AOL suddenly closes and restarts at Yahoo! Shopping search

[Vickie]

I wasn't quite sure where to post this...

This problem just started over the weekend, that I noticed.
(Nothing new added or changed on my system.)


I have XP SP1 and both AOL 7 and AOL 9 Optimized using cable broadband.
I use the Yahoo! Shopping site a lot
(http://shopping.yahoo.com/), but now any time I attempt any search
there through either AOL 9 or 7 the AOL browser window becomes
nonresponsive and results in AOL suddenly closing itself if I try and
close that window. (AOL 9 restarts automatically.) I can browse there
as long as I do not use the Search at all.

This does not happen on my older Win98 AOL7 system.

It's also fine through IE directly.

Only this one site seems to cause this.

I saw this error listed in the Details area when AOL was restarting
itself...

GPF

Error C0000005 in module mshtml.dll at 04D17D5C

Stack Trace:

0 : mshtml.dll 0001:00056d5c
1 : OLE32.DLL 0003:00000040

I've been looking up a few things based on the above, but didn't want
to go nuts since IE is working fine.

I spent hours with AOL tech support, which made the problem worse by
getting it so I could not longer even sign on...which I fixed myself.

I posted on an AOL forum and another AOL member said the same thing
also happened to them, but another said it worked fine.

I was hoping to get a few other people to try it through the AOL
browser and see and then report back here with their findings and what
windows, AOL versions and means of connecting they used.

I cleared the cache, did an AOL Auto Fix, and also did a AOL Quick
Restore from the AOL System Information Utility...no joy. Did a System
Restore as well, but I could not longer sign on to AOL afterwards. (I
think it had to do with all the other stuff I tried first), so I undid
that.)

I re-registered mshtml.dll using Start -> Run-> regsvr32 shtml.dll
It said succeesful, but made no difference in this problem.

I downloaded KB816506 (Internet Explorer or Outlook Express Quits
Unexpectedly with an Error in Mshtml.dll) but since IE itself can
search the site I didn't run it yet.

Ran NAV, AdAware and CWShredder in safe mode...all OK.

http://shopping.yahoo.com/

Search for anything there. See if you can get results and scroll
through them successfully. I'd appreciate if people could test this
site for me and post their findings and windows/aol version and means
of connection?

Thanks a lot-
Vickie

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I wasn't quite sure where to post this...

This problem just started over the weekend, that I noticed.
(Nothing new added or changed on my system.)


I have XP SP1 and both AOL 7 and AOL 9 Optimized using cable broadband.

Why not XPsp2? In any case what is the version of mshtml.dll?
(BTW you can get a more recent version than KB816506.)

I use the Yahoo! Shopping site a lot
(http://shopping.yahoo.com/), but now any time I attempt any search
there through either AOL 9 or 7 the AOL browser window becomes
nonresponsive and results in AOL suddenly closing itself

Use the System Properties Error Reporting option to request
a crash report for this program. (Press Win-Break, then select
the Advanced tab, Error Reporting...) Tell us what you have checked
there or Enable, Choose Programs... and tell us what you have
set there or use it to make sure that your AOL browser's crashes
can be reported on.

if I try and
close that window. (AOL 9 restarts automatically.) I can browse there
as long as I do not use the Search at all.

When it doesn't crash try comparing the size of the file being
generated. E.g. use View Source in both cases for identical
searches. Scroll to the bottom of the listing and verify that
the html is complete (e.g. it ends with an </html> tag.)
Also use the TIF viewer to find that view-source: file and
see its size. (By TIF viewer I mean press Alt-T,O,Alt-S,V
then use Alt-V,D Alt-V,I,Last Accessed in the resulting Explorer
window.) You will find the latest files accessed, including
the view-source file, listed at the bottom of that display.
The size will be one of the columns in the Detail view.
If it is not there right-click on a column header and put
a check on the Size item in the resulting pop-up menu.

This does not happen on my older Win98 AOL7 system.

It's also fine through IE directly.

Only this one site seems to cause this.

I saw this error listed in the Details area when AOL was restarting
itself...

GPF

Error C0000005 in module mshtml.dll at 04D17D5C

Stack Trace:

0 : mshtml.dll 0001:00056d5c
1 : OLE32.DLL 0003:00000040

It's not clear to me where you are seeing these diagnostics.
On Win98? Then that means that you are crashing there too.
The format of the addresses makes them look like details from
a Win98 crash report. XP addresses are usually one part
32-bit addresses.


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---

 

[Vickie]

Thank you, Bob.

Why not XPsp2? In any case what is the version of mshtml.dll?
(BTW you can get a more recent version than KB816506.)

I'm happy with SP1 for now. mshtml.dll is in a new places on the
machine. Not sure which one to look at. The one in Windows/System32
says version 6.0.2800.1498 and is 2746KB. I installed a microsoft
hotfix KB889669, since it seemed to have mshtml.dll in it, but it made
no difference.

In the meanwhile, a few other AOL members answered my AOL forum post
request to test the site as well. So far of 7 people who've tested it,
3 have their AOL software restart and 4 do not. Of the 3 with the
problem, one has SP1 and 2 have SP2. All are AOL 9, but not sure which
exact version, since they didn't provide the details.

