Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of WeThotUWasAToad
WeThotUWasAToad

asked on

Severe image jiggling after recent Google Chrome update

Hello,

How do you revert back to a previous version of Google Chrome?

Sometime yesterday I noticed a change in the appearance of Google Chrome, in that the address bar now has a light blue border as shown in the following screenshot:

User generated image
My current version of Google Chrome:
User generated image
However, sometime later I went to join some friends playing a game at a website called slither.io (where players compete as snakes of different colors and sizes). However, after beginning to play, I noticed that the game image was jiggling or shaking to the point that I had to turn it off. The frame of the window itself does not move but the entire image (background and players) trembles as you might expect a picture on the wall to tremble during an earthquake.

The shaking movement is accompanied by a significant lag. I have experienced lag issues in the past but they always manifest as a sudden freeze for 2-3 seconds followed by a catch-up burst to put everything into its real-time position.

Interestingly, the shaking and lag become much worse by going into a congested area (ie the more snakes in the field of view, the worse the movement), and is almost nonexistent if you are in the outskirts with no one else around.

I've searched Google quite a bit for a solution and have tried each of the following:

• Zoom in/out
• Restart Chrome
• Restart computer
• Empty the Chrome history
• Chrome > Show advanced settings > scroll down to "System" > uncheck "Use hardware acceleration when available."
(Doing this made it worse.)
• Change monitor refresh rate.
(This came from a 2016 suggestion which recommended decreasing the refresh rate from 144 Hz to 60 Hz. However, I found my current monitor to be set at 30 Hz with an optional range of only 23 Hz to 30 Hz.)

I'm certainly open to other suggestions but since the problem began at the same time I noticed the border around the Google Chrome address bar, I'm assuming the two are related and hopeful there's a way to revert back to a previous version of Chrome.

By the way, have others noticed the new blue border around their Google Chrome address bar? I suspect that if I got an auto -update, other Chrome users got it as well.

Thanks
Avatar of David Favor
David Favor
Flag of United States of America image

Just checked the game.

Game works smooth for me + I running with a recent iMac + 1G up/down Fiber... so...

Might be your connection speed. Use https://SpeedTest.net to determine if your current speed matches for what you pay for.

Another consideration might be your computer. Chrome's task manager shows 500% CPU usage for this game. Whew... You best bring a beefy computer (with good fans) to the table when you play this game.

You may have to shutdown all other Apps to play this game, depending on your CPU thread count + speed + other Apps running.
It is just the new version of Chrome. I see the same thing and even not browsing or playing things. Just new that is all and nothing to change or be concerned about.

However, in normal use, no jiggling or shaking. I do not have access to anything that causes this.

My display runs at 60 Hz.  You might try changing to 60 Hz and you might (in Video Display settings) see if you have a scaling factor. Set that to 100% if you do.
Check to see if any plugins or extensions that you may have previously turned off or disabled for that site are turned back on. As with any update, it probably uses a bit more CPU than the previous version. I would open task manager and see what percentage use you get on the old Chrome (if you still have it) and the new one.

As for jitter, it could happen if the graphics card is having trouble keeping up now. Not having played the game, I am not sure how it is rendered, but this sounds a lot like a graphics card just being overloaded. Just not sure how the new version of Chrome might cause this. Maybe it handles graphics differently now. Maybe you need to update Java or Flash or some other software that the game uses that has issues with the new Chrome. There are so many edge possibilities.
Curious, if you set the game to low graphics mode, does the same thing happen?

I just ran it on a 2012 MacBookPro 13", 2.9 Ghx Intel Core i7, 8 GB memory, Intel HD Graphics 4000 with 1536 MB of graphics memory. I did not have any issues.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Andrew Leniart
Andrew Leniart
Flag of Australia image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
By the way, have you tried the game giving you problems with another browser like Firefox of even IE?

If ok in other browsers, suggest you follow this Chrome Troubleshooting exercise in this article I recently wrote before reverting to a previous version.
Andrew, such a simple check and we all missed it. Nice job.  I could have sworn he said he tried other browsers, but didn't.

WeThotUWasAToad: Have not heard back from you in a bit? Did the lower res setting make any difference? Did using a different browser make any difference.  And thanks for talking about that game, now I am finding myself playing it!  :-)