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Question from Chantelle: Last night my Facebook just froze up and stopped responding to my mouse and keyboard.
I closed the browser and then reopened it but Facebook wouldn’t load at all. It gave me a “500 Internal Server Error” and just sat there. I tried over and over with the same result. I even tried rebooting the computer.
The thing is I can open Facebook just fine in other browsers, but I’m used to Chrome and I’d really like to use it with Facebook.
Can you tell me how to fix this?
Rick’s answer: Chantelle, a 500 Internal Server Error typically means there’s some issue preventing the browser from successfully loading the page source code into the browser. There are several possible causes for this but it’s always due to either an issue with the site’s web server or with the site’s code that’s stored in Chrome’s local browser cache.
The first thing I would try is clearing the problematic code from Chrome’s cache and see if that fixes the problem since Facebook is loading fine in other browsers. Here’s how:
1 – Open Chrome, then copy and paste the following into the address bar:
chrome://settings/content/all
2 – Press the Enter key on your keyboard.
3 – Find facebook.com in the list of cached sites and click on the Trash Can icon.
4 – Click the blue Delete button to confirm that you want to clear Chrome’s cache of all Facebook related data (note that this will sign you out of Facebook).
5 – Close Chrome and then reopen it.
6 – Try to sign back in to Facebook.
Give that a try, Chantelle. I have a feeling that will fix the problem, but if it doesn’t just let me know and I’ll tell you what to try next.
And by the way, this often works with most any website that will load in other browsers, but not Chrome. It isn’t exclusive to Facebook.
Update from Chantelle: Thanks, Rick. That worked!
Bonus tip: The Internet can be dangerous place these days. This can help keep you safe. (#ad)