Why would my browsers keep crashing?

[LowLevelWhingeing]

I'm on a macbook using Safari or Chrome. I get anything from 1 minute to 10 minutes and then they stop responding and I have to force quit.

Can anyone guess why it might be? I can't possibly have a virus could I?

PS just trying Firefox now. done 3 minutes so far...

It won't be a virus, there aren't any viruses for Macs.

It's worth trying to clear the browsers cache and history, there might be something in there causing it trouble.

Have you checked for updates recently?

Some sites are also just badly written and Flash in particular can be more than a bit rubbish.

It's also worth repairing the permissions, on a Mc overtime you can get problems there. Bring up finder, go to Applications and then Utilities and find Disk Utility. Select your disk and click "Repair Disk Permissions".

Great thanks.

I've just realised I imported bookmarks and history from safari to chrome yesterday, so you could be right. I'll try it later.

OK, cleared the cache in Safari, so far so good...

Are there really no viruses for Macs? I would have thought that some trouble maker would have got into that at some point!

No there are no viruses for Macs (well technically speaking there's nothing for Macs running OS X).

The Mac is basically a far more secure system than Windows is, it's not just about it being less common.

I would never go as far as to claim that they're invulnerable. Make sure your system is up to date with system updates and keep an ear open, it's been 10 years with no viruses but I wouldn't presume it will stay that way.

I'd still do the repair permissions thing, it's a good thing to do once in a while.