FAQ
FAQ
Common problems while running
Opera sometimes hangs with a white screen when I try to load a page
Opera sometimes doesn't realise that the page has finished downloading and it seems to wait for more data without rendering anything. When this happens you usually see the data transfer rate drop to just a few bits per second and your modem data light will stop flashing. At this point you can often use the Stop function to force Opera to stop downloading and instantly render the page. If the screen still remains blank then rapidly zoom in and out using the icons next to the screen and the forced redraw should finally make the page appear.
Opera doesn't disconnect from the Internet
When you use the Disconnect from Internet option on the File menu, Opera will flash a message telling you it has disconnected however it actually hasn't because this function does not work. To disconnect you must go into another Internet application, such as Email, and disconnect from there.
After disconnecting from the Internet, Opera reconnects straight away
Occasionally Opera will try to reconnect to the Internet immediately after you disconnect. This sometimes happens if Opera was still downloading a page or if Javascript was pre-loading images when you disconnected. At other times this seems to occur after a failed server connection or links that normally open new windows (something that the Symbian OS port of Opera 3.62 doesn't support) so it's possible that Opera is still trying to connect in the background while you're disconnecting.
If you use the Disconnect from Internet option a second time (From another application since this function doesn't work in Opera 3.62) Opera will not try to connect again. If you have been using Opera for a while and intend to leave your machine connected to a modem, wait a few seconds after disconnection and make sure that the Status bar doesn't display a Dialling
or Connecting to remote host
message. If it does, use the Disconnect from Internet option once more and it should stay offline.
When I click on a link to send an Email nothing happens
Opera 3.62 doesn't support the Mailto function so cannot start the Email application when you click on such a link. You will have to manually copy the Email address and create a new Email yourself. If the page doesn't actually display the address you will have to look at the source code of the page and search for mailto:
using an appropriate text editor.
When I click on some links they don't work
Opera does not support multiple windows and although it can override a normal HTML link from opening a new window, it does not support the Javascript functions used to open new and custom windows. This means that a link using Javascript will not respond when you click on it however some links can be made to work by disabling scripting languages from the Multimedia settings on the Preferences menu. Badly written links that rely purely on Javascript to provide a URL will not work at all, so if you really must follow them you'll unfortunately have to look for the URL in the source code of the page. Because Opera 3.62 has no option to view the source, this can only be done by saving the page and opening the file with a plain text editor, something which may not be worth the hassle for many users.
Another reason for a link not to work is that it could be a Mailto or a link to a newsgroup. Although the desktop versions of Opera include an Email client and Newsreader, the Symbian OS versions do not. Symbian OS devices are already supplied with a well featured Email client but unfortunately Opera 3.62 is not able to launch it via a Mailto link. To access newsgroups you'll have to use a third party application such as RMRnews or Web-based services like Google Newsgroups. As with Mailto links, Opera is unable to launch a third party Newsreader when you click on a newsgroup link.
Forms don't submit when I press the Enter key
Opera does not allow you to submit a form simply by using the Enter key. This is simply not a feature of the browser and cannot be made to work using Javascript in the page either.
To submit a form you must activate a submit button (or image) however this can still be done with just the keyboard. Simply Tab through the form elements until the button is in focus and then use the Enter key or Spacebar to submit. With small forms, such as the search on Google's home page, a simple Tab+Enter is all that's required to start your search.
Unfortunately some websites do not always include a submit button of any kind, instead they totally rely on the browser being able to submit forms via the Enter key. There is no way to submit these forms in Opera 3.62 since, even with it's native keyboard controls, there is no button to focus on. The only workaround is to save the page and open it using a plain text editor. From there you can edit the HTML to include a submit button and change the form action to point at the remote server, however for most users this is hardly a practical solution. Also, for security reasons some servers may check the HTTP referrer and refuse to accept any form that wasn't submitted from one of it's own web pages.
Opera crashes when I click on a form submit button
Some forms cause earlier releases of Opera 3.62 to crash, usually when a Select list option is submitted with a null value, however this isn't a problem for Releases after R1.03. If you have R1.00 and are having form problems you should download the latest release of Opera 3.62.
