Images only part loading

I fist saw this on a site 2-3 months ago: only part of an image loads and leaves the remainder a mid-grey. It's not a clean break between the part image and the grey, there's always a step or 'jagged' edge.
The site in question is Natoora. Sometimes the thumbnails in a list of items load, but clicking on an individual item only shows part (often less than half) of the image.

Today I just got the same happen on an art gallery site. The thumbnails loaded but clicking on an image for the larger size produced the part image problem.
Unlike the above site, I didn't have this problem a couple of weeks ago when viewing this site.

I'm using IE9 with Windows 7 64bit.
I tried both websites using chrome, but that's either the same, or doesn't load images at all.
So far I've only come across this with these two sites.

Any suggestions as to what may cause this please ?

Give us a link to a problem page and which individual item, so we can see.

All 9 on this page only show the top 1/4 of each image, and clicking on the oranges for instance only gives 1/4 image again - same for all images.
If I click on 'Butcher' tab at the top, all but the first four show, and they do show if clicking on individual items, but in 'Vegetables', Tomatoes show small list images, but only 1/4 on individual items.
http://www.natoora.co.uk/shop/

With this gallery, the home page images load, and on some exhibitions the images show fully, but with 'Selected Works', the individual artists small images show, but not all the full size ones (G�rard Willemenot for example)
http://morrengalleries.com/main.php

Hi,
Just had a look around the Natoora website, very interesting but no deliveries to my part of the UK.

Anyway back to the topic I didn't find any issues similar to those you mention, all the pages loaded quickly and complete.

I'm using Windows XP with the Firefox 16.0.2 browser, I know you've tried the Chrome browser but have you tried Firefox at all, just to see what happens?


Edit : I just opened the Natoora website using IE8 no issues there but it was slower with regard to page loading compared to FF just now.

(+ corrected a spelling misteak)

Edited by Apprentice (Wed 26-Dec-12 21:38:05)

They all display here OK on XP IE8.

I notice the Natoora site consumes a load of CPU power on every click with lsass.exe coming to the fore. Wonder if that has something to do with it?

I think they need to deliver within a certain time slot as they pack things with ice bags around them (we're upper N Yorks border). I did think some items were delivered just about everywhere though.

Anyway, I'm a bit reluctant to download FF just to try it because I always use IE anyway, and have a feeling it would be the same.
Perhaps it's something on my computer that may need either fixing or updating.
Usually, as long as everything works, I don't update some things, but if anyone pinpoints a likely suspect, I'll give it a try. Java is up to date.

My own website and most other image based websites work perfectly.

I don't know about the power used on that site as I've never checked that, but it's always been a slow site to use, and I've used that site for a few years now.
I suspect if a lot of others were getting these 1/4 images, some may have asked them about it. It was fine for me until a few months ago.

The gallery in question has always been easy to load and showing full images, and I've used that site for years too.

I have had slower reactions with pages loading ever since summer. Sometimes worse than at other times. Just before the olympics, visits to my own site showed up as 'Westminster' for location of visitor, then they changed to 'London', and more recently, 'United Kingdom'. Seems a number of people got moved because of the olympics, and it seems we can't be moved back ...don't know if it's related though.
Sometimes images in emails don't show for a while, or not at all, and that's been for some time too.

Tried it in FF, Opera, Safari, Chrome and IE (7, 8, 9, quirks mode).

All the same. Image gets chopped at 10% load.

94 html validation errors
28 css validation errors
15 or so .js files

One comment in the css:

/*ie6 fix. lets kill ie, kill it! we all hate ie with a passion*/

A little weird, and I imagine some part of that melee of .js files is killing the page.

Something else popped up:

http://m.addthisedge.com/live/t00/152lo.gif?dn4h4e&u...

Some sort of analytical software? That's what my money is on.

At least it's not just me. That's something - thanks for trying so many options.

I know nothing about those validation errors or .js files.
Does that comment you show mean that someone has 'tinkered' with those sites?

I just get a blank page on that link.
Addthis seems to be some sort of tracking system.

In reply to a post by TrishaH:

I know nothing about those validation errors or .js files.
Does that comment you show mean that someone has 'tinkered' with those sites?

Not necessarily. It's more likely the person who wrote the css code doesn't like IE6.

A bit juvenile - still, if that were a cause, the images would load on other browsers I suppose.

