
I just received a message stating "Mozilla critical error" and my computer just crashed. What do I do?
I can't send a pic but is this really from you?
Chosen solution
Mmm, did it want you to call a phone number for support or download something? That is most likely a scare tactic to sell support services, and not a real issue with your computer. I'll provide comments on that below.
Do you run Windows? If you got a Windows "blue screen" crash that could be caused by an incompatibility with a device driver, such as a graphics/display driver or audio software. But I don't think we have enough information to diagnose what happened.
Tech Support Scams
Unfortunately Firefox's phishing and malware protection is based on lists of bad sites. Because these scammers keep creating new sites, it is difficult for the feature to keep up.
There are a few common patterns to these annoying pages, and these are some techniques for closing them without having to take drastic measures.
The "key" (ha ha) is the keyboard shortcut for closing the current tab, which is Ctrl+w (or on Mac, Cmd+w). Try it after each action to see whether it is available yet.
(1) Large alert dialog (lots of text)
If you cancel this dialog, it may reappear. After two or three appearances, Firefox should add a checkbox at the bottom of the dialog to stop the site from showing more alerts. Check that box and click OK to block further dialogs.
(2) Authentication dialog (asks for username and password)
If you cancel this dialog, the page may reload and immediately show it again. Pressing the Esc key numerous times in a row can cancel the reload as well as the dialog.
(3) Reacting to mouse movement
Some pages have a script that detects when you are moving the mouse pointer up toward the tab bar and takes action to show another dialog, or moves to full screen view to hide the toolbar area. On these pages, the keyboard shortcut is essential.
Hopefully this will let you close problem pages without having to "kill" Firefox in the Windows Task Manager. (I don't recommend using that method because the tab will come back during automatic crash recovery anyway.)
Often these scam pages are promoted through ad networks. As a defensive measure, you could consider using an add-on that is effective at blocking ads, such as:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
As with any content blocker, this will cause problems on some sites, so keep an eye on its toolbar button in case you need to make an exception to get a page to load properly.
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Chosen Solution
Mmm, did it want you to call a phone number for support or download something? That is most likely a scare tactic to sell support services, and not a real issue with your computer. I'll provide comments on that below.
Do you run Windows? If you got a Windows "blue screen" crash that could be caused by an incompatibility with a device driver, such as a graphics/display driver or audio software. But I don't think we have enough information to diagnose what happened.
Tech Support Scams
Unfortunately Firefox's phishing and malware protection is based on lists of bad sites. Because these scammers keep creating new sites, it is difficult for the feature to keep up.
There are a few common patterns to these annoying pages, and these are some techniques for closing them without having to take drastic measures.
The "key" (ha ha) is the keyboard shortcut for closing the current tab, which is Ctrl+w (or on Mac, Cmd+w). Try it after each action to see whether it is available yet.
(1) Large alert dialog (lots of text)
If you cancel this dialog, it may reappear. After two or three appearances, Firefox should add a checkbox at the bottom of the dialog to stop the site from showing more alerts. Check that box and click OK to block further dialogs.
(2) Authentication dialog (asks for username and password)
If you cancel this dialog, the page may reload and immediately show it again. Pressing the Esc key numerous times in a row can cancel the reload as well as the dialog.
(3) Reacting to mouse movement
Some pages have a script that detects when you are moving the mouse pointer up toward the tab bar and takes action to show another dialog, or moves to full screen view to hide the toolbar area. On these pages, the keyboard shortcut is essential.
Hopefully this will let you close problem pages without having to "kill" Firefox in the Windows Task Manager. (I don't recommend using that method because the tab will come back during automatic crash recovery anyway.)
Often these scam pages are promoted through ad networks. As a defensive measure, you could consider using an add-on that is effective at blocking ads, such as:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
As with any content blocker, this will cause problems on some sites, so keep an eye on its toolbar button in case you need to make an exception to get a page to load properly.
Yes there was a phone number to call. My computer eventually booted back up and I was able to use my phone to watch a You tube video with a "how to fix" with the same message. I ran SuperAntispyware" and I think everything is fixed. Thank you for responding!
That is indeed Fake and trying to trick users into calling said number to then go about charging you for so called services and such.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/avoid-and-report-mozilla-tech-support-scams
Go to the Mozilla Add-ons Web Page {web Link} (There’s a lot of good stuff here) and search for a good ad blocker.
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