I'm having this problem for days now, and despite several replies and a post of my own, nothing usable came out so far.
So, just to assist others running into the same problem, and according to Google that must be more than quite a few, I'll state my problem again in detail.
In IE6 and IE7, SiteAdvisor initially runs normally. However, after a variable amount of time browsing the Internet, the SiteAdvisor button suddenly turns gray and STAYS GRAY. Further, clicking the SiteAdvisor button has no effect, the contextmenu does NOT appear. From that moment on, SiteAdvisor no longer displays it's site ratings, the familiar green, red, yellow and gray icons. Effectively, SiteAdvisor seems disabled.
This behavior has been observed on 4 different computers each running Windows XP/SP2 and up to date with Automatic Updates. Also, this behavior spans several SiteAdvisor versions, from v2.1.1 up to the lastest, v2.5.0.6172.
Things I tried in order to solve this issue:
-1- Make sure that any firewall allows SiteAdvisor triggered traffic;
This involves adding the SiteAdvisor application to the exclusion rules in your favorite firewall software. Or add SAservice.exe, SiteAdv.exe, depending on the firewall you use.
RESULT: no effect. I've seen SiteAdvisor run normally for quiet some time on WinXP machines and spontaneously halting, resulting in the gray button.
-2- Re-install SiteAdvisor per instructions in this forum;
Making sure to delete any SiteAdvisor related folders in the All User profile and affected userprofiles, scanning the registry for any left-over settings, rebooting to ensure removal from memory, and so on;
RESULT: no effect.
-3- Manupilating all kinds of ActiveX related settings in IE6 and IE7, to ensure that the SiteAdvisor BHO (Browser Helper Object) is loaded and active;
Besides the required settings to allow thirth-party browser extensions and such rudimentary settings, these did nothing.
RESULT: no effect.
-4- Installing SiteAdvisor, and create fresh new userprofiles, to ensure the profiles themselves wouldn't interfere with SiteAdvisor.
RESULT: no effect.
-5- Disabling all other BHO's in IE7, to make sure no other BHO would conflict with SiteAdvisor.
RESULT: no effect.
So, this is what I did the last couple of days, and now I'm open to suggestions.
It would be most refreshing to get an intelligent respons.
Even better: It would be most refreshing to get any respons.