If you are running Google's browser Chrome and noticing freezes when you open web pages in it, you may have tried a lot to resolve the issue. Most users report that Chrome freezes for a few seconds before they can continue working with the browser, while others mentioned that the browser may freeze for up to 20 seconds in which it becomes totally unresponsive. Even more puzzling, those users hear a beeping sound when the browser becomes available again.

The Internet is full of suggestions as to what affected users should do to resolve the issue. Scan their hard drives, reinstall Chrome, use a different user account, scan the RAM, install more memory, and so on.

German blogger Günther Born seems to have found one of the main causes for the freezes that may resolve them for Windows users. The automatic proxy detection settings seem to cause the freezes in the Chrome browser somehow, and while it is not clear why this is the case, it certainly fixed the hangs and beeps in Chrome for some users.

Fixing the issue

Open the Chrome web browser as usually and click on the settings icon on the right part of the main toolbar. Select Settings from the context menu, or if you prefer to be faster, load chrome://settings/ directly in the browser's address bar.

You should see a Show advanced settings link at the very bottom. Click on it to load additional preferences and settings that are displayed here once you do.

Scroll down until you reach the Network group. Here you need to click on Change proxy settings which opens the Internet Properties.

Click on Lan settings under Local Area Network settings to open the proxy configuration screen. Note that Chrome uses the same proxy settings that Internet Explorer uses on Windows.

Uncheck Automatically detect settings if checked and click on ok. You may also want to check the proxy settings here. If Chrome should use a direct connection but proxy server is selected, it may be causing the issues for you.

The new proxy settings are used automatically from that moment on. Note that this can resolve the issue in all Chromium based browsers, not only in Chrome itself.

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