FamilySearch website issue

[emjay]

Switch on, go and make a cuppa, good to go when you return.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Switch on, go and make a cuppa, good to go when you return.

Works for me every time

 

[Pauline]

You say there is nothing new in start-up, but what about what is old?

There was one old thing - an update scheduler program from an old HP printer. However, having now disabled this from start-up and restarted the computer, I find, not surprisingly, it makes no difference.

I was a bit surprised to discover this program still running, but Google suggests I am far from alone in this. There seems to have been some flaw in the HP software which provides no way of uninstalling this. I doubt it has been having much impact on my computer's performance as it is only a scheduler and not itself trying to check for updates to the (long unistalled) printer software.

 

[Bob Spiers]

There seems to have been some flaw in the HP software which provides no way of uninstalling this. I doubt it has been having much impact on my computer's performance as it is only a scheduler and not itself trying to check for updates to the (long unistalled) printer software.

Yes a fairly common thing not just with HP there are quite a few applications that remain behind in both start up & they also leave their trail in the Registry. Over time they can be a nuisance. I personally have a thing for 'sniffer' programs recommended from time to time by my Computer magazine. They seek out and report on unwanted legacies which can either be removed or quarantined. Its quite amazing what they dig up.

Norton Power Eraser is also a helpful tool which uses more aggressive virus detection methods than the normal scan. The beauty of this is you can just download and run and do so in Safe Mode which is very useful. You need to be a little wary as it has been known to list some legitimate programs for you to accept or reject. I have always found them easy to spot and should you accidently remove a program that is required, you just run the Power Eraser and review your repair session, and undo them.

 

[Bryman]

Yesterday morning, I nearly 'paniced' when I started a search in Family Search and my whole system locked solid. Oh dear, Pauline's Pause had reached me! I couldn't even move my pointer for about 40 seconds. Then everything returned to normal. I was not aware of any surreptitious updating taking place but the disk access light was on constantly. Neither were any virus scans scheduled for that time. I was using Vista and Firefox so totally different from previous reportings.

However, this morning I decided to repeat the activity and this time the pause was only 2-3 seconds so perhaps my fears were unfounded. I will try again tomorrow and let everyone know (if I can) if things take a turn for the worse.

 

[Pauline]

Oh dear, Pauline's Pause had reached me!

I like the term "Pauline's Pause" - and being famous enough to have a Pause named after me.

 

[emjay]

and being famous enough to have a Pause named after me.

....infamy,infamy..they've all got it informe

 

[Alexander Bisset]

On the whole I prefer not to use this feature of IE - even if the host seems trustable, there's always the possibility of a site being hacked. Also, I don't think there is an equivalent in Firefox, is there?

That feature is a feature of the operating system not specifically IE. You can reach the options from Control Panel Internet Settings as well as from IE's Internet Settings. Chrome uses these settings too not sure about Firefox but it should honor them.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

One thing on this - using IE11 in compatibility mode produces the same warning message. So I was wondering if your IE10 might have been in compatibility mode? I suppose IE11 has been around for quite a while now but I find it a bit odd that IE10 is no longer supported.

Almost always this is browsers checking for versions >= IE8, they do a text check and find IE10 or IE11 and think that IE1(something) must be less than IE8 and so give a message about the browser being out of date. Just poor coding.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Not Safe Mode as such, only being online in Safe Mode. According to Norton's own information, it is not providing proper security online when in Safe Mode. However, I will look into this further and then maybe try it, although I probably won't have chance until after the weekend now.

I will also check what's currently in my start-up manager - if there's nothing new or recently updated in there, I suspect that the "feature" may be something else.

I guess it may come down to past experience - I have yet to discover or resolve any issue by using Safe Mode, which makes me question if the benefits of using it online will outweigh the risks.

Norton is being paranoid, which is what is causing you concerns. Safe Mode means that the addons to the browser are temporarily disabled this will include Norton's addons. Almost always these addons are the cause of the problem so testing the website without the addons turned on can tell you if its an addon or the site. Norton are simply warning that their addon will be turned off if you use safe mode so theoretically you are at greater risk if you were casually browsing. However you are not casually browsing you are testing a specific known trusted website. So disabling the addons is perfectly safe and an excellent idea.

Note if you are still not convinced you can emulate safe mode by manually disabling all your addons apart from Norton. Then see if the problem goes away. If the problem goes away turn addons on one at a time and retest until the problem reappears then you've found the culprit. If the problem still exists with Norton turn it off and test and you'd find out if Norton was the culprit. To be honest its the most likely culprit, being overly zealous.

 

[Pauline]

Safe Mode means that the addons to the browser are temporarily disabled this will include Norton's addons.

This was referring to booting the computer in Safe Mode. As mentioned previously, I have already tried opening IE with addons (including the Norton ones) disabled, and it made no difference to the issue at FamilySearch.

What I was concerned about here was that when booting the computer in Safe Mode, it is not only browser addons which are disabled - many other features of Norton are also not functional.

 

[Bob Spiers]

My wife pointed out this cartoon with the comment I would probably be trying that next. As if I would have such a system within my computer room; but outside the door and activated when inside the room....that's another matter entirely

 

[Bob Spiers]

Almost always this is browsers checking for versions >= IE8, they do a text check and find IE10 or IE11 and think that IE1(something) must be less than IE8 and so give a message about the browser being out of date. Just poor coding.