Opera renders text with blank lines running through some images or tables
This usually occurs when the zoom level is at a setting other than 100%. If you aren't aware of the zoom level having been offset, there is a problem with Opera 3.62 that can lead to the default zoom setting drifting from 100%. The rescaling can affect the clarity of the page, especially background images so to fix this use the zooming icons to the side of the screen and cycle through the four levels until you are at the second largest level. This is 100% and when you next close Opera it will save this level to the INI file. If Opera crashes before you close it, Opera.ini will not be updated.
Background images dissapear or are not displayed properly
Opera requires a lot of RAM compared to most other Symbian applications. When memory starts to get low the first things to stop working will be background images and transparency in GIF's, so unless you have several Megabytes available to run Opera these may not display properly, or they will dissapear after a while. Sometimes Opera has problems with backgrounds, especially if they're large, even if there's 2MB free. When this happens, you will usually see the background appear while the page is loading and then disappear as it finishes, or it will scroll off the screen as you move down the page.
To restore the background image, click on the CSS-mode icon twice to move into User mode and back to Document mode, then it should appear again. If it doesn't, or if it scrolls off the screen again, you probably don't have enough RAM.
Note that the RAM is only insufficient to display background images at this stage. You should be able to continue browsing for some time before Opera starts displaying Memory low
warnings. One trick to free up some RAM while browsing is to defrag your internal disk. This can be done safely without closing any apps and could potentially free up more than 1MB if Opera has browsed through a lot of documents. One compact program to do this is FreeMem which can be launched easily from the Extras bars.
When I load a page, I cannot scroll with the cursor keys
On some pages you need to click on the screen before you can scroll, even though it may not be using frames. After you've clicked anywhere on the page the screen will be in focus and the cursor keys will respond. Be careful not to click on a link or an linked image though otherwise you will follow it and load another page.
Pages make the scrollbars turn on and off in a loop
While attempting to load certain pages, Opera 3.62 can have problems rendering elements that are floated to the right of the screen. When you attempt to view these pages with Scrollbars enabled you get caught in a loop where Opera tries to render the content above the floated element without the vertical scrollbar, then it adds the bar and redraws it again, then removes it and starts again, etc, etc.
The easiest workaround is to disable scrollbars and navigate with the keyboard. A less reliable option is to use the End keystroke (Fn+Down arrow) repeatedly as soon as the page starts to appear. If the document is long enough for the floated element to have scrolled off the screen by the end of the page then it will successfully render, along with a working scrollbar.
Pages saved for off-line viewing don't contain any images
The Save page and images as..." option on the File menu does not work properly in Opera 3.62. Instead of saving all image files in the current page along with a HTML file containing modified file paths that correspond to the local file structure, the function simply saves the current HTML file as it is, without any image files. Because of this problem there is no difference in using Save page and images as... and the Save option.
Users wishing to make use of off-line viewing can install third party software such as Web Grabber to spider sites for viewing in Opera later on. Applications like these generally have more features than a browser when it comes to saving data and can be configured to retrieve anything from a single page to an entire website, including downloads.
Opera has crashed, frozen or the machine has hung
If, while browsing, Opera hangs or freezes and you are unable to exit normally you can use the standard Symbian OS Kill function. Go into Opera, or to the blank screen being displayed instead, and press Ctrl+Shift+Fn+K. You should be returned to the System screen from where you can successfully start Opera again however in very rare cases it may become impossible to kill a program. If this does happen, you should attempt to close all open files and perform a soft-reset. Like the Kill function, soft resetting should not affect saved data on your internal drive however any unsaved changes made to open documents will be lost.
Note that the Kill function does not in itself perform a soft reset and if used while in the System screen will merely reboot the Shell without affecting other open applications or connections. The appearance may be similar to a reset because both involve rebooting the Shell which always involves losing a few minor preferences (System zoom level, display options, key click speed, etc), however the two are very different.
