Chrome Aw Snap Error on Facebook Videos – Quick Fix

You're scrolling through Facebook, click on a video—maybe a friend's post or a reel—and suddenly Chrome gives you that gray screen with the sad face and the words "Aw, Snap! Something went wrong while displaying this webpage." The error code underneath is usually STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION. It happens almost every time you try to play a video, but regular text pages load fine. It's not just Facebook—sites like YouTube or Twitch can trigger it too, but Facebook videos are the most common culprit in my experience.

What's causing this?

At its core, the STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION error means Chrome's GPU process tried to access memory it wasn't allowed to touch. That's a fancy way of saying the browser's video rendering engine (which uses your graphics card) is fighting with something else. In 9 out of 10 cases, it's one of two things:

Corrupted GPU drivers. Your graphics card drivers got borked during an update or a partial uninstall.
A bad Chrome profile. Something in your user data—like a corrupted extension, settings file, or cache—is tripping up the GPU process.

Less common but also possible: your antivirus is blocking Chrome's GPU process, or you're running an outdated version of Chrome that has a bug with video codecs. I've seen this on Windows 10 and 11, mostly with Chrome versions 110 through 120, but it can pop up anywhere.

The fix: step by step

Below is the order I'd try. Start with step 1—it works for most people. Don't skip steps just because they seem simple; I've seen techs waste hours over something as basic as a reboot.

Update your GPU drivers. This is the first thing you should do.

Press Win + R, type devmgmt.msc, and hit Enter.
Expand "Display adapters." You'll see your graphics card listed there (e.g., NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or Intel UHD Graphics 620).
Right-click it and choose "Update driver." Then click "Search automatically for drivers."
After it finishes (or says you're up to date), reboot your computer.
After the reboot, test Facebook video playback. If the error is gone, you're done.

Disable hardware acceleration in Chrome. This forces Chrome to use your CPU for video instead of the GPU, which sidesteps the memory access problem.

Open Chrome and click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > System.
Turn off "Use hardware acceleration when available."
Click the blue "Relaunch" button that appears. Chrome will restart.
After it opens again, try playing the Facebook video. If it works now, you can leave hardware acceleration off, but know that video performance might be slightly worse on very old machines.

Clear Chrome's cache and cookies. Sometimes a corrupted video cache is the trigger.

Click the three-dot menu, then go to More tools > Clear browsing data.
Set the time range to "All time."
Check the boxes for "Cookies and other site data" and "Cached images and files."
Click "Clear data." This might sign you out of websites, so have your passwords handy.
After it finishes, close Chrome completely and reopen it. Test the video.

Disable Chrome's sandbox (advanced). This is a workaround that can fix driver conflicts, but it lowers security slightly, so don't leave it permanent.

Right-click your Chrome shortcut on the desktop or taskbar, and select "Properties."
In the "Target" field, you'll see something like: C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
Add a space at the end, then type --disable-gpu-sandbox. The full line should look like: C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --disable-gpu-sandbox
Click Apply, then OK.
Open Chrome using that shortcut. Test the video. If it works, you've found the conflict. Then you'll want to remove that flag and try updating your drivers more thoroughly (see step 6).

Create a new Chrome user profile. This is the fastest way to tell if your profile is corrupted.

In Chrome, click your profile icon (top-right) and then click the gear icon next to "Other profiles."
Click "Add" and give the new profile a name like "Test."
Switch to that profile (it'll open a new window).
Log into Facebook and try playing a video. If it works, your old profile has something broken in it. You can migrate your bookmarks and passwords later, but for now, you've isolated the problem.

Run a clean install of Chrome. If nothing else worked, this usually nails it.

Uninstall Chrome from Windows: go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps, find Chrome, click the three dots, and choose "Uninstall."
Important: Check the box that says "Also delete your browsing data" if you see it. This removes the local profile that might be corrupted.
Reboot your computer (don't skip this).
Go to google.com/chrome and download the fresh installer. Run it and reinstall.
Sign back into Chrome and test Facebook videos. They should work now.

What if it still fails?

If you've done all six steps and the error persists, you've got a deeper system issue. Here's what to check next:

Antivirus interference. Temporarily disable your third-party antivirus (like Norton or McAfee) and test the video. If it works, add Chrome as an exception in that antivirus. Windows Defender is fine—I've never seen it cause this error.
Overlays or recording software. Discord overlay, NVIDIA GeForce Experience overlay, or OBS can sometimes hook into Chrome's GPU process. Close those apps entirely and test again.
Windows corruption. Run sfc /scannow in a Command Prompt (run as admin). If it finds integrity violations, it'll fix them. Reboot and test.
Hardware failure. This is rare, but if your GPU is failing, videos can trigger crashes. You'd likely see artifacts or other crashes in games too. Run a stress test like FurMark to check for GPU stability.

One last thing: if you're using an old version of Windows (like 7 or 8.1), Chrome dropped support for those in 2023. The browser will still open, but video playback can be unstable. Upgrade to Windows 10 or 11 if that's the case.