IE Still hangs.

[rocknbil]

All other browsers have zero problems. When a page is requested, IE just hangs with "waiting for "superlightwebsite.com . . . . "

An extension of this thread [webmasterworld.com] (please refer if you're wondering about specs) I had presumed it was my satellite Internet.

It was not. I have moved, and am on DSL now, and I've been getting totally hosed for years by satellite, living in an electronic molasses bucket. But that's another story.

The hanging IE issue still exists, with all add-ons disabled except PDF (experimentally turning it off didn't seem to help).

It's extremely hard to debug as there's no consistent cause. One day it's there, next day it's not, the only sure fire fix is shut down all apps, reboot comp. Seldom an option if you have many irons in the fire.

Maybe it's my router, don't know, I'm still not eliminating that I may have something here that is killing IE. But no other browsers or Internet apps are having problems.

Only IE.

Funny, this kind of complaint is usually in the CSS forum, but all my pages are cross browser compatible. If I can get to them to see them. :-)

[caribguy]

The second line fixed an IE "hanging" case for us:

<base href="http://www.example.com" />
<!--[if lte IE 6]></base><![endif]-->

[rocknbil]

Thanks, but it's not page specific. It's just not navigating to **any** pages, even Google.

[caribguy]

Ah, sorry for misreading your post.

Now that I also looked at your earlier thread, I'm thinking that you may have a partially uninstalled or otherwise broken component somewhere... Have you checked to make sure you don't have multiple Java runtimes installed?

I use a free tool called Spybot Search & Destroy to control which ActiveX and Browser Helper Objects are allowed to run. JavaRa is a good one to clean out obsolete JRE and JDK files.

Are you able to access any websites by typing the url in the Explorer addressbar rather than starting IE?

[rocknbil]

Yes, Java is one of the rabbit holes I've been down, updating it, uninstalling it, reinstalling it fresh.

Correct, I don't have a "home page" set for IE. It's all through the address bar.

Oddly enough, since the original post, I was demonstrating the aberration to someone and IE navigated perfectly, making a liar out of me. This A.M., back to the same stuff, not navigating anywhere. Computer has not been rebooted or new programs launched.

It's just very, very weird.

As a programmer one of the most frustrating things is trying to debug a problem with no *apparent* repeatability.

[caribguy]

Re starting IE: rather than starting the "iexplore" program and then typing the url in its address bar, is there a difference if you type the url in "explorer" as you navigate your filesystem?

Make absolutely sure that there aren't multiple versions of Java installed. Also, check how much memory and disk cache is made available - the default apparently is "unlimited."

I haven't tested this, have Java completely disabled on my main workstation: but saw this note on managing memory and disk requirements - sounds reasonable to me...

[ssec.wisc.edu...]

For Java versions 1.5 and above, first click the "Java" tab on the Control Panel, and then under the "Java Applet Runtime Settings" pane, click the "View..." button. In the space provided under "Java Runtime Parameters", please type the following (exactly as shown):
-Xmx128m

Then click "OK", and then back in the Java Control Panel, click the "Apply" button.

Finally, we urge you to change the amount of disk space allocated for "Temporary Internet Files". On the "General" panel, click the "Settings..." button. On the panel that pops up, you may change the amount of storage used. Seldom will you need more that 50MB. NOTE that on Java 1.5, the default is UNLIMITED!

My default debugging toolset includes "Process Explorer" from Sysinternals (which recently became part of MS). This allows you to get in-depth information on what is running, and allows you to kill, restart any process that is giving you a headache...

[caribguy]

Fixed it yet?

[rocknbil]

Thanks for asking. No. It comes and goes at will, tried your suggestions. IE just . . . . well you all know the S word.

Connecting to iedrivesmeinsane.example.com . . .

Waiting for iedrivesmeinsane.example.com . . . . . . .

Meanwhile I fire up FF or Opera and get the job done. Last window to close is IE and it says . . . .

Waiting for iedrivesmeinsane.example.com . . . . . . .

[edited by: incrediBILL at 7:37 pm (utc) on Oct. 11, 2009]
[edit reason] exemplified :) [/edit]

[rocknbil]

Ack, sorry Bill, thought I was being generic but often forget people will buy any domain names these days . . . .

[penders]

Yes, I (still - having contributed to that other thread [webmasterworld.com]) have the same problem with IE8. Pages (any pages) refuse to load, just "waiting..." nothing actually happens. In fact I had just started IE8 and had attempted to go to Google, "waiting...", didn't load. In this state you can leave it for hours, it gets no where. Task Manager shows IE8 is doing nothing... 0%!

I have just restarted IE8 and bizarrely it is now OK (but it is not always this easy to fix). Only 1 tab open in IE8.

I have previously uninstalled all previous Java versions and reinstalled. I've just made the change that caribguy suggests, so we'll see how it goes. It's working OK at the moment.

I was wondering whether it was simply because I had too much open on the machine... I regularly have FF, Chrome and Opera open with many many tabs. But the machine is still coping OK in every other sense.