IE 6 hangs on Autocomplete... Clear Passwords, and CPU maxes out

[the Other Ken]

I searched the IE online help and this newsgroup before
posting this, and didn't find anything.

In Tools > Content > Autocomplete: when I click on Clear
Passwords and OK the confirmation pop-up, IE hangs and my
System Monitor shows Kernel Processor Use pegged out at
100%. I've waited, even left it all night
(aside to MVPs: is that a bad thing to do when CPU usage =
100%?)
but have not been rewarded for my patience. Ctrl-Alt-Del
is the only way out.

Additional information: I've never seen drop-down menus in
any of my password fields as I have in most other fields.
Should I have? (That is, is hanging on Clear just a side
effect of something else that's wrong?) The rest of the
Autocomplete functionality seems to work.

If the problem is known and documented, feel free to just
point me to it. Advthanksance for any and all help.

Cheers,
the Other Ken

 

[DVarnau]

Ken,
Run registry editor (regedit.exe)
Navigate to this key
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ IntelliForms\SPW]
Export, then delete that key. Just the SPW key- not the Intelliforms key.
Restart.

This article should help.
Q322754 - HOW TO Backup, Edit, and Restore the Registry in Windows 95, 98,
and Me: http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;q322754
It contains links to other articles for XP & 2K.

Now... regarding:

I've waited, even left it all night
is that a bad thing to do when CPU usage =
100%?)

You're a VERY patient person. ;-)

Hope this helps,
Don

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Don! Reply much appreciated. (Sorry I should've
specified my platform, it is Win98SE on a PIII.)

I've read up on the registry before, in a few of the big
thick aftermarket books, and will be glad to go through
the reference you supplied over the next while. It looks
really good.

Unfortunately, I have no SPW key in my IntelliForms key.
It has a default "no value" key, and a DWORD "AskUser" key
with a hex value of 0. I searched the reg (keys, names,
values) for "SPW" and got a lot of entries related to
DirectPlay8SPWSock and one for MSPWL32.dll, that's all.

Supplementary questions:
- Do you have any idea how it got this way?
- Do you have any idea what the CPU is doing when it pegs
at 100% instead of erroring out?

Oh, and about leaving it running all night: yes, I've been
told many times that I'm very patient, but in this case it
was bedtime anyway! zzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[DVarnau]

Ken,
No offense intended. There are so many newbies posting to this NG that you
try to give very conservative, very safe advice. You probably know more
about the registry than I do ;-)

It has a default "no value" key, and a DWORD "AskUser" key
with a hex value of 0. I searched the reg (keys, names,

I have those same values and autocomplete works. Does autocomplete of
usernames and passwords work for you?
Do you logon to Windows? Even if you're the only user, some autocomplete
functions reqire logon information.

Just curious (and stalling for time) do you have this key?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Protected Storage System
Provider\username\Data

Don

 

[the other Ken]

Sorry for the long delay working my way out of several
Alice-in-WonderWebland rabbit holes to get back to this
thread of mine.

Offence? Moi??? Nevair! I _am_ a newbie, a newbie to the
world of having to fend for yourself instead of having
sysadmins to make the Unix, Linux, NT, W2K, and XP boxes
we worked on, all work _and_ play nice with one another.
So in a lot of ways I'm technically literate and in a lot
of others I'll never be there. I apologize if I made a
Good Samaritan such as yourself wonder if he had given
offence.

Oh, and all that reading about the registry just taught
me that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and I'd
have to be some kinda crazy Sorcerer's Apprentice to want
to touch it, at least so far.

In answer to your "stalling for time" ;-) question, no
users are set up as far as I know or can see in the
Control Panel applets.
Under the Provider key are two keys, "Local Machine" (with
the quotes) and "client" (without quotes). "client" is a
name I see show up in places on this computer, which was
checked out and sold to me by an MCSE acquaintance. I
sometimes see programs registered to "client", stuff like
that. And I think the computer name was "client" before I
changed it.

Each of those keys has 2 keys: Data and Data 2. Not too
much in them, with the huge exception of client\Data. It
has 3 keys with long alphanumeric names, each with at least
one key under it. One of them has a long-name key under
it, and it exploded in size when I clicked to expand it.
More details by mail, hope that's not bad netiquette.

The past week I've noticed that editing Favourites hangs
the browser for hals a minute; ditto if I use Windows
Explorer to add/delete a file/folder, or change a name.
I'm not mentioning this to change the subject, but in case
it's a clue to something here. Otherwise I'll go off to
another
group looking for that solution.

Many thanks again,
Ken

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

(Sorry I should've specified my platform, it is Win98SE on a PIII.)

<title>KB251787 - Delayed Response When Editing Internet Explorer Forms and Outlook Express May Take a Long Time to Start</title>

(MSKB Boolean search for
pstore AND kbie98search
)

 

[the other Ken]

Robert,

I checked out that article. Thanks. I don't have a
delayed-response problem, though I see a lot in common
there with what Don has been asking about.

The first step in the article is to clear forms and
passwords. It's precisely when clearing passwords that I
hang. (I wasn't clearing them because of slow response,
though.)

Oh, and I don't have a pstore.log file.

Current thinking between Don and me is that it might be
due to the possibility that passwords have never been
saved on this box, so my Clear Passwords operation is
slamming into a rare uninitialized state of who-knows-what.

Till I find a cause and solution, I have peace of mind
from the fact that no one has leapt up to cry, "Danger!"
at the situation. For that as well as for lending your
brains, I thank you guys.

Cheers,
Ken