Have you seen both

• firefox hangs
  The above article includes lists of troubleshooting advice
• firefox crashes

If you are definitely not getting crash reports then Firefox may be hanging rather than crashing. If Firefox crashes then the Firefox process will disappear, if it is hanging firefox.exe and possibly plugincontainer.exe will still be there even if they freeze.

You appear to be using the latest Firefox 11, from the system info aside. (I am using linux and still on Firefox 10.0.2 at the moment .I do know the Firefox 11 Release was at least initially problematic).

Have been away for a few days.

• Scanned (again) with Avast! Virus Free 7.0, Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware [both latest version] ALL with the latest definitions: NO infection found.
• Updated driver of my graphic card (NVIDIA Geforce3 Ti200: no improvement.
• Despite all efforts still crashes (also checked through Program Control) certainly NO hanging.
• Continues to crash without crash reports.
• Vulnerability seems to be higher at www.tweakers.net and www.webwereld.nl and NOT (!) at Mozilla-sites. Makes no difference in Safe Mode.

Reinstalled F 9.0.1.

Any suggestions are highly appreciated.

Are you having Windows systems crashes and the Blue Screen Of Death ?

What exactly do you see happen when firefox crashes ? do you get any error messages ?

It may be worth trying in Windows Safe mode, usually accessible by using the F8 key

• No, Windows does not crash (have not seen BSODs in ages, really!).
• Firefox just suddenly and totally 'disappears' from my monitor at a crash, no flickering, hesitation, nor error messages in any form: just crashed.
• Tried Windows Safe Mode with F 11.0: no difference - keeps crashing.
• Windows Safe Mode in combination with F 11.0 also in Safe Mode: same story.

Reinstalled F 9.0.1 again .....

It is odd that Firefox 11 is crashing without crash reports. Presumably you have

1. looked using Windows XP task manager, to check that the process firefox.exe and plugincontainer.exe do not show up after a crash, (but you can at least see firefox.exe before the crash)
2. you have navigated to about:crashes as explained in firefox crashes and are not seeing any crash IDs

I do not have a working XP machine at present, but it does have its own crash logs and error reporting does that not show anything ?

Try the extension http://code.google.com/p/crashme/ it should at least prove or otherwise that your crash reporting works. Did you try a new profile for Firefox 11 ?

You could try a clean install of Firefox 11 by deleting the program files, but remember first of all to backup your bookmarks, and other information

• backing up information
• backing up and restoring bookmarks
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_...

There is an outside possibility that this is a new breaking issue that has not yet been reported and will hit other users so keep your eye on

• /forums/contributors/708233 (Note not everyone is getting the new Firefox 11 yet)
• latest firefox issues

Thanks for your efforts!!

1. All Yes.
2. 2x Yes.

• Windows Erros reports do not show any evidence/logging about the FF-crashes.
• Cannot change the options of Crash Me Now! + cannot find the way it should operate; so -unfortunately - I cannot report on that.
• Using a new and basic profile does not help.
• Tried a clean install after backing-up: makes no difference.
• Setting browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone to False: no solution.

To be continued ....?

Crashme now

I am fairly sure I used it recently on an XP and have just tried it from the link I provided.

It is an XPI and should install if you download the .xpi file then open that .xpi file with Firefox. Once installed it is easy to use. Use drop down menu

• Tools -> Crash Me -> it gives an options listing, all the options should crash Firefox

• At first the .xpi file was not accepted, after a few attempts it finally succeeded.
• The first 4/7 possibilities did crash FF 11.0 and crash reports were sent AND detectable with about:crashes.
• The last 3/7 did NOT crash FF 11.0: Pure Virtual Call! + Invalid parameter to CRT method! + ObjC Exception!

Yes just checked myself in Firefox 11 and it is only the first four options now, that crash Firefox. The extension is probably not fully up-to-date, but it does at least prove crashes are detectable.

