IE=bad Opera and Firefox in the competition

KingIsaacLinksr · December 20, 2007, 03:25:31 PM

Well, so I don't clutter Shoutbox with this issue, I made this thread. Basically, IE was my favorite until about 2+ weeks ago when serious issues began cropping up. I really can't describe it other than it likes to freeze up a lot more and some sites are purely inaccessible. Now, I have a 1 year old laptop with Duo technology+ so trust me, my computer is still current enough to manage. (Example: 3+ internet browsers, iTunes, Random semi-high end video game, Windows Player, Word, etc. This computer can handle all that at the same time with little lag). But it just seems like IE really started working badly. So I've had to switch to Firefox. Currently starting to like it now that I've been forced to use it. When I was comparing all 3 browsers, Firefox was #3 on the list but its starting to go up. Opera unfortunately is not a great one except for some sites. It still has compatibility issues with sites so I quit using it as well.

So yea, idk why IE is going nutty on me but as far as I can find, there are no viruses on the computer.

My :2cents

King Linksr

Rico · December 20, 2007, 03:32:17 PM

There are many things that can cause such issues. First question, what version of IE are you using?

Blackride · December 20, 2007, 03:41:55 PM

There may not be a viruse but "ads" may cause issues. Adaware would be what I would try first. Not all that great but it's a start. CWshredder may also help.

http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

I've always used IE but have looked at other broswers and never had any noticeable performance difference causing me to switch.

billybob476 · December 20, 2007, 03:42:35 PM

Looks fine under IE 7.0.5730.11

You say there are no viruses, but have you scanned for spyware lately? I'd give AdAware (http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html) a quick run. I also like running Windows Defender as active protection. Spyware kills IE right quick.

jedijeff · December 20, 2007, 03:48:22 PM

I guess another thought is to do some maintenance on your browser, such as cleaning out all the temp files and things like that. Also make sure that it is up to date with patches. I use ie 7, and for the most part happy with it. I occasionally use Firefox as well, it is fine. I am not as passionate about browsers as some people get, and usually just use the ones with the OS. On my mac mini I use Safari, and like it as well.

Bryancd · December 20, 2007, 03:53:42 PM

cough, cough,...IE stinks, Safari's rules...cough, cough... ;)

Blackride · December 20, 2007, 04:14:16 PM

Quote from: jedijeff on December 20, 2007, 03:48:22 PM
I use ie 7, and for the most part happy with it. I occasionally use Firefox as well, it is fine. I am not as passionate about browsers as some people get, and usually just use the ones with the OS. On my mac mini I use Safari, and like it as well.

I agree totally. A browser is a browser to me. They all pretty much do the same thing.....

With that being said spyware is the death of all browsers!!!!!!!

space_invader64 · December 20, 2007, 04:29:49 PM

Safari is OK but not full featured as firefox and opera. There used to be a mac version of IE and you talk about buggy! It really didn't work.

I think IE 7 was soposed to fix many of the major problems that it was having but after the nightmare of 6, I really didn't care. That was when people would pay to buy a popup blocker to keep them away. IE was the last major browser to add the option to block them.

I first found Opera while doing tech support and recomended it to customers fed up with IE. This was before firefox but Mozilla was still a choice. Opera has nice features like you can move all the buttons, download skins to make it look sharper and it can bring you back to where you were in the event of a crash. I think firefox does that now.

I saw firefox when it first came out and just thought it was another browser. I wasn't a firefox hater but didn't think it was that diffrent from mozilla. But so many people love it and I still don't know why it was prefered over mozilla and opera.

billybob476 · December 20, 2007, 04:51:14 PM

My only issue with firefox is memory leaks. I'm a web developer so needless to say I spend a lot of time in browsers. Firefox is great for devs, but eventually it just sits eating up a gig or ram.

KingIsaacLinksr · December 20, 2007, 05:03:31 PM

Quote from: Bryancd on December 20, 2007, 03:53:42 PM
cough, cough,...IE stinks, Safari's rules...cough, cough... ;)

Hilarious...not. Mac ftl ;)

Quote from: jedijeff on December 20, 2007, 03:48:22 PM
I guess another thought is to do some maintenance on your browser, such as cleaning out all the temp files and things like that. Also make sure that it is up to date with patches. I use ie 7, and for the most part happy with it. I occasionally use Firefox as well, it is fine. I am not as passionate about browsers as some people get, and usually just use the ones with the OS. On my mac mini I use Safari, and like it as well.

I do that fairly regularly. I am a geek after all. ;)

Quote from: Blackride on December 20, 2007, 03:41:55 PM
There may not be a viruse but "ads" may cause issues. Adaware would be what I would try first. Not all that great but it's a start. CWshredder may also help.

http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

I've always used IE but have looked at other broswers and never had any noticeable performance difference causing me to switch.

I use Lavasoft and Spybot SD constantly. This is not the issue.

Quote from: Rico on December 20, 2007, 03:32:17 PM
There are many things that can cause such issues. First question, what version of IE are you using?

I'm using the 7.0 I think...

King Linksr

KingIsaacLinksr · December 20, 2007, 05:04:34 PM

Yea, its 7.0.

King Linksr

Blackride · December 20, 2007, 05:41:02 PM

What process is spiking when using IE? Is it IE itself or another spun off proccess? Is your memory,CPU or IO going up when this problem occurs?

Rico · December 20, 2007, 07:01:08 PM

King/Tim - you have to have other issues on your system then if you are having browsing trouble. Background programs can conflict, spyware, temp. files, memory issues, not having certain java/activeX scripts in place, etc. Frankly it can be many, many, things. Honestly if it were me and Firefox worked well I would just stick with that.

KingIsaacLinksr · December 20, 2007, 07:23:28 PM

Quote from: Blackride on December 20, 2007, 05:41:02 PM
What process is spiking when using IE? Is it IE itself or another spun off proccess? Is your memory,CPU or IO going up when this problem occurs?

Refresh my memory what IO means....as for processes and such, I've monitored them during a "freeze" up and they seem to be running fine even with other things running.

Quote from: Rico on December 20, 2007, 07:01:08 PM
King/Tim - you have to have other issues on your system then if you are having browsing trouble. Background programs can conflict, spyware, temp. files, memory issues, not having certain java/activeX scripts in place, etc. Frankly it can be many, many, things. Honestly if it were me and Firefox worked well I would just stick with that.

Yea, Rico, I tend to agree. This thing has so many different things running and going on that it would make your head spin. Adding an external drive makes it more interesting. However, as Firefox is working for me, I think I'll just keep using it. It seems to work better than IE ever did. Congrats to them!

King Linksr

space_invader64 · December 20, 2007, 08:34:47 PM

Quote from: billybob476 on December 20, 2007, 04:51:14 PM
My only issue with firefox is memory leaks. I'm a web developer so needless to say I spend a lot of time in browsers. Firefox is great for devs, but eventually it just sits eating up a gig or ram.

I'm pretty sure that the memory leak is caused from some old netscape or mozilla code. We were talking about it in our web programing class.

Kinglinksr, have you tried redownloading it and reinstalling?

One thing I always run into is for some reason every browser breaks. We see it more with IE because it's what so many people run. Normally reseting the settings to default, clearing cache and cookies, system restore to when it was working, and reinstalling from a freshly downloaded install file should do the trick.