[Forum] vBulletin fail page load issue

[Innovati0n]

I've been having issues with my vBulletin 4 discussion forums for a while now and have tried almost everything to try and resolve the issue but nothing has helped.

I will be browsing the forums perfectly fine one minute, pages will load fine and under 3 seconds, the next I will click on a link and it will continuously load. I'm forced to cancel the page load and click the link again.

I've contacted HostGator about this issue, they've checked the server and they're reporting that everything is fine with the server I'm on. I've ran a vBulletin database check, repair and optimise. I've messed around with all of the settings, watered down my forum style, optimised the forum settings etc.

I'm not the only person having this issue; other users of my forum have reported it as well. Could it be that HostGator is in the US and I'm in the UK? Could it be the domain? Could it be HostGator?

What do you recommend I do? My forum isn't even popular!

orbforum.com

[Zachery]

Why would you believe your webhost?
Webhosts lie, (all webhosts, more or less, some are slightly less evil than others).
REmember that they're putting several hundred - thouand sites on a single server.
If you're getting intermittiant timeouts, and you're not running any third party addons, likely it is a server issue.
vBulletin issues tend to be fairly reproduceable, most of the time.

[Steve Machol]

Sounds like a temporary server or Internet connection issue.

To troubleshoot this, first reupload all the original vB non-image files (except install.php). Make sure you upload these in ASCII format and overwrite the ones on the server. Also be sure to upload the admincp files to whichever directory you have set in your config.php file. Then run 'Suspect File Versions' in Diagnostics to make sure you have all the original files for your version and that none show 'File does not contain expected contents':

Admin CP -> Maintenance -> Diagnostics -> Suspect File Versions

[Note: In some cases you may also need to remove any of the listed .xml files in the includes/xml directory.]

Next, disable all products (except vB Blog, vB CMS and Skimlinks if you have them.)

Admin CP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> Disable

Then manually uncheck all plugins that are not for 'vBulletin Blog' and vBulletin CMS' here:

Admin CP -> Plugins & Products -> Plugin Manager

You must do BOTH of those steps in order to disable all non vBulletin Modifications.

Then if you still have this problem, create a new style and choose no parent style. This will force it to use the default templates. Finally empty your browser cache, close all browser windows then try again. Make sure you change to the new style and view your forums with it.

Do you have the same problem? If so, see the first sentence.

[Innovati0n]

Why would you believe your webhost?
Webhosts lie, (all webhosts, more or less, some are slightly less evil than others).
REmember that they're putting several hundred - thouand sites on a single server.
If you're getting intermittiant timeouts, and you're not running any third party addons, likely it is a server issue.
vBulletin issues tend to be fairly reproduceable, most of the time.

I've thought about trying a new host many a time before posting this thread, I just cant find a host that looks as good and has as good a reviews as HostGator.

Sounds like a temporary server or Internet connection issue.

To troubleshoot this, first reupload all the original vB non-image files (except install.php). Make sure you upload these in ASCII format and overwrite the ones on the server. Also be sure to upload the admincp files to whichever directory you have set in your config.php file. Then run 'Suspect File Versions' in Diagnostics to make sure you have all the original files for your version and that none show 'File does not contain expected contents':

Admin CP -> Maintenance -> Diagnostics -> Suspect File Versions

[Note: In some cases you may also need to remove any of the listed .xml files in the includes/xml directory.]

Next, disable all products (except vB Blog, vB CMS and Skimlinks if you have them.)

Admin CP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> Disable

Then manually uncheck all plugins that are not for 'vBulletin Blog' and vBulletin CMS' here:

Admin CP -> Plugins & Products -> Plugin Manager

You must do BOTH of those steps in order to disable all non vBulletin Modifications.

Then if you still have this problem, create a new style and choose no parent style. This will force it to use the default templates. Finally empty your browser cache, close all browser windows then try again. Make sure you change to the new style and view your forums with it.

Do you have the same problem? If so, see the first sentence.

Thank you for the help! Before I do this I have a few questions.

What is ASCII format?

When you say "Also be sure to upload the admincp files to whichever directory you have set in your config.php file." Do you mean upload all of the files inside the admincp folder into includes folder? :S

[Steve Machol]

1. Your FTP client is supposed to be smart enough to figure out which is which, however some aren't. You need to set it up so these extensions are uploaded as ASCII:

php
txt
html
css
js
htm
xml

And these as Binary:

gif
jpg
jpeg
png
ico
TTF


2. It means all the files.

[Innovati0n]

I just tried this and I'm still getting the error, it happened whilst trying to do these things and after. It is happening inside the admincp. Does anyone have and ideas? Should I try a new host?

[Steve Machol]

It looks like your entire site is removed now.

[Innovati0n]

It is, I got myself so stressed out! Any ideas? I will do huge favours for someone that can help me.


I was thinking, it could be because I'm on shared hosting, should I get a basic VPS with HostGator or something?

[Hawk2]

could be from your end talk to your isp i went to your site and it loads fast

[Innovati0n]

The website is fast, just every so often a page will fail to load, it will just load and load. It isn't just me with this issue, users have reported it as well.

[Steve Machol]

Post #3 is still applicable.

[Innovati0n]

I've tried that, it happened right after doing that.

[meditate]

I am having the same issue here since 4.1.4 and have disable all plugins, I have a forum and a cms on the same VPS server. But what it only happens in Chrome, what it is Chrome does not accept a file saying header corrupt. A file such as .js file is not accepted, because the file size is 354kb and should be 865kb and a quick reload fixes the problem. I used a program called fiddler to find this out.

I have also had a massive user drop since this update.

No intrusions to the server no corrupt files, the only thing that minimizes the problem is setting the of the - Use Remote YUI to none, I have tried Google and Yahoo and that makes the problem worse.