Please do try it in firefox, even if you don't intend to use firefox it at least narrows down the problem to something related to Internet Explorer (and software that tinkers with it).

Do you have anything installed on the system which may interfere with traffic? firewalls, adware blockers etc..

In reply to a post by TrishaH:

A bit juvenile - still, if that were a cause, the images would load on other browsers I suppose.

It's no help, but the page loads fine in Safari on my iMac...

You haven't mentioned the name of your ISP or the model of router you use. I suspect the MTU of your pc NIC is the default 1500 and the MTU of your router may be less - 1492 perhaps. If you have a firewall on your router turned on it may be blocking ICMP packets or fragmented packets.
You could log into your router and turn off its firewall - you are protected by its NAT function and check the routers MTU - increasing it to 1500 if it is less.

Alternatively you could try temporarily reducing the MTU on your PC NIC.

Changing my MTU

camieabz tried it every which way and got the same as I do with Chrome and IE.

I have Windows firewall disabled, and no adware blockers, just KIS2012 running.

It's not all images that give the problem on those sites, and until a few months ago Natoora worked perfectly, and the gallery was fne two weeks ago.
I haven't updated anything IE9 since Oct 1st and that was KB2744842.
(Plus, there's an IE9 update ready to install when I close the computer down tonight)
My last Java update was 6.10.35 on Sep 17th, so both long before the gallery site showed any problems.
Can't pinpoint anything that happened around the time the first site started showing this problem because I was too busy with work to think about it too much, so have no record of when.

I'm with Zen and using a Billion 7800n (wired).
I have noticed in the Billion log that when it has lost connection in the past, it does attempt twice to change the MTU to 1500.

From what I can tell, the router firewall is disabled. I think the router MTU is 1492, but has been for over a year now.

In reply to a post by TrishaH:

It's not all images that give the problem on those sites, and until a few months ago Natoora worked perfectly, and the gallery was fne two weeks ago.

Coming at it from a different direction... we don't know whether the image download is being interrupted or if it's coming down OK but not being fully rendered.

I'm somewhat hampered by not seeing the problem and not being able to run IE of any flavour (tho' not sure if that's a disadvantage ), but on Safari I can right-click an image and open it in a new tab/window. Can you do anything similar in IE, and if so does it render correctly?

Thanks Bill - Not sure I'd know where to look to see if the image is interrupted or otherwise - perhaps camieabz knows?

In IE I do get the option to open in new tab or new window, but neither produces a full image.
On the gallery website, small images open the larger one in a new window, and there's no option offered for either new tab or new window.
Same if I try it in Chrome.
With the Natoora site, most images produce a blank space in Chrome, but sometimes there's a quick flash of the same small part of the image then it goes to the blank space, so looks like it's more or less the same as in IE. Similar happens on the gallery site.

I do see in Chrome that theres an 'Inspect Element' when right clicking on an image. Brings up a fair bit of info, but not sure if any of it would be helpful, or if it's the same type of thing as viewing source code in IE.

In reply to a post by TrishaH:

In IE I do get the option to open in new tab or new window, but neither produces a full image.

TBH I'm not sure what that implies but, as I said, I can't run IE here so I know zilch about it. But it's got to be a clue to something, and I was hoping it might provide that "Aha!" moment to someone more knowledgeable than I am

@ all- Any takers?

Here's the image:

http://www.natoora.co.uk/shop/content/dcassets/homep...

Here's what I see with all the above browsers and various IE settings:

http://www.camieabz.co.uk/image.png

Clearing my cache made no difference.

I have had similar problems in the past although I cannot recall the exact circumstances. I think that the problem concerns the maximum number of TCP connections (in this case image downloads) that can be handled at any one time, both by Internet Explorer and also the server being accessed. While IE and the server in question may handle maximum allowed TCP connections correctly, some firewall/antivirus software can foul things up by opening new TCP connections without closing existing connections. This can overload servers that are incorrectly configured to accept a large number of TCP connections and may cause downloads (of images) to time out.

Without messing around with software settings, the easiest solution may be to change your browser or firewall/antivirus software. Kaspersky seems to have caused such problems in the past and may still do so. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to research this. You should search for "kaspersky maximum tcp connections" and "internet explorer maximum tcp connections" if you want to have a go yourself.

Login to your router and set the MTU to 1500 please

In reply to a post by TrishaH:

I'm with Zen and using a Billion 7800n (wired).
I have noticed in the Billion log that when it has lost connection in the past, it does attempt twice to change the MTU to 1500.

