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Firefox crashes on startup and cannot submit crash report - Windows 7 Home Premium

  • 13 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by careyt39

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Having this pb for several weeks (have to use IE!), so have uninstalled/reinstalled FF several times, run bitdefender to ensure no viruses, and tried various combos of uninstall/restart/test without success. No crash reports have been generated, as FF crashes each time it tries to submit a crash report. Using AspireOne laptop with Windows 7 Home premium, not much installed and no other known problems. Have followed other threads suggesting possible fixes (start in safe mode, etc) to no avail. Thx for any help you can provide

Having this pb for several weeks (have to use IE!), so have uninstalled/reinstalled FF several times, run bitdefender to ensure no viruses, and tried various combos of uninstall/restart/test without success. No crash reports have been generated, as FF crashes each time it tries to submit a crash report. Using AspireOne laptop with Windows 7 Home premium, not much installed and no other known problems. Have followed other threads suggesting possible fixes (start in safe mode, etc) to no avail. Thx for any help you can provide

All Replies (13)

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We're sorry to hear that your Firefox seems to be crashing when you open it. Please perform the following steps to give us a crash report ID that helps us find out more about the cause of the crash.

  1. Press the following shortcut to get a Run window: [Windows] + [R]. This should bring up a window that contains a text field.
  2. In that text field, enter %APPDATA% and press Enter. An explorer window should open.
  3. From that explorer window, double-click on the Mozilla folder, then double-click on Firefox and then on Crash reports. Double-click on submitted.
  4. Now, you should see a list of files that contain reports. Go to View > Arrange Icons by > Modified to get the most recent files at the top of the window.
  5. Open the most recent 5 files with a text editor and copy the IDs.
  6. Paste each ID into the reply window on the forums.

Thanks in advance!

You can find more information and troubleshooting steps in the Troubleshoot Firefox crashes (closing or quitting unexpectedly) article.

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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.

See also:

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I had uninstalled FF prior to filing the report, so I rebooted in Windows safe mode, reinstalled and retried as suggested. Same issue as before.

No submitted folder in the crash reports, there is "Pending" folder, two files and one text document (submit.log). Both files contain on number, 1359303056, nothing else. The log file contains the same error message (no crash report submitted...) Pending folder contains a DMP and EXTRA file, both called 7defc458-ea26-4b74-a85c-eb77b0cd4f06.

What should I look at next? Thx

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Try to scan for malware, Firefox 18 crashes on startup due to malware - how to fix (Please run the anti-malware scanner here, as others may not detect the virus)

Also, do you have websense endpoint installed?

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I have tried to install malwarebytes multiple times, but it crashes each time that I try to scan or update its database. i have run the bitdefender antivirus and deleted anything that was indicated as a potential threat. should i keep trying with malwarebytes - i'm leery of continuing to connect to the internet if you think that a virus could be the cause.

dont know what websense endpoint is - how would it help?

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ps: i am working only in windows safe mode and still getting the crashes...

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Booting Windows in Safe mode should bypass all third-party software, but not malware that has modified or replaced system files.

You can try to install an older Firefox version to see if that allows to submit the pending crash reports. Firefox 17.0.x ESR:

Firefox 10.0.12 ESR:


You can do a malware check with some malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
You need to scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.

Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

See also:

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Try also using combofix in safe mode http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/combofix/

It is a bad sign that malwarebytes crashes when you try to run it, most likely this is a virus trying to keep itself safe.

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Similar problem as those listed above - Firefox crashes on initial startup of Win7 session. Restarting it works fine.

No Crash Reporter window appears. No files related to that time period are in the Crash Reporter reports folder.

This has been occurring ever since FF 17+ (now on ff20.0.1).

Tried most, if not all, of the work-arounds listed here and any other relevant Mozilla/firefox pages - nothing helps.

have checked the Win Event Viewer (nothing). Just ran the MS ERT, and nothing found.

Is it possible changing any of the 'config' values might be causing this ? But why would it start, and continue with no problems, after the initial failure ?

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Crash ID: bp-a6b0a141-e4f9-4775-a8db-1eed62130422
Crash ID: bp-f0d2070c-53f1-4a82-8e3e-0d2892130422
Crash ID: bp-6361dc9c-df91-450f-a724-9a5322130422
Crash ID: bp-ebad555c-8578-403c-80c9-c4fd22130212
Crash ID: bp-ebad555c-8578-403c-80c9-c4fd22130212

Modified by cor-el

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Hi careyt39

Unfortunately the linked crash reports from Firefox 20 have an [@ EMPTY] signature and do not provide crash data that makes it possible to tell something about the cause.


Try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

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.

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Yes, that helped - turning off the hardware acceleration in Safe Mode - and it is still off in normal mode, but FF crashed again in the 1st session after boot, but fine afterwards.

So far - that is the only clue, but not sure where to go from here ??

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Tried all these: Try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

   Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"
   https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes 
   https://hacks.mozilla.org/2010/09/hardware-acceleration/ 

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.

Nothing helps - still same behavior....