Crashing website

[Skink]

my kids are required to use Maths Whizz at school - it is a rather dull flash based thing that looks like it was designed in the 80's (which would be kinda retro cool, if it did the job)

 

Anyhow it freezes all the time and the web folks at whizz.com keep telling me to clean browser cache, update flash etc. If it freezes the kids don't get their effort time recorded and then they are in trouble at school - so its stressful!

 

Thing is I do a PC clean pretty much every week anyhow and it makes no difference - so I am wondering if I am looking in the wrong direction - could it be web traffic that is crashing the site (like black Friday sales). And if it might be, how could I test that ("technically" rather than get my eldest to do her tests at 3am)

 

any thoughts most welcome as this is stressing everyone in the house

[Ghozer]

my kids are required to use Maths Whizz at school - it is a rather dull flash based thing that looks like it was designed in the 80's (which would be kinda retro cool, if it did the job)

 

Anyhow it freezes all the time and the web folks at whizz.com keep telling me to clean browser cache, update flash etc. If it freezes the kids don't get their effort time recorded and then they are in trouble at school - so its stressful!

 

Thing is I do a PC clean pretty much every week anyhow and it makes no difference - so I am wondering if I am looking in the wrong direction - could it be web traffic that is crashing the site (like black Friday sales). And if it might be, how could I test that ("technically" rather than get my eldest to do her tests at 3am)

 

any thoughts most welcome as this is stressing everyone in the house

 

Flash used a lot of resources, so if your PC is a little dated (say, 4 or 5 years old, instead of 1 or 2) it may struggle with modern flash - try Right Clicking, and setting to medium or low quality...

 

if that doesn't work, try a different browser, if you're sure you have cleaned etc...

[IT-Smith]

What are the specs of the PC the kids are using?

 

Also look at Task Manager and check if a process is maxing out a core, if so which one?

[Skink]

Machine is Toshiba laptop i3 M380 2.53GHz 4GB RAM, integrated graphics, Win7HomePremiium SP1 x64

Adobe Flash Player 20 (NPAPI and ActiveX) installed

Used IE11, Firefox and Chrome - IE seems least unstable

 

I have access to a laptop with T8100 Core Duo 2.4GHz with 4GB RAM and 8400M-GT graphics card, no idea if that would be any faster/better

 

FAQ from Whizz.com . . .

 

Q: What are the minimum system requirements needed to run Maths-Whizz?

 

A: Explorer 7.05, Flash: 10.3181.22, Firefox 4.0.1

If you are using a Mac computer and see a blank screen or experience freezing issues, please access the site from Mozilla Firefox instead of Safari.

 

Software requirements:

Internet Explorer 7 or newer or

Mozilla Firefox 4 or newer;

Flash Player 10 plugin or newer.

 

Minimum PC Requirements:

Pentium II 400 MHz or AMD K6-2 or 100% equivalent processor

Windows 98, 2000, ME or XP

64Mb RAM

16 bit color (though 32 bit is ideal)

Sound card and speakers (essential for Key Stage1, optional for Key Stage 2 and above)

Recommended minimum screen resolution 1024 x 768 pixels