(Poll) Does Using Browser Other Than Edge Fix Driver Crash

[RichBrownsDesk]

A number of people have had issues with the Intel Display Driver crashing and then recovering. Many have reported that if they use a browser other than Edge, this is no longer an issue--leading to a belief that the crash is connected, not with the Surface device, but with Win 10 and the new Edge browser.

 

[GreyFox7]

The key is Ad blocking. If you could block Ads in Edge there would be a lot fewer crashes. Since Edge doesn't yet support extensions there is no way to add an Ad Blocker extension. You could use one of the Hosts file methods but it's not as elegant especially if you find that important site you use is useless with the Ad blocking Hosts file installed.

The other factor is turning off hardware acceleration but even that was not 100% effective.

If you're not using Ad Blocking software in your browser of choice there may not be much difference than using Edge unless it does much less graphics hardware acceleration.

If you are using Ad Blocking software it's an apples and oranges comparison.

Of course you're not running Flash in anything... R U?

Oh, and the occurrence or nonoccurrence of crashes is somewhat intermittent or dependent on which Ads and other things you encounter so you can view the same page at two different times and get two completely different experiences which results in making comparisons rather difficult.

 

[RichBrownsDesk]

The key is Ad blocking. If you could block Ads in Edge there would be a lot fewer crashes. Since Edge doesn't yet support extensions there is no way to add an Ad Blocker extension. You could use one of the Hosts file methods but it's not as elegant especially if you find that important site you use is useless with the Ad blocking Hosts file installed.

The other factor is turning off hardware acceleration but even that was not 100% effective.

If you're not using Ad Blocking software in your browser of choice there may not be much difference than using Edge unless it does much less graphics hardware acceleration.

If you are using Ad Blocking software it's an apples and oranges comparison.

Of course you're not running Flash in anything... R U?

Oh, and the occurrence or nonoccurrence of crashes is somewhat intermittent or dependent on which Ads and other things you encounter so you can view the same page at two different times and get two completely different experiences which results in making comparisons rather difficult.

Not to throw a wrench into the theory that ad-blocking is the key.....but I just did a test. Someone posted a link earlier: France launches air strikes in Syria; Paris investigation widens . Supposedly most people who have the driver crashes will have it on this page. Sure enough, after I saw this posted, I've tried multiple times to visit that link with Edge....and it always causes my screen to blink off and, if I'm lucky, back on (sometimes it stays off). I can reproduce that every single time I have Edge open that page.

So I tried it with Chrome, and no issues at all. But after you said that the issue is whether or not you have Ad Blocking, I went into Chrome and disabled Ad Blocking. Opened the page again and..........still no driver crashes, no graphics issue at all.

 

[jnjroach]

I'm using Edge with HOST file ad blocking the updated (beta) Intel Video Driver and haven't had a driver crash even from the link above...

 

[hughlle]

My sp4 is behaving just perfectly. Been browsing non stop all day with a combination of edge and chrome.

 

[GreyFox7]

Not to throw a wrench into the theory that ad-blocking is the key.....but I just did a test. Someone posted a link earlier: France launches air strikes in Syria; Paris investigation widens . Supposedly most people who have the driver crashes will have it on this page. Sure enough, after I saw this posted, I've tried multiple times to visit that link with Edge....and it always causes my screen to blink off and, if I'm lucky, back on (sometimes it stays off). I can reproduce that every single time I have Edge open that page.

So I tried it with Chrome, and no issues at all. But after you said that the issue is whether or not you have Ad Blocking, I went into Chrome and disabled Ad Blocking. Opened the page again and..........still no driver crashes, no graphics issue at all.

Well it's something an individual can do to help mitigate the issue ... I used 3 browsers and definitely didn't eliminate crashes in any configuration.

In the end MS and Intel have to resolve the flaky behavior. One person has no problems at all and another has a basket load of problems.

I don't believe this is strictly related to browsing the Internet and ADs either, it's just one way to tweak the display subsystem to cause a problem.

You can get the problem with no additional software installed so it's not something people are adding.

What explains the variance from one system to the other? One thing is for sure it's hardware or software.

 

[leeshor]

I pretty much only use Firefox, with a lot of add-ons and haven't one crash. On top of using Adblock Plus I also turned off Edge's background process. That doesn't keep Edge from working, which it does, only for Cortana results. Not one crash in nearly a month, which is how long I've had the SP4.

 

[fansurface]

I'm using Edge with HOST file ad blocking the updated (beta) Intel Video Driver and haven't had a driver crash even from the link above...

Seems like the Nov 20, 4326 driver fixed my machine's infrequent crashes in Edge. Hooray!
Tried surface forums.com, the video link posted above and a site with 300 disqus comments, any of which crashed Edge prior to the driver update. No longer crashes.

 

[jnjroach]

I did have one incident where it didn't successfully come back from hibernate (looks like the driver crashed) but overall much better.