Netscape 7.2 Hang/High Process CPU??

On my office and 2 home PC's, plus on my daughter's PC in another state, in the last couple of days we're seeing the following:

Netscape 7.2 running under Windows XP SP2 hanging after the first few clicks after starting Netscape 7.2. When I go into Task Manager, I see 45-50% CPU on netscape.exe. Any chance this is related to this past week's Windows updates?

Anyone else having this problem? Thanks.

 

I have WinXP-SP2, and got the latest updates, and it works as well or better than ever before. Justa guess, did the problem start with a Flash update? v.9.r028 is not compatible with NS7.2

 

Correction: Having Problem on Netscape 8.1.2 not 7.2

Sorry I'm on Netscape 8.1.2 not 7.2. I also can't get Netscape to respond long enough to update Flash Player. Is there a way to check what version of a plug-in you are using in Netscape?

 

That is a completely different story. 8.1.2 is a mess, but if you did not try to update Flash, it should have v.8. Yes, you can check which version you have.
It is installed In Program Files|Netscape|Netscape Browser|Plugins.
I got the same complaint as yours, in other newsgroups, and there is no good solution, except not to use 8.1.2.

 

Thanks Westside for the confirmation that something's going on here. After a couple of attempts through Netscape 8.1.2 I was able to get my Flash 8.022 upgraded to 9.028 but the same hang still occurs. I'm getting reports of the same Netscape hang from another bbs too. If 8.1.2 is a mess I hope Netscape knows about it since they have no further updated version at this time.

 

Widespread Netscape 8.1.2 problem confirmed

No resolution yet, just continued reports of problems on the Netscape community technical forum at:

http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&tid=6726

I've now read through the 6 pages of posts to this url thread, including responses from a Jay Garcia who is apparently from Netscape. The cause of the problem according to several posts to this url thread is Netscape keeps stats on everything you do and publishes them to a web site ns8-stats.netscape.com. Something is wrong with this web site as of 2/15/07 pm and it can not be found and NETSCAPE continues to try to find it causing the loops we are all seeing. The problem has been reported to Netscape and according to other posts on the thread are working on it. Netscape 8.1.3 is scheduled for release in April according to yet another post. Maybe they'll issue an earlier fix for this. Again, it's all in the multiple posts at the above url.

 

Fortunately I have been using Firefox for quite a while, with no problems. Firefox is one of the two engines used by NS8.1.2. Presently, I am using 8.1.2 only to check on problems, and, indeed it locks up or is incredibly slow when I try to get into any newsgroup. It is unbelievable. It uses 100% CPU, and does not respond to Cntr+Alt+Del at first. It takes three shots to make it respond.

 

Short Circuit Netscape 8.1.2 CPU Loop Hangs

The hint that NS 8.1.2 was trying to access ns8-stats.netscape.com was an good hint. I added "127.0.0.1 ns8-stats.netscape.com" to my windows host file (C:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc) and the hangs have stopped. If they ever fix the "Netscape Phone Home" thing, I guess I could remove it.

 

Netscape has announced the ver 8.X problem involving their statistics server has been fixed. My Netscape browser is working again without making any of their temporary changes.

See the Netscape Announcement at:
http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&tid=6916

 

Thanks for the update msilvers!