IE7 UI crashes after heavy use

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abakshi - 15 Jul 2007 19:00 GMT

I have a big issue with IE7 under Vista, whcih I have seen this in several
completely different machines (I've managed to replicate this on every Vista
machine I've tested). Looks like some kind of major memory leak or something.

The issue is that when I use IE heavily (e.g. a bunch of tabs, or several
sites with multimedia plugins, etc.), IE will occasionally crash (I'll be
suprised if it doesn't do so every couple days). The whole UI interface
becomes corrupted, with tabs disappearing, the window turning a flickering
black, etc. If I close the window, it doesn't give me the normal warning
that multiple tabs are open, and just exits.

But sometimes, it's not even due to "heavy use" - I'll just have one tab
open (e.g. facebook or something), and the UI just crashes. I'm the only one
around here using IE7 at all, because I find it faster than Firefox, but it's
quite embarrassing to be showing friends stuff in Vista/IE and have the whole
thing crash like this.

Here's are some screenshots I've managed to take a couple times when it
crashed - in the first one, I had 8 tabs open, though (as you can see) it's
not visible as the tab bar is visually corrupted, the contents of the page
have spilled out into the IE interface, and it's just a big mess:

http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/1719/iecrashyk7.jpg
http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/663/iecrash2cf4.jpg

It happens regardless of what kind of page I have open - whether it's just
some random text (e.g. online forums, or in this case, Palm's info page for a
Treo) or a site containing a flash control.

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Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM - 15 Jul 2007 21:47 GMT

>I have a big issue with IE7 under Vista, whcih I have seen this in several
> completely different machines (I've managed to replicate this on every
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
> for a
> Treo) or a site containing a flash control.

I know of two causes for the vast majority of such problems:
1. Incompatible add-ons: What if you right click the IE icon on the desktop
and choose Start Without Add-ons?
Or go to Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Internet
Explorer (No Add-ons).

2. Malware already installed on the computer: Help with malware
All MS-MVP Sites.
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/darnit.html
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm

Unexplained computer behavior may be caused by deceptive software.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827315

So How Did I Get Infected Anyway?
For quite a few people it's by installing Messenger Plus, whose ads for
malware don't identify the malware as such and try to convince you that you
owe it to the author. See also:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=27971
Don't ever do a "default" install of anything. Always choose Custom and see
what else is being carried along. Don't install any extras you're not sure
of.

Signature

Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM
http://www.fjsmjs.com

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abakshi - 16 Jul 2007 00:04 GMT

It's a stock install of IE and Vista Business with no add-ons installed, and
the only software installed to date is MS Office 2007 Pro, Adobe Photoshop
CS2, and a couple of anti-spyware tools (built-in Windows Defender, plus
Spybot S&D and HijackThis), so it's a clean setup.

I have another machine running Vista Ultimate x64 (shipped on HP laptop),
where I can duplicate the issue, and I've seen it on another Vista Business
machine and two Apple MBP's running Vista Business and IE7 as well. It seems
to occur regardless of what sites are loaded, so doesn't seem to be the
result of some particular website causing the browser to crash.

The only other time I've seen this issue is with an in-house custom app with
an embedded .NET WebBrowser (IE6) control in XP, where the IE control had
some sort of memory leak and would cause this exact type of issue in the
client app (over extended periods of use), causing UI corruption. But
standalone IE6 itself never had the issue.

We have some apps that depend on IE, which is the only reason we continue to
use it instead of FF, so I had some of our people contact HP and Dell support
(OEMs of some of the Vista machines we're running) just for the heck of it,
and they just gave generic info about spyware scans, BIOS updates, etc. and
suggested that it's due to low system resources -- which is obviously not the
case as these are all high-end machines (Core 2 Duo's @ 2-2.8 GHz, 2-4 GB
RAM, etc.), and I've seen the issue with only IE running (and not using a
significant amount of available RAM).

> >I have a big issue with IE7 under Vista, whcih I have seen this in several
> > completely different machines (I've managed to replicate this on every
[quoted text clipped - 58 lines]
> what else is being carried along. Don't install any extras you're not sure
> of.

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Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM - 20 Jul 2007 13:19 GMT

You do not say whether or not you tried what I suggested. In fact it sounds
like you were giving reasons not to try.

Signature

Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM
Do not send mail.

> It's a stock install of IE and Vista Business with no add-ons installed,
> and
[quoted text clipped - 108 lines]
>> sure
>> of

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abakshi - 22 Jul 2007 22:46 GMT

I've been running IE for a couple days now under the "No add-ons" mode, and
managed to replicate the issue last night.

There don't seem to be any particular circumstances causing it - no real
common website, software packages, drivers, etc. that I can think of between
all the different machines I've gotten to do this, besides them all running
IE7 under Vista. Haven't tested to see if the problem exists in IE7 under XP
as well...

> You do not say whether or not you tried what I suggested. In fact it sounds
> like you were giving reasons not to try.
[quoted text clipped - 111 lines]
> >> sure
> >> of

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