IE7 crashing virtually everywhere

[sidewinder]

Getting numerous reports the last few weeks from most rooms that have been re-imaged during and since the summer, that IE7 is continually crashing, with no pattern or reason.

All that happens is the Dr Watson debugger comes up and IE is closed. Event logs just record 'application hang: iexplore.exe. faulting module unknown'

Its one of those problems that make me hate IT, there is no reason for it and no clear way to solve it because theres no evidence of whats causing it, yet staff want it fixed NOW

We cant even recreate it, we all use IE7 in our office and never find any problems

The only recent thing Ive done is started configuring the IE7 ADM, but surely that couldnt cause them to crash?

[maniac]

I would go in and observe a few lessons where this is a common occurance. Not ony does it give you a chance to see the problem in action, but if the staff see you there it re-assures them that something is being done about the problem.

I'd suggest making sure all the necessary updates have been installed etc. And if you do observe the problem in action, try and note what sites the kids are using, does it use flash etc. It might not be IE7 itself causing the problem, but possibly a plugin of some sort that's causing it to crash.

Mike.

[tech_guy]

Disable the Add-ons and see if that stops the crashing?

[sidewinder]

Only add-ons we use are java, flash and shockwave

Had a closer look at some of the logs, while most say 'unknown module', some say 'gdi32.dll' which is graphics related isnt it? Faulting app is still iexplore every time

[PiqueABoo]

some say 'gdi32.dll' which is graphics related isnt it?

Yes. I wouldn't get too focused on this, but do you have anything that might be getting in the way of that e.g. remote control software (which typically hooks some GDI calls)?

[tech_guy]

We've been having some random problems with the latest version of Adobe Shockwave - the browser doesn't crash - the users get an error message and Shockwave content will not load properly in IE. It's job number 25 on my to do list......

[sahmeepee]

Might be worth checking you have the GDI flaw patched on your workstations:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec.../MS07-017.mspx
http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cve...=CVE-2006-5758

I'm not sure what the behaviour is when it's exploited, but from the 2nd link it suggests you may see a crash dialogue.

[sidewinder]

^ thanks, systems are pretty much fully patched so should be ok but will check tomorrow

from a quick look on the net it seems some have had probs with google toolbar, but although its on some machines at work, its not on them all, and it cant even be installed anymore - LEA have blocked the install page

I'll have a try with it with no add-ons tomorrow. Maybe it is shockwave or flash

[Michael]

Thinking about it logically, it could be a bad image? It's a coincidence that multiple workstations are having IE7 problems.

Another way to tackle it, is to ask users what websites they were visiting when the browser crashes. It could be something specific to do with the website rather than IE7 itself (possibly).

You could try manually re-installing IE7 and applying all patches. This of course should fix all components of IE7 if it is because of a bad image.

An alternative solution is to disable Dr Watson, as nice a fellow he may be, he's creating you problems!

[DaveP]

I thought it was just our network that was seeing this!

When I go back in tomorrow I think I will tackle this one with renewed vigour!

Firstly I will disable Dr Watson at my station and at stations in Technology and Finance where it seems to happen more frequently than most [or those users are more vocal?]

[PEO]

Is it crashing when kids use sites that have flash content. this happend alot on the cbeebies bbc site so i updated the flash and shockwave apps. that fixed the problem.

[elsiegee40]

Is it crashing when kids use sites that have flash content. this happend alot on the cbeebies bbc site so i updated the flash and shockwave apps. that fixed the problem.

What is with cbeebies? We have IE6 and it seems to start crashing every couple of months in cbeebies. I end up making sure that java, shockwave player and flash player are bang up to date and abcadabra it's fine. An update to one of these 3 seems to show on cbeebies long before anything else!

[sidewinder]

Thanks Michael, will probably try and disable that then

we really think it might be Google toolbar causing the problems
One of the ICT teachers has disabled it and have said the problems have stopped so far.
What has probably happened when certain images have been created is that during the installation of flash/shockwave/java/whatever, someone has forgotten to untick the installation of it, which would explain why only some rooms are experiancing problems

I need to test the theory out though - does anyone know an app that will try and install google toolbar? Neither flash or shockwave do anymore, and the actual Toolbar install site is blocked by the LEA - as soon as you click install we get a Websense page

[DaveP]

Contrary to comments I posted earlier I have only updated Flash and Shockwave and IE7 has not crashed yet [fingers crossed I can get to the end of this post before Explorer crashes again]

[craiglay]

Very recently, I've had problems with various flash sites crashing both IE6 and IE7 in one of my schools. It would crash but not state what module. This was spontanious, No-one had installed any software, and Windows Updates are manually done.

Updating Flash and Shockwave seemed to fix it for me.

Craig