Do you have crash reports? Often if Firefox is "Not Responding" then it doesn't record anything. But it's worth a look. Please check the support article "Firefox Crashes" (especially the last section) for steps to get the crash IDs that Firefox stores, and if you find some, post the five most recent ones here.

After restarting Windows, when you can't start Firefox normally, are you able to start Firefox in its Safe Mode? That's a standard diagnostic tool to bypass interference by extensions (and some custom settings). More info: Use Troubleshoot Mode in Firefox.

You can start Firefox in Safe Mode by holding down the Shift key when double-clicking the Firefox icon.

Then, in the small dialog that should appear, click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Reset)

Will Firefox start?

I turn on computer. Log in to Facebook, then try to open another FB game page that uses Adobe Flash Player and Firefox won't respond. I then uninstall Adobe FP and re-instal for both IE and Firefox. Works all day unless I have to reboot. Then same thing all over again.

bp-c8dc7059-b33e-4937-9e19-18bd12140130 31-Jan-14 10:01 AM bp-ce6e6cd4-963f-49e2-a419-cd5122131118 18-Nov-13 10:47 AM bp-b5c945ad-321c-46be-a879-849612131118 18-Nov-13 10:44 AM

It also happens in Safe Mode.

Thanks for your help, eagerly await your response. Jan

It looks like flash-player bug. But:

1. Momentary solution: it looks like flash-player process goes zombie while leaving bad data and failing to clean up next time. Then even restart is overkill, terminating it from task manager and removing bad data (it probably got its own directory in Application Data, or whatever) may be enough.
2. Automated solution: starting Firefox via script that would automatically kill any remaining flashplayer processes and clean cache after you exit Firefox.
3. Comprehensive solution: You use windows, right? I'd install something like Comodo just for apparmor - it may block whatever bug you suffer upon starting more than one flashplayer. And may be a good idea either way.

Also, did you restart after installing this stuff the first time, or it's "install - run - restart - reinstall"?

The one from today says:

Process Type: plugin VLC Web Plugin Version:2.1.0.0 Filename:npvlc.dll

The two from November are for Flash.

If these are the 3 latest, then it seems we do not have much information in the crash reports to study.

It sounds as though the Flash installer is making a settings change that does not take effect until you restart Windows, or is running a new process at Windows startup (updater perhaps?). I don't have enough knowledge of Flash to pinpoint that.

One of the most common reasons that Firefox might hang when using Flash is the plugin's protected mode feature. If you haven't already tried disabling it, please try that.

The following pages provide different ways to disable the feature:

• Adobe support article under the heading "Last Resort": Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?

• Manual steps: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/968190?page=5#answer-509209

• Batch file to automate the manual steps: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/982093#answer-518078

Thank you both for your replies. TBholder, I have tried uninstall, reboot and install. Made no difference, so now I don't reboot each time.

I will look at Comodo. On a technical level I am not sure what script you mean and not overly technical here.

Jscher2000, I have just copied the same query in the adobe forum. It would seem to be and adobe rather than a firefox problem. I will wait for a response before I make any changes and then post back here. Thanks again, I do appreciate your advice.

Basically, the script wrapper solution is: Firefox launcher gets changed to run a script, which in turn starts Firefox and also jumps through whatever hoops you need to fix the problem. Not a pretty way to do things, but if the problem is indeed in zombie processes and/or junk data in local cache, this will do the job. So, instead of running YourAppPath/firefox.exe it would run YourBatchPath/firefox.bat that contains something like this:

• YourAppPath/firefox.exe
• pskill -t YourFlashPlugin.exe
• del YourFlashCachePath/*.*

Of course, you'll need to do this manually first - take a look with Process Explorer at what processes FF launches and which of them fails to terminate and locate the cache (where Process Explorer / Process Monitor also helps), mop them up and see whether it helps.

If you're not used to this sort of things, show this message to someone who is, it will take a few minutes to either have it done or disprove my hypothesis about your bug (not likely, as it's rather typical, and FF sometimes manages to half-zombify itself even in Linux).