mshtml.dll Internet Explorer 8 crash

donmug · May 14, 2009

Since accepting the IE8 Windows update, I keep having
IE8 crashes always with mshtml.dll indicated as the fault module.
Any advice on what to do?

stoneys-nutz · May 15, 2009

hello donmug
this seems to be a common problem with IE8, i would try to disable all addons and see how it goes, (tools, manage addons,), and then enable them one at a time and see which ones (if any) are causing the problem, also check the MS site to see if there is any info there. after looking around various sites it seem mshtml.dll is image rendering, do you have the latest drivers ?, seems an odd cure but may work, also i have read that some users have had good reults by reinstalling java, lastly click the link and give this try. i hope some of this is of some use and you get this problem sorted

Mshtml.dll - How to Mshtml.dll Fix Fast

donmug · May 15, 2009

Thanks for the suggestions. Regarding the drivers, specifically what
drivers would be affecting IE8? I have a relatively new Laptop (Jan 2009)
but will look for new drivers that might affect IE8. Which ones should I be looking for?. Thanks for the help

H2SO4 · May 15, 2009

donmug said:
Thanks for the suggestions. Regarding the drivers, specifically what
drivers would be affecting IE8? I have a relatively new Laptop (Jan 2009)
but will look for new drivers that might affect IE8. Which ones should I be looking for?. Thanks for the help

MSHTML is what interprets the page source and lays out the page in the browser window. As the other response mentioned, crashes in MSHTML are usually caused by add-ons which are interfering. Try going through the "IE - Reset" tutorial here to clean up IE's configuration and deactivate add-ons.

It's unlikely updating drivers will help. It's not that type of "rendering".

donmug · May 15, 2009

I would like to try the IE Reset tutorial as is suggested.
Where do I find it.
Thanks

stoneys-nutz · May 15, 2009

hi donmug,
follow this link.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/114310-internet-explorer-reset.html

dmex · May 15, 2009

donmug said:
I would like to try the IE Reset tutorial as is suggested.
Where do I find it.
Thanks

Hi Donmug,

You can find the Tutorial here: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/114310-internet-explorer-reset.html

Steven

hexaae · May 31, 2009

No these kind of errors, always the same Offset/Exception code, have nothing to do with add-ons. They happen frequently in IE8 even if you run IE without add-ons.
Something must be buggy in latest mshtml.dll as A LOT of users reported such crashes...

This is a typical error:

Firma del problema
Nome evento problema: APPCRASH
Nome applicazione: iexplore.exe
Versione applicazione: 8.0.6001.18702
Timestamp applicazione: 49b3ad2e
Nome modulo con errori: mshtml.dll
Versione modulo con errori: 8.0.6001.18702
Timestamp modulo con errori: 49b3aeb3
Codice eccezione: c0000005
Offset eccezione: 000a25c6
Versione SO: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
ID impostazioni locali: 1040
Informazioni aggiuntive 1: fd00
Ulteriori informazioni 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
Ulteriori informazioni 3: fd00
Ulteriori informazioni 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
Ulteriori informazioni sul problema
ID bucket: 1183185906

donmug · May 31, 2009

Actually, I took the previous suggestion about turning off AddOn Plug ins and then adding them back one by one to discover what could be the cause. I discovered that the Flash Plug in seemed to be the cause of the crashes. I did not have the crashes when it was disabled. Next I deleted it and then reinstalled it. Since then I have not had a crash however I have not done too much testing. So perhaps I still will have
this problem. But disabling the Adobe Flash Plug and reinstalling it seemed to make a difference.

hexaae · May 31, 2009

No as I said I did deep tests and have always been able to reporduce exactly the same crash (same Offset/Execption code!) even testing with IE with no add-ons (enter "inter" in Start...). Must be a real bug in mshtml.dll... Let's hope to see an update within a pair of weeks because there are days when it crashes frequently.
I can say happens more often if you for example open a group of tabs simultaneously or many tabs with a lot of images. Try to load a lot of pages and furiosly open/close/switch links and tabs (you can open tabs faster clicking mid-mouse-button)...

H2SO4 · May 31, 2009

hexaae said:
No as I said I did deep tests and have always been able to reporduce exactly the same crash (same Offset/Execption code!) even testing with IE with no add-ons (enter "inter" in Start...). Must be a real bug in mshtml.dll... Let's hope to see an update within a pair of weeks because there are days when it crashes frequently.
I can say happens more often if you for example open a group of tabs simultaneously or many tabs with a lot of images. Try to load a lot of pages and furiosly open/close/switch links and tabs (you can open tabs faster clicking mid-mouse-button)...

