A script is running that may (!!!) slow down your computer

[estufarian]

That's the message I've been getting for about a week (maybe 10 days) now - but only on the Chowhound Tab of my Internet Explorer (under Vista).
And indeed my browser has noticeably slowed.
If I close the Chowhound Tab, the problem disappears completely - opening a new Chowhound Tab gets the fast response back - but a few ?? (seems to vary between hours and days) later the problem reappears.
So far, never received this message on any other tab.

The randomness possibly suggests it's triggered by an ad, rather than an implicit problem - but either way it's annoying.

[estufarian]

Screen shots sent.

[ChowHQ]

Thank you estufarian for sending the screen-shots. Your explanation of the repo steps, along with the screen-shots, helped to pinpoint the issue. We should have it fixed within a few days but should it happen again, feel free to post back to the thread. Thanks again for the well summarized and outlined repo steps!

[ChowHQ]

Hi All-

We need your help, if someone could provide a screenshot of the page (with ads) when the error is being seen, that would be great. Feel free to send it to [e-mail] and include as much of the page as possible, along with the Operating System, Browser and version you were using at the time of the error.

[jfood]

Back again

[ChowHQ]

We believe we found the issue, and it was due to an Ad, should you ever see this happen again let us know. Thank you for bringing this to our attention!

[OCAnn]

I just got an Adobe Flash Player 10 error message. The other websites I'm viewing aren't running AFP, so my guess is that it's still CH. =(

[estufarian]

I had something simlar today as well - the site slowed and when I tried to close the tab I got a warning that a script was running and shouldn't close the tab.
This was the only time since the 'fix' was reported. Ran perfectly from then until tonight.

[OCAnn]

I *just* got another script error msg. =(

[ChowHQ]

We just re-opened this issue, sorry for the inconvenience we will get to the bottom of it.

[jfood]

We're BACK....

[ChowHQ]

Thank you all for letting us know which browser version you are experiencing issues with. We are in the process of investigating and will update as we know more. We apologize for the inconvenience or any confusion this has caused.

[rosetown]

Just a suspicion.
I'm running an older version of Firefox under Linux on a netbook.
On another website (slashdot), I often get a message that a script has stopped running, giving me the choose to restart running or to cancel. I suspect that the message is a Sun java message.
I have not been able to determine, whether, the message is triggered by problematic programming in the website, or are problems in the local (resident) hardware/software, such as, memory leaks in the browser, or a full cache, or insufficient (resident) hardware memory.

[rosetown]

Since Chowhound forums are structured on oldest post first, with no paging unlike most forums that are structured on newest post first, with paging.

I suspect that when the Chowhound forum thread is massive it triggers these resident (local) messages.
In the case of Windows, regardless of browser, when volatile memory (ram) cache is full it starts to cache to the hard drive. This will indeed slow the system down.

As I see it we have 2 problems working together in tandem.
1) the design of chowhound forums that try to deliver massive threads to the local machine.
2) The local machine not having enough ram, or if it does, the cache in ram is full, and starts to store cache on the hard drive.

I very much doubt that chowhound will revamp its thread architecture, a daunting task. It does have its advantages. That leaves the local machine, not having adequate memory, or having adequate memory but, corrupted through time by major use.

The problem seems to be OS system and browser agnostic.

This is just a guess. If my crude analysis suffers please post where it is weak or erroneous.

[rworange]

Um, this same architecture has been up and running since 2006.The problem only surfaced within the last few weeks. There were long threads always. It doen't happen to me on long threads.

[rosetown]

That smashes one of my crude theories. If these scripts are of recent origin for most posters in this thread, then it is unlikley a resident (local) problem.

[OCAnn]

I agree w/rworange; my guess is that it has to do with some of the ads.

[rosetown]

A possibility as well.

[kpzoo]

I completely agree that the problems people are describing here likely stem from third-party ad server issues, since I use AdBlock plus (an ad-blocking extension for Firefox) and have never run into these types of errors on this site.

[OCAnn]

Thank you for the tip on AdBlock!

[ChowHQ]

Thanks for letting us know about the script and lag time on Chowhound. We are investigating the issue and will report back to the thread as soon as we know what's going on.

