Empty frames

[Tom]

While surfing the Washington Post site, I came across an empty video box with
a tiny box in the upper left hand corner of the frame. Inside the tiny box
were three little dabs of red, green and blue colors. On another site, I
found an empty picture frame with the same tiny box. How can these be
opened? I have Windows XP, SP 3, Windows Media Player 11, IE 8. Thank you.

 

[R. McCarty]

Web pages can contain all kinds of multimedia content. One is Adobe
Flash. Empty boxes or frames can appear either because your PC doesn't
have the correct software add-on to render the content or your security
software may block it.
Common add-ons are Adobe Flash, Shockwave player and Sun Java.
You can test your setup for these at:
http://java.com/en/download/installed.jsp
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome/

Less common content might be Apple QuickTime
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/troubleshooting/

Also you can use Secunia scan to make sure you don't have any versions
that are outdated & insecure.
http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/online/

 

[Paul]

While surfing the Washington Post site, I came across an empty video box with
a tiny box in the upper left hand corner of the frame. Inside the tiny box
were three little dabs of red, green and blue colors. On another site, I
found an empty picture frame with the same tiny box. How can these be
opened? I have Windows XP, SP 3, Windows Media Player 11, IE 8. Thank you.

When I need a hint about something on a web page, sometimes in Firefox I
use "Viewage Source", then look through the source HTML. Internet Explorer
has a "View:Source" option as well. It is possible for pages to be constructed
in such a way, as to obscure the details, but if they want to give you
a decent chance to figure it out for yourself, it'll be visible in the
source code of the web page. Content which is streamed or needs a special
plugin, may have a whole paragraph of code to describe it, part of which
will place a prompt on the screen to install a plugin if the plugin is missing.

If the web page with the "little dabs of ... colors" was open to the
public, you could also post the link to the page. It seems washingtonpost.com
is subscription based, so I suppose we cannot view any arbitrary link
you might post.

Paul

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

[Crosspost to IE General]

How do you make out on this page? =>
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/

Or this one? => http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/155/tn_15507.html

1. Does the behavior persist if you start IE in No Add-ons mode?

=> Start | (All) Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Internet
Explorer (No add-ons).

Troubleshooting and Internet Explorer’s (No Add-ons) Mode [Applies to IE7 &
IE8 in all OSS]
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/07/25/678113.aspx

2. Does the behavior persist if you Reset IE Advanced settings (RIES)?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923737

3. What anti-virus application or security suite is installed and is your
subscription current? What anti-spyware applications (other than Defender)?
What third-party firewall (if any)? Were any of these applications running
in the background when you installed IE8?

4. Has a(nother) Norton or McAfee application ever been installed on this
machine (e.g., a free-trial version that came preinstalled when you bought
it)?
--
IE-specific newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Client - since 2002

 

[Sue J Thomas]

Maybe the latest, Feb., msft updates increased the security settings so
scripting, and other settings do not allow some video.

I have to use Firefox to get video more predictably.
Sue

[Crosspost to IE General]

How do you make out on this page? =>
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/

Or this one? => http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/155/tn_15507.html

1. Does the behavior persist if you start IE in No Add-ons mode?

=> Start | (All) Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Internet
Explorer (No add-ons).

Troubleshooting and Internet Explorer's (No Add-ons) Mode [Applies to IE7
& IE8 in all OSS]
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/07/25/678113.aspx

2. Does the behavior persist if you Reset IE Advanced settings (RIES)?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923737

3. What anti-virus application or security suite is installed and is your
subscription current? What anti-spyware applications (other than
Defender)? What third-party firewall (if any)? Were any of these
applications running in the background when you installed IE8?

4. Has a(nother) Norton or McAfee application ever been installed on this
machine (e.g., a free-trial version that came preinstalled when you bought
it)?
--
IE-specific newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Client - since 2002

While surfing the Washington Post site, I came across an empty video box
with a tiny box in the upper left hand corner of the frame. Inside the
tiny box were three little dabs of red, green and blue colors. On
another
site, I found an empty picture frame with the same tiny box. How can
these
be opened? I have Windows XP, SP 3, Windows Media Player 11, IE 8.
Thank
you.