IPad 3 safari crashing since 7.1.2 update

Question

I Updated all 3 of my is devices last week - iPhone 5c, iPad 3 and iPad 4, but only the iPad 3 is having problems with crashing Safari. Specifically, when trying to fill out forms on a number of different websites, it's crashing every time.
So far I've tried clearing the Safari cache, clearing all website data, and done hard resets after each change. Still crashing. I'm also making sure all other apps are closed, in case it's a memory problem?? It's a 16G ipad 3 and I have 1G of memory left. No problems with my 64G iPad 4.
Is anyone else else having this problem? Is there anything else I should try?
Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

There were a number of people and tech sites talking about the update to iOS 7 being forced on their devices when the iOS was released almost a year ago. I had never heard of anything like that before, and I cannot recall what the supposed reasoning was behind the update being forced on devices. Activation Lock was introduced in iOS 7 and I can't remember if that was alleged to be the force behind the update appearing automatically on people's devices, but until iOS 7, auto downloads of an iOS were unheard of.
The biggest and most annoying issues that I have experienced as  I have downloaded the latest updates were and continue to be issues with the keyboard. The keys stick, auto-correct in general has been flakey and here in the ASC it has become a joke the way it works. I have also noticed that the battery seems to drain faster with each new major update. I realize that my iPad is over two years old now, but there is no question in my mind that as soon as I started using iOS 7, which was over a year ago, my battery performance started to suffer a little bit. At that time, my iPad was not quite a year and a half old, so I believe that the strain from iOS 7 was the bigger contributor to the battery performance than the age of the battery itself. I also experience more crashes than I did in iOS 6, and once again, I believe that the iOS is taxing the A5 processor more than iOS 6 did (which makes sense IMO) and iOS 8 will tax it even more.
Having said all of this, my iPad 3 still performs quite well for the most part. It doesn't perform like it did out of the box two years ago, but I don't expect it to either since it is running two iOS versions higher than what was installed on it, and the demands of the iOS do take a toll on the device. By the same token, there are many, many users that claim that their older iPads (versions 2 & 3) run just fine with each new upgrade.
I am not retired and living on a fixed income, but I am self employed and struggling to keep a slowly dying business going for another couple of years so that I can retire, and start collecting a decent Social Security check. I would love to be able to keep my iPad 3 humming along for another couple of years. I am using an iMac at work that is over 6 years old, running Tiger 10.4.11 without any problems at all. I want to get as many years as I can get out of my computers, tablets and phones.
I found a couple of articles that talk about keeping enough free space on your device in order to keep it running smoothly and efficiently. The free space issue I something that some people don't attach that much importance to and some people think it's very important. If your iPad is running OK filled to the max, then it's obviously not an issue for you.
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-speed-up-ios-7-on-an-older-device/
http://lifehacker.com/5897438/how-to-speed-up-clean-up-and-revive-your-iphone