Thursday, September 18, 2008

"Internet Explorer has stopped working" - again!

A while ago I was getting this message "Internet Explorer has stopped working" whenever I used Internet Explorer. It often happened when I was using the program but always happened whenever I closed the program - something I found irritating since it made closing IE a two click operation. Firefox 3 is my default browser but since I check web pages in several different browsers to make sure they work properly and this was beginning to annoy me.

At first I thought it was merely a bug in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 which I was testing. I researched the problem on Internet looking for a cure but nothing I did seemed to stop the problem.

'Oh well' I thought. 'Time to un-install IE8 Beta 1'. I did and fired up IE7 to test it. It seemed fine until I closed it and got ... "Internet Explorer has stopped working" A little more research was needed.

I disabled all plugins. A number of them have been pointed at as the cause of the problem including Omnipage (which I don't have), Yahoo and Skype (which I did have). I still got "Internet Explorer has stopped working" every time I closed IE (version 7 now).

I reset IE using the 'Advanced' options - Open Control Panel > Internet Options > Advanced (tab) > under " Reset Internet Explorer settings, click "Reset". I opened IE, closed it and got ... "Internet Explorer has stopped working".

I cleared all cookies, opened IE, closed it and got ... "Internet Explorer has stopped working".

I deleted the cache, browser history and cookies again, opened IE, closed it and got ... "Internet Explorer has stopped working".

On one site I found the suggestion that I make IE the default browser and then go through the install and uninstall routine for IE8 beta 1 again before reseting Firefox as the default again. I tried it and got ... "Internet Explorer has stopped working"

Then Internet Explorer beta 2 came out. I installed it and for a while success! I could open and close IE without seeing "Internet Explorer has stopped working". The success was short lived however I soon got "Internet Explorer has stopped working" not only when I closed IE but also at times when IE was not even loaded - probably the latter being caused by EditPlus, the text editor I use often which uses the IE engine to display web pages being worked on.

I'm still looking for a reliable cure. At the moment I've disabled IE's 'Protected Mode' - Thats done in Control panel > Internet Options > Security tab > uncheck 'Enable Protected Mode'. It causes IE to display a warning when using it, but there's an option when you click it to not repeat the warning. It's also something I wouldn't want to do unless you have an up-to-date anti-malware program. I use Kaspersky Internet Security which gets updated hourly.

For the moment I get no "Internet Explorer has stopped working" error messages but then I've been here before. I'll let you know what happens.

5 comments:

John Chapman said...

btw - I'm using IE on a Dell 1720 Laptop 2GB RAM and Windows Vista Ultimate operating system.

John Chapman said...

Well I still haven't seen an 'Internet Explorer has stopped working' message so it looks like I've finally found the cure.

cosophy said...

Uncheck protected mode did not work for me! Mine is IE8 on Win7 x64.

Anonymous said...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956196/en-us

To do this, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Internet Explorer (No Add-ons).

Note Internet Explorer (No Add-ons) mode is only available for Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8.

If this resolves the issue, follow these steps to isolate the browser add-on that is causing the issue:

1. Click Tools, and then click Internet Options.
2. Click the Programs tab, and then click Manage add-ons.
3. Click an add-on in the Name list, and then click Disable.
4. Repeat step 3 until you identify the add-on that is causing the issue

John Chapman said...

Starting your version of Internet Explorer without add-ons or plugins should be your first step. Unfortunately it didn't solve the problem in my case but it may solve Cosophy's problem.