ChromeWebDriver - unknown error: Chrome failed to start: crashed

Question

I'm trying to test my application on Chrome with ChromeWebDriver but every time I try I get following exception:

   org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: crashed
  (Driver info: chromedriver=2.10.267521,platform=Windows NT 6.1 SP1 x86_64) (WARNING: The server did not provide any stacktrace information)
Command duration or timeout: 61.46 seconds
Build info: version: '2.41.0', revision: '3192d8a6c4449dc285928ba024779344f5423c58', time: '2014-03-27 11:29:39'
System info: host: 'PADAMSKI-W', ip: '10.10.8.60', os.name: 'Windows 7', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '6.1', java.version: '1.6.0_37'
Driver info: pl.axit.test.selenium.env.KoralinaChromeDriver
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler.createThrowable(ErrorHandler.java:193)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler.throwIfResponseFailed(ErrorHandler.java:145)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:595)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.startSession(RemoteWebDriver.java:240)
    at org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver.startSession(ChromeDriver.java:181)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.<init>(RemoteWebDriver.java:126)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.<init>(RemoteWebDriver.java:139)
    at org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver.<init>(ChromeDriver.java:160)
    at org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver.<init>(ChromeDriver.java:149)

In chromedriver.log I see

[0.681][INFO]: Launching chrome: "C:\Users\padamski.AXIT.PL\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --disable-background-networking --disable-client-side-phishing-detection --disable-component-update --disable-default-apps --disable-hang-monitor --disable-prompt-on-repost --disable-sync --disable-web-resources --enable-logging --ignore-certificate-errors --load-extension="C:\Users\PADAMS~1.PL\AppData\Local\Temp\scoped_dir4048_12236\internal" --logging-level=1 --metrics-recording-only --no-first-run --password-store=basic --remote-debugging-port=12573 --safebrowsing-disable-auto-update --safebrowsing-disable-download-protection --use-mock-keychain --user-data-dir="C:\Users\PADAMS~1.PL\AppData\Local\Temp\scoped_dir4048_22909" --window-size=6000,6000 data:,
[60.836][INFO]: RESPONSE InitSession unknown error: Chrome failed to start: crashed

I'm using:

• Chrome 36
• ChromeWebDriver 2.10
• Windows 7

In Process Explorer I can see that chromedriver.exe process is running but no window is opened and after few seconds I get above exception.

My starting code is:

 File f = ResourceProvider.getResource("tools/win/chromedriver.exe");
 System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", f.getAbsolutePath());
 return new ChromeDriver();

Answer 1

Eventually I found out that WebDriver was trying to run Chrome from C:\Users\______\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe, which was not working even when trying it manually. It was very strange because when I launch Chrome I use one installed in Program Files directory and it works without problems.

So I had uninstalled Chrome, deleted everything from c:\Users______\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\ and installed Chrome again. After that it started working.