PWB Crashes

[Joseph Stude]

We've recently done a new deployment using 2.10.1. These machines are being used as email kiosks with links to popular email providers on a homepage. The decision was also made to leave the address bar intact, meaning patrons can browse anywhere they want during their 10-minute session. Therein lies the issue, as since we deployed these new machines we've been periodically and relatively often finding them crashed at the desktop with the start button still "invisible" (as if one of the official plugins we're running didn't close properly because the browser crashed).

Checking event viewer has (with one exception out of probably 10-15 crashes) revealed pwb.exe as the faulting application, flash9d.ocx version 9.0.47 as the faulting module, and the fault address as 0x0004d9f1. After we saw this the first time, we realized we hadn't installed java and took care of that as well as updated Flash and Shockwave players to their most recent versions. That didn't fix the problem as we came across three kiosks in a row this afternoon that were all crashed with flash9d.ocx as the faulting module.

I referenced the following post: http://www.teamsoftwaresolutions.com/ph ... php?t=1035

Learned there that anything that causes IE to crash will cause PWB to crash, but we're pretty befuddled regarding where the patrons could be going that's causing the browser crash. Any suggestions on resolving this would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Scott]

Try upgrading to PWB v2.10.2. This version corrects a problem with extremely long URLs that cause PWB to crash.

You may also want to look at HideGUI which hides aspects of Windows and is able to disable Windows shortcut keys in order to prevent access to Windows.

--Scott

[Joseph Stude]

Update: We updated to 2.10.2 yesterday and were fairly excited expecting our crash problems to cease, but an hour after opening this morning we discovered three of the kiosks crashed to desktop again. This time, the faulting module is no longer flash, but instead is "unknown". At this point we're faced with replacing PWB with IE temporarily as an attempted quickfix, but we'd really like to find out what's causing this.

[jkowal5]

Are you running any other security software in the background, such as TrustNoExe or something that would prevent Java or Flash player to run correctly? We had the same problem for over a year and never figured out why PWB kept crashing randomly. We finally uninstalled TrustNoExe and have not had the problem since.

[Joseph Stude]

The only software we run besides PWB is a program called DeepFreeze, which basically restores the computer to the condition it was last frozen in every time it's rebooted. When we still had a lot of machines on Windows 98 we ran PWB and Deepfreeze in tandem for years w/o any problems, so I have a hard time imagining it'd interfere now that we're running on XP.

[Scott]

What version of Internet Explorer and Windows are you using?

If the faulting module is unknown it may be that one of the Internet Explorer plug-ins is causing the problem. If this is the case then Internet Explorer will have the same problem.

You can use HideGUI to prevent access to the Desktop.

We are also experimenting with a light weight PWB based on PWB v2.10. This light weight version removes much of the advanced functionality from PWB that most people do not use you may want to give this version a try if you are using Windows XP or newer.

Copy the PWB.EXE found in this zip file over your current PWB.EXE. This new EXE is a simplifies version of PWB that has some of the more obscure and advanced features of PWB removed such as the Dynamic External Java Commands, and the Internet Explorer subclassing. Because these features are not hardly ever used you should not notice a difference in your basic configuration.

Please also note that this version only uses HTML type message dialogs, so any dialog you are using will need to be converted to HTML type message dialogs. I have included a sample in the zip file.

Here is the link to download the PWB limited.
http://www.teamsoftwaresolutions.com/new/PWBv2103L.zip

--Scott

[Joseph Stude]

We're running IE 6 with all security and other updates on Windows XP SP2. The only plugin we're using with this current setup is PWBDisableWindowsGUI (we actually pared this down from three different plugins we were using in the last configuration). Given the problems we're having, if this plugin does indeed turn out to be the problem we'd certainly be willing to eliminate it and secure things by another method. Other than this, is there anything else you can think of?

Will download the limited version and attempt to test it when we can. Thanks, Scott.

[rhbrow]

We've recently done a new deployment using 2.10.1. These machines are being used as email kiosks with links to popular email providers on a homepage. The decision was also made to leave the address bar intact, meaning patrons can browse anywhere they want during their 10-minute session. Therein lies the issue, as since we deployed these new machines we've been periodically and relatively often finding them crashed at the desktop with the start button still "invisible" (as if one of the official plugins we're running didn't close properly because the browser crashed).

Checking event viewer has (with one exception out of probably 10-15 crashes) revealed pwb.exe as the faulting application, flash9d.ocx version 9.0.47 as the faulting module, and the fault address as 0x0004d9f1. After we saw this the first time, we realized we hadn't installed java and took care of that as well as updated Flash and Shockwave players to their most recent versions. That didn't fix the problem as we came across three kiosks in a row this afternoon that were all crashed with flash9d.ocx as the faulting module.

I, too, just started having a similar problem as above with flash9d.ocx on my "Adult" computers. It stopped a patron from accessing their ATT account. Crashed and shut down the browser. When testing for the same problem on one "children's" computer with same or very similar .ini file there was no problem. The adult computers I believe are running IE6 with all updates. The children's computers are running IE7 with all updates.

We run DeepFreeze and use Group Policies (domain) to lock down the public computers.

[Scott]

You should try using the newest Flash Player. The current Flash Player version 10.0.32.18.

--Scott

[rhbrow]

Checking event viewer has (with one exception out of probably 10-15 crashes) revealed pwb.exe as the faulting application, flash9d.ocx version 9.0.47 as the faulting module, and the fault address as 0x0004d9f1. After we saw this the first time, we realized we hadn't installed java and took care of that as well as updated Flash and Shockwave players to their most recent versions. That didn't fix the problem as we came across three kiosks in a row this afternoon that were all crashed with flash9d.ocx as the faulting module.

I, too, just started having a similar problem as above with flash9d.ocx on my "Adult" computers. It stopped a patron from accessing their ATT account. Crashed and shut down the browser. When testing for the same problem on one "children's" computer with same or very similar .ini file there was no problem. The adult computers I believe are running IE6 with all updates. The children's computers are running IE7 with all updates.

We run DeepFreeze and use Group Policies (domain) to lock down the public computers.

I made a mistake; the Adult computers are running IE7, not IE6.

BTW, all the computers are running Win XP SP3.

Scott, I will try your suggestion and update Flash Player to the newest version but apparently Joseph Stude wasn't successful doing the update to Flash.

I also copied the error message that popped up on the screen. Are you interested in seeing it? I saved it as a .jpg. If you want it, where do I send it?

[Scott]

Joseph had the problem more the 2 years ago with an old version of Flash.

Lets wait and see if the new Flash fixes the issue.

--Scott