Posted: February 17, 2011/Under: Software/By: My Digital Life Editorial Team

When surfing the Internet and browsing websites using Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), Internet Explorer web browser may stop working and crash when user is visiting web page that contains embedded Java applets. The Java applet requires Java Plug-in and if you have Java Plug-in version 6: update 22 or update 23 installed, the web page may fail to load, and cause crash and reload of tabs with the following error message in the notification bar at the bottom of the web browser.

A problem with this webpage caused Internet Explorer to close and reopen the tab.

An error log may be created on Desktop with the following content:

A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:

EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005) at pc=0x75221d76, pid=2424, tid=2996

JRE version: 6.0_23-b05
Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (17.1-b03 mixed mode, sharing windows-x86)

Problematic frame:
C [WININET.dll+0x71d76]

If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit:
http://java.sun.com/webapps/bugreport/crash.jsp
The crash happened outside the Java Virtual Machine in native code.
See problematic frame for where to report the bug.

Additionally, IE9 may be unable to return to the page (cannot reload the site) with the following message on the page:

We were unable to return you to {URL}
Internet Explorer has stopped trying to restore this website. It appears that the website continues to have a problem.

The issue happens even though users manage to get Java loading in IE9 (if Java blocked by ActiveX Filtering, this error won’t happen). The issue is caused by a bug with Java Plug-in version 6, update 22 and update 23 that was exposed by recent changes made since the Internet Explorer 9 RC rendering engine. Until the Java plug-in is updated to be compatible with IE9, the temporary workaround to resolve the issue is to view web pages that use Java plugin to render Java applets in compatibility view. Compatibility View forces IE to render the webpage in the IE8 document mode which does not contain the IE9 changes to the rendering engine.

To add a website to Compatibility View when the website cannot be accessed, follow these steps:

  1. Start Internet Explorer.
  2. Press the ALT key on your keyboard to access the menu bar.
  3. Click Tools and then click Compatibility View Settings.
  4. Type the address of the website into the Add this website: text box.
  5. Click the Add button to add the site to the Compatibility View list and then close the Compatibility View Settings window.

    Note that it’s also possible to force all websites to load in Compatibility View by selecting View all websites in Compatibility View option.

  6. Visit the web page again.

Tip: To remove a website from Compatibility view, just go back to Compatibility View Settings, and remove the site from the Compatibility View list.

Update: Java has released a new version of Java that fixes the issue – Version 6 Update 24. Download from java.com.

Source: KB2506617

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