Opera 12.02 32-Bit "half-breaks" intermittently

Opera 12.02 32-Bit "half-breaks" intermittently

In this latest version, I am having a strange problem where, at seemingly random intervals, Opera appears to half-break, for lack of a better word. When this happens, I can keep surfing, but there's a bunch of odd behavior:

• The Opera button no longer works. Clicking on it produces no result.
• None of the interface shortcuts (Ctrl-T, F3, F4, Ctrl-Tab, etc.) work any more, although CTRL-F4 does.
• The sidebar can not be raised. The button is grayed out, the shortcut doesn't work, etc.
• Selecting "Open in a new tab" from the context menu does not work, for example, but shift-clicking a link still does.

When this happens, the only way to fix it is to close Opera and start it again. Is anybody else experiencing this or might know what causes this? Very frustrating.

Machine is an i5-2500K running Windows 7 64-Bit. Memory usage for my approximately 40 open tabs is 1.5 GB.

There are a few posts about this already, though I've yet to see it on either of my systems. (Win-64 with 64-bit Opera, and 32-bit XP with 32-bit Opera). One user claimed they could get the shortcuts back using Preferences >Advanced > Shortcuts, but I wasn't sure how he was supposed to do that without either menus or shortcuts ...

Look for these earlier posts using the forum search, maybe one of them has something constructive.

Hello Sgunhouse,

Thanks for your reply. I had done a few searches, but given the vague nature of my problem, I wasn't sure what I was looking for.

Good to know I'm not the only one having this problem. For others with this problem, I found these other threads, but there's no resolution on any of them:
http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1449302
http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1513002

Do Opera devs read this forum?

I saw this problem some hours after seeing this post, so it appears to be catching.

I saw it with 12.10.1593. I first noticed something was wrong when I clicked a link in my external mail program and nothing happened, no matter how many links I clicked. So I switched over to Opera, which of course had none of those new links open, and found that, like you said, even the Opera button didn't work. SpeedDial didn't open, either.

Here's the weirdest part: after restarting Opera, all the new links and the SpeedDials opened! So Opera "knew" about them (before being closed) but seemed incapable of actually doing anything further until restarted.

Also an i5-2500K here, though I'm sure that's a coincidence.

Opera didn't just know about them, apparently. Sounds like Opera had somehow stopped updating the screen. Strange ...

When it happened today, I noted that the Opera menu was accessible, so that's either variable or I was wrong before. But no bookmarks work, SpeedDial doesn't open, no new tabs open.

For the regulars, tell me: do the Opera devs typically chime in and acknowledge these kinds of problems, or is it just likely to be quietly fixed in some future version?

Occasionally, but you can never count on it. At this point, the thing to do would be to file a bug report--that, also rarely, might get a response--but the problem in this case is the seeming impossibility of reproducing it. I haven't the slightest idea why it happens. It still does happen through 12.10.1597, though.

Same symptoms as described by people before me. Just started using Opera, and it's not exactly the most encouraging way to start. I'm on Windows 7 64-bit, running a 64bit version of Opera, so it's not limited to 32bit at all (also e8400 cpu).

This is a completely gamebreaking bug, i was finally getting used to Opera but now I'm finding it likes to randomly turn its features off. Note that this bug was identified during beta stages, but it appears to not have been acted on: http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1511502&t=1348145842

I'm wondering if this isn't related to a plugin or extension. Should we compare?

Plugins:

• Shockwave Flash - 11,1,102,63
• Foxit Reader Plugin for Mozilla - 2, 2, 1, 0530
• Harmony Firefox Plugin - 1, 1, 0, 0
• Silverlight Plug-In - 4.1.10329.0

I also had these ones, but I disabled them a few days ago in case they were causing the problem:

• Microsoft Office 2010 - 14.0.4761.1000
• Nokia Suite Enabler Plugin - 1, 0, 0, 1
• Google Update - 1.3.21.115

Extensions:

• AutoPatchWork - v1.8.6
• AutoStack - v1.3.7
• CleanTube - v1.2.1
• EasyTranslation - v1.1.1
• Find Matching Images - v1.7
• Ghostery - v0.9.5
• ImgTip - v1.5
• Opera AdBlock - v0.56
• Reddit Enhancement Suite - v4.0.3
• YouTube Autoplay Killer - v2.1-b

Of your active plugins, we have these in common:

Shockwave Flash - 11,4,402,265
Silverlight Plug-In - 4.1.10329.0

Of your extensions, none.

BTW, unrelated to the issue, but your Flash version is dangerously old. Most likely, it's because you have the Flash dll (it starts with NPSWF32) copied into your Opera plugins directory. That hasn't been necessary for a long time. It's much better to delete that copy, since Opera always knows about the latest Flash that Adobe installs in its own obscure directory, even if that directory isn't in Opera's plugin path (which it won't be).