From what I can tell, the router firewall is disabled. I think the router MTU is 1492, but has been for over a year now.

In reply to a post by micksharpe:

I have had similar problems in the past although I cannot recall the exact circumstances. I think that the problem concerns the maximum number of TCP connections (in this case image downloads) that can be handled at any one time

Ditto, but it was back in Netscape days when that was a user-settable parameter.

I had that in mind when I suggested the right click, open in new tab option- the fact that it didn't work correctly either suggests that the number of connections may not be the reason.

Unfortunately it doesn't suggest what the reason actually is

In reply to a post by Moto:

Login to your router and set the MTU to 1500 please

She may not be able to- I used a 7800N for a while and it wouldn't let me set the MTU above 1492.

It was a PPPoE connection (FTTC) so it was correct for a computer MTU of 1500, I don't know what Trisha is using. It might be easier to drop the MTU on the PC.

I had a little time this afternoon, and because I always use a lot of image based art related sites, I looked at lots of art content and gallery sites - only one gallery site had some images that didn't load as on the other two sites.

Whatever it is, it's something that is only on a smaller number of sites.

Have you tried changing your DNS servers?

Thanks for the input Mick, Moto & Bill.

I sent Mick's thoughts to my UK Kaspersky tech to see if she can throw any light on the problem. Had no reply yet, and it's usually quick, so may be holidays.

I eventually found the MTU in the Billion (recalled seeing it a year ago) - it is at 1492. As I said before, if it disconnects, the log shows that it tries twice to change the MTU to 1500 and then gives up and completes the connection.

I've currently got a not perfect connection, but definitely the best it's been since June: 1092 / 9349 kbps (ADSL2+). I saw they put interleaving on in summer and re-set the noise margin early November. Whatever, it's not always responding fast but is stable (up 51 days - even when the down SNR dropped to only 0.8) - so if trying to re-set MTU would mean disconnecting, I'd hesitate to mess with it.

It's obviously not a common problem as only camieabz can see the same thing so far.
Shall I see if Kaspersky do know of any reason I'd be getting this image loading problem? - it's not hugely important for now as long as it doesn't get worse in the meanwhile.

There's no harm in disconnecting a few times. No need to go for record Uptimes!

EDIT: Always worth trying a simple quick experiment to see if it cures.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Thu 27-Dec-12 23:48:33)

No I haven't ...wouldn't even know how to do that though.
Do you think that would make a difference?

I'm not really - finally had a sound connection since going to Zen a year ago though and only started getting problems in summer. After 5 disconnections (one a fuse blow in the house) that interleaving appeared.

I'm not one for messing around with computer stuff, and seeing the connection was slower from June-early November wouldn't like to lose it - I always find something goes wrong when I have the least time to deal with it
Not being awkward, just not that confident in tinkering with stuff I don't fully understand.

Have you tried loading those web pages with KIS switched off?

In reply to a post by TrishaH:

No I haven't ...wouldn't even know how to do that though.
Do you think that would make a difference?

I thought it was worth a try, but depends if you want this fixed or not.
There are several suggestions like using a different browser and switching your AV or firewall off.
It's up to you really, you're the one whose going to have to do something to fix it, unless you can call a techy friend in.

I hadn't Alastair .....it briefly crossed my mind Wednesday but it seemed unlikely then.

I have done that just now though, and yes! all the images on those two sites load!

Now I need to know what to do to Kaspersky to stop it doing that

Yes, I want it fixed, but it wasn't urgently vital enough for me to risk messing with things I don't understand properly.
I did try it in another browser, and Camieabz tried in numerous ones with the same results.

I would have tried the DNS with instructions though

So, seems to be something in Kaspersky's firewall or settings. A first for me as far as I can recall, but must be fixable.

As per my original reply one of the things I suggested was security software/firewalls which I suspected was causing the problem, I am not sure why you did not follow this advice then, it would have saved a lot of faffing about....

The solution is very simple: Uninstall Kaspersky and install security software that does not mess about with your computer.

In reply to a post by TrishaH:

So, seems to be something in Kaspersky's firewall or settings. A first for me as far as I can recall, but must be fixable.

Confirm it's Kaspersky. It's not the anti-banner, anti-spam or web anti-virus though, so short of white listing sites (which I have not tried) or disabling KIS completely, it's something KIS users are stuck with.

