Sites that crash browsers

[Mandi]

I've occasionally encountered sites "out there" that seem to crash my browser, and ultimately give up on viewing them.  However, I got an email today from a past heavy user of my site who complains that my site now crashes her in both IE and NS.  What is usually the cause of such a problem?  With a single complaint and ~8,000 pageviews/day, can I assume it's not *me*? (Or FQ, heaven forbid.)

[Rich]

Of course, it would help if we knew exactly what "crash" means in this case...

However, in general, anytime javascript is used you run the risk of alienating a certain percentage of browsers which don't/can't support it.

The fact that you only have received 1 complaint is good. But this also means that there are probably 1,000 more that "just left" and never told you about it.

Rich

[Mandi]

Actually, after asking this, the user informed me "that she also had bad registry problems, and was pretty sure it wasn't my fault at all, and did she say that it was just my site, gosh she was sorry . . ." LOL.  So am feeling more confident now.

However, when it rains, it pours . . . I discovered a smiley site later that same day that keeps crashing ME (it's a poorly constructed site on a freebie server, go figure . . . ) It's driving me and my graphic artist crazy . . . they have a stolen image of hers, and we would LIKE to see what else is possibly theived, ya know?

Thanks for the JS info though . . . I'd never heard that before!  So far, I've stuck to mouseovers and cookies that come in UBB (soon to be vB).  No doubt it's problematic for even some browsers, though.

[jimbo]

soon to be vB

Good move .

-jim

*...but I'm also a client*


[This message has been edited by jimbo (edited 12-08-00@11:36 am)]

[Daniel Jackler]

Not sure if it's just my browser, but embeded music files on the page seem to either freeze the whole system for a few seconds, crash the browser, or even crash the computer.
Sometimes shockwave can do nasty things too, but never had trouble with flash, just shockwave.
I have no idea why...

Daniel

[dank]

I discovered a smiley site later that same day that keeps crashing ME . . . they have a stolen image of hers, and we would LIKE to see what else is possibly theived, ya know?

One can only hope that it crashes for everyone else, too, and no one can view the stolen image(s).  

anytime javascript is used you run the risk of alienating a certain percentage of browsers which don't/can't support it.

I think that could be misleading.  If you stick to simple enough JavaScript (i.e. resist the DHTML temptation, which really has nothing to do with HTML) and "hide" it from old or non-JS capable browsers, you shouldn't have any problems.  That is, you won't have any errors or crashes, but the JavaScript functionality will be lost.

Dfunct

[Justin]

Daniel - I would recommend making sure you have the latest drivers for your sound card. Often times, and *especially* with Creative Labs card, they ship with out-of-date drivers or just buggy drivers. There are almost always updates available at their site. This of course goes to any sound card/chip, but Creative cards are notorious for this type of problem.

Most commonly, if it has software wave-table emulation (PCI 64/128), MIDI files can lock up the card, PCI bus, and ultimately the machine itself. A driver update almost always cures it.

Hope this helps.

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Justin Nelson
SFE Software

[Daniel Jackler]

Thanks for the tip Justin.  I downloaded the latest driver for my creative soundcard and it solved the problem.  There still is a short delay when loading a page with an embeded midi, the browser window freezes for a few seconds, but then it's ok.  No crashes, like it used to.

Daniel

[Daniel Jackler]

That's great, now I know what's going on.  I guess it might be best to get a better sound card ( I thought mine was very good ).  I also don't use midi at all, just some sites think it's cool to have background music...
I tried to turn off the sound in internet explorer 5, [ Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Play Sounds ], but it had no effect.
Never mind for now, at least I don't have to restart my computer because of this.
Thanks again Justin.

Daniel

[Justin]

The freeze is what made me suspect software wave-table emulation. What it's doing during that period is loading up the wave samples into memory. Sometimes under Windows 95/98 (possibly ME?), when locking large amounts of memory, it can freeze a program or even the whole system (mouse included), depending on what all is being done. This happens whenever software has to emulate hardware -- Winmodems/HSP modems are notorious for this, as are the Creative cards.

My PCI 128 was (at the time) one of the best available, yet has no RAM on board at all, nor does it have a hardware mixer. My $49 Turtle Beach card does, and has 320 voice hardware wave table (though personally, I almost never use MIDI files).

Another interesting (albeit off-topic) thing, one of my PCs has an on-board audio/modem chip (yes, all in one chip) made by C-Media. It's a 56k V.90 software modem, and the audio side has SPDIF digital in/out -- yet, under Windows with any driver I can find, it sounds like garbage. Under Linux, using the driver written by who-knows-who, it sounds 100 times better... Just goes to show that the software is the most important part of cheap hardware... plus you get what you pay for...

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Justin Nelson
SFE Software