PM freezing

[Holly]

I've just tried three times to send a PM to David England. Sorry David I can't seem to reply at the moment because it just freezes on me. Can you fix it anyone?

By the way the message is thanks for your thoughtful message. All OK!!

Holly x

[WT]

I'll PM you Holly and let me know if it works (please post here and try to reply to my PM - that will e-mail me automatically if it succeeds).

[Holly]

Working now! :)

[WT]

Probably a temporary server hang or congestion on the Internet... :roll: :)

[Indigo]

I sent another member a PM; I got a reply; but whenever I try to reply to that reply, my machine locks up and a resort to the task manager shows the whole Symouse site as "not responding" - and I have no choice but to "end task".

Anyone else having difficulties, or is it just my machine?

[WT]

Holly had a similar problem a day or two ago but it had gone as soon as I looked. It may just be a transient thing with the server or the Internet being busy. See Holly's post (http://www.wetbbs.com/forums/showpost.php?p=52207) .

After a day for you to see the reply, I'll move this to the Technical thread where it belongs and merge it with Holly's thread. If anyone else suffers the same thing, please post a reply to that thread (I've locked this one to prevent a reply here) so that we can alert Sky if there is an issue that he needs to investigate. Thanks.

[WT]

Indigo has experimented and provided a better explanation:


I think I have got it sussed.

I was nowhere near PM capacity - I had 21 PMs sitting in my inbox.

BUT I also had 78 sent items.

21 + 78 = 99

So I wondered whether the problem is that we aren't REALLY allowed 100, but only 99 IN TOTAL.

So I deleted a load of old messages, and here we go again.

It looks like that happens if you hit the message limit (Inbox + Sent) and at 99 not 100. So, it that occurs, exit the browser, go back in and delete some messages, after which you should be fine. :)

Thanks, Indigo! :D

[Holly]

Sorry WT. It's happening again. I've deleted some messages and tried twice to reply to PM I've just received and it froze and eventually I had to end the program like Indigo described.

I think there is definitely a problem that needs fixing.

[Holly]

PS tried 3 times!! Sorry PM sender. You know who you are!

The answer is yes to at least one of the questions but not right now.

Holly x :)

[DavidEngland99]

Hi Holly,

Sorry to have caused so much trouble, but you could always send me a message at david_england99@hotmail.com

I do hope Sky sorts out the PM system soon, however, because it could ruin something really beautiful (and wet) - all because the wrong box was ticked while configuring the website!

David

[Holly]

Hi,

I think I've found the problem. If you use the preview button after you've written your PM, it freezes. If you don't and just type and send your message, it works. So David England you should have received my message now. Let me know if you do.

Sorry about the others. I'll get round to those as soon as I can!

Holly x :) :)

[bobbyjo]

hahaha..i just noticed something funny

for this thread "PM freezing", if you look at the "similar threads" bit at the bottom, one of them is "cold weather accidents"

made me smile anyway :)

[Holly]

It's doing it again!! Especially after I had just typed a long reply!! :mad:

In there any chance I could have a reply to this and it could be looked into? It is annoying when you type soemthing and lose the lot!

Thankyou!

[DavidEngland99]

Holly,

At least until it is fixed, I would write a long message in something else - like Notepad, or Word - and then use the clipboard to transfer it to the PM box.

David

[WT]

I have tested this and am simply not having this problem, whether or not I use Preview. I have also sent and received PMs throughout this period without a single problem. If the problem is not the sender having too many Inbox + Sent messages (including any unread by the recipient), I wonder what happens if you are trying to PM someone whose box is full? I don't have any way of testing that.

Anyway, all I can suggest is deleting a load of messages yourself to be way under the limit. And, as ?David suggested, if you're writing something long, do it in Notepad in case the sender or recipient mailbox is full. I will leave this for Sky to investigate when he has time but I think he has been away recently, plus has had some server problems to fix, so I fear that it might take a while as there are workarounds...

