Netscape 4.5 problem - help with diagnosis?

[Thomas Dowling]

Web4Lib--

Has anyone out there heard of any known issues with the official release
of Netscape Communicator 4.5 that would affect this problem?

I have a document that worked fine in Communicator 4.05 and 4.5b1.  I
didn't look at it in 4.5b2, but in 4.5's final release, it crashes my
browser dead every time.  I have done the most thorough uninstall of
Netscape at my disposal and tried both the base install and the
"professional edition" install of 4.5.  The document validates as HTML 4.0
Transitional, it uses a linked stylesheet that passes CSSCheck (and which
4.5 handles fine on many other pages), and it scrupulously closes all its
TD and TR elements.

Nevertheless, this document crashes my copy of Netscape 4.5 every time,
and does the same to almost everyone else who has looked at it with 4.5.
The one person who reported  no problems was using a Mac; I believe
everyone else was using 32-bit Windows.

If you have installed the official release of Netscape 4.5 and would like
to try your hand at diagnosing this, the page lives at
<URL:http://www.ohiolink.edu/~tdowling/netscape_dies.html>.

Things I know:

  I can display the page if I comment out either the stylesheet LINK
  element or a snippet of Javascript in an anchor near the bottom.
  However, both of these cohabitate nicely on other pages with no
  problem.

  I can display the page if I turn off either stylesheet support or
  Javascript in my browser config settings.

  Several people have told me they could load the page initially, but
  if they tried reloading it or went to another page and came back,
  then the browser crashed.

  Several people have told me they could load the page initially, but
  if they resized the window, then the browser crashed.

  No other browser seems to have problems handling this page.


TIA for any help.  I'll summarize comments and suggestions for the list.


Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu