Screen freezes in Yahoo mail

I had similar problems recently on multiple computers. I submitted a ticket to Yahoo - they did something - haven't seen it since.

It sounds like you have a memory problem.

This can be due to:

- Bad JavaScript on the part of the site.
- Not enough RAM on the Machine (Vista Hogs RAM and you may not have enough for your OS, much less intensive JavaScript).
- Memory leaks by the browser or installed plugins.

Vista's "Minimum RAM Requirements" are not realistic for smooth use of the operating system, and 1GB of RAM is still too little for many peoople. If you have less than 1GB of RAM I recommend a RAM upgrade (the cheapest and easiest way to get the most out of a computer) regardless of the mail problem.

Bad JavaScript is possible, but Yahoo is fairly large and does fairly well with JavaScript. They have a few versions of their mail service with varying degrees of JavaScript but the bottom line is that it should work for you, so the solution of choosing a lighter web app is a bad one in my opinion.

You may have plugins on your browser that cause memory leaks or additional resource usage. I'd disable or uninstall them to see if they are causing problems.

When you use task manager to close IE, what are the CPU and RAM usage levels for the browser's processes?

Have you tried another browser to see if the issue is IE or its plugins?

It's hard to tell without knowing what your RAM configuration is and what's happening when your computer "freezes" but I'm pretty sure this is one of the above issues.

Well, it's got 2 gigabytes memory, though I have no idea how it might be configured. In other words, I bought this thing about three months ago, plugged it in, and ran with whatever they gave me.

Yep, I will work towards eliminating possibilities, and will start with the browser. I'll probably see how it works with Netscape.

Thanks

I'll try contacting Yahoo, cj. Last time I tried, it took forever to dig out the contact information, but if it works, it's worth it.

Hmm, 2 GB should be enough. Unless it's on Yahoo's end I suspect there's something wrong with your browser (and probably with a third-party plug in).

Yahoo does a good job at obscuring their contact forms. It's understandable given the amount of users they have and that they provide free services but this may be a start:

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/original/forms_index.html

I can't tell since it asks me to login to yahoo and I don't have a yahoo account I remember the authentication for.

Thanks for the direction. Based on my prior experience, that's worth an easy two hours of frustration.

Yeah I've been through that before and learned my lesson, in the future if you need to contact Yahoo you can probably find it faster with a search engine than browsing their help desk.

It took me 2 searches and about 40 seconds. But even then I found a Yahoo Canada page and had to guess at the US url. It certainly isn't easy, but if I were Yahoo I'd not even make it that easy so I understand.

Here are two other possible contact forms (again, they require login so I'm not sure):

http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/mail/cgi_feedback

http://feedback.mail.yahoo.com/betafeedback_mailbeta

The second one is for the new Yahoo mail system with draggable email and all.

I forgot to mention I do have a paid Yahoo account - that makes it easier for me. I did get what appears to be the exact same problem though - and I fought with my laptop for hours until I finally realized I had the same problem on other computers. Try contacting them. Good luck.

Tentatively, I'm going to put this down as Resolved.

The problems started with going to Vista and the new computer at the same time. They went away with the installation of an updated Yahoo Toolbar. Now, I had being trying to download this thing every couple of days. Yesterday, the installation went to completion, and there have been no problems since. I'm holding my breath in hopes this is not just coincidence.

Thanks a lot. Really Big Thanks a lot. Did the yahoo toolbar upgrade, and it solved the screen freezing problem while logging in to yahoo mail. Once again. Thanks!!

No it is not your computer. The Yahoo development team has serious issues with performance problems. I have used them for years and it doesn't make any difference which machine you are on. One way of proving that is simply visit other sites. I have yet to lock up or freeze while typing text as you get with Yahoo mail. First the performance is bad .. now with nine it is impossible to use. So much for speeding things up.

Yahoo provides zero support to the community at large to aid in fixing this issue. It is really sad when the only advise given is turn off every feature and see if that works. Most of the replies I have seen are bandaids that ignore the real issue. Yahoo is buggy - now it might be that their ad stuff is causing all the real performance problems but we have no way to turn off that crap. There is a million little things running by yahoo everytime you open mail.

The replies I have seen are all general fixes.
1. Turn off add ons - well this might help but it does not fix the problem.
2. Turn off google menu - this is another bright light - blame your competition.
3. Look for event problems - big help here .. IE: crashes. .. end of story
4. Install again ... This one I love ... like the computer support guys who know nothing and always say turn on and off your computer.

It would be nice to have real support .. with the ability to trace the offending code and send that to Yahoo. This is so easy to provide but that would be admitting that Yahoo has a serious problem or worse it really is their ad stuff sucking all the resources.

As a senior IT consultant I am being unfair by coming to conclusions without facts but Yahoo does not help either. This is really not rocket science .. and we should be able to provide traces or put the code in debug mode or something.
So far I have seen lots of replies from everyone else but Yahoo. Shows you the level of interest on their side ..
Now before you think I am ignoring MS .. no I am not but Yahoo is a premier site .. do you really think MS and Yahoo don't exchange information, nor Yahoo does not have access to pre release versions of IE9 ... if not then they should realy spend the money on getting the support and actualy having a QA department.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. It has been running well for the past three years, but I'm sure that would have been helpful at the time of the problem.

Hi Roger,
I just installed IE:9 ... the problem is very bad now. .. If you had problems before I would not install IE 9.. if it works for you ... great ... for me I have had performance problems from the start. I use other apps as well with no where near the problems.

Thanks. I have so far declined IE 9, and just for reasons like that. I have never enjoyed being a part of someone's lab experiments. When I do get around to installing it, I will also take Yahoo Mail's update.