Plug In Message

My computer has been crashing - freezing, screen going blank - mostly when I'm working in or scrolling through web pages. I use Safari most of the time but recently started using Chrome and it has now crashed using both.

One difference is that Chrome was kind enough to send a message that said "Plug in Isn't Responding" I closed and reopened Chrome and everything worked fine again. Safari has never given a message.

1. What does "Plug In Isn't Responding" mean?
2. Could non responsive plug in be causing the crashes/
3. If so, how to fix it?
4. Would the plug in Chrome is telling me about also be used by Safari?

My system is iMac 8,1 with 10.6.8, Safari 5.1.10 and Chrome 39.0.2171.95 (64-bit)

Thanks
Bob

Open Safari or Chrome. On the top bar of the desktop, click on Safari (or Chrome) and then Preferences. Look for a tab that says "Extensions" or "PlugIns" (I don't have Chrome, so I don't know what it calls them). Delete (or uninstall) anything you don't recognize as something YOU put there.

The plugin could very well be causing issues across browsers as they often share them. The only exception here is Flash - Chrome bakes in its own variety whereas Safari depends on you having installed it at some point. What page are you looking at when this happens? This might give us a clue as to what plugin is causing the issue.

I checked the extensions box in both browsers and there were none listed.

There is no specific page when this happens. It has also happened in word, in e mail and has happened in photoshop, too. It seems to happen most often while I'm scrolling using the mouse wheel. Sometimes the screen goes white, sometimes black, sometimes grey.
Sometimes black and white vertical lines, once it went red, once golden color. Each time I have to power button off and on again.

A while back I took the computer to the Apple store and they checked the hard drive and said it was ok.

A while back I took the computer to the Apple store and they checked the hard drive and said it was ok.

Click to expand...

That doesn't sound like a hard drive problem, It may be a hardware defect with the graphics processor that's showing up. Try running the iMac in safe boot mode for awhile to see if the same symptoms are there. Reboot, press and hold the shift key to get into safe boot mode.

If you get the same symptoms in safe boot mode, then it's likely a hardware problem. You might then want to take it back to your closest Apple store and let them run diagnostics.