Yeah, sounds like an idea.

Plugins: (Duplicates are 32bit and 64bit versions)

• Adobe Acrobat - 10.1.4.38
• Shockwave Flash - 11,4,402,278
• Silverlight Plug-In - 5.1.10411.0
• Microsoft Office 2010 - 14.0.4730.1010
• Square Enix Secure Launcher - 1.0.0.106
• Uplay PC - 1.0.0.1
• Shockwave Flash - 11,4,402,278
• iTunes Application Detector - 1.0.1.1
• Java Deployment Toolkit 6.0.350.10 - 6.0.350.10
• Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U35 - 6.0.350.10
• Silverlight Plug-In - 5.1.10411.0
• Microsoft Office 2010 - 14.0.4730.1010
• Microsoft Office 2010 - 14.0.4761.1000
• Adobe Acrobat - 10.1.4.38

Extensions:

• Adblock 1.0.3
• Autostack 1.3.9

I installed Adblock after i first encountered this...so it's definitely not that. Well I guess we have flash and silverlight in common. I'll try disabling both and see how far i get.

p.s. I'm glad you made me check these...so much bloatware. Java, UPlay and this Square Enix crap has to go.

I just had a thought, i've disabled Flash/Silverlight and all is well thus far. Hopefully it stays that way, because it leads me to wonder - when you e.g. watch a flash video, Flash takes over the hotkeys and prevents Opera from using them. Perhaps Opera is getting locked in this mode, and hence such functionality is being disabled? I'll carry on using the browser with these plugins disabled and if i dont get the bug again, im gonna reenable and play around.

Does such 'disabled' functionality exist when you're using a plugin?

I just got it, with Silverlight/Flash disabled. Looks like it's not that.

It happened right after I went into preferences, advanced, and set tabs to cycle in the order of how they appear rather than recently used. I'm guessing it has to do with tab settings of some sort.

edit: Think i've got it. This seems to happen to me very frequently if I open Preferences then exit (OK, Cancel or otherwise). The Preferences box disables most hotkeys, and the panel etc so that it doesn't interfere while configuring. This state does not seem to be reset after you exit preferences, so it gets stuck. I don't know if other Opera Menus do this, but this is certainly how i've been reproducing it the last few times. I managed to reproduce it 2-3 times in a row by simply starting opera, opening preferences, then closing it. It doesn't always happen, but that's how I've done it.

I just tried changing that option several times without incident, but I know when this has happened to me that I'm not in the menus. So what you're seeing as a result of the menus could very well be part of the same problem, but unfortunately it's not the only way to trigger it.

What you might want to do next is see if you can reproduce it with another installation of Opera, which would be using a clean profile. It's always handy having one of those around.

Oh, now this is very interesting. Has anyone tried just walking away when Opera goes into this state? I did, and came back about two minutes later. Guess what? Opera brought itself back to life and suddenly opened all the tabs that had "queued up." It then behaves normally again, opening tabs speedily and at will...until the next time, whenever that will be.

rseiler, as far as I can tell, we are discussing two issues. When this happens to me, I can still open tabs and continue to browse, just that the Opera buttons, hot keys and panels cease to function. I believe Sirfancypants is having the same issue. There is no issue of Opera not responding for me - the functions are actually disabled rather than delayed. In other words, it's completely responsive but ignores what I ask it to do.

It sounds to me like you have a similar, yet distinct issue.

I would have to agree with that. I've not experienced any problems with delays, merely reduced functionality. Similarly, some have reported that their speed dials cease to function; this has not been the case for me. The problem areas seem to be focused exclusively on, as darkdreamingdan pointed out, buttons, hot keys and panels.

I'll also add that this problem is not a daily occurrence for me. It often takes days to weeks before the problem will manifest. As we've already ruled out plugins and extensions, this makes me think that a slow memory leak could be the culprit.

At any rate, I've been an Opera user since v3; I'm confident that the devs will eventually squash this problem. In the interim, however, it would be nice to receive some sort of feedback that they are at least aware of the bug. I'm hoping that if this thread remains active, it'll help attract visibility to the problem.

But you said opening a new tab doesn't work, like with me. darkdreamingdan said he can open new tabs. So, I'm not sure if I'm the one with the separate issue, particularly if you can't reproduce it at will by going into the menus and changing a setting (see a couple posts up).

The problem doesn't happen often for me either, but is probably averaging once a day now. Only the last time did I try letting it sit for a while; I don't know if that always works.

I did make a point to look at Task Manager the last couple times, and there was nothing unusual there: Opera was taking its usual slightly over 1GB figure, with normal GDI and Handles. Opera had been in memory many hours each time this has happened though, as I recall.

