Hi there! I'm hoping someone can help me with this - I'm a complete technological dunce lol! For my sins, I am on Twitter (yes, I know, I know!), but both our computers (the lappy & the main computer) have taken against it. It loads OK, but refuses to let me tweet anything! Whenever I try I get the message that there's a "script" running which is slowing Internet Explorer down and then it crashes! It does this every time. I don't tweet a lot, but when someone follows me, I like to send them a little message to thank them, and it won't even let me do that! OH thinks we probably need a new computer. He could be right - both lappy and big computer are pretty ancient, and maybe can't cope with the likes of Twitter!

Any ideas, any one? TIA!

Mandy

Hey there QG,

Twitter is just a website and it's not even a very demanding one at that so the power of your computer is unlikely to be the cause of the issue! Browsing the web requires very little raw computer power.

The first thing to do is to try an alternative browser Internet Explorer isn't a particularly effective browser although it has improved considerably over the last two versions.

There are four main alternative which are popular Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari different people have different preferences.

My order of preference is...
Firefox it's secure and has a vast range of plugins available.
Opera is clean and minimalist I only really use it for testing so I can't say what it's like to use all the time.
Chrome is very responsive but is own and controlled by Google, which helps them gain more dominance of the worlds data and people machines. Which long term is a dangerous situation no matter how fluffy they portray their business principles to be IMHO. I wouldn't and don't trust google period.
Safari I can't really comment on because I only ever use it for testing how it renders a page.
I.E is mind numbingly slow and the least stable browser in my experience and it's own by microsoft which is just as bad as google chrome when it comes to personal security and privacy much like chrome.
Maxthon I'm not familiar with.

If you visit this page Browser Choice you will have easy access to download and install an alternative browser of your choice. Once you have installed one try using Twitter and see what the result you get.

It may also be a good idea for you to do some security scans on your computers because the issue your experiencing doesn't sound normal.

Thanks, frog! Twitter now won't run at all - whenever I try I just keep getting the message about the "script"! I'll give what you suggest a try when OH gets back from the shops (two heads are better than one, lol!) In the meantime I'll run a full security scan on the lappy!

Cheers!

Mandy

Hi QG,

What security tools do you have installed? You will need to do more than just run a virus checker so if that's all you have available then you can install some of ther applications which will help you protect and scan your machines.

SpywareBlaster Offers a free and commercial application which gives powerful protection against spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, malware, and other potentially unwanted software, SpywareBlaster AutoUpdate stays out of your way and helps keep you safe and secure automatically.

Spybot SD which is free for personal use offering protection against spyware and other malicious activity which can put your privacy and computer security at risk.

Once you install both of them and run their update routines open spybot and run a fullscan which may take a fair amount of time depending on your machines hardware and file storage. At the end of the scan it will provide you with a list of issues which it finds and options for dealing with them.

You should also be backing up your personal data and you should have a recent backup stored securely and independent of your computer hardware!

Sometimes...just sometimes, our electronic brethren have the right idea, qg.

well.... you could fix the problems and figure it out
OR
use it as a great excuse to get a new computer...

I used to get this message too, it was really annoying, I can't remember how I solved it, I think I done an internet search to solve it.

Your computer hates Twitter, you say?

Your computer displays excellent discernment.

Frog wrote:
Thanks for all this info, frog. All we have on our machines is Microsoft Security Essentials, which checks for nasties periodically. I'm running a full scan now. It's taking hours!

Mandy

quietgirl wrote:
I hope you get it sorted soon.

Thanks, all! Well, the scan that took forever didn't throw up anything nasty! I googled the problem (as silvershine suggested) and it look like it's a common one. I even downloaded a "fix-it" wizard from Microsoft which claims to be able to solve said problem, but it hasn't worked!

Mandy

quietgirl wrote:
A full scan will take hours on most machines with a large amount of data. SpyBot will find things that MSE wont find plus the stuff MS don't consider a threat because it's their crap that's storing your activity.

It would be best to install Spybot as part of your standard suite of tools and check at least once a week for updates and scan at least once a month or after each update. It also has realtime functions like teatimer etc. which monitor whats being delivered to your machine.

Spyware blaster is a realtime protections tool which protects against common browser exploits in IE and FF, again it's worth having installed as part of your standard build. Once installed and setup it runs in the background you just need to check for updates once a week at least to keep the threat library up to date.

Did twitter work using a different browser?

EDIT: I missed your last post while I was writing this one.

I wouldn't rely on just a scan using MSE. Also a different browser will probably work with twitter.

Twitter is a pig of a site on old PC's to be honest. Thats my experience. Not sure why they have it like that but it is a resource drainer. The old twitter was very different, its probably been a year or more since they made that history...at one time you could switch from one to the other (old to new).

If you're getting a message about scripts when trying to access a site it's probably a Java issue

try updating to the latest version
https://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp

martg wrote:
Thanks, martg - I've just downloaded a Java update. Bizarrely, Twitter was working OK for me yesterday - I thought "Hooray! The problem's magically fixed itself!" - but is playing silly buggers again today! Very strange...

Mandy

quietgirl wrote:
oops

sorry about that

Hiya Mandy

It may be worth trying the suggested remedies from Microsoft to see it that sorts things out.
How to troubleshoot script errors in Internet Explorer

However,
If you have two pc's available, why not try installing Firefox on one?
Installing Firefox does not remove Internet Explorer so you can safely return to it if your not happy.
Firefox will also gives you an option to import all your favourite links from Internet Explorer.
If you do decide to try installing Firefox I would also recommend you add Ad-Block plus. It will completely change your net browsing experience, for the better. For example, I had no clue that DIF was riddled with adverts until Bats mentioned it on here.

Let me know if you want to give it a go and you want links.

feather wrote:
Thanks, feather - I'll wait until OH and I can sit down at the computer together (two heads which know nothing about computers are surely better than one head that knows nothing about computers! ) and then try everyone's advice, including yours! Will get back to you!

Everyone's been most kind!

Mandy

OH & I have decided to get a new computer - the one we're using is over 10 years old and is a real Heath Robinson! The lappy is 2nd hand too, so it's probably about time. A bit pricey but, oh well...!

Mandy