IE8 - High CPU Usage!

I often get a message on my computer that IE8 is consuming really high CPU usage and my
computer is slowed down quite a bit. It goes away after awhile, but what in IE8 could be
causing this and how do I correct it? I'm running WinXP with all updates.

Any insights are really appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
charliec

A message from where? What exactly does it say?
You're not providing enough information. And you didn't
mention what you've tried, if anything. Are you enabling
tabs and then leaving tabs open? Big downloads? If
you're not doing anything but reading news in a single
IE window then that's a bad sign. But if you're just not
bothering to close tabs/windows then you shouldn't be
surprised if it hog resources. (I think that's a big problem
with tabs -- it's too easy to leave your whole day's
browsing history active.) You gave no indication as to
whether you've even tried to find such correllations.

If the message says something like, "A script is causing
Internet Explorer to run slowly..." then see here for
a fix:

http://www.jsware.net/jsware/scripts.php5#ie7prob

If that's the case the message is valid in the sense
that IE is busy, but it's an IE bug in the sense that
the message won't stop coming back even when you
select the option to allow the operation to continue.

....If you really mean RAM rather than CPU that's a
whole different kettle of fish. (That's the likely problem
if you leave tabs open. High CPU usage indicates a
temporary but intensive operation.)

--
<> wrote in message
news:...
|I often get a message on my computer that IE8 is consuming really high CPU
usage and my
| computer is slowed down quite a bit. It goes away after awhile, but what
in IE8 could be
| causing this and how do I correct it? I'm running WinXP with all updates.
|
| Any insights are really appreciated.
|
| Thanks in advance.
| charliec

wrote:

> I often get a message on my computer that IE8 is consuming really high CPU usage and my
> computer is slowed down quite a bit. It goes away after awhile, but what in IE8 could be
> causing this and how do I correct it? I'm running WinXP with all updates.
>
> Any insights are really appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance.
> charliec

Could be an add-on you installed. Did you run IE8 in its no add-ons
mode and retest?

Could be a screwed up script at the site stuck in a tight loop. You
didn't mention if the problem is at a specific (group of) site(s) or at
all sites that you visit?

Some sites are poorly written (or perhaps deliberately written so) that
web browsers they don't like will have scripting problems. When
visiting http://www.apple.com/ipad/, my IE8 gets bogged down in their
scripts resulting in errors. I block some 3rd party content and if rely
on using that (images or scripts from another domain that is blocked)
then their scripts will fail but sometimes coders don't bother checking
for errors so the code hangs or loops. If I run with add-ons disabled
in IE8 (but scripting still enabled), that Apple site runs quickly
without indefinitely slamming the CPU usage to 100%. If I disable just
Apple's Quicktime add-ons in IE8, their page paints quickly and there's
no 100% CPU usage, so it looks like a screwup in their QC code.

So see what happens when you disable all add-ons by running IE8 in its
no add-ons mode. If that fixes the problem, start looking at what
add-ons you installed for IE8 and start by disabling those that most
suspect (or disable them all and enable one-at-a-time to isolate which
one causes the 100% CPU usage).

I get the message from Norton Antivirus Software and it shows, in it's display of CPU
usage, that IE8 is consuming something like 86% of the CPU memory. I have noticed that
this seems to appears when I am using Yahoo! News, so it probably has something to do with
their website. I have not received the notice on others, that I can recall. When you use
Yahoo! News and click to get details of a posted article, it takes a really long time to
load and it loads a lot of shortcuts for various sites, like Fackbook, etc. And take a
long time to load. That could be the CPU usage problem -.

Do you use Yahoo! News and if so, have you experienced this?

charliec

>On Fri, 4 Nov 2011 09:15:19 -0500, "Mayayana" <> wrote:

> A message from where? What exactly does it say?
>You're not providing enough information. And you didn't
>mention what you've tried, if anything. Are you enabling
>tabs and then leaving tabs open? Big downloads? If
>you're not doing anything but reading news in a single
>IE window then that's a bad sign. But if you're just not
>bothering to close tabs/windows then you shouldn't be
>surprised if it hog resources. (I think that's a big problem
>with tabs -- it's too easy to leave your whole day's
>browsing history active.) You gave no indication as to
>whether you've even tried to find such correllations.
>
> If the message says something like, "A script is causing
>Internet Explorer to run slowly..." then see here for
>a fix:
>
>http://www.jsware.net/jsware/scripts.php5#ie7prob
>
> If that's the case the message is valid in the sense
>that IE is busy, but it's an IE bug in the sense that
>the message won't stop coming back even when you
>select the option to allow the operation to continue.
>
> ....If you really mean RAM rather than CPU that's a
>whole different kettle of fish. (That's the likely problem
>if you leave tabs open. High CPU usage indicates a
>temporary but intensive operation.)

