For the first time, Firefox is crashing all the time!
This just started very recently. I tried following all the fixes on your help pages that were concerned with this but only got confused & it didn't help. The only extensions I'm using are AdBlock, a security scan, the "pin it" button, & your "trouble shooter." I don't have a lot of plugins, and even fewer that are set at "always activate."
And, on my Task Manager, or so I'm told, everything looks pretty normal.
But I continue, again, just recently, run into the exact symptoms you delineate in your "too much CPU" page: pages saying (not responding) then seizing up completely, or the scroll bar stops working, and clicking on items has no effect.
I don't have anything new on this machine, and the problem keeps getting worse and worse, happening more and more often.
Can you help?
Thank you!
All Replies (11)
Thank you for posting your system details. An odd thing to find is two different Flash plugins, version 13 and version 15. I suggest completely disabling or removing the version 13 plugin, and changing version 15 from automatic activation to on demand activation to see whether that helps.
Open on the Add-ons page using either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
In the left column, click Plugins. Then look for Shockwave Flash. If you find two entries, one for version 13 and one for version 15:
- version 13: "Never Activate"
- version 15: "Ask to Activate"
If you only find an entry for version 15
- "Ask to Activate"
This might not take effect until you launch a new Firefox window or exit and start Firefox up again.
To physically remove the old plugin, you can check the standard folder:
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash
The plugins used by Firefox have this file name pattern:
NPSWF32_15_0_0_152.dll
If you find the one that has 13 in the version number, you can remove it (but don't delete the various other files used by IE and by Flash to maintain itself).
Any difference?
This article has many other suggestions for troubleshooting issues caused by Flash if you discover that after activating Flash on a page where you want to use it, Firefox is seizing up: Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems.
Thanks, jscher -- yeah -- I noticed the two flashes. I'll say goodbye to 13 and report back.
And... I ran this program that finds duplicates and there were a lot of them. Is there a way to know when to throw something out?
A program that finds duplicates? I guess without knowing what it found, I'm not sure whether it is safe to delete things, or which one to delete, assuming they are in completely different locations...
Hi again, jscher--
Something is very strange -- for example, I went to the plugins page and marked flash15 to ask to activate, and marked flash 13 never to activate.
Then I tried watching videos on sites I've been on before, pbs.org, for example, and every channel I tried told me it couldn't find anywhere to play it. So I check back on the plugins page, and now both 15 and 13 are marked never activate. (I know I had marked it correctly, because when I logged on to facebook, I was asked to activate.)
So now I'm completely confused!
My problem is so intermittent that I don't know if the fact that it only happened once today reflects something new I've done or not.
Lily
Ooooo... this is creepy; Just before I wrote you that last reply I changed 15 to always activate, and 13 to never activate; so I just went back to check, and now they are both marked "always activate."
It sounds like you'll have to physically remove 13 if Firefox can't handle them separately.
You can find the installation path of all plugins on the about:plugins page.
Thanks again, jscher and cor-el. Your comments really do help me find my way. Glad to hear this isn't proof positive that I'm infected!
Will continue, and keep reporting too.
I assume that 15 is retroactive, ie. will incorporate the ability to interpret info from all earlier versions? In other words, that I have no risk in something being incompatible with 15 if I remove 13?
My side-effects are worse. Firefox 33 crashes all the time. It was BAD on previous versions, but now it's UNUSABLE!
Screen fills with one color, nothing can be seen at all.
Made almost 100 restarts over the paste few days...
Hi lotusgreen, I have to admit I don't know the details of how Flash 15 is different than Flash 13, but since it doesn't work well to keep both of them, and Flash 13 isn't getting security updates, I think you just have to go with Flash 15.
Hi Marco Lopes, please see: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1027095#answer-644448