A peculiar problem

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Level 1

70 points

A peculiar problem

I have been using my iMac non-stop for the past week without incident. I haven't shut down in a couple of weeks either. However, I started noticing a weird problem today. When I try to go to www.espn.com or www.youtube.com in either Firefox or Safari, I get the spinning beach ball and have to force quit. Other sites work fine, such as my own website and this one. Any idea why I cannot get on these sites? I have tried repairing permissions and all that. I have not installed anything funky on here. I actually did a erase and install a few weeks ago just to clear up some clutter left over from when I had Tiger. Any help would be hot. Thanks.

17" Intel iMac Core Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.2), Macbook Core Duo, 10.5.2

Posted on Mar 7, 2008 8:38 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 7, 2008 8:43 PM in response to mbushnell

I haven't shut down in a couple of weeks either.

Did you try restarting?

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Answer 2

mbushnell Author

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70 points

Mar 7, 2008 8:47 PM in response to mbushnell

Yeah I did after I made my previous post. Still having the same problem.

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Answer 3

mbushnell Author

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70 points

Mar 7, 2008 8:52 PM in response to mbushnell

Here is a screen shot of what happens when I try to go to one of the sites...

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/2006/picture1jv7.png

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Answer 4

Mar 7, 2008 8:53 PM in response to mbushnell

For Safari, you can "reset" it. Under the Safari menu, select "Reset Safari..." Or you can try just the "Empty Cache..." command (below Reset Safari) first.

I'm not sure why Safari and Firefox would act this way at the same time.

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Answer 5

mbushnell Author

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70 points

Mar 7, 2008 8:57 PM in response to mbushnell

Yeah resetting safari was my first course of action. It didn't help. Its odd because it doesn't do it on every web site. For instance, I can check cbssportsline.com without problem, but espn.com makes it go nuts. Youtube is causing problems as well. Is there a plist file or something that possibly needs to be deleted?

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Answer 6

mbushnell Author

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70 points

Mar 7, 2008 9:01 PM in response to mbushnell

At least I have Apple care on this computer, so if this problem persists I can call them and ask what in the world is going on...

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Answer 7

Mar 7, 2008 9:04 PM in response to mbushnell

<user folder>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist

But why is the same problem happening in FireFox?

I've been having slowest in accessing some specific sites myself. The browser did not make a difference. I figured there was some Internet-related issue with "traffic." It wasn't constant nor continuous.

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Answer 8

Claudeg8

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Mar 7, 2008 11:14 PM in response to mbushnell

I am having the exact same problem and it is getting way past annoying. Tried to restart twice. I reset safari, tried Firefox so I downloaded it, and it is now having the same problem. I can't access my school's website and I need to do hw! Help me... 😟

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Answer 9

mbushnell Author

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70 points

Mar 8, 2008 5:01 AM in response to mbushnell

Glad to know that I'm not the only person experiencing this. I think I have pinpointed the problem as ESPN.com. If I reboot and then go to youtube.com without trying ESPN.com I don't have a problem. However, if I try ESPN.com and my computer locks up then everything else goes screwy as well. I've even noticed that it changes some icons on my desktop which is strange. It goes from showing a preview to just having a quicktime icon on some files. I have copied and pasted them and the preview comes back so that's not a big deal. It just seems odd to me that one website can wreak so much havoc on a computer...

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Answer 10

Claudeg8

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Mar 8, 2008 10:48 AM in response to mbushnell

Well its a wide array of websites from ESPN... to TUAW.... It seems its like whatever has an embedded video in it. It is really annoying me.

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Answer 11

Mar 8, 2008 11:08 AM in response to mbushnell

I'm having the same problem as well. It just appeared out of nowhere yesterday. Thankfully most of the websites I visit aren't causing problems. Looking forward to any explanations/fixes from apple or whoever may find one.

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Answer 12

Claudeg8

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Mar 8, 2008 11:19 AM in response to DadWhoRocks

Mine also started yesterday. I was using the computer fine for the most part and out of nowhere it started doing it.

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Answer 13

rvm_esq.

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110 points

Mar 8, 2008 11:50 AM in response to Claudeg8

Add me to the list of people that suddenly began having trouble accessing ESPN.com yesterday, March 7th. I don't know if it was a coincidence or not, but the problem started right after I updated my iTunes and iPod. Anyone know if there is any relationship between the updates and this safari/ESPN problem?

My son tried to log on to Club Penguin and the same problem occurred.

Any ideas out there?

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Answer 14

Mar 8, 2008 11:58 AM in response to rvm_esq.

If you go to

<startup drive>/Library/Internet Plug-ins/Flash Player.plugin

and remove that plug-in, those sites no longer freeze. So it has something to do with Flash. The latest version is 9.0r115 and that's what I have. Folks who DO and DON'T have this issue should do a Get Info on the plug-in file and post what version they have.

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Answer 15

Claudeg8

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Mar 8, 2008 12:20 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Outstanding Kenichi! That worked! Now I dont have embedded flash but I dont care. Thank you very much for your post. As far as everyone who has flash and do not have this issue, like Kenichi said, please post what version you have. Thanks!

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