Chosen Solution

The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information. Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions, Open websites, and some Preferences.

To Reset Firefox do the following:

1. Go to Firefox > Help > Troubleshooting Information.
2. Click the "Reset Firefox" button.
3. Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
4. Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.

Further information can be found in the Reset Firefox – easily fix most problems article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Question owner

I did another plugin check and found that Shockwave Flash needed to be updated. When I updated it, my problem went away. Note that I did not have to do "reset Firefox". The Flash update was to fix a security problem. I suspect that the fix had nothing to do with my problem but that the previous level of the plugin was somehow corrupted by the Firefox 18.0.2 update.

Modified February 9, 2013 5:53:10 AM PST by tmpoint

Reset firefox made no difference, to the point that after an initial boot and fresh start of firefox, the initial screen is just a window with a teeny corrupted part of the toolbars visible.

Hi tinatgeezas

Can you attach a screenshot?

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenshot
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem

Use a compressed image type like PNG or JPG to save the screenshot.

Helpful Reply

Fortunately yes, because it happened again this morning!

I got a little bit of patience (rather than usual expecting instant gratification!) and waited, and it started working correctly after about 30 seconds, although the egg timer mouse icon still hung around for a bit longer than that.

A possible cause is security software (firewall,anti-virus) that blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.

Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.

See:

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Server+not+found
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Firewalls

Try to boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.

Question owner

The McAfee firewall has "smart access" enabled whereby It decides which programs are allowed access to the internet and what type of access. It shows that both firefox.exe and maintenanceservice.exe have "Full" access. There is no entry for plugin-container.