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firefox 20 keeps crashing on exit after prolonged use

  • 6 replies
  • 41 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by BANKSAE

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Hi folks, I've been having this problem for a while. I have a habit of opening firefox then just leaving it open. When I do eventually close it I would say 9/10 times it crashes with the below error from windows.

note: these crashes do not appear in the about:crashes section. At one point I found instructions on how to use a debugger to try and gather information but it seems those instructions are out of date. In addition I'm not even sure it would work as the crashes only happen when I close firefox (x out). I haven't tried to run in safe mode (yes i know) because it would mean running "naked" for 12+ hours on various sites. I have however at one point tried removing all add-ons just to rule those out. any ideas what could be causing this?

I should note that this does not happen if I don't leave firefox open for long periods of time.

Problem signature:

 Problem Event Name:	APPCRASH
 Application Name:	firefox.exe
 Application Version:	20.0.0.4833
 Application Timestamp:	5152542c
 Fault Module Name:	xul.dll
 Fault Module Version:	20.0.0.4833
 Fault Module Timestamp:	51525346
 Exception Code:	c0000005
 Exception Offset:	000973d8
 OS Version:	6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
 Locale ID:	1033
 Additional Information 1:	b05f
 Additional Information 2:	2e3b50ff7c9c4b528d2c3e25c3788924
 Additional Information 3:	35e6
 Additional Information 4:	ade5b70865927a97ffc4e19e594b771f
Hi folks, I've been having this problem for a while. I have a habit of opening firefox then just leaving it open. When I do eventually close it I would say 9/10 times it crashes with the below error from windows. note: these crashes do not appear in the about:crashes section. At one point I found instructions on how to use a debugger to try and gather information but it seems those instructions are out of date. In addition I'm not even sure it would work as the crashes only happen when I close firefox (x out). I haven't tried to run in safe mode (yes i know) because it would mean running "naked" for 12+ hours on various sites. I have however at one point tried removing all add-ons just to rule those out. any ideas what could be causing this? I should note that this does not happen if I don't leave firefox open for long periods of time. Problem signature: Problem Event Name: APPCRASH Application Name: firefox.exe Application Version: 20.0.0.4833 Application Timestamp: 5152542c Fault Module Name: xul.dll Fault Module Version: 20.0.0.4833 Fault Module Timestamp: 51525346 Exception Code: c0000005 Exception Offset: 000973d8 OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3 Locale ID: 1033 Additional Information 1: b05f Additional Information 2: 2e3b50ff7c9c4b528d2c3e25c3788924 Additional Information 3: 35e6 Additional Information 4: ade5b70865927a97ffc4e19e594b771f

All Replies (6)

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Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.

You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.


Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

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

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Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

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I occasionally have the same problem, even after i reinstalled a fresh copy of Firefox.

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If you check the memory usage regularly (e.g. in the Task Manager) while Firefox is idle, do you see an indication that the memory usage increases (i.e. there may be memory leaks) that may be part of this problem?

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it will be upwards of 500MB's after a few hours of use, kinda like its not "releasing" memory that was used for browsing.

sorry about not getting back to this sooner, i got busy with life then honestly forgot about it.

i did however try removing every trace of firefox from my system and doing a fresh install, the only thing i braught over was my bookmarks, though it did still remember form data and history so obviously i missed something some where (though i did clear out every thing that i could find that mentioned firefox)

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Thanks. I haven't tried that yet but I'll check it and see if there is anything abnormal.