Chrome Canary - odd issue that just started

[Project86]

About a week ago (maybe longer, but either way it just started fairly recently), Chrome Canary stopped working as it used to. Wondering if anyone has suggestions.

I'm using a Surface Pro 3, sometimes in tablet mode and other times with the keyboard attached. I normally scroll pages using the touch screen because it feels more natural. One day, Chrome Canary started acting weird. It lost "inertia" when scrolling. That is to say: when I scroll a page up or down, as soon as I remove my finger, all movement stops. Normally it has a gradual slowdown and eventual stop. It's hard to explain but if you've used a touchscreen device hopefully you get it - I can no longer quickly "flick" a page and move rapidly to the top or bottom. It's very awkward now.

I use Canary because regular Chrome seems to draw more battery as well as activate the fans more often on my device. This new issue only impacts Canary though - regular Chrome still works as usual, as does Firefox and other browsers. But I like Chrome Canary best and want to fix it!

I've tried enabling and disabling the "smooth scrolling" option, with no result. I've also removed and reinstalled, and cleared cookies, also no luck.

What else do you suggest?

 

[PeterRoss]

Hmm. Haven't had this issue on my tablet personally (Just installed Canary for testing and it appears to be working fine). My clean install had no issues. Since reinstalling didn't help I would like to know the solution personally in case such things happen in the future. Have you tried killing Canary and relaunching it? Maybe a tablet restart could help you? Do you have any add-ons that might have interactions with pages or scrolling? Let me know if this helps.

 

[Project86]

I still haven't figured it out. I totally removed Canary, deleting all history in the process. Fresh install, still the same problem. I have no add-ons that would remotely have anything to do with scrolling.... I use very few add-ons at all, and nothing recently installed that hasn't been there for many months already.

 

[PeterRoss]

Just for the sake of it, have you considered doing a full factory reset? I am sure you can reinstall the apps without an issue, and resetting up your accounts. Just a thought.

 

[Project86]

I haven't done that, only because I've weighed the hassle involved compared to the hassle of just sticking with regular Chrome, and decided it's not worth it.

Conceptually, this drives me crazy. Why did it all of a sudden start? There must be SOME cause.... why can't I find it? But in day to day use it isn't so bad, as Chrome works better than it used to (which was why I switched to Canary in the first place).

 

[PeterRoss]

Not sure, and it may remain a mystery, maybe XDA forums might help you with that, as they are experts of all phone/mobile related software. Let me know if you find anything related, I am interested myself.

 

[Project86]

Weirdest thing... I just installed a bunch of Windows updates as well as a firmware update from last month for the Surface Pro 3. Upon restart, Canary was fine! Then within an hour or so, it went back to the same problem again. And then it got even more buggy and crashed at random.

So, I don't know if it was a Windows update or the FW update that temporarily fixed it. But in any case, I'm back to square one. And I'm giving up for now.

 

[PeterRoss]

Alright, unfortunate, that you could sort out the issue. If you find something related to this or even a solution, let me know!

 

[Project86]

Just stumbled upon something. I did a reboot and then went straight to Canary, and it worked again.... then stopped. So I rebooted and noticed the same thing happens every time. A reboot will buy me about 60 seconds of normal functionality, then it stops working properly.

I'm at a loss as to why this is happening though.

 

[PeterRoss]

Theoretically, I know it is a table but, theoretically, it could be a malware related issue. Have you noticed any other suspicious applications on your tablet? Maybe add-ons on your browser that could be messing with it? You could install Malwarebytes and do a full scan, see if that comes up with anything.