I've been having this problem for probably two years now.  The
computer is an IBM thinkpad 770ED PII, running win2000.  Basically
what happens is I enter and address or click on a link, and as the
page is loading (or sometimes when it's almost done loading) the
window just vanishes.  It's as though I pressed alt+F4.  There is no
message about a failure.  No warning.  It just closes.  Some pages do
it consistantly.  For instance I can't go to www.hollywood.com.  I
can't go to www.jetchip.com.   I have already tried the following
solutions:

1. I have the latest version if IE
2. I have all the windows updates and patches that apply to me
3. I have scanned for viruses with an up to date scanner (McAffee)
4. Scanned for spyware with Adaware

Nothing seemed unusual.  Here's where I decided it was out of my
hands.  I installed a copy of Mozilla, thinking I could use that to
get to the pages that I can't see with IE.  But it does the exact same
thing.  However an ancient copy of Netscape seems to have no troubles
(and loads pages about 5000x faster) I've been asking people about
this one for ages and no one seems to have a decent explanation.  What
I would like is an explanation as to why it's happening, a solution to
the problem and a way of preventing it from happening in the future.

---

Request for Question Clarification by seizer-ga on 17 May 2004 07:34 PDT

Hello lymanss!

Please could you do the following:

Visit a website which causes this issue, and wait for the problem to
occur again. *Immediately* after it happens, go to the Control Panel
--> Administrative Tools --> Event Viewer and see if there are any
Warnings or Errors in the Application or System sections. If there
are, copying them here would help very much in diagnosing your
problem, which is probably plugin related!

Regards,

--seizer-ga

---

Clarification of Question by lymanss-ga on 18 May 2004 10:12 PDT

Thanks for the response. I went to Hollywood.com, which resulted in
the browser closing (just that window...nog all the IE windows).  I
then checked the event viewer as instructed.  Here are excerpts from
the system log and the application log, as requested.  I went to
hollywood.com and experienced the IE failure at about 8:45 PM on the
17th.


App Log

5/17/2004	8:47:18 PM	Userenv	Error	None	1000	NT
AUTHORITY\SYSTEM	LYMANSS	The Group Policy client-side extension
Security was passed flags (17) and returned a failure status code of
(13).
5/17/2004	8:47:18 PM	SceCli	Warning	None	1202	N/A	LYMANSS	Security
policies are propagated with warning. 0xd : The data is invalid.
Please look for more details in TroubleShooting section in Security Help. 
5/17/2004	7:00:07 PM	Userenv	Error	None	1000	NT
AUTHORITY\SYSTEM	LYMANSS	The Group Policy client-side extension
Security was passed flags (17) and returned a failure status code of
(13).
5/17/2004	7:00:07 PM	SceCli	Warning	None	1202	N/A	LYMANSS	Security
policies are propagated with warning. 0xd : The data is invalid.
Please look for more details in TroubleShooting section in Security Help. 
5/17/2004	5:02:36 PM	Userenv	Error	None	1000	NT
AUTHORITY\SYSTEM	LYMANSS	The Group Policy client-side extension
Security was passed flags (17) and returned a failure status code of
(13).
5/17/2004	5:02:36 PM	SceCli	Warning	None	1202	N/A	LYMANSS	Security
policies are propagated with warning. 0xd : The data is invalid.
Please look for more details in TroubleShooting section in Security Help. 
5/17/2004	3:19:09 PM	Userenv	Error	None	1000	NT
AUTHORITY\SYSTEM	LYMANSS	The Group Policy client-side extension
Security was passed flags (17) and returned a failure status code of
(13).
5/17/2004	3:19:09 PM	SceCli	Warning	None	1202	N/A	LYMANSS	Security
policies are propagated with warning. 0xd : The data is invalid.
Please look for more details in TroubleShooting section in Security Help. 
5/17/2004	1:20:38 PM	Userenv	Error	None	1000	NT
AUTHORITY\SYSTEM	LYMANSS	The Group Policy client-side extension
Security was passed flags (17) and returned a failure status code of
(13).
5/17/2004	1:20:38 PM	SceCli	Warning	None	1202	N/A	LYMANSS	Security
policies are propagated with warning. 0xd : The data is invalid.
Please look for more details in TroubleShooting section in Security Help. 
5/17/2004	11:44:04 AM	Userenv	Error	None	1000	NT
AUTHORITY\SYSTEM	LYMANSS	The Group Policy client-side extension
Security was passed flags (17) and returned a failure status code of
(13).
5/17/2004	11:44:04 AM	SceCli	Warning	None	1202	N/A	LYMANSS	Security
policies are propagated with warning. 0xd : The data is invalid.
Please look for more details in TroubleShooting section in Security Help. 
5/17/2004	9:46:32 AM	Userenv	Error	None	1000	NT
AUTHORITY\SYSTEM	LYMANSS	The Group Policy client-side extension
Security was passed flags (17) and returned a failure status code of
(13).
5/17/2004	9:46:32 AM	SceCli	Warning	None	1202	N/A	LYMANSS	Security
policies are propagated with warning. 0xd : The data is invalid.
Please look for more details in TroubleShooting section in Security Help. 
5/17/2004	8:05:58 AM	Userenv	Error	None	1000	NT
AUTHORITY\SYSTEM	LYMANSS	The Group Policy client-side extension
Security was passed flags (17) and returned a failure status code of
(13).
5/17/2004	8:05:58 AM	SceCli	Warning	None	1202	N/A	LYMANSS	Security
policies are propagated with warning. 0xd : The data is invalid.
Please look for more details in TroubleShooting section in Security Help. 
5/17/2004	6:35:27 AM	Userenv	Error	None	1000	NT
AUTHORITY\SYSTEM	LYMANSS	The Group Policy client-side extension
Security was passed flags (17) and returned a failure status code of
(13).
5/17/2004	6:35:27 AM	SceCli	Warning	None	1202	N/A	LYMANSS	Security
policies are propagated with warning. 0xd : The data is invalid.
Please look for more details in TroubleShooting section in Security Help. 