Sorry! :whoops:

Edited by WT: I've PMd both Holly and David with and without Preview. I'm flummoxed, and can only suggest that the little gremlin mouse in the server doesn't want them to talk to one another... what were they saying?!!! :shock: :lol: Seriously, that's another thought - you weren't using any words that the Board software might block were you? I don't know if it does that, but it might block f***, c*** etc spelt out, and Kate had a problem with sn*g*e*i*g once because it incorrectly thought she was saying n***** (that was the old soaftware though). If it's not that or full mailbox(es), I'm completely flummoxed as it doesn't seem repeatable. :confused: :(

[Holly]

Hi WT,

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply. I've emptied my PM box and it seems to work now. So thanks.

I do take exception to your suggestion that we were using those words though, even if you were joking. Surely you know me better than that!

[WT]

That's true, Holly. But the words could be in quoted text or contained in other words like the sn*g*e*r*d example. Or it could be other words as I don't know what, if anything gets trapped out. (Or should I be ruder and say, as an Essex girl, whether you could spel... no, that's too rude. :p )

Anyway, I'm glad it's working better now that you have deleted loads of messages.

After I posted and mailed you, another thought occured to me. Only you and David have had problems and his were due to a full mailbox. So maybe only you got hung. Windows XP doesn't tend to do that if a web site doesn't reply, that only occurs (in my experience) if the actual comms link fails. So, maybe, it wasn't anything to do with Sky's site and perhaps you had a glitch in your modem (ADSL or phone). That could happen anywhere but, statistically, is more likely to affect something that takes a long time. That would fit with your experience of problems after typing a long time.

Have PM fun... :D

[Holly]

I give up. I had three attempts tonight but eventually succeeded after I logged in and out again and didn't use preview!

[Indigo]

And I'm feeling all left out because nobody's sending me any PMs. Sulk sulk moan grumble mumble humph!

[bobbyjo]

i'm having problems too. However , i have found the following solution works well...

simply shout "SEND, YOU F***ING B***ARD, I'M NOT GONNA F***ING TYPE YOU ALL IN AGAIN, YOU F***ING ELECTRONIC TWAT-FACE"

[skymouse]

I'm still looking into this.

SM

[WT]

As a workaround in case of freezes, even if you don't prepare the text in a separate file, at least select all the entered text once you have typed it and press Ctrl+C. That will take a copy in your cut-and-paste buffer so, if you do lose the message that you are working on, you can do what is necessary to try again (short of re-starting the computer), open a new message and, in the text field, press Ctrl+V. That will paste the text in again and save having to re-type it.

[Holly]

Thanks for looking in to this Sky. It was really playing up this morning. I eventually got it working by deleting the previous quoted text. So my reply was just my reply, if you know what I mean. Otherwise, it just does not want to know!

Thanks for the advice WT. Another way of doing this, that I prefer, is simply to left click with your mouse, block the text and then right click and left click 'copy'. It would be safer to paste it into wordpad though.

Of course for any readers that can't do this, I would recommend the more reliable 'bobbyjo' method:


i'm having problems too. However , i have found the following solution works well...

simply shout "SEND, YOU F***ING B***ARD, I'M NOT GONNA F***ING TYPE YOU ALL IN AGAIN, YOU F***ING ELECTRONIC TWAT-FACE" :lol:

Holly x ;) :roll:

[Holly]

Thinking about it, it sounds like a problem with available memory to me. I could be wrong of course but if I can only get it to work by deleting messages in my inbox and by deleting text in the reply? Maybe someone has recently sent lots of pictures by PM and the system is simply using available memory, causing the server to hang?

I don't know what I'm talking about but it's just a thought!