Use the System Properties Error Reporting option to request
a crash report for this program. (Press Win-Break, then select
the Advanced tab, Error Reporting...) Tell us what you have checked
there or Enable, Choose Programs... and tell us what you have
set there or use it to make sure that your AOL browser's crashes
can be reported on.

Error reporting: "All Programs" is selected. Under that also selected
says "Programs from Microsoft" and "Windows Components."

These are listed in the area NOT to be reported on:
acsd.exe, aolwbspd.exe, and waol.exe. (I see they are AOL-related.)

When it doesn't crash try comparing the size of the file being
generated. E.g. use View Source in both cases for identical
searches. Scroll to the bottom of the listing and verify that
the html is complete (e.g. it ends with an </html> tag.)
Also use the TIF viewer to find that view-source: file and
see its size. (By TIF viewer I mean press Alt-T,O,Alt-S,V
then use Alt-V,D Alt-V,I,Last Accessed in the resulting Explorer
window.) You will find the latest files accessed, including
the view-source file, listed at the bottom of that display.
The size will be one of the columns in the Detail view.
If it is not there right-click on a column header and put
a check on the Size item in the resulting pop-up menu.

I see no means of viewing the source code when browsing through the AOL
software.
I tried your commands to view the TIF, which I often to for other
reasons, and see view-source file anywhere in that folder. I have
things arranged by Last Accessed there, but I see nothing besides the
usual cache stuff like gifs, jpgs, xml documents. What does that file
look like? I can't really do a comparision because through AOL it
never works at all. (Unless you mean compare access through AOl bvs
accessing it through IE.)

It's not clear to me where you are seeing these diagnostics.
On Win98? Then that means that you are crashing there too.
The format of the addresses makes them look like details from
a Win98 crash report. XP addresses are usually one part
32-bit addresses.

AOL has a utility called AOL System Information. A section there is
called Status, that keeps a running log of all errors AOl encounters.
Also, as AOL restarts itself after it has crashed, there's a Details
box, and the crash info is displayed there.

My Win98SE can search the http://shopping.yahoo.com/ site without any
AOL errors or problems. (AOL 7 on that system.)

Thank you for taking the time to try and help-

Vickie

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

The one in Windows/System32 says version 6.0.2800.1498
and is 2746KB. I installed a microsoft hotfix KB889669,
since it seemed to have mshtml.dll in it, but it made no difference.

It would depend on when you tried. This article shows that you
only have the security fixes, not the hotfixed version.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS05-020.mspx

The hotfixed version would be 6.00.2800.1499
The hotfixed version might still be available in the SoftwareDistribution
folder if that was one of the other locations where you found mshtml.

Error reporting: "All Programs" is selected. Under that also selected
says "Programs from Microsoft" and "Windows Components."

These are listed in the area NOT to be reported on:
acsd.exe, aolwbspd.exe, and waol.exe. (I see they are AOL-related.)

Could one of them be the program which is crashing?
Why not temporarily allow those to dump?

I see no means of viewing the source code when browsing through the AOL
software.

Does it use the same TIF? Instead of using View Source
you could compare the same .htm files being sent to each browser
(assuming that the HTML file is cacheable.)

I tried your commands to view the TIF, which I often to for other
reasons, and see view-source file anywhere in that folder.

I assume that was a typo for "don't see". <eg>
Well, what is the order that you did things?
If you opened the TIF viewer and then did the View Source
you would have to refresh the TIF view (press F5 and scroll
to the bottom again.) To be clearer about what you are looking
for, if View Source was the last thing that you did the bottom entry
in the TIF display would have an Internet Address which is prefixed by
view-source:

Perhaps you should try it first on some other pages which are less
complicated. Then you could see both the entry for the source
(Type: HTML Document) and the View-Source: (Type: Microsoft File)
on the same screen. Notice that the size is usually the same and
often the largest of all the items associated with the last access
timestamp. You could actually get the equivalent of View Source
by dragging the source file to an open Notepad window. That is what
I am suggesting you could do to substitute for View Source with your
other browser (assuming it uses the same TIF or if you can see its
cache in a similar way.)

BTW I didn't explain what I think the View Source might be useful for
showing. I was thinking that the if the page is significantly different in
size it could indicate that its transmission has been incomplete so that
the file is truncated or corrupted in some way. That could be especially
bad if there is scripting or other complex data types to be rendered
which have been interfered with.

In fact, if it happens frequently enough or is reproducible in any way
it could be a good idea to disable as much advanced rendering styles
as possible, e.g. using the Security Custom Level... dialog, etc.
and see if that changes the symptom.

AOL has a utility called AOL System Information. A section there is
called Status, that keeps a running log of all errors AOl encounters.
Also, as AOL restarts itself after it has crashed, there's a Details
box, and the crash info is displayed there.

Wow. Well, in that case it would look as if the crash is in a program
running in 16-bit mode. I don't have any 16-bit programs to check
but I think that Task Manager would show them running under
a single process called ntvdm.exe

<title>KB320127 - HOW TO: Identify a 16-bit Program in Windows XP</title>

(TechNet search for
"Task Manager" "16-bit" WOW
)

and in that case getting a dump would require a different procedure.

See what else you can find out using this information?


Good luck

Robert