PDF.js is randomly crashing the Google Chrome tab

Question

My problem may seem a bit vague (it is to me too), but here is my attempted explanation of it.

A few months ago, I implemented PDF.js in my web application. It was really useful, and I am using it for interactions with my clients.

Suddenly, last week, my clients reported to me "Aw, Snap" messages in Google Chrome on their PCs when they try to launch PDF.js. I have an iMac and two PCs at home, so I decided to test this out.

When I used Google Chrome on my iMac to launch PDF.js, I found it worked fine.

When I used Google Chrome on my first PC to launch PDF.js, I found it worked fine.

When I used Google Chrome on my second PC to launch PDF.js, even though it previously worked, it kept crashing and showing me "Aw, Snap" messages.

This was weird. I tried removing all the extensions, clearing the cache, clearing the LocalStorage, but nothing seemed to fix the problem.

I then realised, after some communication with my clients, launching PDF.js in Safari, Torch, Opera or Firefox on any operating system worked perfectly fine.

Why would this happen? I am using the web viewer in PDF.js. I also tried with the basic hello world example, but that broke as well (which I now find really weird), so I suspect there's something wrong with the rendering engine.

I also tried including the compatibility.js file after building the source, but with no avail.

Is there any known bug which causes Google Chrome tabs to crash?

Answer 1

Yes, I got it now.

From https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/issues/4104, I found the answer (thanks Rob and PDF.js dev team!). Take a look yourself!

I'm only posting this here so that anyone who stumbles upon this post with a similar problem can be helped (as this error took me quite a while to figure out).

Answer 2

Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case. We've tried the latest version of pdf.js from github, also tried Chrome 33 (stable) which should have their V8 fix included and it still crashes. Also, tried the pdf.js commit mentioned in github thread (4ce6cb8 - https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/commit/4ce6cb8b0fa9db948516b2b738fa1503cf0ef90e) - still crashes. Also tried latest Chrome Canary available on 19/03/2014 - crash is there.

We can provide the WinDbg memory dump if it's of any help.

PS: sorry, this should be the answer to Rob W thread right above but I cannot add it there due to 0 reputation.