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IE6 and MS Knowledge Base lockup problem

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by techspam

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Hi,

on a Laptop with WinXP Home, 512Mb RAM and IE 6.0.2600, I have a problem accessing pages with active server scripts in general and the Microsoft Knowledge Base in particular. Any page that accesses a database takes forever or never displays unless I add the URL to the trusted sites list, when it displays normally.

The MSKB takes this to the extreme. Any page takes about 5 mins to load, during which time there is frantic HDD activity but no processor activity (never more than 1% on system monitor). I have 200+Mb of free physical RAM, and a 1GHz processor.

Any ideas what is going on??? How do I get round this. I would check the knowledge base, but....

Thanks,

Gordon

8 replies

by dcosgrove

It's possibly a combination of "days to save history" and a fragmented HD. If you use the default 20 days to save history setting and browse much, you will accumulate a huge amount of info for your computer to check before opening a page. Add to this some degree of fragmentation and you get overworked hards drives and sluggish performance. Right click on the IE icon, press properties and clear history. If this speeds things up set the days to between 2 and 5 to keep it from building up thatmuch.

by techspam

Sorry, nice theory, but my HDD is defragged once a week and I only save one days worth of internet history as well. Good general points though. As I say, this problem only affects this one specific site, not sites in general.

by daz'n'ash

Try this for starters and see if it cures what ails your Internet Explorer ...

Internet Explorer versions 5, 5.5, and 6
Start Internet Explorer, and then click Internet Options on the Tools menu.

On the Advanced tab, click to clear one ormore of the following check boxes in the Multimedia area:

Show Pictures (prevents pictures from appearing automatically)
Play Sounds (prevents sounds from being played automatically)
Play Videos (prevents videos from being played automatically)
Play Animations (prevents animations from being played automatically)

Click Apply .

Disable the AutoComplete feature for forms and passwords:

On the Tools menu, click Internet Options .

Click the Content tab, and then click AutoComplete .

Click to clear the Forms and User names and passwords on forms check boxes, click OK , and then click OK .

Click the Security tab, and then click Custom Level .

Click Disable for one or more of the items in the following Active Content areas:

ActiveX Controls and Plug-ins (prevents Internet Explorer from automatically using items that show active content)
Java (prevents Internet Explorer from viewing Java programs automatically)
Scripting

NOTE: If you disable ActiveX, Java, and scripting, you may not be able to view Web sites that use these features.

Click OK , and then click OK .

Hope that helps.

by techspam

All valid points, and will speed up web sites that use too much of this sort of thing, but the problem is with specific sites locking up. The Washington Post site also does this, and I suspect it is a IE6.0 bug as no other web browser seems to have a problem.

I will increase the points on offer to 1500 and see if anyone else is tempted. Thanks anyway.

by daz'n'ash

Have you tried using the Internet Explorer repair tool? Just a thought, but might actually be as simple as that. Strange how only some sites lock up. Another thing to try would be to install Flah Player for Internet Explorer, if you haven't already.

by techspam

Tried this, but didn't help. I eventually tracked down the problem by watching the system usage during the lockups. It seems that Kaspersky Antivirus 4.0.2 has a problem with Javascript if used anything more than very sparingly, and will take forever to check the page, slowing it to a crawl. I upgraded to 4.0.5 and solved the problem. Thanks anyway!

Gord.

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