Chrome and Firefox frequently crashing

[dawks]

My workstation is running Windows 7 32bit, on an Intel Core i5-3570 (no-OC), with Intel HD 2500 Graphics. The computer is a Dell Optiplex 790.
For some reason Chrome and Firefox both continually crash on me. Firefox crashes completely, and individual tabs crash on chrome. It seems to happen randomly on any website. Its almost certain to crash on google maps for instance. IE seems very stable, so I end up using it instead.
I thought it might be something to do with the graphics drivers as I've had a tough time updating them. When I tried the Intel drivers I kept getting a 'not compatible with this hardware message' and the Dell drivers would always say 'you already have the best driver for your hardware'.
Finally, I uninstalled the Graphics drivers, turned off auto-driver-install. Rebooted into safe mode, ran "Display Driver Uninstaller", rebooted, and was able to install the latest Intel drivers (10.18.10.3412), and rebooted, but I'm still getting these crashes.
I also have a chrome profile stripped clean. I've disabled most of the plugins. Only the standard ones are still activated (PDF, Flash, Reader, Silverlight, and Update, Native Client).
Any tips? We run McAfee, which does have plugins but those have been disabled, and still the problem exists.

 

[cubby1223]

I'd give it a more thorough virus scan, with combofix & malwarebytes.

 

[Elixer]

What is the crash information ?
Check your event viewer for the info.

 

[JackMDS]

While Firefox is running use Process Explorer ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx ) and see if anything unusual is running in the background.

Example - http://www.howtogeek.com/school/sysinternals-pro/lesson3/

 

[zebrax2]

Try running both browsers with hardware acceleration off

 

[SimMike2]

Is it really Adobe flash player or shockwave crashing?

 

[dawks]

Try running both browsers with hardware acceleration off

I did try this, still crashes. I've also disabled Windows Aero for the heck of it, still crashes.

Ran a virus scan, nothing found, still crashes.

I'm not sure if theres a relationship between flash causing the crashes or not. I know Gmail crashes often (are they using flash?), Google Maps (not streetview) crashes often. I'm sure chrome is using its own stable implementation of flash. I'll try removing my system install of flash and see if that helps. I have flash installed for a specific app I need for work.

Is there a place I can see that has details about chrome tab crashes? does chrome record anything?

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Did you already try uninstalling and reinstalling flash? Yes you should see if the crashes still happen after you remove flash for testing this problem.

 

[dawks]

Firefox just crashed again after removing Flash from the system while loading http://forums.redflagdeals.com/.

Also, a NEW chrome tab just crashed immediately after opening it. As in I clicked the new tab button and the new tab popped up and said it crashed.

I've used ccleaner to remove/prevent all extensions from loading in Firefox, still crashing.

Just did a full uninstall of firefox (personal settings included) and rebooted the machine, then did a fresh reinstall of firefox. It crashed again within 2 minutes. I also sometimes get black bars across pages in chrome, visual artifacts/defects.

Edit #2: The graphics driver just crashed after I opened Chrome. Also two of the 8 tabs opened crashed immediately. Both were just basic HTML pages, no flash.