Does that still happen Alexander? My goodness I recall that problem way back when attempting to program my Sinclair in BASIC to allow the computer to recognise 10 was greater than 9. I would have though with today's programming languages and sophistications that was a thing of the past. You do surprise me.

 

[Bryman]

You do surprise me.

I thought that was only the Spanish Inquisition. No one expects . . . etc.

 

[Bryman]

I will try again tomorrow and let everyone know (if I can) if things take a turn for the worse.

Another day and the similar first search of the day passed without any extended delay. Fingers crossed for the future.

 

[Bob Spiers]

I thought that was only the Spanish Inquisition. No one expects . . . etc.

nearly as bad as the Cumfy chair?

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Does that still happen Alexander? My goodness I recall that problem way back when attempting to program my Sinclair in BASIC to allow the computer to recognise 10 was greater than 9. I would have though with today's programming languages and sophistications that was a thing of the past. You do surprise me.

Sadly not. Javascript (used widely in client side browser code) isn't that much further on from Sinclair BASIC as it has no solid concept of data type. Variables are typically of"type" "var" which start as type "undefined" and its only during use that they become strings, numbers, boolean or object. If in doubt it tends to default to string. Hence without careful coding you can get string comparisons when you meant numeric ones. This easily happens when the browser version is 11.0.9600.17501 for instance which isn't a number so gets treated as a string.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Any luck with this?

The chickens came home to roost today when my wife asked me to check her laptop telling me her AOL desktop (not to be confused with the computer desktop) was taking ages to open, but then performed without problem. (It had apparently being doing it for quite a few days but she only got round to telling me today).

An update Pauline which may relate to your own 'Pause' problem in a roundabout way (see later) . I had a 'play' (official term for a Geeky interrogation) of my wife's laptop relating to the apparent stalling that I had put down to a CPU overload. I used one of my trouble-shooter pieces of software which reported activation of an AOL system service called ATWPKT2. I found this to be an authentic but troublesome AOL connectivity service activated when the AOL icon is clicked. It was no coincidence that the 'hang' lasted right up to the moment I received another report that the service had been self de-activated. A Google investigation tells ATWPKT2 can be deactivated without a problem and I will look further into that but that was only half the reason for the posting.

It reminded me that you could be experiencing the same problems. There are hundreds of different Service applications which activate and deactivate continuously to perform behind the scene actions and you can see them under their fancy names if you open up the Services section within Task Manager. Most are of MS origin and are 'Host' (there's a clue in the name) Processes and those associated with Driver functions but a good many are what are termed 'Own Process' services required for a piece of software to work and for Browsers to handshake. Many are critical, some not so much and some are there for the ride so to speak. Task Manager offers many options to temporary de-activate to see if that resolves a particular situation, and a service can as easily be restarted.

It is quite likely that it is one such service application that causes your "pause". If you've a mind to experiment open Task manager before you open FS and click on the Services tab and check activity on the iexplorer.exe service application (or Mozilla Firefox for that matter ). Then activate FS (I have the benefit of split screens so you may just have to opt to watch Task manager or toggle ALT/TAB between both). The aim is to see if one of the service applications associated with the browser stops after (say) 30 seconds or so. If it performs as in my AOL example then it should coincide with FS unfreezing. If it doesn't then so be it, back to the drawing board; if it does then we have a pointer as to what is causing the problem. Make a note of the service name and report back.

If you wonder why all of sudden a service application could be causing problems where non existed before, than I have to say I've no idea, any more than the one disrupting AOL on one laptop. It is the nature of the beast that as one thing alters another falls behind. There may even be a MS update round the corner to address the very problem?

 

[Bob Spiers]

Sadly not. Javascript (used widely in client side browser code) isn't that much further on from Sinclair BASIC as it has no solid concept of data type. Variables are typically of"type" "var" which start as type "undefined" and its only during use that they become strings, numbers, boolean or object. If in doubt it tends to default to string. Hence without careful coding you can get string comparisons when you meant numeric ones. This easily happens when the browser version is 11.0.9600.17501 for instance which isn't a number so gets treated as a string.

Yes I follow your argument (or enough to understand the point being made) about numbers versus strings. It could explain quite a lot with Javascript problems as well. Thanks.

 

[Pauline]

Most are of MS origin and are 'Host' (there's a clue in the name) Processes and those associated with Driver functions but a good many are what are termed 'Own Process' services.....

Once I deselect the MS services, there are only 7 left, some of which are stopped, and there aren't any (running or stopped) which are not on my husband's very similar computer, and he isn't experiencing the Pause.

If you've a mind to experiment open Task manager before you open FS and click on the Services tab and check activity on the iexplorer.exe service application (or Mozilla Firefox for that matter ). Then activate FS (I have the benefit of split screens so you may just have to opt to watch Task manager or toggle ALT/TAB between both). The aim is to see if one of the service applications associated with the browser stops after (say) 30 seconds or so.

Slight problem with this, unfortunately. Although I can move my cursor around the screen, nothing else seems to change on my screen during the Pause - it seems that not even the time indicator changes (either that, or by coincidence the time just happens to move on to the next minute whenever the Pause ends), nor do I get the usual visual indications when the cursor is hovering over things. So I don't think I would have any way of knowing if changes in the Task Manager appearing as the Pause ended were associated with the Pause, or if they'd happened earlier and were unrelated.