Nvidia mobile GPU solder issue O.o
jpswade
Search for GPU artifacts in Chrome, you'll notice it's quite common, but it's less to do with Chrome and more to do with a problem with your GPU.
jeroenhd
Looks like GPU issues or memory corruption in the browser memory.

You can try disabling hardware acceleration to prevent Chrome from using the GPU but if I were you I'd start checking if everything on my machine is backed up properly.

prpl
Try rebooting your machine. I had this issue two weeks ago, it strangely was coincident with a chrome upgrade.
stjo
This looks a tech support ticket, not HN thread
ReverseCold
HN is Google's end user tech support forum ;)
geerlingguy
So true, it hurts. If I see another "Google deleted my account" [3 hours later] "Update: Google reinstated my account after someone spotted this" thread...
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
arkitaip
HN and other sites have become de facto support channels for Google products because their own support is too difficult to reach.
jacobush
I thought we were going to bash on its privacy issues. Mildly disappointed.
FillardMillmore
As did I. Those threads seem to be monthly - but I feel as if we haven't had one in some time. I don't know why, though the threads on the topic here are usually tiresome and predictable, I still find them quite amusing.
declnz
Lol me too. I was ready with 'Now, where do we start? The weirdly automatic "integration" with your Google account? No, all the full URLs going to Google for "Safe Browsing", erm, support?' etc etc

Some other time!

CawCawCaw
Can we get Bruce Dawson to use this as source material for one of his deep-dive angry rants about software quality?