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Latest version of FireFox loads non-requested pages, and now will not load?

  • 5 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by terrymold

terrymold
terrymold
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Over the last few days, Firefox has been acting a bit strangely. Like loading pages that I didn't ask for. And quite ordinary rather than dangerous sites. And then tonight, I closed Firefox, and when I tried to load it a few minutes later, it won't load - at all? And it's been refusing to load on and off for a while. I think in the last two or three weeks, I have re-installed it about 5 times.

Has anyone else experienced this? Or know how to fix it?

Over the last few days, Firefox has been acting a bit strangely. Like loading pages that I didn't ask for. And quite ordinary rather than dangerous sites. And then tonight, I closed Firefox, and when I tried to load it a few minutes later, it won't load - at all? And it's been refusing to load on and off for a while. I think in the last two or three weeks, I have re-installed it about 5 times. Has anyone else experienced this? Or know how to fix it?

All Replies (5)

Tannn3r
Tannn3r
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  1. Do you get any errors trying to start it? What is the error?
  2. What have you tried to solve this problem so far?

And, did you install/update any addons prior to when this started happening?

terrymold
terrymold Question owner
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1. Whether I click on the desktop Icon, or the exe file itself, I get nothing at all. The cursor turns into the hourglass for about a second and the nothing. No error messages. Zilch! 2. If a program will not load, there isn't much you can do. So the only thing I have been able to try is to re-install it. Sometimes over the top of the non-working version, and sometimes as a clean install. It doesn't seem to make any difference. And in the last re-install, it was straight "out of the box".

terrymold
terrymold Question owner
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Hi again

I've finally been able to workout what is happening, but not why. Maybe this will prompt a solution?

Say I open Firefox just after re-booting my PC. Then after a while, I then close Firefox. And after a while I decide to open Firefox again. Click on the Firefox icon, but nothing happens. Just like my original problem post. For some other reason, I was looking in Windows Task Manager (XP) and I noticed a firefox.exe process running. But there was no firefox showing under Applications. Now, if I end the firefox.exe process, Firefox can be opened again. It seems to me to be a bit strange that you could have a Firefox session but nothing under Applications?

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
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Do a malware check with a few malware scan programs.
You need to use all programs because each detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of the database before doing a scan.

See also "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked and What to do when searches take you to the wrong search website

See also "Hang at exit":

terrymold
terrymold Question owner
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Hi Cor-el I already use Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware, Windows Defender, MS Security Essentials and Avast. And usually once a week I give them all a run. I downloaded MalwareBytes and SuperASW. Super ASW found a few tracking cookies which it removed. MalwareBytes found 12 "backdoor bots", so maybe that was the cause of my problem. I'll keep an eye out for any other strange goings on. Anyway, thanks for you advice. Terry