Fatal Failure message

[cshoema]

A website viewer reported getting a Fatal Failure message when she clicks the Donate button on my website.  I tried it from my computer and got the same thing ... perfectly white page with just those two words and no clue as to the problem.  I emailed my webmaster who tried four different computers (including Mac) and she could not get the same thing to happen.  After Googling "Fatal Failure" and reading a few of the results, I cleared the cache and cookies as suggested; no change.  Fifteen minutes on the phone with a PayPal technician did not help.  He suggested the webmaster repost the code that causes the button to appear, which makes no sense if it works for some people and not for others.  But he asked what browser I use (IE8), which prompted me to try Firefox.  Going in through Firefox worked ... no error message.  Tried IE8 again, error message.  Sounds like Explorer may be the culprit.  Any other ideas or is this out of my control? 

[surplusdealdude]

I think the browser will be the issue, although I'm surprised it's IE8.

Usually, paypal is optimized for IE8 and Firefox.

[highway_86]

Hi,

Just wanted to let you know that I encountered the same error when trying to complete purchase transactions on eBay. After several frustrating days trying to resolve the problem with Paypal and eBay, I finally solved it by just going through all my settings in Firefox, eventually discovering by trial-and-error that two of my add-ons were the culprits.

The two add-ons that I disabled were GHOSTERY 2.2.1 and TACO 3.0 WITH ABINE. Both of these add-ons supplement computer security by identifying and blocking hidden 3rd party web bugs (ad networks, behavioral data collectors and web analytics providers). TACO provides additional security and control of your personal information online.  After disabling the add-ons and restarting Firefox, I was able to complete my transactions with no further problems.

It does make me concerned though that Paypal and/or ebay may be employing hidden trackers or some other form of information collection outside of our knowledge which may pose potential security issues.

Hope this helps!

[cshoema]

Thank you for letting me know.  Since I had no problem with Firefox, those two programs may be operating under Explorer.  I'll see if I can find and disable them. 

[surplusdealdude]

It does make me concerned though that Paypal and/or ebay may be employing hidden trackers or some other form of information collection outside of our knowledge which may pose potential security issues.

ebay has spyware, but it's on their ebay toolbar, which is why a lot of people don't use that app.

And they do include cookies - perhaps that's setting off the alarms.

[highway_86]

You may be right about the cookies - I'll look into that aspect later. I'm now going through the Ghostery add-on options to see if there's additional helpful information. Re: the eBay spyware, it seems that Ghostery detected some sort of spyware outside of the ebay toolbar (I don't use the toolbar).  Thanks for the tip about cookies.