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/security/Bulletin/MS07-017.mspx

http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=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!

[6Foot2]

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

[6Foot2]

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

[sidewinder]

Its getting worse and worse

Even IE6 is affected now

 

More than unknown modules, now getting loads of ws2_32.dll and gdi32.dll as the faulting modules

 

Ive tried updating Flash and Shockwave on one machine and since then it hasnt crashed. Its a teachers machine though so with all the problems she was having, she just might not have used it since then.

 

Its difficult to even update them, Ive always had problems with the MSI's from Adobe...will have to try them though

[sidewinder]

Im getting pretty down about this now. Even got one teacher directly complaining to SMT despite me telling her multiple times that it isnt just her, we are trying our best, and it will take time due to the amount of things it could be.

 

Updated Flash and Shockwave schoolwide. Disabled Google toolbar from starting anywhere.

 

Still happening

 

Now seems to be a slightly different error, its now Explorer rather than IE

 

Event Type:	Error
Event Source:	Application Error
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	1000
Date:		03/12/2007
Time:		13:39:23
User:		N/A
Computer:
Description:
Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2900.3156, faulting module gdi32.dll, version 5.1.2600.3159, fault address 0x00008039.

 

Event Type:	Error
Event Source:	Application Error
Event Category:	(100)
Event ID:	1000
Date:		03/12/2007
Time:		13:39:42
User:		N/A
Computer:	
Description:
Faulting application drwtsn32.exe, version 5.1.2600.0, faulting module dbghelp.dll, version 5.1.2600.2180, fault address 0x0001295d.

 

Those are the common ones today, although the iexplore.exe ones still happen too

 

Theres no correlation, various types of computer and motherboard, different versions of IE, wildly different software on each machine

 

One thing I have now realised is that this has started to become more of a problem since I deployed Smartboard 9.7 to all teacher machines, and the majority of these problems are occurring on teacher machines

 

Also, most, if not all event logs with 9.7 installed have this error too:

 

Event Type:	Information
Event Source:	SMART Web Server
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	1
Date:		03/12/2007
Time:		13:43:10
User:		NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer:	DT-S11-TEACHER
Description:
The description for Event ID ( 1 ) in Source ( SMART Web Server ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: SMART Web Server.

 

Which isnt much use if it cant find the description.

 

But what the hell is SMART web server?

 

Ive also noticed a CIEDownload Object add in in IE, published by SMART. Dont know if this is related?

 

Im going to try and set the Smart web Server service to always be disabled, but I cant work out where in the registry to find the IE add-in - because I believe I need the CLSID of the object to disable it through a GPO. Anyone know where its hidden?

 

Or anyone got any other ideas

[AlexB]

Do you use Ranger remote control? I think someone mentioned that causing a very similar problem not so long ago...

 

I guess this could apply to net support too, I think ranger almost the same thing

[sidewinder]

We don't use Ranger no (thank god )

 

We do use Netsupport but not in any of the locations we are having problems...

[TekkyMatt]

Smart web server is something included with 9.7 and allows you to view the status of the machines connected to the smartboard through the browser. Its also used for bridgit and LinQ. Type the name of the machine connected to the WB ('machinename:80') into the browser and click open room diagnostics (you might find something on there).

gdi32.dll is for the Windows GDI which assists windows in creating simple 2d objects.

Winsock 2 is used by most Internet and network applications to handle network connections so this problem does sound webserver related.

Try disabling the smart webserver on all machines it is running on the room diagnostic should tell you which.

PS It runs fine here alongside our IIS on both IE7 and IE6

[Guest frankybaloney]

Hi

 

Have you tried reinstalling IE7 on the affect machines?

 

Like it was mentioned earlier, it could just be a bad image.

 

My suggestion is to reinstall IE7 and see if it works. If it does work then maybe compare the bad machine to the one that is working.

[sidewinder]

Yeah I suppose I will have to try that

 

Its different aged images though on multiple types of hardware.

 

I have gone through all the teacher machines to see which are affected and although its fairly random, there are some patterns.

 

We have 4 main boards that are in teacher machines (or anywhere on site), they are:

 

Intel D915-GVWB

Intel D865-GVHZ

Intel D845-GVSR

Dell Optiplex 745

 

Now, the majority of those which are crashing are GVHZ's, some Dells, and although we havent got many GVWB's, every single one of those is crashing.

But the oldest board of the lot, the GVSR, has no problems whatsoever. Theres about 10 or 12 of them and not one has experianced the problems. So Im thinking perhaps the drivers for those machines arent conflicting with IE or whatever? Im thinking graphics drivers due to the ws2_32.dll errors

 

So I first thought a driver update may have messed up the problematic ones, but as far as I know WSUS doesnt do any driver updates? (although a few months back a printer driver seemed to be updated which caused problems)

So, trying to work out how they are related. I really dont know what else to try though.

I have done a brand new image for one of the teachers who was moaning the most - instead of installing IE7 from an exe, I let Windows Update install it, and all drivers I installed from the original CD, no updated ones.

 

So far that has been ok, but its only been in since lunchtime yesterday

[TekkyMatt]

Are you by any chance using RM CC3? I would check whether your older flash/shockwave have actually uninstalled and not failed. to make sure, get the flash and shockwave removal tools http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/alternates

run them a few times and then reinstall the latest flash/shockwave

[sidewinder]

No, not CC3, vanilla

 

I havent specifically checked if the old versions have installed, but the new ones are definately the ones being used, as if I go to Adobes version checker page, it says which version is installed. OR does this not matter, could old files still be causing problems?

 

I will have a look at those tools, but again this is occuring on hundreds of machines throughout the site, so the only end result might be to reimage

[Guest AustenLowe]

For the sake of argument have you tried to uninstall the smartboard software from one of the affected computers?