text input in IE7 seems to stop working

Question

DISCLAIMER This is not something that I can replicate in anything other than a full sample, which sadly is not practical as it only happens on a specific PC. I am also aware that the information I have is very flaky.

I have one user (my boss) who runs IE7 and has no addins other than the basic bits like flash etc.

On one page and one page only on our app she sometimes finds that the text inputs will simply stop working. She can't click on them, can't tab to them, can't interact with them in anyway, other control such as dropdowns are fine.

The page is an standard ASP .Net web forms page, with a modal popup (created by SimpleModal 1.2.2).

I have no real information to go on. Has anyone had anything like this, or any suggestions of how I might go about getting better information to diagnose the problem?

Answer 1

... Not to fix a bandaid with a tourniquet, but have you tried upgrading to IE8?

Answer 2

Use a Developer Toolbar and post an HTML generated for this mysterious control.

Answer 3

When a strange error like that happens in IE on a single computer:

Check the settings for the disk cache (Temporary Internet Files). By default the maximum size is set to a percentage of the available disk space, which with the size of disks today is much more than the program can actually handle. When the cache starts to fill up, various functions in the browser may stop working in different unexpected ways.

A reasonable value is something like 50 MB. If it's a lot larger than that, clear the cache and set it to a more reasonable value.

(This is fixed in IE8, where the default value has an upper limit.)