Troubleshoot Stalled Web Page

[pwrichcreek]

When I go to the following page...

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/2008/05/24/disheartening-rhetoric-from-cso-board-chair/

the page opens and displays and then IE stalls (hourglass). Can someone help
be troubleshoot this? Perhaps some sort of plug-in is required that I do not
have installed? I'm running IE6 XP SP2 with all patches installed.

TIA,

Phil

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

When I go to the following page...

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/2008/05/24/disheartening-rhetoric-from-cso-board-chair/

the page opens and displays and then IE stalls (hourglass).

Not a clear enough symptom description. Is it still rendering? Did you try to do
something with it? Use all the parts of the IE window for more clues. E.g. watch
the Status bar (Maximize the window to maximize it.), the Title bar, the Address bar,
the Tabs (if this is IE7 instead of IE6), as well as the display area. Also, open the
TIF Viewer (Internet Options, Settings, View Files); set to View Details, and sort
by Last Accesssed. Etc.

Note: the TIF Viewer will only show files which are cached. In order to see other
requests for uncacheable files you could use Fiddler2 to trace the requests and responses.
Also, you could use ProcMon to trace whatever files and registry accesses lead up
to your "stall".

FWIW I didn't use Fiddler on this page so I don't know if there are any uncacheable
elements needed by the rendering. However, I don't think so because the page
can be rerendered completely from the cache. To show this I set Work Offline
(Alt-F,W) then load About:Blank over it (my Home page, so Alt-Home), then return
to the the problem page (Alt-CursorLeft). There were no requests to reconnect
so I conclude that the entire page can be reredendered from the TIF.


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---

 

[pwrichcreek]

Robert,

Thanks for your detailed reply.

To give you some idea of my level of experience (with IE):

open the TIF Viewer

I don't know that this is.

FWIW I didn't use Fiddler on this page

I don't know what Fiddler is.

Also, you could use ProcMon

I downloaded a file from MS SysInternals that contains among other things a
"Process Explorer" which, I think, is primarily an enhanced Windows Task
Manager. Don't think I have ProcMon. Where can I find it?

Not a clear enough symptom description.

Let me take another stab at that.

I paste the link into the address bar and press ENTER. The page appears to
load, that is, I see logos and graphics, etc, that I would expect (although
I've never before visited this page, it seems to contain what I would
expect). The status bar at the bottom of the page shows "Shortcut to reed"
and the progress bar has moved a bit, but has stopped showing any progress.

The only portion of the IE screen that seems to be responsive is the very
top (Title bar?). X (close) and - (minimize) are working, although I get "not
responding" when I try to CLOSE. When I move anywhere else in the page I get
the hourglass. I get no dropdown list from the Tools item and none of the
other items on the toolbar are responsive.

Windows Task Manager shows 100% CPU, with 96% in iexplore.exe.

The person who sent me the link says it is a blog. Are there special
requirements for viewing a blog from IE6?

Again, thanks for your reply. I will try to locate ProcMon and see if that
sheds any additional light.

Phil

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

; }


....

Let me take another stab at that.

I paste the link into the address bar and press ENTER. The page appears to
load, that is, I see logos and graphics, etc, that I would expect (although
I've never before visited this page, it seems to contain what I would
expect).

The status bar at the bottom of the page shows "Shortcut to reed"
and the progress bar has moved a bit, but has stopped showing any progress.

Is that dependent on the initial position of your mouse pointer?
E.g. do you see that if you open the page using your keyboard instead
and keep the mouse pointer completely out of the way?

The only portion of the IE screen that seems to be responsive is the very
top (Title bar?). X (close) and - (minimize) are working, although I get "not
responding" when I try to CLOSE. When I move anywhere else in the page I get
the hourglass. I get no dropdown list from the Tools item and none of the
other items on the toolbar are responsive.

Windows Task Manager shows 100% CPU, with 96% in iexplore.exe.

The person who sent me the link says it is a blog. Are there special
requirements for viewing a blog from IE6?

