Javascript will not execute on one page on one machine

October 6, 2008 11:24 AM

I am seriously stuck on a problem and I'm hoping to get some new leads on how to attack it. There is one website that one user cannot execute Javascript on no matter what browser he uses. What could be causing this?

On one particular website, none of the Javascript functions will work for this user. When clicked, they do nothing - no error message or anything. This is mainly for opening a print-friendly version of the page and related case look-ups. The same thing happens in both IE6, IE7 and Firefox 3.03.

No one else is having this problem with the website.
I have set both web browsers to allow all scripting for the page.
I have completely disabled internet security (firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware).
It is happening on multiple user accounts on the same computer.
He isn't having trouble with Javascript on any other page.
His machine is XP SP3.

I and totally stuck and REALLY don't want to re-image his machine. Any suggestions on leads to follow?

posted by cimbrog to computers & internet (9 comments total)

I'd try deleting the browser cache and cookies and retrying the site. Failing that, I'd see if there is a firewall between the user's computer and the site. Is the user running a hardware firewall?
posted by zippy at 11:32 AM on October 6, 2008

In Firefox, Tools -> Error Console doesn't show anything?

When I'm stumped, I find livehttpheaders useful. Are the javascript components being downloaded at all?

What are the user's cache settings?
posted by idb at 11:33 AM on October 6, 2008

Open a command window, navigate to c:\windows\system32, and try the following:

regsvr32 jscript
regsvr32 vbscript


If those are both successful, go back to the page and try again with his browser. Sometimes these DLLs can get unregistered from antiviral measures.
posted by thanotopsis at 11:33 AM on October 6, 2008

He's behind the same hardware firewall everyone else who is accessing the site is behind.
posted by cimbrog at 11:34 AM on October 6, 2008

I sat down to try some of the suggestions and Firefox began working properly before I did anything. I've been working on this for a week now. Today seems to be "now that he's asking the question, let's begin working properly" day for my hardware and software. (Had a humiliating call with Dell this morning, too.)

IE7 is still not working, but its returning an error now, "line 1, char 1, access denied, code 0". At least its something I can look into. Thanks for the advice, everyone.
posted by cimbrog at 11:54 AM on October 6, 2008

This is a shot in the dark, but if I were going to try to block Javascript only on a specific page on every browser on a Windows machine, I'd do it using the hosts file. You don't say much about the site being blocked, but it'd be relatively elementary to add the part of the domain that the javascript is hosted on to the hosts file and thus only block the javascript and only block it on that page, but for every browser on the machine.

I'd say, check your hosts file, since it only takes a second.
posted by koeselitz at 11:56 AM on October 6, 2008

Ah. That's good.</small.
posted by koeselitz at 11:57 AM on October 6, 2008

> garrh.
posted by koeselitz at 12:03 PM on October 6, 2008

I would be thinking hosts file, it may be that the browser is thing the script is executing across domains. The IE error message is a clue (who would have thought and IE error message could actually be helpful!?l)
posted by mattoxic at 5:28 PM on October 6, 2008