iexplore freezes computer

I have a XP Pro SP3 system on one desktop computer which just recently became my wife's computer since I got a new Win7 desktop. Ever since she has started using it, there have been problems with the system freezing every now and then. Sometimes it might go for a day, other times less than an hour.

Every time it locks up, the task manager shows an iexplore.exe process clocking a steady 50% cpu. It is a dual core computer. There will also be another iexplore.exe process clocking 0 cpu. When the freeze happens, hardly anything will work. The MSIE window will not close. Other windows will not open. I cannot even kill the iexplore using the "end process" button in task manager, nor can her user log off. The only option is to push and hold the power button for a hard shutdown (bad thing to do, but no other choice).

I have done a lot of searching, and have tried numerous things in an attempt to resolve this very frustrating problem. Some have mentioned probable add-on problems. I've disabled almost all add-ons, except for things like adobe, norton, flash. I have tried re-installing MSIE8. I have reverted back to MSIE7. Still have the problem.

I have looked at the events logs and have seen nothing that looks like it is related.

I would greatly appreciate any further suggestions or avenues I can try to resolve this problem.

Thanks in advance.

 

you are probably infected with malware:
Download, install, update and do full scan with these free malware detection programs:

Malwarebytes (MBAM): http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free
SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS): http://www.superantispyware.com/

run the scans until they come clean, and then do the following to optimize your pc:
Advice from Shenan Stanley


Probably will want to clean up that machine...

Check for malware:
Download, install, run, update and perform full system scans with the following two applications:
• MalwareBytes (FREE)
• SuperAntiSpyware (FREE)

Removing everything they find. Rebooting when needed. (You can uninstall one or both when done.)
Then perform an online scan with the eSet Online Scanner.
The less you have running all the time, the better the things you want to run will perform:
Use Autoruns to figure out what all is starting up when your computer does/when you log on. Look up anything you do not know about usingGoogle (and/or ask here.) You can hopefully figure out if there are things starting when you computer does (or you logon) that you do not need and then configure them (via their own built-in mechanisms is the preferred method) so they do not start up - using your resources without reason.
You can download and utilize Process Explorer to see exactly what is taking up your processor/CPU time and memory. This can help you recognize applications you might want to look into alternatives for and/or get rid of all together.
Do some house cleaning and dust off that hard drive:
You may wish to free up some disk space (will also aid in getting rid of things you do not utilize) by going through these steps:
Windows XP should take between 4.5 and 9GB *with* an Office suite, Photo Editing software, alternative Internet browser(s), various Internet plugins and a host of other things installed.
If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )
You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..
How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312
You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..
When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:
- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the "System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.
You can control how much space your System Restore can use...
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest moving the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.
You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...
Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a size between 64MB and 128MB..
- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS - Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents" (the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10 minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet Explorer.
You can use an application that scans your system for log files and temporary files and use that to get rid of those:
Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/
( just the disk cleanup - don't play with the registry part for now )
Other ways to free up space..
SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/
JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html
Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used. Then you can determine what to do.
After that - you will want to check for any physical errors and arrange everything for efficient access"
CHKDSK
How to scan your disks for errors
* will take time and a reboot.
Defragment
How to Defragment your hard drives
* will take time
Cleanup the Update Components on your Windows XP machine
While likely not 100% necessary - it is probably a good idea at this time to make sure you continue getting the updates you need. This will help you make sure your update system is ready to do this for you.
Download and run the MSRT manually:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx
(Skip the details and download the tool, download and save to your desktop, run it.)
Reboot.
Download/Install the latest Windows Installer (for your OS):
( Windows XP 32-bit : WindowsXP-KB942288-v3-x86.exe )
(Download and save it to your desktop, run it.)
Reboot.
and...
Download the latest version of the Windows Update agent from here (x86):
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91237
.... and save it to the root of your C:\ drive. After saving it to theroot of the C:\ drive, do the following:
Close all Internet Explorer windows and other applications.
Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemDrive%\windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe /WUFORCE
--> Click OK.
(If asked, select "Run".) --> Click on NEXT --> Select "I agree" and click on NEXT --> When it finishes installing, click on "Finish"...
Reboot.
Now reset your Windows Update Components with this FixIt (you will *NOT* use the aggressive version):
How do I reset Windows Update components?
Reboot.
Now that your system is generally free of malware (assuming you have an AntiVirus application), you have cleaned up the 'extra applications' that might be running and taking up your valuable memory and processor, you have cleared out some valuable drive space and made sure there are no issues with the drive itself and your Windows Update components are updated and should be working in top shape - there is only one other thing youmay wish to do:
Obtain and install the latest hardware device drivers for your system from the system/hardware manufacturers' support and/or download web site.