No. However, there is an RSS feed for that page.
You could try accessing it from there instead:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/BuzzingReed


Also, your symptoms might be caused by interfering third-party extensions.
You could try using the Manage Add-ons tool to disable everything except
previously seen extensions from Publisher Microsoft Corporation to see
if your symptoms change. Or to see if that would be the right tack to take
you could disable *all* third-party browser extensions (using that checkbox
in the Advanced tab--Ref. KB298931.)

Again, thanks for your reply. I will try to locate ProcMon and see if that
sheds any additional light.

You might find Fiddler simpler and more useful to try first... ; )


Good luck

Robert
---

 

[pwrichcreek]

Robert, again thanks for you reply.

I decided to take the easy way and went for the RSS feed link you provided.
That worked just fine.

Just for kicks, I then went to the main page glimmering.stew.com, which
contains a link to the 'reed' page. It also fails when I enter via that
route. So, I suspect something is broken in the glimmering.stew.com's
structure.

Anyway, I got where I want to go. Thanks.

Phil

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

Is that dependent on the initial position of your mouse pointer?
E.g. do you see that if you open the page using your keyboard instead
and keep the mouse pointer completely out of the way?

Also, your symptoms might be caused by interfering third-party extensions.
You could try using the Manage Add-ons tool to disable everything except
previously seen extensions from Publisher Microsoft Corporation to see
if your symptoms change. Or to see if that would be the right tack to take
you could disable *all* third-party browser extensions (using that checkbox
in the Advanced tab--Ref. KB298931.)

Interesting.... I'm trying on:

IE6, build 6.00.2800.1106 - Win98SE 4.10.2222 A, P-IV 2.4ghz, 1 gig ram,
using DSL at just under the equivalent of T-1.

Zero add-ons, plug-ins, or toolbars that aren't foisted upon me by MS or Adobe.
No Anti-virus has ever been installed, and only one old, no longer supported
version of Ad-Aware is on board.

The page sometimes loads the top graphic, other times not.... just some
initial borders and a set of menu links under the top graphic, with what
appears to be the majority of the text (depending on the phase of the
moon, apparently). It's completely unreliable as to when it begins to
fail in the loading process.... it's as if I get some different configuration
of the page every time I try. Anyway...

At that point, nothing else happens and the mouse/cursor becomes totally
ineffective on the page although it still moves. All access to navigating the
page is terminated... including the keyboard. The page can be reduced to
the task bar, but once there, will not re-open. Ctr-Alt-Del shows the page
as "not responding".

On subsequent attempts to load the page without first clearing the cache,
I lose icons in the system tray and nothing loads at all. Attempting to clear
the start menu of recent files resuilts in a hang in the OS there as well.
As I mentioned, after clearing the cache, I get different results each visit
but always the same non-functionality.

It would be interesting to know what abnormal scripts are written here that
are causing the anomaly(s)... but it remains completely impossible to view
the source for the page.



TIF Cache opens 7 sub-folders (Content IE5 folders) every time.

The following items are spread about... (these from the 'best' load).

http://c3.statcounter.com/t.php?sc_...curity=1312c6ee&sc_random=0.32846508916324884

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/BuzzingReed?bg=CCCC33&fg=996633&anim=0

Cookie:[email protected]/

http://www.statcounter.com/counter/counter_xhtml.js

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/Buzz.../disheartening-rhetoric-from-cso-board-chair/

http://widgets.technorati.com/t.js

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery.js?ver=1.2.3

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/2008/05/24/disheartening-rhetoric-from-cso-board-chair/

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/images/arrow_refresh.png

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/images/headers/buzz reed big copy.jpg

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/css/core.css.php

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/images/defaultgravatar.jpg

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/styles/dueling-sidebars/dueling-sidebars.css

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/images/feed.png

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/js/k2.comments.js.php?ver=1.0-RC6

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/js/k2.functions.js.php?ver=1.0-RC6

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/js/k2.livesearch.js.php?ver=1.0-RC6

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/js/k2.rollingarchives.js.php?ver=1.0-RC6

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/js/k2.slider.js.php?ver=1.0-RC6

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/js/k2.trimmer.js.php?ver=1.0-RC6

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/images/spinner.gif

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/style.css

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/images/symphonystrongsmall.png

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/images/tag_blue.png

http://glitteringstew.com/reed/wp-content/themes/k2/images/time.png

wbkC2A3.TMP

And at least one additional copy of all of those items.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Interesting.... I'm trying on:

IE6, build 6.00.2800.1106 - Win98SE 4.10.2222 A, P-IV 2.4ghz, 1 gig ram,
using DSL at just under the equivalent of T-1.

