About:blank driving me nuts!

[dentheman]

When going to my home page and many other sites I have to wait for about:blank to load several times for many seconds each time before getting the site. Then if I click on a link I have to go throught the same thing. I did search for removing it, but it seems to be difficult, beyond my level of computer knowledge. I have AVG (free) anti-virus that does an excellent job, but I guess about:blank isn't a virus, it acts more like a cookie.

I don't get an about:blank screen, but I see it trying to 'load' (or whatever) by watching the bar where I can watch the cookies. So, I don't know if it is being blocked, or what, but waiting for all of this causes some sites to take more than 30 seconds to load. It does not affect my use of GZ250bike.com.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by dentheman

I have AVG (free) anti-virus that does an excellent job, but I guess about:blank isn't a virus, it acts more like a cookie.

It may have something to do with AVG doing that in place of a pop-up, Ad, etc.
Might want to check the AVG options and/or try it once with AVG shut off.

In theory, it doesn't take any extra time to do "about:blanK" but in my experience, it sure LOOKS like it is eating up some time.

[alanmcorcoran]

Not sure if this will help, but try replacing your Anti-virus with Microsoft Essentials Security (also free.) I don't get the about blank issue myself. Another troubleshooting step you can try is to disable all add-ons in the Internet Explorer (Tools, Manage Add-ons) and see if it goes away. Then add back the add-ons one at a time until it reappears.

This isn't really a computer forum - but if you are going to post this sort of thing, you should include basic info like: PC or Mac? What browser? what version of the browser? What OS? and so on. I'm guessing you havea PC with windows XP, Vista or 7 and you are using IE8, but, there are a lot of other possibilities based on your post. Patrick is a IT pro - you could try PMing him.

[dentheman]

It is running much better now. All I did was turn it off, take a nap, and turn it back on. I have it set to hibernate so I just shut the lid when I'm done. Maybe it needed to be restarted to activate an update, but I did not get anything telling me so. All of the cookies and about;blank cycle through noticeably quicker now. Also, AVG now shows each cookie where it didn't before, so turning the computer off then on did something! I don't know the average lifespan of a laptop, mine is 5 years old and sort of 'old tech', slow by todays standards I suppose.

[blaine]

I got in the habit of shutting down & restarting my laptop every second day or so.I was told it was a good thing to do for the reasons you stated.
:cool:

[alanmcorcoran]

5 years is a long time for any computer. If you are mainly just using the browser, it might not matter too much how old it is. If you can hang on for another five years your next "computer" will probably be a phone.

I run windows 7 64 bit, and, although I don't restart it that often, I do have to kill svchost about once a day. I've also never been able to run with 8GBs of RAM reliably. My usual solution to intermittent annoying computer problems is to wait 18 months and hope the next one works better.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by blaine

I got in the habit of shutting down & restarting my laptop every second day or so.I was told it was a good thing to do for the reasons you stated.
:cool:

:plus1:

Reboot AT LEAST once a week.......if you are running a Microsoft product.

[dentheman]

I'm just going to shut it off instead of hibernate each day when I am finished, it runs noticeably better and only adds a couple minutes to restart. About:blank and the cookies cycle through much quicker.