Help!! IE6 / 5.5 constant crashes

[Ram Krishnan]

Hi,

I had win2k SP3 + IE 5.5 SP1 working fine for a long time. Suddenly in the
last three weeks
I started to face constant IE crashes - it seemed to have started around the
time I had run the
Nortal to pick up the latest anti-virus updates after the recent spate of virus
news a few weeks
back - but I cannot say for sure if that is the cause. It could even be with
the install of win2k
Sp3 itself (I was on SP2 first).

I do not see the crash in some sites like yahoo or many sites with plain
(non-fancy) html pages.
I consistantly see it with hotmail.com website - either going to the main page
itself, or after entering
the username/password and I click "login" or after I login when I click on the
Inbox tab.

The crash is extensive - it crashes almost for 90% of the pages I visit ! and
is driving me nuts.

Latest Norton anti-virus check says my system is all clean and never had a
problem.
I first tried clearing ALL cache/objects/files/cookies but no luck.
I tried to deinstall IE 5.5 but could not - so I instead upgraded to IE 6.0 and
problem persists.
With IE 6 I even tried the "repair" - still no go.

What is driving me more mad is that when the crash happens, I do not get the
error reporting
screen (though it is ON in registry) - nor can I get any watson logs whether I
let the
IEWatsonEnabled set to 0 (for the OS to take over) or 1 (for IE to do the
honors).

So the Qs :
1. Any pointers on where to start looking ?
2. How can I "debug/diagnose" this better to get some trace/stack that will
help.

Cheers,
Ram

 

[Ram Krishnan]

An update - I used the "disable third party extensions" and
that seems to have resolved the crashes.

However, I have nothing much in the extensions :
in registry under
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Extensions
I have only two :
aim.exe and shdoclc.dll - the latter is part od IE help I suppose?
But I think the aim.exe has been there even before the crashes started.

How can I remove aim.exe extension ?

But under
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Plugins\Extension
there is a ".spop" with
application key pointing to C:\Program Files\INTERN~1\Plugins\NPDocBox.dll
and a mime type of intertrust-spop.

This app seems to be new - or is it part of IE 6 ? - could .spop be the culprit ?

Cheers,
Ram

 

[Sandi - Microsoft MVP]

It is essential to check for spyware/hijackware/foistware.

Go to IE tools, internet options, general tab. Click on the cache settings
button and then 'view objects'. Delete anything you don't recognise. If you
are unsure, or no objects appear, for diagnosis purposes I REALLY like
BHODemon, available at http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm. It
does not need installing - simply unzip and run the EXE programme. It is
very easy to use.

I find this programme is a better option than IE6's ability to turn off
"Enable third-party browser extensions (requires restart)". This disables
*all* plug-ins and makes troubleshooting very difficult.

Many people like AdAware, available at www.lavasoft.de . Make sure you keep
the signature files up to date and remember, AdAware may only remove the
current installation of spyware; it may not do anything about software that
reinstalls itself, so unless you want to get stuck in an endless loop of
hijack/cleanout/hijack/cleanout make sure you get rid of whatever is
installing the junk. See my Troubleshooting advice for information about
how to track down and get rid of spyware completely.
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/Darnit.htm#tshoot

An excellent replacement for AdAware is Spybot. Again, it is a free
programme which can be downloaded from:
http://spybot.eon.net.au/

--
Install the latest IE cumulative patch for protection against QHost:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/security_bulletins/ms03-040.asp
More information about QHosts can be found here:
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/darnit_3.htm#qhost
________________________________________
Sandi - Microsoft MVP since 1999 (IE/OE)
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer

 

[Andrew V Winfield]

Hi,

I know this kind of problem with my friend's computer...
it happened by bad modem which affecting Internet Explorer
crashing... replaced it new modem, its solved. Try to
purchase one very good modem like US Robotics modem (#1),
and test it with your computer, if it's worked without
crashing, then your current modem is dud.

Andy....

P.S. Have enjoy, and I will pray for you and God loves you
as do I, smiling....