Zero add-ons, plug-ins, or toolbars that aren't foisted upon me by MS or Adobe.
No Anti-virus has ever been installed, and only one old, no longer supported
version of Ad-Aware is on board.

The page sometimes loads the top graphic, other times not.... just some
initial borders and a set of menu links under the top graphic, with what
appears to be the majority of the text (depending on the phase of the
moon, apparently). It's completely unreliable as to when it begins to
fail in the loading process.... it's as if I get some different configuration
of the page every time I try. Anyway...

At that point, nothing else happens and the mouse/cursor becomes totally
ineffective on the page although it still moves. All access to navigating the
page is terminated... including the keyboard. The page can be reduced to
the task bar, but once there, will not re-open. Ctr-Alt-Del shows the page
as "not responding".

On subsequent attempts to load the page without first clearing the cache,
I lose icons in the system tray and nothing loads at all. Attempting to clear
the start menu of recent files resuilts in a hang in the OS there as well.
As I mentioned, after clearing the cache, I get different results each visit
but always the same non-functionality.

It would be interesting to know what abnormal scripts are written here that
are causing the anomaly(s)... but it remains completely impossible to view
the source for the page.

I suspect if anything it's .css E.g. I'm using IE8 and it loads fine for me.
But if you suspect scripting you could change your security setting for
Active Scripting to Prompt and then selectively allow or disallow whatever
scripts there are as that page is rendered. Unfortunately there is no prompt
for .css However, you could use the IE Developer Toolbar to easily
Disable: All CSS and see how that changes your symptom. (It certainly

TIF Cache opens 7 sub-folders (Content IE5 folders) every time.

Did you use a shell: command to do that?
Use the Internet Options to open that. Or via IE: Alt-T,O,Alt-S,V
That should give you the "special view" of both the TIF and Cookies.
Use View Details, and View, Arrange Icons By... Last Accessed
to see the order the files were used by the rendering.

The following items are spread about... (these from the 'best' load).

....

More interesting I think would be whether the order of the files
as seen by Fiddler is the same as the order of the files as used
by IE. A difference might be due to scripting but it would more
likely be due to caching. I would try using Ctrl-F5 to try to reduce
that factor.. ; )


HTH

Robert
---

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

I suspect if anything it's .css E.g. I'm using IE8 and it loads fine for me.
But if you suspect scripting you could change your security setting for
Active Scripting to Prompt and then selectively allow or disallow whatever
scripts there are as that page is rendered. Unfortunately there is no prompt
for .css However, you could use the IE Developer Toolbar to easily
Disable: All CSS and see how that changes your symptom. (It certainly
would as far as layout is concerned. <eg>)

Odd to think a style sheet could do this.

Did you use a shell: command to do that?

I just examined the IE5 sub-folders in the TIF folder itself, after each attempt.

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

I suspect if anything it's .css E.g. I'm using IE8 and it loads fine for me.
But if you suspect scripting you could change your security setting for
Active Scripting to Prompt and then selectively allow or disallow whatever
scripts there are as that page is rendered. Unfortunately there is no prompt
for .css However, you could use the IE Developer Toolbar to easily
Disable: All CSS and see how that changes your symptom. (It certainly
would as far as layout is concerned. <eg>)

Did you use a shell: command to do that?

Use the Internet Options to open that. Or via IE: Alt-T,O, Alt-S,V

Sorry 'bout that incomplete... I had a BF and hit Alt-S while typing and
sent the previous message, incomplete.

That should give you the "special view" of both the TIF and Cookies.
Use View Details, and View, Arrange Icons By... Last Accessed
to see the order the files were used by the rendering.

Excellent tip.... I gave that a shot out of curiosity, but the keyboard
also chokes up when trying to load this page.

I've *rarely ever* had this kind of issue, and I surf of Win98SE.

More interesting I think would be whether the order of the files
as seen by Fiddler is the same as the order of the files as used
by IE.

