Dear, Leo. I use both Firefox and Chrome. Often, I get the message, āThe
following script is busy. You can either continue or stop.ā And in the top, it
shows āFirefoxās not responding.ā In Chrome, I get the message, āThe following
pages are unresponsive. You can either kill or continue and the system hangs.
What could be the reason? Is it something to do with my system?
In this excerpt from
Answercast #55, I look at ānot responsiveā errors in browsers, typically
caused by JavaScript.
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Is it my system?
Typically not. This is usually the side effect of how a web page has been
written and what itās trying to do.
Now the script that itās referring to is typically JavaScript. A good
example of a page that relies heavily on JavaScript in ways that can result in
this kind of behavior are things like Gmail or Facebook. Facebookās a great
example.
JavaScript errors
So what happens is when you load up a Facebook page, it actually is running
a lot of JavaScript on your computer to lay things out. And more importantly,
to get updates as they happen without your having to refresh the page.
Now, what Firefox and Chrome are detecting here is that the JavaScript is
simply running for a long time. Longer than the programs would like it to.
What normally it expects is that the JavaScript will do something and then
finish. It will do something; it will finish; it will get an update. It will
display the update and it will be done. Then a few seconds later, it will get
the update; it will display the update; and itās done.
If for some reason the JavaScript takes too long (where ātoo longā is some
random number defined by the different browsers), then the browser will complain
and say, āYou know what? This script thatās running⦠itās taking too long.
Itās unresponsive.ā
Wait or kill
So at that point, you have two possibilities.
You can say, āWell, okay,ā and wait for the script. Maybe it really is
taking too long on purpose. Maybe it really is doing something valuable.
On the other hand, you can say, āNope, Iām impatient. Kill the script. Letās
get on with our lives.ā
Long scripts
Now, there are scenarios where it actually, very legitimately, can take too
long. I see it all the time and quite frankly, Iāll usually let a script
continue to run ā because itās usually because of a very benign (and very
common) reason that itās just taking longer than normal. An example: again,
Facebook.
When the script is out there itās basically going out to Facebook and
asking, āIs there something to update?ā If there is, Iāll get it, Iāll display
it, and Iāll wait a few seconds; and then Iāll go back for an update,
Iāll display it, and wait a few seconds.
No response
Now, what happens if when that script starts, it asks Facebook, āIs there
an update?ā and it doesnāt get a response?
Well, it waits for the response. The script is still running, but the script
is waiting for a response. If it waits too long, then your browser says, āHey,
this script is still running. Itās unresponsive.ā
The script is very legitimately waiting for something but that āsomethingā
is simply taking longer than it normally does. It may be the case that the
response will come back from Facebook that says, āYep, hereās some data to be
updated.ā And the script will continue on; it will carry on. It will grab the
data; it will display it; and so forth. It just took longer than normal. Long
enough that the browser seemed to care.
What to do?
So, thereās really no one size fits all answer for this.
Sometimes, scripts simply take longer than the browser expects them to.
Therefore, you get this particular message to basically give you the option of
killing what might be a hung script.
It might not be; it might be something very valid, but thereās no easy way
for you and I to tell.
My advice is to let it wait.
Itāll complain again⦠if the script stays unresponsive, the browser will
complain again. If it complains a second time then, you know, yea, I might go
ahead and kill it. But for the most part, Iāve seen enough things (especially
with these kinds of online interactive updating kinds of scripts, that you do
find in sites like Facebook and Twitter and Gmail and so forth) that sometimes
things just take longer than you expect and itās probably worth it letting them
continue to try for awhile.
If you get fed up⦠Sure, go ahead and kill āem.
Next from Answercast 55 ā Can I use this other Windows XP Setup Disk on a different computer?
Thatās good to hear (that this is usually benign) however I also get a warning that my computer will become unresponsive if i let the script run and sometimes, it indeed freezes and I have to restart. So, although there doesnāt seem to be any damage done, I either tell is to end the script or leave the page while I still can.
I have been haunted by the URS āUnresponsive Scriptā for over TWO years. Never from IE, just Firefox. I got NOSCRIPT and it made no diff at all. I turned off NOSCRIPT, SOS! Minutes before the URS, the system slows to less than a crawl, taking MINUTES to scroll a page or even a line. CPU is at 100% with Firefox taking between 80 and 95%. Its committed RAM is usually 450MB with 250+MB WSS. I got CHROME recently and rarely get an āunresposive pageā message. With NETMETER running, I can see that my Time Warner 10Mbs cable gives me less than dial up speeds, about 1000 to 7000 bits/sec! When I cancel the URS in Firefox, another pops up, always a diff script. H E L P !!!