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My Firefox is locking down and then crashes the whole computer...then the computer restarts and it says that no operating system was found....

  • 17 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by mfeinstein

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I am running Firefox 11, but this issue happens since other versions. I also have A LOT (more than 100) tabs opened across multiple tabs groups. Sometimes firefox freezes, and I get the "waiting" mouse sign from my Windows 7 64bits...its useless to try anything..the whole computer becomes unresponsive, and eventually it crashes.....if I hit the restart button, or if the computer crashes, the computer restarts and says after the initial boot image that no operating system was found in the drive selected....so I have to turn the computer off...and then on again to make it work properly....then I can open Firefox back and everything is normal, (fortunately i dont lost my tabs) and there is no indication that firefox had ever crashed...I can continue with my previus work, and if its going to crash again or not is just a matter of luck....

I am running Firefox 11, but this issue happens since other versions. I also have A LOT (more than 100) tabs opened across multiple tabs groups. Sometimes firefox freezes, and I get the "waiting" mouse sign from my Windows 7 64bits...its useless to try anything..the whole computer becomes unresponsive, and eventually it crashes.....if I hit the restart button, or if the computer crashes, the computer restarts and says after the initial boot image that no operating system was found in the drive selected....so I have to turn the computer off...and then on again to make it work properly....then I can open Firefox back and everything is normal, (fortunately i dont lost my tabs) and there is no indication that firefox had ever crashed...I can continue with my previus work, and if its going to crash again or not is just a matter of luck....

All Replies (17)

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I'm wondering if you don't have other issues like malware or something other going on with your computer. Try Upgrading your Graphics Driver. If that doesn't help, try to Update Windows, and also Check for Malware (Use Malwarebytes to check).

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Thank you Tylerdowner, but I always have all my drivers and softwares updated to the theirs latest versions and I also have very strict security policies on my computer to avoid malware at all costs...the only software crashing is unfortunately the Firefox

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You may have a problem with your hard drive if you get such an error message occasionally.

You can try to ask advice at a Windows oriented forum.

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Thank you cor-el, but I already have run 2 times the windows disk checker for bad sectors and etc... and no errors were found...those crashes are more common when I have flash or PDF open...but still it's not always (google maps sometimes dot it also)

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And you have an updated graphics card driver? Try going into the firefox button, then Options, Advanced and uncheck "use hardware acceleration". Does that help?

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Yes...I have it always updated....


I unchecked it! But since it has been an intermittent error, I will have to wait to see if the crashes stopped...(but only after the next week, because I am traveling tomorow :D ). So I guess you have 1 week to help other desperate people out there ;)
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Ok...i just got another crash....this time I was under VMware and firefox opened in the background....I am starting to agree that maybe this is a Windows issue...because this time I got a BSOD with ntfs.sys on it....

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Yes, if you are getting a Bluescreen it is almost certainly not a Firefox issue, because by nature, Firefox alone can't cause a bluescreen. I would say you can either try to diagnose the issue yourself using the Windows Forums cor-el posted, or take your PC to a reputable local pc repair shop (ie. not Geek Squad).

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Hahaha...We don't have geek squad here in brazil ;)

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Then you are quite lucky ;)

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Hi everyone....I am still having the same darn problem...although I know its NOT a Firefox issue...it is sometimes triggering it! So I may find it easily looking into Firefox's behavior.... The BSOD stopped to happen with Firefox, but then it updated to version 12 and now every first time it tries to open the computer hangs and BSOD...then I have to kill Firefox process before it hangs too much (so it will not BSOD)....the second time I open Firefox, everything works perfectly...... So the question is:

- What changed in version 12, and what only runs in the first opening since the computer starts, and not in a second time if Firefox was terminated "by hand"?

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Try to use "Firefox/File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit") to close Firefox if you are currently doing that by clicking the close X on the title bar.

See also:

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The 'X' on the title bar doesnt work...it hangs completely...I have to ctrl+alt+del to close it...

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Did you try to use "Firefox > Exit" or "File > Exit" to close Firefox?

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Cant use it...the whole thing hangs and the upper bar becames flat saying (firefox is not responding).....and even before that the all the buttons are not responsive or all the screen becomes grey....in all the options, none of the controls respond...

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Im getting this issue to with the latest Firefox, everything is working fine but now it goes unresponsive and rest of my pc goes down with it. My mouse still moves etc but whole desktop is suspended, my McAfee about to expire, but I run a up to date free version of avast. I cleared everything but it keeps happening.

Other browsers like chrome and internet explorer doesnt cause issues

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Well if this helps I found most of the reasons of why my computer was crashing...it was a problem with the RAM memory timings configuration in my BIOS...now the computer is not crashing like before, but sometimes it still has some glitches....I think the timing is not perfect yet....the question is, why Firefox was triggering it? Well now every first time I open Firefox, it starts consuming 25% of my CPU and my pinned tabs are not shown...so I let it go, hoping that it will finish to process whatever it want's to, but it doesnt...(after half an hour at least it didnt)..so I usually kill the firefox process and then I start it again and everything works properly.......sometimes firefox hangs again, but usually by just by killing the flash container makes it work fine again. Conclusions: 1 - Setting the RAM timings made my computer not crash 2- My firefox is not behaving as it should when starting.

PS: I have a fully updated system/firefox/everything and I have more than 200 tabs opened in different tab goups at the same time (and that's why I love firefox, even if my computer crashes I dont lose them!)