Forums Bug Reports mIRC keeps crashing

I'm on a Win8 PC and I've been using mIRC for a while. This morning, I updated to mIRC 7.41, and a problem occurred: It would work until I tried to connect, at which point the program would stop responding entirely and not work any further. After several attempts to get it to work, I tried using an older version of mIRC (the version 6.35 featured on the site), only to realize that it couldn't connect to the network I was trying to connect to. Finally, lacking any other options, I uninstalled MIRC entirely, deleted the folders, and went out of my way to ensure that it wasn't some previous issue left from a previous version, and then fully reinstalled 7.41.

It gets to the welcome screen now before locking up.

I'm at my wit's end with this. I don't know what the cause is, or why this is happening. Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong here?

With some finegling, I've gotten mIRC 7.38 to work on my machine - it's a good thing I insist on backups. I don't know what's wrong with 7.41, but I'm really glad I hold onto older versions of mIRC now.

Sounds like something like this https://forums.mirc.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/249410/Freezing_on_startup

That sounds exactly like it, but for a newer version.

I wonder what the cause is..?

Thank you for your bug report. Please answer the following questions:

1) Which version of mIRC were you using before, that was working?

2) Are you using any scripts or addons?

3) Are you using any anti-virus/security software? If you disable it completely and then run mIRC again. does the issue still happen?

4) If you install a clean copy of mIRC into a new, empty mIRC folder in your Windows Documents folder, with no scripts or addons, using the "portable" option in the mIRC installer, and run this copy of mIRC, does it show the same issue?

5) Which IRC server are you trying to connect to that causes this issue? If you try to connect to a network like irc.quakenet.org, do you see the same issue?

6) Are you using SSL to connect to the server?


By "welcome screen", do you mean the "Message of the day" that the server sends you after you connect to it?

You also say:


Do you mean that you were seeing the same issue with mIRC v7.38 and that you found a way of making it work? Do you remember what you did to make it work?

I was using 7.38 before the upgrade caused the lock-ups.

The only scripts I was using were some aliases I added to the list, including a diceroller and a command to join several commonly-used channels at once.

I have Norton, but it's never been a problem before, even through half a dozen or so upgrades.

It seems to show the same issue from a clean install, but ONLY for 7.41. Really old versions of IRC (like version 6.35) don't connect to the current servers at all.

I normally use it to access Espernet.

No SSL is involved that I'm aware of.

When it got to the welcome screen, I mean that screen that pops up giving tips and such when you first load a new version of mIRC.

I got 7.38 to work on this machine by uninstalling mIRC entirely, deleting all folders therefor (after backing up logs and such) and then starting fresh with mIRC 7.38 (since I held onto the older install.

THanks for your help.

It is very common for anti-virus software to suddenly start recognizing applications as trojans/viruses after their database is updated (which can happen several times a day) or just as "risky" and blocking them, causing them to freeze and/or crash. This is especially true if they are on a very sensitive setting that blocks anything they do not recognize, such as a new version of an application.

I have received reports of mIRC being blocked/frozen by anti-virus software, including Norton, many times in the past.

If you completely disable/unload your anti-virus/security software and then run mIRC, do you see the same issue?

Please note that some anti-virus/security software continues to run in some form even if you tell it to shut down - you will need to make sure that you have completely disabled it.