Laptop crashes when watching Youtube

[Jamie_roles]

After not using my laptop with internet for a couple of weeks, I have recently started to use it with wifi again. Multiple times I have been watching videos of Youtube when my laptop has lost connection to the Wifi and the laptop crashes, with the sound freezing and creating an elongated buzzing noise. I haven't tried other sources of videos (Netflix, iPlayer etc) but from Googling I've seen other people complaining that it's a universal problem. I haven't been able to find a solution in any of those forums - does anyone have any suggestions?

[Riddle_Decipher]

@Jamie_roles

Welcome to HP Forums,

Let's get straight to it!

Did you check with an alternate browser to check if that works fine?

Do you get any blue screen error messages before the device crashes?

If not, you may want to disable the automatic restart on failure to capture the error and diagnose to resolve accordingly: Click here for details (Follow the Step 2)

While you work on that, here's what else you need to consider:

The first thing to do before starting to make any more serious tweaks is to check that your video drivers are up to date, or even look up whether anyone else has reported issues with YouTube crashing on the driver version that you’re on. If so, then you should consider uninstalling your video card driver and installing an older version. Here’s a quick way to do it:

1. Press “Windows key + R” and type devmgmt.msc into the box.

2. In Device Manager, click “Display adapters,” double-click your video card, click the Driver tab, then “Roll Back Driver.”
 

 

Disable Hardware Acceleration

YouTube crashing to a blue screen is usually a sign of compatibility issues between your web browser and your graphics card. One solution is to disable hardware acceleration for your videos. Here’s how to do it in all the major browsers.

• Firefox
  • Go to the “3-bar” menu icon at the top right and select “Options -> Advanced,” then under the “General” tab untick the “Use hardware acceleration when available” box.
• Chrome
  • Go to the 3-dot menu icon at the top right and select “Settings -> Show advanced settings,” then scroll down to System and untick the “Use hardware acceleration when available” box.
• Edge
  • Go to “Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Advanced,” then tick the “Use software rendering instead of GPU rendering” box.

Disable Flash

Flash is steadily being killed off by browsers and websites. YouTube stopped using the outdated plug-in back in 2015, but it can still function in the background and perform various (probably unnecessary) tasks that can cause crashes. Here’s how to disable it.

• Firefox
  • As of August 2016, Mozilla blocked Flash on its browser by default, so when there’s a page with elements of Flash in it, it’ll ask for your consent to turn it on (say “No”). You can also completely uninstall Flash by going to “Control Panel -> Programs and Features.” Then find “Adobe Flash Player” and uninstall it.
• Chrome
  • Type chrome://plugins into the URL section of Chrome, and then click “Disable” under Adobe Flash Player.
     
• Edge
  • Click the 3-dot menu icon at the top right of the browser, click “View advanced settings,” then switch “Use Adobe Flash Player” to Off.

Another suggestion was to disable GPU rasterization (found under “chrome://flags”) to resolve the issue,
if the issue persists, let me know and we can proceed accordingly.

Keep me posted, as I (Or a trusted colleague) shall follow-up on this case to ensure the concern has been addressed, 

And your device is up and running again, only in case you don't get back to us, first! 

That said, If the information I've provided was helpful, give us some reinforcement by clicking the solution and kudos buttons, 

That'll help us, and others see that we've got the answers!

Good Luck.