Getting a lot of IE crashes using XP?

Microsoft says its the toolbar

[steveb]

I've been getting a bunch of those error pop-ups and when I click for more information, the Microsoft page blames the toolbar. I've been using the back button a lot and that seems to make the crashes occur most of the time. I'm wondering if IE/XP users often get browser crashes and click to see that Google is being blamed.

[WindSun]

Actually I almost never crash, and I also have the Alexa bar.

[mack]

using google toolbar and alexa toolbar and almost no crashes... have you tried fixing internet explorer from the tool options?

[rcjordan]

IE/XP and google toolbar here for 7 or 8 months now. no problems.

[axisoftime]

It's probably an XP problem. Make sure your version of XP is completely updated.

Also, I've seen all kinds of IE crashes with users that didn't perform a fresh install of XP. If you upgraded from an older version of Windows, you should start over with a fresh install.

[jeremy goodrich]

IE crashes all the time on my xp home edition - and I'm not running the toolbar.

Funny thing is, I also run phoenix - a mozilla build - on that same box. That one almost never crashes.

How is it that IE crashes so much, when MS built it & XP, and a non MS not to mention free web browser, has far less problems?

It's mind boggling.

[JayC]

It's mind boggling.

Though not surprising. :)

Anyway steveb, I think it's important to make the distinction when talking about XP between the home and professional editions -- they are quite different. But I'll add to the numbers: one more who's been using IE with XP (Professional) for months, with the Google toolbar and with no problems.

[WindSun]

do you guys with all the crashes have the xp updates and recent video drivers?

We almost never crash with all kinds of stuff going.

[steveb]

I'm completely updated and fresh installed (XP Home) so that isn't an issue. I fiddled with the toolbar options just to have a different configuration in place but since it crashed a couple minutes ago I think that isn't going to help. I zip along very fast and its usually the back button that causes the crash.

Different question... if I uninstall the toolbar, will that uninstall that line of text I stuck somewhere to get the most updated pagerank from the main server? And if it does, could somebody remind me where that is so I can copy it before I try some reinstall tricks? The Windows text file, I forget its name...

[JayC]

Different question... if I uninstall the toolbar, will that uninstall that line of text I stuck somewhere to get the most updated pagerank from the main server?

It's in your HOSTS file. Nope, uninstalling and reinstalling the toolbar won't touch it.

[nativenewyorker]

The RAM in your computer may be at fault. I was using Win 98SE and my computer would constantly (3-5 times a day) get the Blue Screens of Death. After cursing Microsoft, wiping my hard drive and reinstalling roughly 10 times, I got fed up and switched to Win2000 Pro, which many claimed to be far superior and much more stable. Well, it worked fine for a couple weeks and then the Win2000 setup became severely corrupted. On a reinstall, it crashed during install. At that point, I dumped all of the generic memory that I had and replaced it with top grade memory (Cr*****). I haven't had a crash for about a year now. Since memory is so cheap these days, it is a good idea to replace generic memory or add to existing memory for an extra boost. I would not recommend mixing different types of memory. It's not worth the headache.

Ted

[ga_ga]

6 months on pentium 3/xp pro no service packs or update/ie6 here with google toolbar, was a fresh install on ntfs, system's been rock solid.

[axisoftime]

good point about memory. MS advertises you need 128MB to run XP, but I'd go higher. XP uses a lot more memory than windows predecessors, even Win2K, because XP is loaded with the cartoon-ish graphics.

steveb, I can see you on the next MAC commercial telling everyone to switch -

"IE kept crashing on me, even after a fresh XP install... so I switched to Mac and never looked back..." (too bad google toolbar won't run on mac)

[steveb]

What's a Mac....?

Kinda off the topic, but I am also getting (sometimes) a unknown file on my desktop after I shutdown Outlook Express, it's "name" is "~"... just that symbol. (The file is actually my address book.) I read somewhere this is a sign of a ailing hardrive, so that may be my problem. I have no memory issues or anything like that.

[Hefner]

i havent been getting crashes really, but i have been seeing my google "pagerank" option stop working, and then it will start again when it feels like it. i even tried loading google.com, it didnt load the pagerank, then i tried a different time and it worked.. very strange i think. is this happening to anyone else?

[Tropical Island]

XP Pro, tool bar, 512 MB ram, no updates....no problems!

[hakre]

the google toolbar just integrates into the open standard of the ie webbrowser control and can't crash it if the user presses the back button. it is not fired until the browser loaded in the previous page. don't pay too much attention on what that somebody told you.

[steveb]

"can't crash it if the user presses the back button."

It's the official Microsoft answer. The toolbar is causing the back button crashes.

[Susanne]

I have Windows 2000 and get plenty of crashes while using the back button, and only then. I've had the toolbar for roughly 12-14 months and it only started to happen during the last 3-4 months.

[hakre]

hi steveb,
the google toolbar can't crash ie when the user presses the ie-toolbar back button, because the event for the active border object (google toolbar) to update is fired in the page navigation complete event. this is fired by ie after the previous page has been displayed.

i think the tech support just asked if there are third party components and then blamed googletoolbar for this.

[steveb]

I'm just telling you what the Microsoft error message says.

[Susanne]

(Please see my previous post). The same things happen at home where I have the same OS. It seems it started when the latest version of the toolbar installed itself. Why would it happen on two different computers, only in the last few months and it's NEVER happened before? To me it definitely seems to be a fault in the toolbar. What else? I have one Giga of RAM and Pentium 3.

[WindSun]

"It's the official Microsoft answer.."

Reference link?

[roneill]

I have had the same problem and have all the updates you can have for XP. I notified Google of this a while ago and I know they are aware of the error and that their software engineers are working on it.

[WindSun]

Just a thought, but in my experience a large number of these kind of crashes are actually due to the graphics card driver doing weird things.
Have you tried updating that?

[roneill]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I know *everything* has the latest drivers and updates. And the problem has been around during all of the updates, before the updates, after the updates, etc.

[Mardi_Gras]

I guess the definitive test would be to just uninstall the toolbar and see if the crashes continue...Just my non-technical perspective...

[WindSun]

And also maybe take a look at what is in the registry - there might be an old instance of something not uninstalled correctly that is messing things up.

[steveb]

"Reference link?"

Cool, now I'll wait for a crash to snatch the URL, but just like a car sounds great when you take it to a mechanic, I except to be crash-less now for a few days...

[roneill]

If you are talking about the reference link to the error IE sends you at Microsoft's site here it is:

[oca.microsoft.com...]