So you will now be seeing crash IDs one I just produced was

• bp-b8e582e6-f042-48ae-87ff-7b8b52120320 <-- I have posted this as a clickable link to the report

1. Can you confirm that you are now seeing

• the crash reporter when Firefox crashes, due to use of the crash me extension
• Crash ID s for these (when you navigate to about:crashes).

1. have you set the option to submit crash reports ?
2. can you give an example of one you produced with the crash me extension?
   (are they prefixed bp- that indicates they were submitted)
3. are you now able to see similar CrashID s for the other crashes you are having ?
   (If so please paste a couple of recent ones into your next post)

• Crash reporter visible and active ONLY on Crash Me Now! crashes + ID's visible/traceable through about:crashes.
• Option on submitting crash reports activated (as always on FF).[see screenshot].
• Most recent crash report on Crash Me Now!
• No unfortunately not, still crashing without crash reports.
• Crashing can be 'stimulated' by visiting normal websites (as mentioned before, Mozilla sites and this support forum do not/hardly crash FF, but multi-tabbing is killing.

It is looking as if either

• Firefox is not crashing
  • It is some sort of hang or freeze. That explains the lack of Crash Reports from both Windows logs and Firefox.
    it is unusual though that the screen disappears especially in safe mode.
• Firefox is crashing but not logging the crash
  • That is unusual. Unfortunately I do not have a working XP, but Firefox 11 exceeded 20 Million downloads recently so if it had issues with crashes on XP that fail to submit I may have expected to see reports in the forum by now.
  • unfortunatly without a Windows XP sytem to hand I do not recall the full details of XPs event logging sytem.
• It is not a Firefox problem
  •  ? is there any possibility it could be a problem with Windows or the Video system

Thinking of other possible solutions. Do you have an unusual installation. If it is some odd regression in Firefox 11 maybe the Aurora or Beta channels would work.

1. Are you using Firefox 9 ok without problems. (That does have security implications though)
   • Have you got Firefox 9 and 11 both installed on your system at the same time ?
   • If you have are you using separate profiles for them ?
2. Please give the Aurora & Beta channels a try.
   • http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/

If that fails to help I will see if I can find someone else with other ideas for troubleshooting this problem.

• FF definetely crashes: firefox.exe suddenly disappears in Task Manager.
  • It seems as if FF stays stable as long as plugincontainer.exe is not activated. See added image [tasks are in alphabetical order].
    3 Tabs active, 2/3 Mozilla based websites, the third is a normal URL which does not seem to activate/need the plugincontainer (www.buienradar.nl ).
    Trying to open a fourth URL immediately crashes FF, possibly needing plugincontainer.exe (www.gratissoftware.nl or www.webwereld.nl and www.tweakers.net).
    So it might be a plugincontainer problem instead?
• Don't/didn't have any other graphical/crash problems with my system.
• Could use FF 9.0.1 (and all earlier versions) without any problems.
  • FF 9.0.1 is not on my system now; I removed it before installing 11.0.
  • I am using my normal profile; removed the blank profile after testing and finding that did not make any difference.
  • Because I had the same problems with all FF 10 versions (no alpha, nor beta), I think - for this moment - exploring versions on Aurora and Beta is probably not the best way.

You could try disabling plugincontainer, that may help, or it may help by producing a Firefox crash

• see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-container_and_out-of-process_plugins#Disabling_crash_protection

You may also wish to ensure that if plugincontainer is used and flash player crashes that you enable crash reporting for that. (Also ensure plugin hang protection is NOT disabled see link above - scroll the page)

• see Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems_the-adobe-flash-plugin-has-crashed

Also note there is a known bug 633427 with plugincontainer that has been fixed in Firefox 12 and 13. (So it will be ok on Beta and Aurora channels). The bug causes multiple copies of plugincontainer when cookies or history are cleared. I imagine there is a danger of that crashing or freezing a system with only 1GB ram.