 

Thanks for the response, it is the first I have gotten from several forums on this problem.

I had already gotten both of those, but had only done the quick scan. Did the full scan this time and each of them found something else. Based on where they were, they were probably a false positive, but I let the program delete them anyhow.

I had also discovered that SAS is persistent and insists on continuing to run even after I exit it. It installs itself as a automatic service. I think that it was having fights with my Nortons security, so I've disabled the service for now.

I've done a lot of this, but will save it and go through it as a checklist.

One thing that I have discovered is that a web site my wife often visits acts differently for her user than for mine (coupons.com). It might also be "one" of the culprits in making iexplore.exe freeze at 50% and not allow it to be killed with end task on the task manager.

Work continues.

 

Okay , i will check back.

 

In another forum, in another thread, I followed a lead about reading minidumps. Although I was not able to do so (or at least could not figure it out), I did get two routines that might be useful diagnostic tools. One was called kill exe and the other was called tlist exe.

Kill exe claims to kill a running process, using either the process number as listed in task manager or by tlist -- or using the process name.
e.g. kill iex* *should* kill any process starting with iex... i.e. iexplore.exe
HOWEVER, when my system freezes up kill will *not* kill iexplore.exe, and neither will the task manager via the end process button. Iexplore.exe just sits there clocking up 50% cpu time (on a two core system).

The routine tlist shows a list of all active processes, giving their process number, their name, and a descriptive phrase (if available). For example
5212 iexplore.exe www xpforums com/.....

I have gotten a further lead to research based on this information. When I have MSIE open, tlist shows me a description related to the web page. When it decides to sit on a constant 50%, can usually go ahead and close it using the red X -- but iexplore.exe remains in the task list. What is interesting and gives me something else to explore is that after the web page window is no longer visible, the descriptive phrase is "MCI Command handling window" . MCI stands for Media Control Interface.

SO now I need to learn about MCI, etc. to see if I can get a clue. SIgh!

 

the best tool to use is Process explorer, I have not heard of the ones you are using, here is process explorer download:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
this has a right click menu that lets you search online for the process to find a description.

You should try Internet explorer without addons, the coupon sites are sometimes used for malware.
go to start, right click on internet explorer, choose browse without addons, and see if the site then uses 50 percent.

in xp pro sp3, ie8 there will be 2 iexplore.exe when ever you connect to the internet and a few more depending on how many tabs you open.
once you disconnect from the internet, there should be NO iexplore.exe running in processes, if so then this is malware.

Are you fully updated at Microsoft updates?
go to Microsoft updates, do a high priority scan, install all reboot as necessary
then do a custom scan, install any rootkit updates listed in optional, reboot and see if issue still occurs.

what was the result of checkdisk?
it should be run until no errors are found and fixed sometimes this takes 2 or 3 times.

if you are not running checkdisk from the recovery console, (which is the best way), then you can view your report at:
go to start, control panel, administrative tools, event viewer, applications, Winlogon.

 

Thanks, I've downloaded that and will install it on her computer soon.

That is something that has been suggested, but I haven't done it yet. I have disabled a lot of potential add-ins. The problem is that the site does not lock up all the time, just sometimes. I'm also not sure that other sites don't lock up -- just that coupons.com seems to be a frequent offender.

I am aware that ads on sites sometimes carry malware along with them. I had a friend who runs a blog and eventually he had to cancel the ad service because of it.

Much of the time, the iexplore.exe does go away, but when it doesn't it is locked at 50%.
Each time I have been able to look, tlist associates the MCI command handling window with it. If it is the result of malware attempt, then it has locked up the MCI routine.

