354132 - hang when setting Thunderbird to be default newsreader in Vista

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Preferences, defect)

Description

[Becky]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.8.1b2) Gecko/20060821 Firefox/2.0b2
Build Identifier: Thunderbird version 2 beta 1 (20060924)

New install of Thunderbird 2 beta 1 on windows Vista 5728.  
When trying to make Thunderbird the default news reader, Thunderbird totally crashes.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Go to tools, options, try to place the tick in "make thunderbird default application for news.
2.When tick is placed, the tick does not go into the box but the program stalls with the cursor going round

3.After a short while Thunderbird totally locks up and either gives a white blank screen or Vista offers to close the program after it sets not responding

Actual Results:  
Total program crash. On the 4th attempt the crash closed all open programs in Vista including Firefox.

Expected Results:  
I expected to be able to set Thunderbird to be the default newsreader.  At the moment it is impossible.

Comment 1

[Becky]

Attachment: As you can see, trying to set default newsreader totally locked up thunderbird giving a white screen

Comment 2

[Becky]

Attachment: note the tickbox for news. this is where I tried to place a tick. instead of tick entering, it has not entered but is the start of a big crash

Comment 3

[u63580]

Possibly a daft question, but you are trying this from the admin account, yes?  Also, is bug 352424 at all related?

Comment 4

[Becky]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Possibly a daft question, but you are trying this from the admin account, yes? 
> Also, is bug 352424 at all related?

Hi Joseph, I don't think this is a duplicate of that bug.  The other bug is that setting default simply does not work (or at least that is what it implies).  This is different in that it is actually causing a serious crash.  It does not do it for mail or rss, only the news component. 

And yes I am running as administrator (I don't think it is a daft question) :-)

Comment 5

[u63580]

(In reply to comment #4)

> 
> Hi Joseph, I don't think this is a duplicate of that bug.  The other bug is
> that setting default simply does not work (or at least that is what it
> implies).  This is different in that it is actually causing a serious crash. 
> It does not do it for mail or rss, only the news component. 
> 
> And yes I am running as administrator (I don't think it is a daft question) :-)
> 

Do you see Talkback at all?  This could also be a Vista bug, but I will confirm as new (with an adjustment to the summary).

Comment 6

[Becky]

Sorry I do not know what talkback is.
Beginning to think this might actually be a Vista bug. Couple of reinstalls later and it seems okay, althogh it still does take a litle time to decide whether it wants to place the tick or not. 

Comment 7

[u63580]

(In reply to comment #6)
> Sorry I do not know what talkback is.

Talkback is a crash-reporting tool used by Mozilla.  It (hopefully) pops up after a crash to send analysis data back to the developers, so they can locate where the crash has occurred.

> Beginning to think this might actually be a Vista bug. Couple of reinstalls
> later and it seems okay, althogh it still does take a litle time to decide
> whether it wants to place the tick or not. 

Is this the same Vista build as the one that was crashing?  Have you reported the issue to MS?  

Comment 8

[Becky]

No sorry talkback did not pop up. I would have used it if it had.  The Vista crash protection may have overrided it? 

I have reported this to MS aswell. The build is the same 5728. Sorry when I said I had reinstalled a couple of times I meant actually I reinstalled the Thunderbird, not the original Vista. 

Okay I am about to crash again.  I just tried to do the reverse and UNTICK the default and now its gone into crash mode (not responding) as we speak. 

I wonder whether a full reinstall of Vista shoudl be the next step?  Even though I have no others problems with the OS at all.  Thunderbird is the only thing thats hates it.  lol

Comment 9

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Talkback (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Talkback) is only installed randomly if you don't opt in for it during custom install.

Are you actually crashing? If the interface just stop responding that's a hang, not a crash. Talkback would not be shown for hangs.

Comment 10

[Becky]

Well usually I do install the quality feedback agent if that is what it is?  IIRC that was the only extra that wanted to install. 

I suppose you could call it a hang, but it hangs until it goes "not responding" then after about a minute of freezing there doing nothing, Vista crash protection pops up to ask whether I wish to wait for the program or close it. 

Comment 11

[u63580]

(In reply to comment #10)
> Well usually I do install the quality feedback agent if that is what it is? 
> IIRC that was the only extra that wanted to install. 
> 

Yup, that's Talkback.  If it's not popping up, you are probably talking a hang.  

Comment 12

[Becky]

Okay.  Crash or hang, still the same in my eyes.  Renders the program useless for a short time. 

Is there anything I can do about this hang?  

Comment 13

[u63580]

(In reply to comment #12)
> Okay.  Crash or hang, still the same in my eyes.  Renders the program useless
> for a short time. 
> 
> Is there anything I can do about this hang?  
> 

I guess not in the short term.  This could be a bug in TB or Vista, but it is going to be a developer job to sort it out.

Comment 14

[Scott MacGregor]

I wonder if this will get fixed when we implement the Vista code for setting the app as the default:

Bug 354895

Comment 15

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

*** Bug 358158 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 16

[Marcia Knous [:marcia]]

I don't see this using the latest Vista RTM build (Version 6.0.6000 Build 6000). I am running version 2 beta 2 (20070202). I suspect that mscott's Comment 14 is spot on, based on what I am seeing when we are doing default app testing of Firefox with Vista.

Reporter: If you have access to the RTM for Vista and the latest Tbird build, it would be great to see if you are still seeing it.

Comment 17

[Calvin Buckley]

This happens to SeaMonkey as well in my bug report.

Comment 18

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Had a chance to check this on vista/tb2.0.0.14. Couldn't reproduce.

Comment 19

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

WFM per comment 16 and 18