Some web pages (especially Apple documentation) cause heavy CPU usage in Windows IE8

Question

Maybe this belongs in Server Fault instead, but some of you may have noticed this issue (particularly those developing on Mac, using a Windows machine to read the reference material). I posted the same question on a Microsoft forum and got one answer from someone who reproduced the problem, so it's not just my machine. No solution yet.

Ever since this month's security updates, I find that many web pages cause the CPU to run at maximum for as long as the web page is visible. This happens in both IE7 and IE8 on at least three different computers (two with Windows XP, one with Vista). Here is one of the pages, running on XP with IE 8:

http://learning2code.blogspot.com/2007/11/update-using-subversion-with-xcode-3.html

Here is one that does it in Vista with IE8:

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/NSString_Class/Reference/NSString.html

You can leave the page open for hours and the CPU is still at high usage. This doesn't happen every time. It is not always reproduceable. Sometimes it is OK the second or third time it loads. In IE7 the high usage is in ieframe.dll, version 7.0.6000.16890. In IE8 the high usage is in iertutil.dll, version 8.0.6001.18806.

Answer 1

Why not just use FireFox?

Answer 2

I'm able to replicate the problem. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 final with IE8 and My GF's computer runs Vista 64 with IE8. I first noticed the problem on her computer. Particularly using the Apple.com website, any other website works correctly, although after visiting apple.com trying to write an email on gmail was nearly impossible, as the keys seemed heavy or malfunction, or slow... I also noticed that Using the 64x bit version of IE8 would work just fine. The problem was with the 32 version of IE8 iexplorer.exe would use 50% of CPU. Both the 64x version and (no-add ons) would work perfectly. Anyways, I checked apple.com on my computer using IE8 and I was able to navigate the site at speed light, with both versions, 32 and 64 (remember the default is 32 since there are many add-ons that do not support 64x bits yet. Then, the problem:

IE8 asked me to install an activex plugin for Quicktime, so I did.... After I installed the plugin, navigating apple.com is nearly impossible. CPU usage when on apple.com went up to 50% and the site became super slow. All other sites work just fine. I don't see the plugin on the "manage add-ons" and I looked everywhere to see how can I unregister it, or uninstall it. I'm guessing you guys are having the same problem...

If you find a solution please e-mail me at ezequiell at the google email service. com

Regards

Ezequiel