I think that we keep up to date, but that is a suggestion worth trying.

I'm not aware of checkdisk running. I have been looking at the event viewer often, and not seen anything there.

How does one force it to run? What do you mean by recovery console?

 

recovery console runs without the os loading. It can be installed as a startup option which is how I have mine. However unless you have a recovery console with the same service pack as your system is now to install it windows complains a lot. Most installation cds are at sp2 and windows is now at sp3, (for 32 bit, sp2 for 64bit)

there are several ways to run at startup:
1. go to start, run, type in cmd check ok
in cmd box type in chkdsk c: /r and press enter, space between k and c, also tween : and /
type y when asked if want to run at next restart press enter
type exit, press restart
restart pc, this is a lengthy process depending on hdd size, percentages will flutuate, this is normal, allow to finish 1 to 2 hours
when pc restarts, go to start, control panel, administrative tools, event viewer, applications, Winlogon, this will be the checkdisk report.
(if recovery console is installed, it saves a lot of restarting to run again)
if any errors were found and fixed, then run again until no errors are found

2. go to start, My Computer, right click on local disk, choose properties, on tools tab, under Error checking choose check now, one of these is a read only and can be run with out a restart, check both, and say yes when asked to run at next restart.

3. you can burn a copy of the recovery console to a cd and run from there:
Here's how to make a bootable xp recovery console cd
Courtesy of JoseIbarra
You need to start by booting into the XP Recovery Console using a CD you can make (no XP media required) and run a chkdsk with error correction enough times until it runs clean and if that doesn't work, you can create a new boot.ini file (it is usually one of those two things).

Here's how:

Use the XP Recovery Console to verify the file system on your HDD and correct any problems and then try to boot your system - this may be all you need to do. Or, you are welcome to just start trying things that might work.

Boot into the Windows Recovery Console using a bootable XP installation CD.
If you have no bootable XP media (or are not sure what you have) create a bootable XP Recovery Console CD and be sure what you have (no XP media required).

This is not the same as any recovery disks that might have come with a store bought system.

You can make a bootable Recovery Console CD by downloading an ISO file and burning it to a CD.

The bootable ISO image file you need to download is called:
rc.iso

Download the ISO file from here:
http://www.thecomputerparamedic.com/?p=8 (courtesy of Daavee)

Use a new CD and this free and easy program to burn your ISO file and create your bootable CD:
http://www.imgburn.com/

When installing ImgBurn, DO NOT install the Ask toolbar.

Here are some instructions for ImgBurn:
http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=61

It would be a good idea to test your bootable CD on a computer that is working.
You may need to adjust the computer BIOS settings to use the CD ROM drive as the first boot device instead of the hard disk. These adjustments are made before Windows tries to load. If you miss it, you will have to reboot the system again.

When you boot on the CD, follow the prompts:

Press any key to boot from CD...
The Windows Setup... will proceed.
Press 'R' to enter the Recovery Console.
Select the installation you want to access (usually 1: C:\WINDOWS)
You may be asked to enter the Administrator password (usually empty).
You should be in the C:\WINDOWS folder. This is the same as the
C:\WINDOWS folder you see in explorer.

The Recovery Console allows basic file commands like: copy, rename, replace, delete, cd, chkdsk, fixboot, fixmbr, etc.

For a list of Recovery Console commands, enter help at the prompt or read about the XP Recovery Console here:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...ocs/en-us/recovery_console_cmds.mspx?mfr=true

A good idea before starting things is to first verify the integrity of your file system using the chkdsk command.

From the command prompt window run the chkdsk command on the drive where Windows is installed to try to repair any problems on the afflicted drive.
Running chkdsk is fine even if it doesn't find any problems. It will not hurt anything to run it.

Assuming your boot drive is C, run the following command:
chkdsk C: /r

Let chkdsk finish and correct any problems it might find.

It may take a long time for chkdsk to complete or it may appear to be 'stuck'. Be patient. If the HDD light is still flashing, chkdsk is doing something. Keep an eye on the percentage amount to be sure it is still making progress. It may even appear to go backwards sometimes.