|I get the message from Norton Antivirus Software and it shows, in it's
display of CPU
| usage, that IE8 is consuming something like 86% of the CPU memory. I have
noticed that
| this seems to appears when I am using Yahoo! News, so it probably has
something to do with
| their website. I have not received the notice on others, that I can
recall. When you use
| Yahoo! News and click to get details of a posted article, it takes a
really long time to
| load and it loads a lot of shortcuts for various sites, like Fackbook,
etc. And take a
| long time to load. That could be the CPU usage problem -.
|
| Do you use Yahoo! News and if so, have you experienced this?
|

I don't use IE online, and just visited Yahoo news for the
first time after reading your post. I don't see anything
unusual in the webpage code, although their links are very
long and convoluted. If it's using high CPU that indicates
some kind of intensive processing but I'm afraid I don't have
any good ideas. I don't allow script, cookies, 3rd-part images,
or flash, and certainly wouldn't on a site like Yahoo, so I'm
not seeing a page anything like the page that you see. I see
a simple page full of headlines with virtually no images, which
loads very quickly.

Loading shortcuts doesn't mean anything in itself. Facebook
Like buttons are a privacy problem. They're designed to track
anyone with a Facebook account from any webpage with a Like
button, even if you're not logged into Facebook. (Even if you
have script disabled, they use an IFRAME to allow them to
set a cookie.) But that sort of thing shouldn't be processor-
intensive.

It'd be interesting to hear if you figure out the problem.
It sounds like *something* is doing an awfully lot of work...
that it probably shouldn't be doing.

>On Fri, 4 Nov 2011 22:47:24 -0500, "Mayayana" <> wrote:

>If it's using high CPU that indicates
>some kind of intensive processing but I'm afraid I don't have
>any good ideas. I don't allow script, cookies, 3rd-part images,
>or flash, and certainly wouldn't on a site like Yahoo, so I'm
>not seeing a page anything like the page that you see.

When you say you don't allow script, cookies, 3rd-part images, or flash, where do you turn
those off in IE8?

Thanks for the reply.
charliec

| When you say you don't allow script, cookies, 3rd-part images, or flash,
where do you turn
| those off in IE8?
|

Script: Tools -> Internet Options -> Security tab ->
Internet zone

Flash: In IE that would come under ActiveX settings.

Cookies: Tools -> Internet Options -> Privacy tab
(You can also set cookies by domain there.)

3rd-party images is something that can be disabled
in Mozilla browsers. It's not a setting in IE.

IE settings are difficult. There are a lot of them.
In other browsers you can enable or disable script
with one click. In IE there are several script settings
and several ActiveX settings in each security "zone".

Probably the easiest option is to disable script,
ActiveX, etc. in the Restricted Zone -- disable all
of it completely -- then assign websites there. For
instance, you could assign yahoo.com there and see
if it still works OK. You can do the same in the cookie
settings. If a particular site doesn't work without
script you can then remove it from the Restricted Zone.

Or you could do it the other way: Disable everything
in the Internet Zone and then choose slightly more
flexible settings for the "Trusted Zone". You can then
assign to the Trusted Zone only those websites that
absolutely won't work in the Internet Zone.

Are you familiar with the zones and security settings?
If not then it's hard to explain. IE settings are exremely
complex and convoluted. Microsoft has gone to great
lengths to ensure that very few people will ever understand
IE settings.

I actually wrote a free, fairly new program recently.
It's a plug-in for IE:

http://www.jsware.net/jsware/jspagefilt.php5

jsPageFilter. It allows you to control webpages in great
detail, filtering anything you like on a per-domain basis.
I wrote it partly for blind people, because a lot of sites
don't work well at all for the blind. I have a friend who's
blind and noticed that he has great difficulty maneuvering
around the typical, bloated website these days. But the
program is also designed for anyone who wants better
control of security and privacy in IE. (These kinds of controls
are already partially available in Mozilla browsers, but the
settings are obscure. In IE, controlling the details of a
webpage have never been available at all.)

