Ian, would it be possible to provide more details on the problem you're experiencing with IE6? For example,

1) At which stage does the crash occur? Are you performing a particular action in RTM?

2) Which version of IE6 do you have? (from 'Help' menu, then 'About')

3) Do you have any third-party software or extensions such as anti-virus, pop-up blocking, firewall, etc?

If you haven't already, would it be possible to try clearing the browser's cache, restart the browser, and login again to see if this helps? It may also help to restore IE6's default settings. In particular, disable all third party add-ons:

1) Open Internet Explorer.
2) Click Tools to select Manage Add-ons.
3) Disable all third party Add-ons.
4) Restart the browser.

Hope this helps!

1) after I add my username and password, I am redirected to this page:

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/home/ianbillups/#section.tasks

during the loading of this page, the browser window closes itself.

2) IE version 6.0.3790, Win2003 Server SP1

3) Google toolbar

Cleared cache and disabled all add-ons.

---

I use, and test, a very wide variety of web applications as part of my work, and I've never known one close the browser window before! Could it be Google Gears causing the problem?

ianbillups, thanks for these details.

Theoretically, it's not supposed to be possible to crash a browser from a web app :) If it's happening consistently with this configuration, something is triggering a flaw in IE6 that's causing this to happen (it could also be something interacting with RTM, such as an extension or third party software such as anti-virus).

We're going to setup a test machine with Windows Server 2003 and see if we can reproduce this.

Would it be possible to let me know which version of Google Gears you're using? (From 'Tools' then 'Google Gears Settings'.) There is a possibility it could be related to Gears too, so we can check that out.

Thanks!

ianbillups, we've set up a test machine with the same configuration but unfortunately haven't been able to reproduce this issue as yet.

I just have one more question -- are you running McAfee or any kind of security or anti-virus software? (We've found McAfee to be causing some issues, and it's possible that other software does something similar.)

Thanks!

Hi Emily,

I appreciate your help with this issue. Some other information...

a) the behaviour I describe is absolutely consistent. I'm as sure as you you are that the real bug is in IE6 but I am stuck with IE6 unfortunately.

b) I don't see "Google Gears Settings" on Tools, so I guess I don't have it installed. When I said I thought the problem may be related to GG, I thought maybe something on your page was trying to install it.

c) there's no anti-virus or software FW on this machine. (It is behind NAT and a hardware firewall)

d) no other site or web app has ever caused a similar problem.... until today! If I navigate to this link, the IE window closes exactly as it does with RTM:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=100375217398101478027.000440619bfaacdce9470&ll=51.509357,-0.100036&spn=0.007612,0.023518&z=16&om=1

Maybe some clever DHTML/JS trick on Google Maps is also used on RTM? Although this link kills my IE6 I can usually use GM without any problems.

e) "remember me on this computer" doesn't seem to work (remember I am working with Opera now). However, I am using other sites (e.g. ASP.NET web apps) that I know rely on cookies.

Well, I hope this gives some clues. This could be a problem that's unique to my machine: I notice there are no "me too" follow-ups!

Warm regards,

Ian.

Hmm, that's weird that it can crash on Google Maps too -- it may even be the same issue, as Google Maps is loaded in RTM for the Locations feature (or, it could just be something that the two are doing in a similar way).

In case it helps, Google has some info for resolving IE issues with Maps. I did find some examples of people experiencing crashes with IE6 and Maps (this post on Windows Server 2003 was one example), so Google may have a solution for this.

It might also be a good idea to run a system file check on your operating system, as a DLL that IE6 relies on may have been changed (for instance, by another program install).

Hope this helps!

Hi again Emily,

Just to let you know: I fixed it by upgrading jscript.dll to version 5.6.8831, then clearing all caches. Suddenly I can use RTM, Google Maps and Google Calendar without the IE6 window closing spontaneously!

Many thanks for your help.

Ian.

No problem, glad you got it working! :) This is useful info to know, in case anyone else runs into this problem.