You should run chkdsk /r again until it finds no errors to correct.

Remove the CD and type 'exit' to leave the RC and restart the computer.

You do not have to adjust the BIOS again to boot on the HDD since the CD will not be present.
--------------------------------------------------------
this cd does not work if you have sata drives, you have to go into the bios and change drives to ide, however if you have sata drives you can use Hiren's boot cd which does not care if drive is sata or ide. let me know and I can give you instructions.

 

I intend to try the chkdsk sometime soon when my wife is not going to be on the computer for a while.

Why run it only on the C: drive? I have my hard disk partitioned into multiple drives.

 

If you want to check the disk in drive D and have Windows fix errors, type:

chkdsk d: /f

If it encounters errors, chkdsk pauses and displays messages. Chkdsk finishes by displaying a report that lists the status of the disk. You cannot open any files on the specified drive until chkdsk finishes.

you can do this for each partition, I only have one partition on my hdd so I forget to mention to check all partitions.

you can do this from a command prompt and do not have to reboot, I believe.

 

http://ss64.com/nt/chkdsk.html
has lots of info on checkdisk that you can read.

 

I am still in the process of chkdsk on my many virtual drives. Some of them can be run from a console window, others require a restart. Some of them came up clean on the first go, others had a few errors and then came up clean.

The C: drive is another matter. It had 5000+ errors on the first pass, and then a few ( < 10) on each of four other passes. It is on its sixth pass now as I type.

I seem to remember a time when chkdsk automatically ran if the computer did a hard stop (i.e. holding the power button).

 

long time ago when most were formatted with FAT, now most are formatted with NTFS, however once the disk becomes dirty it will run a checkdisk at start.

in the link on my last reply there is a FSUTIL link that shows you how to query the disk to see if it is clean or dirty, note: you can still run checkdisk manually even if the disk is clean, I run chkdsk approx once a month as part of my maintenance routine.

 

I am still struggling with the iexplore.exe freezing problem. Happened to my wife again last night -- without going to coupon.com site.

As before, the entry for iexplore.exe in process explorer said "MCI Command Handling Window" (two iexplore.exe with that entry).

Some digging around implied that perhaps the settings might be causing a problem. I checked the settings for my user and for hers, and they were different. The settings I mean are System -> Advanced tab -> performance button, a lot of check /no check items. As suggested, I turned off the first four items which have to do with animation and fade effects, also some other special effects. WIll see if that matters -- although I am doubtful.

In looking at process explorer I did notice something that wonders me. If I start MSIE by double clicking on a desktop icon (the usual way for us), then process explorer puts iexplore.exe in a tree underneath system, smss and winlogon -- with a command line call of " ...\iexplore.exe" -Embedding.
However, if I start MSIE by double clicking on a shortcut that points to iexplore.exe in \programs\... then process explorer puts iexplore.exe in a tree under explore -- with a command line call of "...\iexplore.exe" (no parameter).

Could that be making a difference in what happens?

I look up the meaning of the -Embedding paramater and find that it means
Starts Windows Internet Explorer through OLE embedding (such as the WebBrowser Control).
whatever that means.

Also -- is there any process that I can use that will kill iexplore.exe when it hangs up like this without having to push the reset button? Kill does not work, neither does the kill option in process explorer.

 

recovery disk

I tried to make a recovery disk as you suggested a few posts back. Downloaded the burner and the rc.iso file. Burned it to a CD-R. BUT -- when I tried to boot from it, It seemed to try to start windows and complained about not finding hard drives.

Any guesses as to what I might have done wrong?

 

malware will stop process killing, so check for malware again with a full scan from MBAM.

Did you test the burned cd on a pc that is not having any probs?

To tell the truth, I do not know what embedding is, that is beyond my expertise.
All I know is that when I click on the IE icon 2 iexplore.exe appear (two because my installation started with ie7 and was updated to ie8, normal)
it does not matter where they appear in the tree.

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-xp/865070-solved-mci-command-handling-window.html
this thread talks about old software not properly uninstalled and/or malware, and/or some media player possibly needing an update. read through it

Do you have ccleaner installed??