[WT]

I doubt it Holly: sorry. The Message Board server handles requests for each item by retrieving them from a database and making up the HTML dynamically, then sending it to you. That's why, for example, when you change your avatar or signature, all messages you posted appear to pick it up. It will check that you're not exceeding the post limit but I'm not aware of a total size limit. If there is, Sky would have to confirm. There is no reason why the space occupied by other messages on disk would affect the server's behaviour in terms of processing capacity and memory. To test the theory though, you would have to delete the post(s) with photos, but I fear that would not help you.

I am still more inclined to think there is a problem with your Internet connection. If you wanted to run through how you connect etc, we would need to do that by e-mail rather than posting your details here (and if PM is not working for you, you can't really use that reliably).

[Val]

This has just turned up again. I thought it was because I'd prepared some stuff offline with 'written smilies' in but seemed as bad on a long message I tried to send while a couple of test lines got as far as the receipt request but I cancelled. Looking at the comments though, would any old messages be taking space?

[pippyspot]

Val When You Send Messages I Am Getting The Smiles So I Don't Know Why It Wasn't Working

[skymouse]

I'm still looking into this issue. I have experienced it myself occasionally (but not often or consistently enough to see a pattern).

SM

[Val]

Something else that crops up but I blame on Windows XP is that sometimes all smilies won't stay on screen. It just flshes up and goes.

[WT]

PM finally did this to me. The only unusual features compared with normally sending messages were:
When I finally got it working, the message exceeded the 5000 character limit and I had to shorten it to get it past that hurdle.
I replied to a reply in which another section of text was quoted, so there were about 3 nested sets of quote and end quote tags. It failed twice but, when I edited out those tags and replaced them with a note in the text, it went though OK.

I did not have an especially large number stored and, in fact, had just deleted 2/3 of them to leave about 4, so that pretty much excludes that and suggests that it was just random for people who noticed it happening then.

I could have experienced a connection drop out, but not two. So, as Holly said, the Internect connection is not a factor.

My suggestion for the next place to look, Sky, is when quote blocks get nested.

Can anyone else who experienced this confirm whether they had quotes within quotes when their messages hung? Both confrimation that it hung and stating that in those circumstances it did not hang would be useful. Thanks!

[Val]

It tells me when it's over the limit. I think it's a system thing, the system in question being XP. A lot of people don't like it and I don't think the flash and go problem has hapopened on W98. It looks as if it dosn't remove Block Popups completely.
1. BTW are the Smilies copyright?
2. Would anybody who compses offline be interested in a wordpad RTF (eventually I'll do a Kate as well) to VBcode converter? I can't be bothered with Word, WP does the necessary without as much fuss.

[Holly]

WT.....very strange I just tried to reply to your message in quotes but then it actually froze on the main message board..... not just in the PMs!!!! So the problem is definitely when using the quotes!!!

PS.... I'm glad that now you have experienced the problem it has suddenly become real!! ;) It's just like IT at work. "Please Mr IT man my email has frozen?" "That's Ok Holly can you demonstrate it for me?"............ Oooh.......it appears to be working now!!!! :whoops:

[WT]

LOL @ Holly! :lol:

It doesn't work quite like that. When someone says something doesn't work, it undoubtedly doesn't. What even a good description doesn't give you usually is enough context to be able to identify one cause as more likely than another. That really does come with experience, I don't think it is even something that can be taught. If this does prove to be due to quotes, it will be an excellent case in point. Everyone who experienced the problem may (we don't know yet) have used quotes... yet none knew it was important to mention.

[Holly]

Hiya. Booking a fault on your helpline! :kiss:

It's happening again. The same probem with the quotes. I re-typed my message again in Word Pad, took out the quotes and it was OK. As you know it doesn't always happen. Just now and then. The quotes do seem to be top of the list of suspects though.

Can you come and have a look now, pretty please? ;)

[WT]

Hi Holly,

Yes... provided that you can come into my work and fix the Exchange mailboxes that won't move between servers as a quid pro quo. ;) And I don't mean by lubricating the floor of the server room between the computers!!! :shock: :nono: :p