Is everyone that has been affected using Ie and Vista? What version of Ie is everone on?

[jfood]

just happened again

[ChowHQ]

Hi Jfood - which browser version are you on?

[jfood]

IE 6.0. And when I hit reply it gave me the "slight problem" window.

Maybe the Internet Gods are telling you guys something

[ChowHQ]

I wish we could get the Gods to communicate clearly and more frequently. Thank you for letting us know which browser version you are using. We are in the process of investigating and will update as we know more.

[ecustard]

Honestly, unless you have some corporate reason to use it (expensive legacy software dependent upon it) it's time to ditch IE 6.0. It's supported by fewer and fewer websites and is regarded industry-wide as insecure to the point of being deleterious to the safe operation of one's computer. It alone accounts for 17% of all known vulnerabilities reported by Secunia, one of the top Internet security monitors. Check out the Wikipedia entry on IE 6 for more info and links to detailed discussions of the issues.

Your Internet experience will be dramatically better all around if you upgrade or change browsers.

[JamieK]

I was in IE8.

[rworange]

IE8 also

[ChowHQ]

Great thank you rworange, we are also investigating IE8.

[estufarian]

I'm running IE 7.0
And the same thing has happened 4 more times this week.

[OCAnn]

Happens to me too and I use Firefox.

[OCAnn]

I just got an error msg: it was an Adobe Flashplayer error regarding a script.

[OCAnn]

Here's another error msg:

A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, or you can continue to see if the script will complete.

Script: http://b.static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php...

[rosetown]

Same for me but rarely, and only on massive threads:
netbook running a highly modified form of Xandros linux (os)
browser - Firefox 2.0.0.11 (old version)

What is your operating system and browser?

[OCAnn]

On this laptop: Windows XP Professional & Firefox 3.5.5

[jfood]

Add jfood to the list...just happened on the NY Board...that'll teach him to go across the border

[JamieK]

I just got this message as well -- script running slow -- while on CH.

[estufarian]

Happened again at 4:20pm today - this time several ads on the Ontario Board page (last time it stuck on a thread). So I opened a new Tab (in same window) and entered Chowhound - no problems/issues at all (but different ads). And have navigated around several Boards (including this one, of course) without problems.
I waited before sending this, and the other tab has 'given up' - no message at all just returned to the Main Toronto Board page (where it started) - but missing the most recent topics I see on this tab (and no change in the ads).

Edited to add: I just tried to close the original Chowhound thread and got the message:
This window is busy. Closing this window may cause some problems. Do you want to close it anyway? (Choice of OK or Cancel). When clicking 'OK' ONLY that tab closes - not the whole window. (NOTE: In order to post this edit I opened a new window - and Chowhound continues to run here).

[estufarian]

And Again!
3;05 (Eastern Time) today.
When entering the Chowhound Tab I tried to back up to a previous page - but failed. The loading was extremely slow and failed to load the previous page. WEhen I tried to push the 'Esc' key, it had no effect so I opened Windows Defender and ran a check. It informed me that my computer was running normally.
Went into several other tabs (including Hotmail) and was able to negotiate all other sites without any noticeable delay.
After about 3-5 minutes, the Chowhound tab just gave up trying to load and left me on the same page as before. A new attempt to access the previous Chowhound page worked 'normally'.

OOPS Not quite true - the old tab is still 'stuck' - I had opened a new tab and re-entered Chowhound without problems. Have tried again to replace the old tab page - same problem.

Given my speculation that this 'could' be caused by an ad, I noted the only ad on the stuck page is one for the Food Network 'Worst Cooks In America" (on the left hand side) and 'Catch Up With Your Favorite Shows with TV.com (on the right hand side) - although it's not clear whether this is two separate ads or one ad. On the working page the ad keeps refreshing.

[estufarian]

It 'was' 9:42 a.m. Eastern time when I tried to refresh (tab was on Chowhound, but I had been working on a different tab) and was taking so long to re-load that I closed the tab and opened a new one (which opened Chowhound immediately).
No problems today (so far) with any other tab/site

[c oliver]

I've gotten that some lately also. Hadn't really associated it with CH but perhaps you're right. Maybe someone can look into it.

[rworange]

Yep. I'm getting that occasionally also.