P.S. bug 633427 has a very unusual feature, it still opens multiple instances of plugincontainer even when the plugins are disabled in firefox, so unlike most plugin problems it can not be prevented by disabling plugins.

• Disabling plugincontainer does not help - unaltered crash pattern.
• Adding dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll, boolean, FALSE (or true) - no result.
• As IE Tab 2 (FF 3.6+) version 4.1.3.1 is concerned:
  • Changing IE Compatibility Mode from IE7 to IE8: - no result.
  • Changing in about:config: npietab2.dll, boolean TRUE to FALSE - no result.
  • Disabling IE Tab 2 - no result.
  • Removing IE Tab 2 - no result.
  • Removing after reinitializing in about:config of dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npietab2.dll - no result.
• Changing dom.ipc.plugins.enabled in about:config FALSE or TRUE: no result.
• Disabling Hardware Acceleration in Flash - no result.
• Updated firewall ZoneAlarm version 9.2.102.000 to version 10.1.101.000, due to added firefox 11 support - no result.
• Did not see plugincontainer.exe even once in Task Manager!
• Firefox 12.0b1 with dom.ipc.plugins.enabled FALSE and TRUE - no result.
• Firefox 13.0a2 (Aurora) with dom.ipc.plugins.enabled FALSE and TRUE - no result.

Sigh .....

I think it's caused by an interaction with third party software:

• Disable WinPatrol
• Allow Firefox to run out of the Avast! Antivirus sandbox (no red border)

• Disabling WinPatrol did not make any difference.
• Firefox is/was running outside Avast! Antivirus Free sandbox. Only Aurora triggered the offer to run in in the sandbox, which does indeed not work at all, so I ran that outside the sandbox too, but it kept crashing.
• Meanwhile scanned and optimized my system with Advanced SystemCare Pro 5.2. Except for defragging the hard disk, the whole circus of fast and deep scans/optimizations.
  Which one did the trick is not clear to me at the moment, but Firefox 11.0 does not seem to crash anymore and plugin-container.exe is back in action too, when needed.

I will report on this issue back later, having had more experience working with Firefox 11.0.
For the moment, thanks for your thoughts and time, without I would have given up earlier.

• I could not find the/any reason why ASC seems to have solved FFs stability problems on my system.
• Meanwhile FF stays pretty stable now.
• Possibly a total new installation of Windows XP SP3 might do the trick. But I prefer not to do that: considering buying a new computer.
• For the moment I feel I have to close this item.

Thanks

Everything worked great until FF automatically upgraded to 10.0.1 (I don't recall seeing 10.0.0.) Then it was broken, just like that. It's incredibly slow, hangs constantly. I have done complete removals and reinstalls of FF, but nothing fixes it. When I went to the FF info window to see what version I was on after my latest full removal and reinstall (v. 11.0 ) I got a 'permanently spinning' beachball that said it was checking for an upgrade. It never stopped until I killed the FF session.

Even the simple Google search page either takes as much as a minute to load, or hangs completely.

My system is otherwise a very well optimized, very well running XP SP3 system with no apparent problems.

Chrome and IE run fine. Safari runs satisfactorily (MUCH faster than FF!!! -- when you can get FF to run at all. I remember when FF was THE browser. Let's see... that was only a couple months ago.

I'm VERY frustrated as I hate the feature set and UI in Chrome and it's a RAM hog. But it always ran circles around FF and, of course, now, I can't get FF to run at all.

PS... I am not a rube. I've been a computer professional since 1985 and I've been online since before the www.

PS... I also tried turning off hyper-threading (even though my P4 is a P4-HT) as well as turning off hardware acceleration.

I've also done thorough scans of my OS. Everything else on my rig runs great.

Hi ks2problema,

NSW_107 has given very detailed information about a very specific problem. By all means read the thread and see if any of the information is helpful but if you have continuing problems my suggestion is that you start your own thread by asking your own question.

• follow links and prompts from /questions/new