Google Chrome background tabs don't load/build until selected
INT_541 had the right answer above. Out of all the sites I checked, his was the only one that worked for me. I disabled the setting below and tabs started functioning like before (loading in the background). Without it, even tabs I had viewed would get unloaded until I viewed them again. It is nice to have this option if your bandwidth and PC can handle it.
chrome://flags/#enable-offline-auto-reload-visible-only