If you can repro that on multiple machines, then you may be on to something - tell MS. Otherwise, if it's just a single machine, its configuration may be damaged in ways that are not obvious. By definition, "bugs" repro on every box given the same set of starting circumstances.

As far as identical offsets are concerned, that can sometimes happen because what you're seeing is the same native code function, say kernel32!RaiseException, always being invoked to deal with crashes in managed code. In this case, since the offset is within MSHTML.DLL, you could download symbols for it and check out the function name if you're interested.

hexaae · Jun 1, 2009

H2SO4 said:
hexaae said:

No as I said I did deep tests and have always been able to reporduce exactly the same crash (same Offset/Execption code!) even testing with IE with no add-ons (enter "inter" in Start...). Must be a real bug in mshtml.dll... Let's hope to see an update within a pair of weeks because there are days when it crashes frequently.
I can say happens more often if you for example open a group of tabs simultaneously or many tabs with a lot of images. Try to load a lot of pages and furiosly open/close/switch links and tabs (you can open tabs faster clicking mid-mouse-button)...

Click to expand...

If you can repro that on multiple machines, then you may be on to something - tell MS. Otherwise, if it's just a single machine, its configuration may be damaged in ways that are not obvious. By definition, "bugs" repro on every box given the same set of starting circumstances.

Yes, of course this happens everywhere. It's just a matter of stress test level but it's HW independent. You can easily find the same bug reported by many other users if you Google for "IE8 crash mshtml.dll"...

H2SO4 · Jun 1, 2009

hexaae said:
Yes, of course this happens everywhere. It's just a matter of stress test level but it's HW independent. You can easily find the same bug reported by many other users if you Google for "IE8 crash mshtml.dll"...

Doesn't happen here, to be a little bit pedantic about it.

Anyway, such generic search terms are useless. You might as well search for "computer crashing".

Do you know how to generate a minidump of that crash? If so, I'd be interested to take a look at it.

hexaae · Jun 1, 2009

H2SO4 said:
hexaae said:

Yes, of course this happens everywhere. It's just a matter of stress test level but it's HW independent. You can easily find the same bug reported by many other users if you Google for "IE8 crash mshtml.dll"...

Click to expand...

Doesn't happen here, to be a little bit pedantic about it.

Anyway, such generic search terms are useless. You might as well search for "computer crashing".

Do you know how to generate a minidump of that crash? If so, I'd be interested to take a look at it.

Yes, doesn't happen often. But happens. And the fact that many people reported the same bug with the same error codes can't be a mere coincidence. It depends on how many simultaneous lodaings/tabs you're dealing with... try to open a lot of tabs from links (use mid-mouse-button for quick open) and load many pages at the same time, possibily with many pics. In the meanwhile switch amongst tabs/close/open new ones. If you do this furiously enogh for 5-10 mins

you should be able to reproduce a iexplore.exe crash...

PS
I usually browse with DEP for IE8 enabled and I disabled IE7-and-previous-IE Compatibility mode for all web pages (= I exclude sites from new rendering manually).
Till now I've tested also with DEP on/off and no add-ons, but I've been always able to reproduce the crash soon or after.

donmug · Jun 1, 2009

Thanks for the interesting information. Lets hope Microsoft has an IE8 update soon.

hexaae · Jun 1, 2009

donmug said:
Thanks for the interesting information. Lets hope Microsoft has an IE8 update soon.

Yes. I suppose they received a lot of this kind of errors from automatic error reporting. I hope they'll find the cause and release a new update soon.

BTW, can you confirm your mshtml.dll crash was the same I posted at msg #8 (open "wercon" from Start...)?

donmug · Jun 1, 2009

You say you browse with "DEP" turned on? What is DEP for IE8?
What does it do?
Thanks

hexaae · Jun 1, 2009

donmug said:
You say you browse with "DEP" turned on? What is DEP for IE8?
What does it do?
Thanks

Enables Data Execution Prevention for IE's task and add-ons.
It should be enabled by default on Vista64. You have to launch IE only once as Admin and go to Advanced options:
Michael Howard's Web Log : Update on Internet Explorer 7, DEP and Adobe Software
Without Admin rights you can't modify that option.