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
normally, I would say not to mess with the registry, but you can check the box for obsolete software, scan for issues, save when asked, and then choose to fix all issues.

post back, and as for the cd not seeing drives, do you have sata drives?
in the pc regular ide cables are wide and flat, sata cables are smaller.
if you have sata drives you would have to boot with Hiren's boot cd.
I can give you instructions on how to make a Hiren's boot cd.

 

Tested it on my Win 7 machine, did not work. Tested it on a XP Home laptop, worked and allowed me to do things such as chkdsk -- although it did not report the number of errors like I have been getting on the XP Pro desktop.

I've installed and uninstalled it several times. It is a bit too aggressive for my tastes, but when I'm having as much trouble as I am -- I'll try anything.

I don't recall how the cables looked, but I do recall seeing SATA in the boot config when I checked. I've seen Hiren's boot CD mentioned elsewhere. I'll look it up and try that.

Thanks again for your continued assistance.

 

Courtesy of Jose Ibarra:
Anywho, to make a Hiren's boot CD, do this:

I am going to recommend you use Hiren's boot CD (it will also go on a USB drive).

This is good for you because it has many more tools on it that on the XP Recovery Console CD, does not care about your Administrator passwords and you will not have to futz around in your BIOS if any afflicted system has SATA drives - Hiren's can deal with that.

You will have a whole bunch of cool tools that you don't have in the XP Recovery Console... a registry editor, password resetter, and a desktop that looks like Windows XP so you will feel comfortable maneuvering.

You can also easily copy your personal data (documents, images, music.) to an external drive.

From a working system, first download Hiren's Boot CD from here (it is a substantial download but worth it):

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ (look near the bottom of the page, do not click on any ads).


Unzip the Hiren's to some folder where you can find it. There is a Hiren's.BootCD..iso in there that you are going to need next.

Hiren's has instructions to make a bootable USB that you can use, but it requires you to first burn the .iso to a CD and some other steps, so I suggest another way...

Download RUFUS 1.20 from here (read some stuff on the page so you can know more about it):

http://rufus.akeo.ie/

I will caution you to be careful that you don't accidentally format any of your hard drives - be sure your USB stick is in and know what the drive letter is! This part always makes me a little nervous, so be careful.

Launch RUFUS and all the defaults should be okay, for the Device, choose your USB drive letter, Quick format, FAT32, label it if you want to and in the Format options box, click the little icon that looks like a CD and a window will open. Navigate that dialogue to point to the folder that contains the Hiren's.BootCD.15.iso that you unzipped earlier and the box should change to say ISO image (RUFUS understands the Hiren's ISO file).

Double check you have the right Device selected in the top (NOT you HDD) Click Start, acknowledge the warning and let it finish (it will take a little while) as it copies the files. The Hiren's ISO is also good size.

When RUFUS is done, it will say 'DONE' in the bottom.

Put the USB stick in the afflicted machine and reset/reboot and press whatever key you need to press to get to a boot menu where you can select the USB as the first boot device (that is F11 for me). If you don't see a boot menu choice, you will have to adjust your BIOS to boot from the USB first instead of the HDD.

When the Hiren's menu comes up, choose the Mini XP Mode and it will start loading (slowly from a USB drive) and eventually you should see a Windowsy looking desktop. You should recognize that part and feel comfortable, but it is not your desktop - it is the Hiren's desktop!

Remember: You did not boot on your hard disk - you booted into the Hiren's desktop

 

Thanks. I got that last night. Used it to do the chkdsk and all drives came up clean for the first time.

Did a full scan with MBAM. All it found was a joke file in a system restore.

Still have the problem. Next thing I'm going to try is look into updating drivers. I had downloaded a program that did a scan and claimed to have found a number of outdated drivers, but wanted money to actually do the updates. I suspect I should be able to get it done on my own.

The basic problem is still that iexplore.exe gets started by some process and does not terminate gracefully as it should.

 

You do not need to pay anyone to update drivers, in device manager, you can double click on a piece and let Windows look for a driver, or get the name and go to the website of the manufacturer to look for an update.

as for IE maybe it would be best to uninstall ie8 and reinstall
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957700

above are instructions to remove IE8