Internet Explorer may appear to stop responding when requesting many objects

When Microsoft Internet Explorer makes many requests for objects, it may stop responding (hang). Requests to the current Web server may not be completed, and the Internet Explorer window displays an arrow-hourglass pointer.

When this problem occurs, images may not appear as expected, and a message may appear in the status bar at the bottom of the window that there are a certain number of "items remaining", or it may say "Done".

This problem may occur if Internet Explorer sends many HTTP requests, and then aborts many of those requests. When this problem occurs, HTTP requests to the same Web server do not succeed.

Note When you use other Web servers, HTTP requests work correctly.

Download information

Internet Explorer 6 SP1 for Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Windows Millennium Edition

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:
Download the q818506.exe package now. For additional information about how to download Microsoft Support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help to prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.

Internet Explorer 6 for Windows Server 2003

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:
Download the WindowsServer2003-KB818506-x86-ENU.exe package now. For additional information about how to download Microsoft Support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help to prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.

File information

Windows Server 2003 Version

Non-Windows Server 2003 Version

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1.

Typically, when Internet Explorer aborts an HTTP request, the page no longer has to have a reference for that resource (such as an image, a JScript (.js) file, an HTML component (.htc) file, or a Cascading Style Sheet (.css) file). This problem may occur when you rapidly open and close many nodes of a DHTML treeview-like control. The problem occurs more frequently when Internet Explorer is set to look for newer versions on every visit to the Web page because this generates more HTTP requests. (Typically, these requests are "get" requests).

Other factors that contribute to HTTP traffic may also generate more HTTP requests. These factors include setting the cache attribute and network latency. Network latency contributes to the problem because there is a greater chance of aborting an HTTP request.

If you raise the connection limit per server, you can delay the problem. The problem occurs because Internet Explorer may occasionally lose HTTP connections internally. Because 2 is the standard connection limit for HTTP 1.1, the problem occurs later if you raise the connection limit.