H2SO4 · Jun 1, 2009

hexaae said:
No as I said I did deep tests and have always been able to reporduce exactly the same crash (same Offset/Execption code!) even testing with IE with no add-ons (enter "inter" in Start...). Must be a real bug in mshtml.dll... Let's hope to see an update within a pair of weeks because there are days when it crashes frequently.

There is nothing yet to indicate that the crashes being experienced by your machine are the same as the OP's, nor that this is widespread in the way you claim. I'd suggest not jumping to conclusions, both for your own sake and for that of others who may be reading the thread.

I did a google search on your crash offset (000a25c6), and that returned 7 results total, only 3 of which are distinct. In all cases, it's someone called "hexaae" and another poster calling themselves "jimmyjoe21". While I remain open-minded, two reports doesn't exactly mean it's widespread. It is entirely possible that the crash is environmental, and you may wish to troubleshoot it as such.

If you can generate a memory dump of the crash, I'll gladly take a look.

hexaae said:
I can say happens more often if you for example open a group of tabs simultaneously or many tabs with a lot of images. Try to load a lot of pages and furiosly open/close/switch links and tabs (you can open tabs faster clicking mid-mouse-button)...

I do that almost literally every day of my life (unless my wife manages to drag me away from the computer!), and personally I've never seen a crash in IE8 to date. However, IEXPLORE is what's termed a "container" process in the sense that a lot of other modules may be loaded therein, and if you pick up buggy add-ons or security utilities that can cause crashes which are unique to your environment.

hexaae · Jun 1, 2009

H2SO4 said:
hexaae said:

No as I said I did deep tests and have always been able to reporduce exactly the same crash (same Offset/Execption code!) even testing with IE with no add-ons (enter "inter" in Start...). Must be a real bug in mshtml.dll... Let's hope to see an update within a pair of weeks because there are days when it crashes frequently.

Click to expand...

There is nothing yet to indicate that the crashes being experienced by your machine are the same as the OP's, nor that this is widespread in the way you claim. I'd suggest not jumping to conclusions, both for your own sake and for that of others who may be reading the thread.

I did a google search on your crash offset (000a25c6), and that returned 7 results total, only 3 of which are distinct. In all cases, it's someone called "hexaae" and another poster calling themselves "jimmyjoe21". While I remain open-minded, two reports doesn't exactly mean it's widespread. It is entirely possible that the crash is environmental, and you may wish to troubleshoot it as such.

Well, you found just a few a25c6 reports because a lot of users simply don't attach error log but this doesn't mean the cases are just 7 all over the world

The reports are more than 2... I've asked to cut&paste the logs to 3-4 friends on other forums and bet what? It was the same offset/exception.
Very very strange more than 1-2 users have exactly the same random crashes with the same offset/exception in the same dll in similar circumstances.
Of course it's not a proof but many clues sometimes make a verdict...
I agree we must investigate further but sixth sense suggests there is more then a coincidence so don't exclude it please.

If you can generate a memory dump of the crash, I'll gladly take a look.

If you know how tell me... there are special options to activate in Vista I'm not aware of?

hexaae said:
hexaae said:

I can say happens more often if you for example open a group of tabs simultaneously or many tabs with a lot of images. Try to load a lot of pages and furiosly open/close/switch links and tabs (you can open tabs faster clicking mid-mouse-button)...

Click to expand...

I do that almost literally every day of my life (unless my wife manages to drag me away from the computer!), and personally I've never seen a crash in IE8 to date.

Usually more than 1-2 users reporting the same bug reproduced the same way are important clues... I can understand if it was just me, I myself was skeptical before saying it could be a real bug, but if you add to this the other clues...
I'm quite sure that if all users having a crash with iexplore.exe v8 would cut&paste their logs we'd see a lot of 000a25c6... It is something we can start from.
After all mshtml.dll is 5.6MB and it's strange more than one user reported exactly the same offset.

However, IEXPLORE is what's termed a "container" process in the sense that a lot of other modules may be loaded therein, and if you pick up buggy add-ons or security utilities that can cause crashes which are unique to your environment.

As I've already said, since I'm not a newbie, I've tested IE8 without add-ons and I've been still able to reproduce the same crash and offset after a while... I can't find a real repro pattern though, yet.

PS
Almost NEVER had crashes with IE7 for 2 years. My system is very clean and stable. I have C:\WINDOWS\System32\mshtml.dll 8.0.6001.18702.

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