No, I can open new tabs, just not by using shortcuts such as Ctrl-T, neither the context menu, neither the Opera button. I have to shift-click a link, as I said, or use the new tab button on the toolbar.

At any rate, all of our issues may indeed still stem from the same innate bug, manifesting differently depending on our configurations. Unfortunately, we're all in the dark here, so there's no way to know. I think it's important to know if anyone is experiencing some or all of any of these problems, so please do continue to report your findings. And for the lurkers out there, please chime in as well.

I'll try opening a new tab with that button next time, which I never use and had removed from my toolbar, so it may very well have worked. I was testing before only with the mouse gesture, which is considered a shortcut, so I expect that it would be the same as Ctrl-T, which I'll also try.

Yup, EXACTLY the same problem here, but this may also happen on 64-bit systems (don't quote me on that, though). However, you mentioned my post already (http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1449302). Yours seems to be more popular and better described, so I will be watching for any word on the fix.

Hey AleksOD, welcome to our little group. How often does the problem occur for you?

Every time I use Opera. Sometimes it occurs a few moments after launching the browser, sometimes later. I hate it and considered abandoning the browser altogether because of it.

You know I had this problem for years, I reported it a few years ago and talked to a dev (to him only about the Opera Links Sync issues). I come back now, as Chrome has a game breaking bug on it, and this bug is only getting worse .....

The dev said that it was a very complex issue btw, I don't know how far he got, looks like not far at all lol....bit of a shame really as my browser of choise selection is getting on the thin-to-non existent side haha

This hasn't happened for me in 12.10.1605 yet, which is interesting since it did with its immediate predecessors. This post will surely jinx it into happening soon, if it's going to happen.

I find it interesting that AleksOD can sometimes encounter the bug within moments of launching, rseiler would sometimes get it daily, and yet I can often go weeks between incidents. I'm still inclined to believe it's a memory leak, but I also can't help but wonder if certain web pages aren't triggering it.

Obviously though, comparing our surfing habits would be a ridiculous undertaking, but the next time it happens for each of us, let's try to remember the last few sites we visited.

Opening and closing a new tab several times did it for me right now.

AleksOD, what site(s) were you visiting when this happened?

The ones I had opened at the time were the following:

Pinned:
http://ancientfaith.com/
http://www.piousfabrications.com/2011/03/rise-of-christianity-how-women-and.html
http://www.hughhewitt.com/blog/g/1f6da36a-b72f-4fa6-afd5-ee1d63c8697e
http://townhall.com/talkradio/audioplayer/656488

Regular:
http://www.readability.com/articles/nx7tg9iu

However, I was just opening and closing a new tab several times when I noticed the problem.

The Facebook Connect and Google Analytics scripts seem to common across most of those sites. Are you running Ghostery? If not, would you try it to see if it helps?

Yeah, I run Ghostery on all my browsers, if I can, but I set some pages to have no content blocking so they can make money, etc.

So I just had this happen again. However, I noticed that prior to the problem, I had uploaded a document to a website, and it occurs to me that the last time this happened, I had done the exact same thing. Can anyone else confirm that file uploads might be the trigger?

Downloading Opera appears to be the trigger for me

Originally posted by SirFancypants:

So I just had this happen again. However, I noticed that prior to the problem, I had uploaded a document to a website, and it occurs to me that the last time this happened, I had done the exact same thing. Can anyone else confirm that file uploads might be the trigger?

Just happened to me before I tried to sync up using Opera Link, so it is not related to my account, we know that much. I was browsing Opera extensions and installing a bunch of them. At the time of the problem, I had AutoStack, News Portal, Opera Theme Creator, Readability, and Tab Grouper installed. I also had Pandora radio playing and Opera swallowed more than 800 MB of RAM.

I just realized that the one thing myself, darkdreamingdan and AleksOD all have in common is AutoStack. I'm going to try disabling it and seeing what happens.

Got it on 32bit XP SP3, Opera 12.01.1532 vanilla - no extensions & no additional plugins other than any Flash etc on the PC
Wife not happy & abandoning it for Chrome. What can you do? Seems to be an unresolved ongoing problem and it's a major productivity hit.

My installation seems OK at present, 32bit XP SP3 12.02.1578.

Yea I know! Been using Seamonkey (its integrated like Opera) and its great

Google Chrome FTW!

So, has anybody submitted a bug report on this issue?

So it looks like there is a problem with Opera extensions API and extensions controlling tab behavior like stacking. The problem shows up whenever such extensions are installed: https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/autostack/?display=en&reports#feedback-container

I had previously identified Autostack as a possible culprit; nice to see it confirmed. Personally, since disabling it a couple of weeks ago, I have not had the problem manifest.

It's a shame, those tab-related addons are really awesome.

I agree. But now that they know where the problem lies, I'm sure they'll be able to fix it shortly.

Bug filed under DSK-375839.