Well... I like my internet box to be super-clean and private, so Fiddler is out. ;-)

A difference might be due to scripting but it would more
likely be due to caching. I would try using Ctrl-F5 to try to reduce
that factor.. ; )

Isn't that the same as F5 ? Refreshing the page ?

I tried a lot of combinations when on that page... *nothing* responded.
The mouse was unusable on the page and so is the keyboard to IE
once the page attempts to load. Veeeery wierd.

Cheers,

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Sorry 'bout that incomplete... I had a BF and hit Alt-S while typing and
sent the previous message, incomplete.



Excellent tip.... I gave that a shot out of curiosity, but the keyboard
also chokes up when trying to load this page.

I've *rarely ever* had this kind of issue, and I surf of Win98SE.

Perhaps you had better at least *clear* your TIF then first?
If that doesn't help (on your OS) you could boot in DOS mode
and actually delete the whole subdirectory.

Well... I like my internet box to be super-clean and private, so Fiddler is out. ;-)

Fiddler isn't even supported on your OS.
In fact I don't know what diagnostics you can get on it.
I suspect your options are so limited by it that the best you could do
is network to a computer which could do some tracing for you.

Isn't that the same as F5 ? Refreshing the page ?

Again, an HTTP trace would help clarify this.
F5 is a refresh which does all possible cache-checking.
(Essentially it's an on demand application of "every visit" checking.)
Ctrl-F5 is essentially (almost) as good as retrying a request after clearing the TIF.

I tried a lot of combinations when on that page... *nothing* responded.
The mouse was unusable on the page and so is the keyboard to IE
once the page attempts to load. Veeeery wierd.

Cheers,

Then as I mentioned to the OP that looks like it could be a symptom
of interference from incompatible third-party programs.
You don't have Manage Add-ons on your OS so the best you can do
is either disable all BHO (e.g. by unchecking Enable third-party browser
extensions... as suggested by the referenced KB article) or use a tool
such as BHODemon (from DefinitiveSolutions) to disable some selectively.


Good luck

Robert
---

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

Perhaps you had better at least *clear* your TIF then first?
If that doesn't help (on your OS) you could boot in DOS mode
and actually delete the whole subdirectory.

No... that was my point earlier, Robert. I cleared the cache after each
lockup in order to examine the load pattern and try to discover where
the irregularities in loading and the consistent lockups were coming
from.

Fiddler isn't even supported on your OS.
In fact I don't know what diagnostics you can get on it.

Hence the 'wink-wink'... My 'diagnostics' come from knowing the OS
and it's contents like the palm of my hand.

I suspect your options are so limited by it that the best you could do
is network to a computer which could do some tracing for you.

It's not that important. As you know, I just hang here (and on several of the
MS groups) to keep up with issues that might affect myself or my clients,
and took an interest in the OP's issue.

It's not like this is the only PC that I have... but I prefer to surf on this
box becuse I am sooooo familiar with it. (There are plenty of XP PCs
around here, and I've experimented significantly with VISTA but have
yet to keep a copy for myself).

I seriously appreciate your feedback.

Again, an HTTP trace would help clarify this.
F5 is a refresh which does all possible cache-checking.
(Essentially it's an on demand application of "every visit" checking.)
Ctrl-F5 is essentially (almost) as good as retrying a request after
clearing the TIF.

That's my default setting in check for newer versions.... "every visit".

Again, I was just curious as to the OPs issue, and sure enough it happened
to me as well.... just tinkering here and dealing with some curiosity issues.

Then as I mentioned to the OP that looks like it could be a symptom
of interference from incompatible third-party programs.
You don't have Manage Add-ons on your OS so the best you can do
is either disable all BHO (e.g. by unchecking Enable third-party browser
extensions... as suggested by the referenced KB article) or use a tool
such as BHODemon (from DefinitiveSolutions) to disable some selectively.

I suspect (well, I have 98% certainty) that it's something coming from
the web page itself, since this sort of problem is virtually non-existant
under normal circumstances... but I have *not* disabled the 3rd party
browser extensions... another appreciated reminder... thanks.

I doubt that I'll dwell on this any longer but I appreciate your time.

Cheers,