More info here:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1208567

And as is par for the course, Kaspersky are very quiet on the matter. I think that's the last time I buy Kaspersky. Their software is too buggy.

Yes, you did indeed:
'Do you have anything installed on the system which may interfere with traffic? firewalls, adware blockers etc.. '

But, because I've had Kaspersky for years now, and apart from a couple of false positives and a license update issue, never had any problems especially in the past two years, I replied that I have Windows firewall off and no adware blockers ...which in a way is correct.
I hardly ever even think about what Kaspersky is doing because it's been so good at running efficiently behind the scenes as it were and it's never interfered with traffic.

Ah! now we know - and that's why you saw the non-loading images too.

Reading that thread, it would seem that upgrading to KIS2013 solves it.
I'm not fond of upgrading when something works well, but that thread confirms that it began in summer.

The food website showed the problem sometime in summer, so odd that the gallery site only showed non-loading images very recently as it was OK a couple of weeks ago, but the site has been updated since so perhaps that made the difference.
Whatever, at least we know what it is.

If it's necessary to upgrade to 2013, then so be it. However, 2011 worked OK, so I'll have to find out what's best to do.
I've stayed with Kaspersky because it's always been fine for me, and for the excellent UK support.

Why do you need support for an antivirus product? if you need to call support then there is a good chance the product is doing something wrong in the first place.

I'd seriously just ditch Kaspersky given the problems it has caused you. This sort of behavior in a security product is totally unacceptable and they should have released a patch for 2012 rather than getting people to upgrade to 2013. Absolutely appalling. Kaspersky used to be good but as soon as they got into PC World and stuff their product became bloated and full of nonsense value add [censored] rather than sticking to being a good product, no better than the likes of Norton and McAfee.

Well, as stated, I had one or two problems with re-licensing when it failed to auto renew, and a few false positives in earlier years which were confirmed rapidly by UK support.

Over the years there's also been a couple of odd computer glitches where I've asked could it be a Kaspersky problem and it's turned out not to be ...even had a fix given for what actually caused the problem.

Sometimes rare to get such good direct support with software when needed, and UK too, so been very happy with it.

I agree it's not brilliant that they haven't managed to fix this, but an upgrade is free, and I could even go back to 2011 I believe.
Thankfully, I've had no overload on resources with it for some years now and never even know when the scans are running without looking.

Kaspersky gave me a link to upgrade to KIS2013 - just did it and all IE images are fine now.

The 2013 version seems trouble free so far, and pretty much like the 2012 one but with something called Safe Money which I'm yet to try.

Thanks, but I still have 378 days of a license on this and another machine. I'll be considering how Kaspersky address their attitude to Mozilla as the following are supposedly incompatible with Firefox:

URL Advisor
Virtual Keyboard
.NET Framework Assistant
Anti-Banner*

* This works, despite FF add-ons saying otherwise. Perhaps because I have a substantial list of blocked URLs.

Can't you use your existing licence with any newer update of Kaspersky? You can with Norton; the days remaining just carries forward.

Hmm. Watch this space.

Yes you can.

Updated 20011 to 2012, now 2012 to 2013 without an issue.

Add to the 2012 incompatibilities:

Content Blocker 2013
URL Advisor 2013
Safe Money 2013
Virtual Keyboard 2013

And now the anti-banner is not working, my blocked URLs has not been carried to 2013, and 2013 reports an invalid key with a "Re-install the application", which means uninstalling 2013, then uninstalling 2012, then re-installing 2012, then trying to install 2013 again.

Pending that, KIS is disabled, and it performed all the installation and updates while disabled.

What a piece of [censored] this software is. At least Norton didn't automatically disable just like that. Kaspersky however, if there's any hint of a license issue, it disables. Norton at least kept the update relevant to the last update when it was licensed.

Exactly! The licence buys you the virus definition updates for the period; the s/ware cpmes free

I don't seem to have any problems so far - Anti Banner is working fine and I just enabled the Virtual Keyboard ..needs re-boot to work, so hopefully it'll be fine tomorrow.

It carried all my settings over - there's the option to choose that in the uninstall process, and it even picked up my license number for all I was told I'd probably need it. It also just carried on where it left off with remaining days.
I'm yet to try Safe Money.

I'm grateful you were able to help identify the cause of the non-loading images problem

Well that took two hours to back to where I was.