System freezes completely on certain websites 2

[cliffb1]

I'm running Win98 SE on a PIII 500Mhz PC with 384 MB RAM. My motherboard is ABIT-BF6. My modem is a 56 K Cirrus Logic winmodem.

I used to have no freezing problems what-so-ever until recently. Now, when I visit certain websites, my PC freezes up solid. There is no mouse or keyboard response or any movement on the screen. The only way out is to press the reset button.

In an effort to solve this problem, I have upgraded Internet Explorer to version 6 including all of the options and the latest patches. I have also upgraded my modem drivers to the latest version. None of these has solved the problem.

I have identified certain websites that will trigger this everytime I try to access them, however, if I use Netscape, the problem is significantly reduced. It doesn't go away completely, but it happens considerably less often.

I think it's related to java in some way. Since I'm not the only one that uses this PC, I can't say what, if anything has been installed or attempted to be installed that would have triggered this behaviour.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[paulwood]

Can you give us url's for the sites so we can try to duplicate the problem? (Just in case it's not you!)

 

[Mosaic1]

You also could be running low on resources. Some websites heavy in Graphics can use up a lot of resources and that may be your problem. Try this: Press ALt+CTRL+DEL and close out as many programs as you feel safe in closing.Also close all but one Ie window, AV maybe, but if the sites are not secure?? Leave it.

Then try again. To see how your resources are Go to system Properties>Performance and look at the system Resouces entry. Memory and resources are two different animals.
You can have plenty of RAM and no resources.

 

[Techtony]

Saw this once on a user's system. Turned out to be a conflict between the sound card and the modem. Since the modem would not allow the irq to be changed in windows, had to lock the modem to another irq in BIOS. (Device Manager did not report any problens or conflicts in this instance. Just experience told me a sound card's irq cannot be shared.)

 

[cliffb1]

Well, how about that. I had written a lengthy response to the above suggestions but when I submitted it, I went to and error page stating that the server may be busy and to try again. When I hit the back button to go back and re-submit my reply, my PC froze up solid again. AAARRGGGHHH!!!!!

So...here goes again.
First of all, thanks for your suggestions. Here are my responses to them.
As you can see, this site is one that can trigger my freezes however, to be fair, they are less frequent with this site than with others. One site that freezes me up every time is

http://www.abit.com.tw

As for resources, I am currently running at 73% free (As I was when I froze earlier today submitting my response). I typically have only the one instance of my browser running when these freezes occur. I have already thinned out my startup programs, howver, so I don't think it is a resource problem.
As for IRQ's, that could be a possibility. Both my modem and my sound card share the same IRQ (10). I am unable to change either of them through device manager and even if I could, I do not have any available IRQ's to change them to. A check of my list shows that every one of them is in use. However, since the IRQ usage hasn't changed since day one, it seems unlikely that that is my problem now.

Anyway, keep the suggestions coming as I do not know what else to do to solve this annoying problem short of re-installing the OS (which I definetely do not want to do).
Thanks again,
Cliff

 

[Mosaic1]

Have you thought about the possibility that the Ads are doing it? Try updating your flash player at Windows Update?

 

[paulwood]

I am getting a little suspicious of a Java problem too, so I have set a little basic test up at

http://www.woodcom.co.uk/java/nonjava.html

which simply has a link to take you to a page with a Java applet embedded. If it's merely the existance of Java that's the problem, then it should crash as it tries to load. If it doesn't, at least we can rule that out. Let us know how you get on.

 

[cliffb1]

I tried out your java test url and I had no problems with either the java or the non-java site. I have also installed all of the recommended critical updates from Microsoft as well as the latest version of flash. Unfortunately, I still have the problem.

I am going to run a full scan-disk of my hard drives to see if I come up with any errors. I'll let you know how that works out.

Thanks a lot for your help. Do you think upgrading to Win2K would help?

 

[Mosaic1]

Here's a link to the Microsoft Java Troubleshooter. You may want to run it and see if it helps you out at all.

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q168/8/06.ASP

 

[chipdip]

I logged on to

http://www.abit.com.tw

( with winme ) and a pop-up appeared with a yellow caution logo on it. This was an Internet Exporer message. The message read " Problems with this web page might prevent it from being displayed properly. In the future, you can display this message by double-clicking the warning icon displayed in the status bar ".

Details revealed the following :
line 2
char 983
error : expected ']'
code: 0
url: h**p://

http://www.abit.tw/main.htm

I hope this is useful.

