Internet Explorer crashes while viewing Blog-category page and Flash banner

[Remko Lodder 0]

Dear support,

On http://www.kvvitesse.nl/nieuws/ we have a banner (not the header!) that has a flash object inside. While viewing this with IE 8, the browser crashes. (Does not seem to be repeatable with IE9 at this moment). Is there something which we can do to prevent the page from crashing the IE8 browser? Unfortunately our users use various browsers, so "upgrade the browser" is not something we can enforce.

Please share your thoughts with us, is there anything weird at all on the page? Could there be a reason for the site to crash on just this page with the flash banner?

Thanks

Remko

[catrina 103]

I don't have IE so I can't see if the Flash banner crashes for me on that browser, but it works fine on Firefox. Have you already tried deactivating your active plugins?

[Remko Lodder 0]

Hi Catrina,

Yes. It works fine in Safari and Firefox, but not in IE. The way I added the banner is the same as we use for a different site on the splashpage (homepage itself). So the way we use the <object> and <embed> is not different then there, though here it crashes with IE.

Can someone that has IE8 available look at this?

[Danny+ 1,327]

Hi,

If it is not causing your site to crash when viewing in Safari, Chrome or FF then I recommend you contact both Microsoft and Adobe regarding this issue.

[Remko Lodder 0]

Right, though the sad thing is that a different SWF file on another site and Pagelines just works. It just doesn't happen to work at this site. By replying this you are not willing to look into this and help me resolve this?

[Remko Lodder 0]

One more thing: I would like to 100% rule out that this is a pagelines issue.

On http://www.kcrkorfbal.nl/actueel/nieuws/ there is a similiar banner, and in fact the page doesn't crash there. They are not using wordpress/pagelines. Obviously it has to be in one of those two products.

If you can have a look whether or not there is something strange on the page mentioned and others can verify that IE8 indeed crashes for them as well, then we can either point to Wordpress or Pagelines as to blame and look into this further. Our objectcode is now similiar to the other site as well, just referencing our own swf file ofcourse.

Thanks for the assistance and time to help us debug this!

[Danny+ 1,327]

Its not that I'm not willing to look at the issue, not sure how you come that conclusion but I am a Mac user and therefore unable to properly test the issue. If using another SWF file is working on two other sites without causing a browser crash, then it could be related to the code/SWF file itself or plugins you have installed.

You can do some testing yourself until one of our other moderators comes online who can properly check this for you i.e. Windows user. Try disable PageLines Framework and enable Twenty Eleven theme and see if the browser still crashes. If the browser does indeed still crash, it is not a PageLines and therefore we are unable to assist you.

The issue but could be related to either the following:

• Disable all active plugins, as it could be plugin related.

• Try the SWF file on a static .html file and view it in the browser and see if the browser crashes, if it does then the SWF file in the cause of the problem and not Wordpress or PageLInes.

Once you have completed these suggestions, reply here please.

[Remko Lodder 0]

Yes, hence that I asked for someone to have a look that has access to IE8 as well. I do understand that for a Mac user this is more difficult (I use VMWare Fusion on my macbook to use IE(9 sadly for this matter)).

I can rule out that the plugins are the issue, I disabled all active plugins this morning and verified; the /nieuws/ page still crashes IE8. With and without the Google JS fix in the advanced menu.

The code is ofcourse visible, I think it's just the same as on every other page, I use the banner facility to place the banner above the latest news items, nothing fancy in my understanding (Unless the banner itself is whacked, is there a reasonable way to find out?)

[Simon 248]

Which blog mode is it? regular or magazine mode?

[Remko Lodder 0]

Magazine...

[Simon 248]

And what if you switch?

[Remko Lodder 0]

Simon: Did that, asked one of our webmasters to have a look since I closed my worklaptop already when you had send the message. Thanks a lot for the suggestions so far.

I will also try the static HTML page as suggested by Danny, I will do so during this weekend and probably test myself on monday when the work machine is back on :-)

[Rob 547]

First, let me interject here that IE8 predates the coding systems that PageLines uses. It was created prior to the current standards of HTML5 and CSS3.

The flash file may be created in a version post-dating IE8 as well, so IE8, being an older, outdated product, may be having a difficult time reading it. Many plugins can cause conflicts as well. Google 'wordpress conflicts with flash' and you'll find many older posts showing this was common when IE8 was in common use.

I think this may be helpful: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/web-development/TCH_WDD/520201-8267767

It's also possible the file size of the flash may cause your site to surpass the memory allowance, if several people are viewing the site at the same moment. You may wish to increase the memory allowance via php.ini or other settings.

[Remko Lodder 0]

Dear Simon,

It seems that switching stopped IE from crashing. Could that be a problem within the magazine style of the page?

Thanks a lot for your help so far!

cheers

Remko

[catrina 103]

I'm not certain what exactly the issue could've been. I've seen a lot of issues with CSS in IE but never with Flash.