---------------------------------------

System Log

5/16/2004	9:52:07 AM	MRxSmb	Error	None	8003	N/A	LYMANSS	The master
browser has received a server announcement from the computer D898C541
that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on
transport NetBT_Tcpip_{DBFDDE7B-5032-4DDC-. The master browser is
stopping or an election is being forced.
5/15/2004	7:34:17 AM	MRxSmb	Error	None	8003	N/A	LYMANSS	The master
browser has received a server announcement from the computer NATASHA
that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on
transport NetBT_Tcpip_{DBFDDE7B-5032-4DDC-8. The master browser is
stopping or an election is being forced.
5/14/2004	4:36:34 PM	MRxSmb	Error	None	8003	N/A	LYMANSS	The master
browser has received a server announcement from the computer NATASHA
that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on
transport NetBT_Tcpip_{DBFDDE7B-5032-4DDC-8. The master browser is
stopping or an election is being forced.
5/14/2004	3:36:31 PM	MRxSmb	Error	None	8003	N/A	LYMANSS	The master
browser has received a server announcement from the computer NATASHA
that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on
transport NetBT_Tcpip_{DBFDDE7B-5032-4DDC-8. The master browser is
stopping or an election is being forced.
5/14/2004	5:24:41 AM	MRxSmb	Error	None	8003	N/A	LYMANSS	The master
browser has received a server announcement from the computer NATASHA
that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on
transport NetBT_Tcpip_{DBFDDE7B-5032-4DDC-8. The master browser is
stopping or an election is being forced.
5/14/2004	4:12:41 AM	MRxSmb	Error	None	8003	N/A	LYMANSS	The master
browser has received a server announcement from the computer NATASHA
that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on
transport NetBT_Tcpip_{DBFDDE7B-5032-4DDC-8. The master browser is
stopping or an election is being forced.
5/14/2004	3:00:33 AM	MRxSmb	Error	None	8003	N/A	LYMANSS	The master
browser has received a server announcement from the computer NATASHA
that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on
transport NetBT_Tcpip_{DBFDDE7B-5032-4DDC-8. The master browser is
stopping or an election is being forced.
5/14/2004	1:48:30 AM	MRxSmb	Error	None	8003	N/A	LYMANSS	The master
browser has received a server announcement from the computer NATASHA
that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on
transport NetBT_Tcpip_{DBFDDE7B-5032-4DDC-8. The master browser is
stopping or an election is being forced.
5/13/2004	11:41:39 PM	MRxSmb	Error	None	8003	N/A	LYMANSS	The master
browser has received a server announcement from the computer NATASHA
that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on
transport NetBT_Tcpip_{DBFDDE7B-5032-4DDC-8. The master browser is
stopping or an election is being forced.
5/13/2004	10:17:46 PM	MRxSmb	Error	None	8003	N/A	LYMANSS	The master
browser has received a server announcement from the computer NATASHA
that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on
transport NetBT_Tcpip_{DBFDDE7B-5032-4DDC-8. The master browser is
stopping or an election is being forced.
5/13/2004	9:17:43 PM	MRxSmb	Error	None	8003	N/A	LYMANSS	The master
browser has received a server announcement from the computer NATASHA
that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on
transport NetBT_Tcpip_{DBFDDE7B-5032-4DDC-8. The master browser is
stopping or an election is being forced.
5/13/2004	6:31:52 PM	MRxSmb	Error	None	8003	N/A	LYMANSS	The master
browser has received a server announcement from the computer NATASHA
that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on
transport NetBT_Tcpip_{DBFDDE7B-5032-4DDC-8. The master browser is
stopping or an election is being forced.
5/13/2004	5:35:49 PM	Service Control
Manager	Error	None	7023	N/A	LYMANSS	The Remote Access Connection
Manager service terminated with the following error:
Access is denied.  
5/13/2004	5:35:49 PM	Rasman	Error	None	20035	N/A	LYMANSS	Remote Access
Connection Manager failed to start because it could not create
buffers. Restart the computer. Access is denied.

Hi,
I have experienced the same closing browser problem while accessing
some sites like the ones you mentioned. I think this is caused by some
buggy ActiveX controls on these sites. You can solve this by not
running the ActiveX  controls, to do this just set your browser
security level on High.
This works for me.

Best regards,
Nick133