IE 7 Freezes

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I am using IE7 with XP Pro SP2.

I have noticed this behavior on several work PC’s and several PC’s that are away from the work environment [i.e. home PC’s].

Several employees, including myself, like to save webpages for future reference. For example, if there is a great thread in this forum, I will click file, “save as” to save the web page and most of the time it works fine. Perhaps about one out of five times, the save webpage dialog box opens and everything then freezes. The dialog box remains on 0% complete with everything in the IE7 session frozen [i.e. I cannot access any other tabs with other websites listed]. The only way to get out of this, is to use Windows task mgr and stop the application. Even if I wait 30 minutes—everything stays frozen—but windows task mgr still shows IE7 as running.

The frustrating part is that it occurs on all different websites. For example, one day everything will save fine from this forum and the next day, the very first web page I save from Woody’s then freezes. But when I re-open IE7 and try to save the same page again, it works fine and may work fine for a number of more times but then I run into a frozen session again–usually trying to save a new page on a different website.

I have confirmed this behavior away from work with the same software configurations [i.e. WIN XP Pro sp2 and IE7]…so that would appear to eliminate a firewall or ISP issue as the different PC all use different firewalls and have different ISP’s.

Anybody have any ideas to further troubleshoot or remedy this condition? THX.

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I am using IE7 with XP Pro SP2.
Anybody have any ideas to further troubleshoot or remedy this condition? THX.

1.) can you install IE8?
2.) Can you install XP SP3?

joe

--Joe

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1.) can you install IE8?
2.) Can you install XP SP3?

joe

Joe,
I can try this for my home PC and friends home PC, but for work, a number of our third party applications still have not been certified for IE8. The same for SP3…we are still waiting on one third party application’s approval to update.

Do you know if this behavior is caused by IE7 using XP SP2? I have not been able to find anything searching Microsoft’s site, Google groups, etc. Thanks.
JimC

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Do you know if this behavior is caused by IE7 using XP SP2? I have not been able to find anything searching Microsoft’s site, Google groups, etc.

Not specifically. I just know that IE8 is a much better product. I used to have some issues with IE7 locking up just browsing that I don’t see in IE8. Kind of the same with XP SP3. I did not really have problems with SP-2 but I’ve read a lot of posts where installing Sp3 just fixed an issue even though it was not specifically mentioned in the SP3 documentation.

Joe

--Joe

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Not specifically. I just know that IE8 is a much better product. I used to have some issues with IE7 locking up just browsing that I don’t see in IE8. Kind of the same with XP SP3. I did not really have problems with SP-2 but I’ve read a lot of posts where installing Sp3 just fixed an issue even though it was not specifically mentioned in the SP3 documentation.

Joe

Joe,
I have one more very important question that I read conflicting information on…..Should I need to uninstall IE8, do I install SP3 first and then IE8? Or do I install IE8 first and then SP3. I have seen inconsistent commentary on this advice. Thx.
JimC

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Does anyone have an opinion on this question:

I have one more very important question that I read conflicting information on…..Should I need to uninstall IE8, do I install SP3 first and then IE8? Or do I install IE8 first and then SP3. I have seen inconsistent commentary on this advice. Thx.
JimC

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It depends on whether you want to be able to uninstall IE8 (and revert to IE7).

If you install IE8 first, then Windows XP SP3, you won’t be able to uninstall IE8 any more unless you also uninstall SP3.

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It depends on whether you want to be able to uninstall IE8 (and revert to IE7).

If you install IE8 first, then Windows XP SP3, you won’t be able to uninstall IE8 any more unless you also uninstall SP3.

Hans,
Yes, I wanted the ability to uninstall IE8 and revert to IE7 if needed. To confirm I am understanding correctly, if I install SP3 first and then IE8, I can revert to IE7 without the uninstall of SP3, yes?
JimC

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Yes, if you install SP3 first, then IE8, you’ll be able to uninstall IE8 later on. That would automatically restore IE7.

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Yes, if you install SP3 first, then IE8, you’ll be able to uninstall IE8 later on. That would automatically restore IE7.

Hans,
Thanks for the clarification.

Sorry, I can be dense at times…I just wanted to be so careful and do the two updates in the correct order to permit the opportunity to uninstall IE8 if events worsen for me…I was so concerned about the conflicting advice on the internet as to the correct order to process the updates to permit an easy uninstall of IE8.

Again, thank you. JimC

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Perhaps about one out of five times, the save webpage dialog box opens and everything then freezes. The dialog box remains on 0% complete with everything in the IE7 session frozen [i.e. I cannot access any other tabs with other websites listed].

Does IE default to saving in the cache folder? Just wondering whether there could be a problem displaying the cache. If IE defaults to My Documents or “last used,” then this probably is not relevant.

I think there is a reasonable chance that IE re-fetches some or all of the page and its linked-in resources during the save process. (I would have thought it would wait for you to name the file and select the format, but perhaps it starts immediately so that the save process proceeds more quickly.) Perhaps the re-fetching process handles time-outs differently than the page display process. Do you use any DNS misdirection relevant for the problem pages? For example, do you redirect ad domains in the hosts file? Or is it possible that a firewall (on the machine or enterprise) is dropping those requests? You (or another patient soul) might be able to use Wireshark or another packet sniffer to observe what is happening during these episodes.

As a workaround, why not print to PDF?

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Does IE default to saving in the cache folder? Just wondering whether there could be a problem displaying the cache. If IE defaults to My Documents or “last used,” then this probably is not relevant.

I think there is a reasonable chance that IE re-fetches some or all of the page and its linked-in resources during the save process. (I would have thought it would wait for you to name the file and select the format, but perhaps it starts immediately so that the save process proceeds more quickly.) Perhaps the re-fetching process handles time-outs differently than the page display process. Do you use any DNS misdirection relevant for the problem pages? For example, do you redirect ad domains in the hosts file? Or is it possible that a firewall (on the machine or enterprise) is dropping those requests? You (or another patient soul) might be able to use Wireshark or another packet sniffer to observe what is happening during these episodes.

As a workaround, why not print to PDF?

I do get to select the save location it is only when the actual download starts does it “freeze”…..but again, it is inconsistent, with different websites—but on the 4 different PC’s that I have tried this on…By the time I have saved ten pages on any of the xp pro sp2 PC’s, IE7 will have frozen at least once and required me to use task mgr…I may have to restore to the pdf print gig as a workaround…at least for work. Thanks.
JimC

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