Odd behavior on a previously trusted website.

Hi everyone. I'm sorry if this question doesn't belong in this forum. I'm just unsure where else I would place it, and I'm hoping for some expert opinions.

In the way of background: I'm using Opera 11.10, with javascript and plugins turned globally off and only activated on a whitelist bases through site preferences. I'm running NOD32, latest version. I keep my browser contained in Sandboxie, registered version, 3.54. The Sandbox I'm using has dropped rights, excludes internet access for all but Opera, and denies any program to run besides Opera. I'm running Windows 7 x64, Professional, SP1.

Lately I've been having very strange, yet semi-reproducable, issues with my computer. In specific, whenever I try to visit the website for VLC (I usually Google VLC, then hit the top link. I don't want to link directly in this thread), my computer completely locks up for about 10-20 seconds. There's no keyboard, no mouse movement, and no response from anything. After this time, the computer will snap back, and all will be well. The issue thereafter cannot be reproduced until the computer restarts.

This morning the issue seemed to get worse, as Opera seemed to crash to desktop when the 10 second freeze occurred. Then, after the 'snap back', Opera was running again on the VLC page. I found this strange, because with Sandboxie in place, Opera shouldn't have been able to crash, then restart. I also got no crash dialog about it.

Now, this could very well be a hardware issue - But I'm beginning to suspect there may be something nasty on the VLC page. I'm not an expert, so I was hoping someone might be able to take a look and see if anything might be there? I've tried scanning my machine with MBAM, Hitman Pro, and NOD, and all come back clean. I also didn't see any stray processes start or run in Process Explorer or SandBoxie... But I suppose I could've been rooted in this process.

I have tried asking over on the Opera forums, but have had little luck. Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

If you mean -videolan.org- then I have absolutely no problem with that in Iron, FF or IE9.

 

Yes, though with a -/vlc- appended onto it. I appreciate that other aren't seeing the issue. I can get by just fine with Opera 11.10 on my OS X machine, too. I'm just curious what about that webpage could bring an entire computer to a screeching halt - Particularly with Javascript and Plugins disabled. I find it somewhat suspicious, but don't have the technical knowledge to analyze the page source.

The fact that the Event Viewer in Windows 7 is useless doesn't help. I wish I had a log file to figure out what was going on!

 

Everything OK accessing with Chromium.

Could NOD32 web scanner be the cause? Have you tried disabling the web scanner?

Also, check with Process Explorer if any process is using too much CPU, when you access the URL.

 

@ Carbonyl

Hi, i'm using FF with NoScript etc, i get no lockups but do see this



So i wonder if it "might" be something to do with that ?

 

I use ESS (with web-scanner ON) and I can access both the HTTP and HTTPS site just fine. Using both Safari 5.0.5 and IE 8. But I do get the Invalid Cert Warning just as CloneRanger.

 

Thanks for the reassurance, everyone. I appreciate the information.

In the way of an update, I spent the weekend tracking down the issue. The only recent change I had made to my system was the addition of a SaiTek flightstick. For some reason, the profiler software and support software for that flightstick must've been the issue. When I killed the processes and disabled them from autostarting, the hardlocking was no longer an issue.

Why this happened only with the VLC webpage remains a mystery to me But I still appreciate all the investigative work! Thanks again.