IE, extremely slow

[krogsten]

We have come across users who experience extremely slow loading of pages in IE 5.5 SR2. While this happens IE goes to about 98% CPU, and the PC naturally grinds to an almost complete stop. We have many PC's, identical HW and all downloaded from a server image - identical SW.
We have carefully compared the slow ones with those functioning normally, and I really can't detect any differences, and we can't isolate specific machines doing it. We document errors and support tasks just for this reason, to isolate errors.

Any clues ?, Anything specific we should monitor ?

rgds
Peter

[Mosaic1]

When I used IE5.5SP1 on a single user non networked Computer it would occasionally grind like that. I always did an IE repair and that seemed to take care of the problem until next time.

[Simon Clausen]

Is there anything common about the pages that the problem is experienced on? For example, do they contain ActiveX objects or Java applets. And once they start becoming slow does a restart correct the problem or is it permanent?

Also have you tried all the cleansing things, like deleting the temporary files, clearing cookies, history and auto-complete?

Regards,

Simon Clausen
---
WinGuides.com - Windows Guide Network
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.winguides.com/>http://www.winguides.com/</a>

[jmatt]

Internet Explorer 5.5 Starts Slowly with Many Fonts Installed
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q271/9/22.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0&qry=Explorer%205.5%20slow&rnk=7&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=IE

[reghakr]

Peter,

have you checked the TIF cache for a reasonable size?
Are there more than 4 folders under the content.ie5 directory?
How any days is the History set to?

reghakr

[dnisk98114]

There are some great tips on accelerating IE at
http://members.aol.com/axcel216/
or use this
http://www.members.aol.com/axcel216/

sometimes browsers can't get to this site because of the way it's phrased.(There is a registry addition that can fix that :contact me if necessary)

Look for Ewe Seiber's XMSDSK program that can setup a shadow ram location for your temp files.
They will , however, be deleted every time you turn off your machine but the performance increase is noticeable. Also , one might try this program:
http://www.btsoftware.com/products/vramdir.htm
It's shareware but a really great little program.

BTW i realize you were just asking about temp files but i have found these sites to be really helpful for Temp Files.
Good Luck!

(PS: Don't know if the shareware program will work on XP or Win 2000 but for Win 98 it seems to to a great job.)
<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by dnisk98114 on 03/26/02 10:54.</FONT></P>

[moper]

Krogsten, I can't believe I found someone who seems to have the same problem I did.
See my post at www.virtualdr.com titled "Processor Usage 100%". http://discussions.virtualdr.com/Forum2/HTML/058822.html
This has bugged me for months. I think the problem was related to Ad-Flow popups, but I'm no expert. Why they are not loading at the present time, I don't know.
Any comments, from anyone, on how this can occur would be much appreciated.

[moper]

Just wanted to add a few things.
When connecting to the 5 problem sites that I discovered, the page would start to load, as evidenced by viewing the View- Source file. You would have maybe 50 (just a quess) lines of text and it would end in the middle of a word. Same place every time. You would have a blank screen, some white, some colored. No timeouts. You would have to close IE.
Using IE6, is when I discovered that an ad-flow popup always loads before the page loads.
All this week there have been no ad-flow popups (Why! I don't know) and for the first time in months I can access these sites (pcstats, Motherboards.org, neoseeker, 3dspotlight, and tweak3d.net) with no problem.
I'll just have to wait and see if ad-flow returns.
Anyone know of a utility that can record the actual workings of making a connection to a site.
Tracert was no help: it found these sites every time. It is something that IE5, IE5.5, and IE 5.5sp2 could not digest.

[BertImmenschuh]

Re: <a target="_blank" href=http://www.motherboards.org>www.motherboards.org</a>, I just went there and on my WinXP/IE6 machine, the built-in firewall prevented 8 intrusions of Ad-flow pop-ups.

[moper]

Yes. They are the little little pictures scattered about the webpage.
But last week there was a complete new page popup by ad-flow.
You probably also recieve cookie from ad-flow.
I'm not 100% sure this is what caused my problem, but it is the only thing I can see that has changed. I'm open to any suggestions.

[BertImmenschuh]

Because of WinXP's firewall I didn't get a cookie from Ad-Flow. I read that AdAware is pretty good at preventing problems with ads.

[reghakr]

I just had to test this out myself, so I went to the motherboard's.com site. I have ads.ad-flow.com and secure.webconnect.net in my Restricted Sites Zones and all were blocked and I didn't receive any cookies either.

This same thing happens on thousands of other pages and I see no time lose or slowdown due to it at all.

reghakr

[moper]

Hi, Reghakr. Read a lot of your posts.
Since Wednesday, there are no ad-flow popups on any of the 5 sites I mentioned.
Check out my post on virtualdr, especially, the one by Vernon. Using IE6, I added ads.ad-flow.com and ads1.ad-flow.com to restricted site and ad-flow popup PAGE still loaded.
I'm only using process of elimation here, but I've spent hours in the last month trying to get every detail as accurate as possible.
If ad-flow doesn't come back, I have no problem.(I think)
I don't need these websites, but once I clicked on one, there was no way to release the cpu from 100%, and not knowing what was happening, within about 5 minutes the computer stopped because of overheating.(3 computers, each entirely different hardware,2 with 98se, 1 with 95, and each a different version of IE.
If the problem does reoccur, I was wondering if there is some utility I could use to help pinpoint the problem.

[Mosaic1]

Vernon Frazee is excellent. I noticed he mentioned a Hosts file. Do you have one? if not, I would advise you go and read about how useful they are. This is a link to a great site . Also ,it includes a Download to the definitive HOSTS file which does include the problem site you mentioned. It will keep you from being diverted.

Have a look:
<a target="_blank" href=http://accs-net.com/hosts/get_hosts.html>http://accs-net.com/hosts/get_hosts.html</a>

This is the Hosts file I use.

Find a site which causes the problem. Visit it with the hosts file in place. Does the problem go away?

[moper]

Mosaic, thank you for the info on host files. I have been researching this subject, but the site you referred is better than any I found.
I did make a host file at the time of Vernons reply, but I don't think it worked, because I didn't know about the bogus or local ip address.
Well, if the ad-flow popup pages return, I will test the host file.
Just strange, I can't find an ad-flow popup page on any site in the Rydium Network. Last week they were everywhere.
Thanks again.