jsPageFilter is a type of plug-in known as a mime filter.
Microsoft provides mime filter functionality so that
corporations can write software to edit webpages before
they reach employees. Mime filters are also used for
parental controls. The way they work is that the webpage
is given to the mime filter by the downloading function in IE.
The mime filter can then do anything it wants with the
webpage, and give anything it wants to the browser! It's
a middleman. (For instance, a parental control mime filter
might eliminate JPG images from webpages other than
Sesame Street, in order to avoid kids seeing porn.)

jsPageFilter takes that functionality and
provides an interface for it, so that anyone using IE can
create any sort of filter they want, on a per-domain
basis. (It's a good example of why IE is *so* good and
also *so* bad. On the one hand, I was able to write this
webpage filter because IE is so flexible. On the other hand,
any malware could be running IE through such a filter
right now and you wouldn't have any easy way to know it.)

If you don't want to use extra software like jsPageFilter
then assigning websites to the Restricted Zone is the closest
you can get to controlling script, ActiveX, etc.

The closest thing in IE to blocking 3rd-party images
is to use a HOSTS file.

http://www.jsware.net/jsware/cook.php5#hosts

It's safe. It's fairly easy. And since most ads are actually
coming from one of a few very large ad servers, it's not
hard to eliminate nearly all ads from webpages. That also
can eliminate privacy intrusions from Google/Doubleclick,
Microsoft/AQuantive, and various other giant ad companies
that follow you around the Web by using their ubiquitous ads
as tracking devices. (Note, however, that simply having
3rd-party ads on a webpage, though intrusive and usually
visually calamitous, will not cause IE to go into a high CPU
usage state.)

Some people believe that it's wrong to block ads because
websites need them to make money. But blocking 3rd-party
images does not block honest ads... ads that are actually
part of the website. They only block web-beacon spyware
ads from large ad servers that you never chose to visit in
the first place. (If you visit somewhere.com, that doesn't
give somewhere.com the right to make you visit doubleclick.com,
but that's essentially what 3rd-party ad images do.)

Sorry to go on so long. This is a *very* big topic. Getting
even modest control over security, privacy and loaded objects
in webpages is very difficult to do without knowing at least
the basics of how it all works.

PS: You never answered VanguardLH as to whether
you're using add-ons. If you've allowed things like
toolbars to be installed it would be a good idea to
remove those. They're just useless spyware. Anything
listed in the add-ons window should be something
you know about and find useful. Otherwise it should
be removed.

Mayayana wrote:

> Or you could do it the other way: Disable everything in the Internet
> Zone and then choose slightly more flexible settings for the "Trusted
> Zone".

Rather than customize a security zone (i.e., make a bunch of edits to
its settings to then save as a customized setup), just move the slider.
You can effectively turn the Internet security zone into the Restricted
Sites security zone: show the Internet security zone and move up the
slider. That's one way to test of the problem is with some feature
normally enabled in the Internet security zone's default settings.

Of course, none of that is going to circumvent problems with enabled
add-ons that the OP installed into IE8. Don't know why he hasn't yet
bothered with the really simple test of running IE8 in no add-ons mode.

| > Or you could do it the other way: Disable everything in the Internet
| > Zone and then choose slightly more flexible settings for the "Trusted
| > Zone".
|
| Rather than customize a security zone (i.e., make a bunch of edits to
| its settings to then save as a customized setup), just move the slider.
| You can effectively turn the Internet security zone into the Restricted
| Sites security zone: show the Internet security zone and move up the
| slider. That's one way to test of the problem is with some feature
| normally enabled in the Internet security zone's default settings.
|

The problem with that is that it applies to all sites and for
most people that doesn't work. It might be a rough way to test
a website, but it's not a solution to security risks or "active
content" problems in the long term.
Also, the slider is not very useful. High security, for instance,
doesn't block all "active" content but does block downloads,
making it useless. It seems much more usable, and safer, to
me to take the time to really go through all the settings to
select a highly secure setting for the restricted zone that sites
can then be added to selectively. (Or vice versa -- to limit
the Internet Zone and add sites selectively to a more privileged
zone.)

| Of course, none of that is going to circumvent problems with enabled
| add-ons that the OP installed into IE8. Don't know why he hasn't yet
| bothered with the really simple test of running IE8 in no add-ons mode.

I wondered about that, too. I am somewhat surprised, though,
that that solution is mentioned so much. I don't use IE online, so
I'm not familiar with those kinds of problems, but judging from
the advice I see in this group I get the impression that BHOs and
Extensions are the cause of most IE problems.