TL;DR: Tab throttling, GPU driver reset, memory pressure, or service worker update pause game loop. Refresh tab, close other apps, update browser, check overheating laptop thermal throttle.
Symptom description
Animation stops, input dead, audio loops or silence—distinct from red light game over state.
Chrome tab discarding
Low memory reclaims background tab—keep tab active foreground during run.
GPU process crash
Chrome yellow bar GPU restored message—reload immediately before next scored attempt.
Overheating thermal cap
Laptop hot to touch CPU downclocks—cool pad or pause five minutes.
Service worker update mid-session
PWA version swap rare reload prompt—accept update between runs not during.
Browser bug after sleep
Lid close resume graphics glitch—close game tab reopen fresh.
Extension memory leak
Task manager shift-esc end heavy extension subprocess test stability.
Network not usually culprit
Unless game fetches live assets each green—mostly offline after load verify DevTools network idle.
Recovery protocol
Ctrl+F5 hard reload, clear other tabs, retry casual run before PB waste.
Preventive habit
Restart browser before tournament block on clean profile playing official site only.
Document freeze pattern
Note OS browser version time since boot—pattern helps support if widespread bug report.
GPU process crash yellow bar
Chrome restore message—reload before scored attempt.
Thermal throttle laptop hot
Cool pad five minutes—CPU downclock mid-run freeze symptom.
Service worker update reload
PWA version swap—accept between runs not during green.
Browser restart before tournament block
Clean profile official site only—preventive habit.
Document freeze pattern
Note time since boot OS version—pattern helps support if widespread.
Discarded-tab pause that is not a red-light catch
A browser can discard a background tab to save memory. When you return, the doll is frozen, the audio is gone, and it is not a red-light catch. The catch has a result. The discard has a blank or a reload prompt. Read which one you are looking at before you hit the desk. If it is a discard, reload, click the canvas, and start a new attempt. The old attempt is void. Do not try to “finish” a frozen frame. There is nothing to finish.
Heat soak after a long video call
A laptop that just finished a video call is already warm. The doll will stutter in the second minute and you will call it a hard green. Give the machine five minutes with the lid open, or play the first attempts as unlogged warm-up while the fan settles. If the fan is at full speed before Start, today is a bad day for a best attempt. Play casually or wait. A best attempt on a throttled machine measures the fan. You already know the fan is loud.
Hard reload that bypasses a stale cached script
If the doll’s animation loops wrongly after an update, hard-reload the page once. A normal reload may keep the stale script. After the hard reload, play one unlogged attempt to confirm the cue is back, then log the next one. If the hard reload did nothing, the problem is not the cache. Look at heat, focus, and audio. Three different failures share a “it’s frozen” description. The reload splits the cache failure off from the others. Use it for that job only.
Clean window before a tournament block
Before a set of attempts you care about, close the extra tabs, restart the browser, and open only the game. This is dull and it removes discarded-tab surprises, stale scripts, and a chat banner waiting to fire. Do it once at the start, not after every death. Restarting after every death is superstition and it breaks your rhythm. One clean start, then the attempts you planned. If the tab discards anyway, you have too little memory for the other things still running, including the things you thought you closed. Check the fan and the process list once, then decide.
Void stamp when the tab returns blank
Write “void, discarded” on the attempt line and do not estimate how far you were. You do not know, and a guess becomes a best. The next line is a real attempt after the reload and the canvas click. Two lines, one void, one real. Players who skip the void line forget why the session has a hole. The hole is the browser. Naming it keeps the doll innocent and keeps you from “making up” the distance in the margin where it will be believed later.
One restart, then the planned count
Restart the browser once at the beginning if you are about to play a set you care about. Then play the count you planned. A second restart after a single death is a ritual. Rituals feel like control and they cost the warm-up. If the tab discards mid-set, that is a different event: reload, void the attempt, continue the count if the machine is otherwise fine. Continuing is not superstition. Restarting every time is. Know which one you are doing.
Process list checked only after the void line exists
The void line comes first. Then, if discards keep happening, look at the process list once. You are looking for a runaway task, not for a hobby. Close one obvious hog, try again, and stop investigating if the doll is stable. An afternoon of process-list tourism is not practice. One look, one close, back to the planned count. If it is still discarding, today is a casual day on a cooler machine or no machine. Write that down. A forced best on a discarding tab is a fiction.
