Opening PDF files in IE

**medasset** · 5th June 2006, 07:51 AM

Hi,

When I try to view pdf files on my site, directly from Internet Explorer I get the error message "The file is damaged and could not be repaired", or the file stops loading at a certain percentage and the page remains blank.

Is there any solution to this problem that does not involve changing settings in IE or Acrobat (as I do not expect every visitor to have the patience to tweak their browser just to open a document)?

Thanks in advance,

Sifis

**Staff: Warren Ashcroft** · 5th June 2006, 08:01 AM

I have had a couple reports of this with no real solution being found...

What is the URL to your PDF?

**medasset** · 5th June 2006, 08:23 AM

Thank you for the immediate responce.
The URL is http://www.medasset.org/pdf/znmp_ope...web_310506.pdf

I've also found the following troubleshooting page, but I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the current situation: http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/329344.html

**Staff: Warren Ashcroft** · 5th June 2006, 08:36 AM

The PDF opens fine here...

What OS, Browser Version and Abode Version are you running?

**medasset** · 5th June 2006, 08:48 AM

I have tried it with:
a) WinXP Prof. SP2, IE6 and Adobe Acrobat 7.0.7 Prof.
b) WinXP Home SP2, IE6 and Adobe Acrobat 7.0.7 Prof.
c) WinXP Prof. SP2, IE6 and Adobe Acrobat 5
d) Win98 SE, IE6 and Adobe Acrobat Reader 5

Internet explorer is updated with the latest patches. Also the same problem seems to occur with Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.4

In some cases, after repeatedly "Refreshing" the page, the document loads normally, but that's far from normal.

**Staff: Warren Ashcroft** · 5th June 2006, 09:01 AM

OK - Hows that?

To prevent the cache from screwing up the results of trying it now, upload a new PDF file, or rename the existing PDF file - and then try to access it.

**medasset** · 5th June 2006, 09:20 AM

OK, I've uploaded a copy at http://www.medasset.org/pdf/znmp_openletter/test.pdf and it opens properly from all computers. I also added the MIME type ".pdf - application/pdf" from Helm, if that made any difference.

**Staff: Warren Ashcroft** · 5th June 2006, 09:26 AM

The MimeType wouldnt make a different, because when it doesnt exist, IIS sends application/pdf anyway. If its now working though, then the problem has been resolved - it was due to IIS GZip Compressing the PDF.