Seamonkey2.38 mail hangs:attempting to open MS Office attach

[jdecaro]

Hi,
On Windows 7 Enterprise, w/MS Office 2013 Pro, using SeaMonkey 2.38: when I attempt to open an MS Office email attachment, SeaMonkey hangs indefinitely.
Everything was working fine on Thursday, 9/24/2015. I had a number of email messages with .docx attachments and the attachment opened just fine.
Next time I checked email was Saturday, 9/26/2015, evening (pretty sure it was after the version 2.38 update). When I attempted to open a .docx attachment, SeaMonkey was unresponsive indefinitely. I let it sit there for over an hour more than once while trying to diagnose this.

When I try to close SeaMonkey this are the messages I get:
1. Most of the time I get this message:
"seamonkey is not responding": and it gives me options to "close" or wait"
2, Sometimes I get this message:
"Plugin Container Has Stopped Working"

Further testing revealed:
1.Only MS Office attachments are effected (.docx, .doc, .pptx, .xlsx)
2. These open fine: .pdf, .jpg, .html, .eml
3. The hang occurs under these circumstances:
A. double click on the attachment, OR
B. use the dialogue menu to "open", "save as", "save all"
4. I can drag and drop the attachment to the desktop or a Windows Explorer window with no problem.
5. I disabled all of my Plugins and it worked OK for awhile but the next time I went into mail (after system restart) it was failing again.
- here's how I disabled the plugins:
A. Edit --> preferences --> Advanced --> Scripts & Plugins:
B. Under "Enable Plugins for"
- I unchecked "Suite"
C. Under "When a page requires plugins"
- I unchecked "Activate all plugins by default"
- Now it's failing no matter how these check-boxes are set.

I've been pulling my hair out over this. Is the new version 2.38 update at fault?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

thanks,
Jim

[therube]

(Old, I know, but as no one else has responded...)

Plugin Container Has Stopped Working

On that note, check to see (Windows Task Manager) if plugin-container.exe shows up.
If so kill it, & see if you are then given control to the browser.

Before killing it, check its "properties" (not sure just how much information Task Manager may give in that respect, so you might need something like Process Hacker or Process Explorer) to glean a bit more information.

1.Only MS Office attachments are effected (.docx, .doc, .pptx, .xlsx)

Odd, IMO, that only office files are affected.
So examine just what is expected to happen when said file extensions are "clicked".
(Nirsoft's) FileTypesMan & MIMEView might help.

B. use the dialogue menu to "open", "save as", "save all"

That too seem odd to me - the save as/save all part of it.
Would not expect that to cause a hang?

Speaking of hang, (Nirsoft's) WhatIsHang might point something out?

here's how I disabled the plugins

Never would have thought to use that method.
Doing that does disable your Plugins (not extensions) & looks like it requires a browser restart.
More typical, at least in my thinking, would be to go to Addons Manager -> Plugins, & disable your Plugins (individually) in there. (Again that does not affect extensions, & a browser restart is likely required).

Browser Safe Mode would disable extensions & would be worthwhile testing in that mode.