I have been led to believe that in the aftermath of the 9/11
atrocity that the authorities would be further implementing surveillance software at critical junctions in the flow of data on the net. Personally I have found a growing number of instances of prolonged modem inactivity with sudden resurgences of flow. I surf from any of my machines in my home network and each has it's own modem and the delay is present each time. I was wondering if anyone could explain whether the Carnivour and Echelon type code become a heavy load on the net when operating at near maximum mode.
I had no such problems prior to 9/11. Thanks.

 

[smitee]

chipdip

Why it is happening...haven't a clue, but

You might try downloading upgrade found here.

Windows Script 5.5

http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/vbscript/scripting.asp

or even version 5.6, also available..

Also think MSIE update/repair would be prime consideration. I believe this should be undertaken before script upgrade if you decide to go that route..

BTW, I have trouble logging on to various sites, this one included also, but think that among others it could be traffic, ISP , etc.

At the very least, Abit site should not be a problem..

 

[paulwood]

Cliffb1,

Upgrading may or may not make any difference, it all depends where the problem is. I have to say I am seriously thinking about upgrading to XP myself because of various issues with Win98, I'm holding off for more info to become available though. I look forward to your findings after scandisk.

Chipdip,

It had never occured to me that online surveillance could add to the load, interesting idea. I just thought the congestion was due to Nimda and Code Red, it'd be interesting to find out. BTW I tried the Abit site with IE6 and Win98 and there were no problems at all. Like Smitee, I have found the IE repair function to work on a whole bunch of different internet related problems.

 

[cliffb1]

Hey, I'm back. Sorry for taking so long to reply but, you know, work and all.

Anyway, It looks like all of these crashes are really doing a number on my hard drive. Most of the errors Scandisk found were for files stored in an invalid location. These files were in my temporary internet files folder. Scandisk reportedly repaired them by truncating the file or folder. There were other errors stating: "folder could not be opened in MS-DOS mode because its complete short name
was longer than 66 characters." Scandisk simply ignored these errors.

However, my problem persists. I'll try that website that that Mosaic1 mentioned from Microsoft. What's this IE repair function? How do I get to it?

ChipDip

That's an interesting observation. I've been puzzled by that for quite some time now, even before 9/11. In fact, I even posted a question on this site about it but I didn't get any responses to it. I posted it in the dial-up section because I thought it might be modem related.

Anyway, thanks to all for your input. Hopefully one of these tips will work.

Cliff

 

[Mosaic1]

IE repair
Go to Control Panel>Add remove Programs and scroll to the internet explorer entry
Click Remove. Three options will appear. Choose repair.

 

[capnmidnite]

Try running adaware and get rid of spyware.

 

[Guest_imported]

M$ no longer supports Java at least according to them. I loaded Abit's page using Netscape 4.77 with no problems what so ever. You say the modem is a WINmodem and that right there can be problems, they get all their power from your system and can suck up large amounts of resources. I'd be looking at maybe replacing the modem but not with another WINtype. If you haven't already run scan disk and defrag it wouldn't hurt and with all the crashes you've had I'd be thinking it's quite nessary. Before running anything delete TEMP files not only in Windows but IE also.

 

[cliffb1]

I'm beginning to think that I have a hardware problem as opposed to a software problem. I ran a diagostic on my video adapter (Voodoo3 3dfx - AGP)and one of the tests failed. The error message is:
VGA CRTC register failure.
Index: 00000001
Expected: 000000FF
Actual: 0000005F

I upgraded my drivers for this card and ran the test again with the same result.

I also ran a diagnostic on my hard drives. This was one of those all-inclusive tests that would run for several hours so I started it before going to bed and was going to check it in the morning. When I woke up, however, the PC had frozen solid and, because the screen saver was running, I was unable to see how far the test got or which test it was on. I'm going to try it again, this time with the screen saver disabled, but if it freezes up again, then I guess I might have to look into buying a new hard drive, or at least reformat and re-install.

I don't know what that video error means so if anyone can help me there, I would appreciate it.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[Luckyfour]

Are you using an antivirus/internet security program?

 

[cliffb1]

I ran the disk diagnostic again and it completed with no errors.

In answer to luckyfour's question, I am running ZoneAlarm for Internet security and I have a utility called "On Track System Suite 2000" that includes an anti-virus component. Incidentally, that is the tool that I used to run the diagnostics as well.

I also downloaded Adaware and removed anything that it flagged as suspicious.

However, I am still experiencing the freezes.

 

[Luckyfour]

Has it been since you've run Ad-aware that you've had the freezes?