Hello,

Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that turns off some settings, disables most add-ons (extensions and themes).

If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:

• Click the menu button , click Help and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:

• On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.

When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.

To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again. If it fails again while not in safe mode, try selecting Reset Firefox instead of Safe Mode. Note: Reset Firefox will cause you to lose any Extensions and some Preferences.

I would recommend also running additional anti-malware tools. There are free tools that can run alongside your existing anti-virus software such as:

• MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
• AdwCleaner (for more info, see this alternate AdwCleaner download page)
• More information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Firefox will not start in safe mode or any other. All I get is the hourglass spinning for less than 1 second and the Windows safety question whether I want this program to run or not. Then nothing.

I have already run Malwarebytes.

Can you right click on your Firefox shortcut and click Properties? Check the Target line in the Shortcut tab to make sure that nothing tampered with the link.

Also, what happens if you go into the Firefox install directory and run the application directly (not through a shortcut)? Do you experience the same problem?

If you open up Firefox through a web link, are you able to start it in Safe Mode, or does it just not start after the browser closes?

The shortcut target line is correct. Even going directly to the file folder and clicking on the firefox.exe directly, it will not open.

After the clean install, it will not open even through a web link.

I did notice something when I was in the target directory, though. There is a 1kb freebl3.chk file.

I don't think you need to worry about that file:

• http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1575995

Can you check to see if there are any crash reports for the times when you tried to open Firefox?

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 with bp- into the reply window on the forums.

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

If there are no crash reports, enter %APPDATA% in the Run window like when you went to get your crash reports, but this time rename the Mozilla folder to OldMozilla (don't delete it in case you want to recover certain settings from your profile). Try starting Firefox again - it should recreate the folder in addition to a new profile for you and hopefully this time it can start up.

Please see the article Recovering important data from an old profile to find out which files you may want to transfer over.

Firefox did not actually crash. I closed it to handle the AVG warning, then ran an AVG full system scan. Then ran malwarebyte. This all happened 10/7/2014.

Last submitted crash report bp-0c92329d-d392-4fc2-b871-38fde2140619.txt was 6/19/2014.

All it has in it is: Crash ID: bp-0c92329d-d392-4fc2-b871-38fde2140619

There are two dump files and an "extra" file in the pending Folder dated Sep 30, 2014.

The .extra file has the following: 982faf48-d2df-4826-bb49-4041ec8cb308.extra

Winsock_LSP=MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP] : 2 : 1 : %SystemRoot%\\system32\\mswsock.dll \n MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IP] : 2 : 2 : \n MSAFD Tcpip [RAW/IP] : 2 : 3 : %SystemRoot%\\system32\\mswsock.dll \n MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IPv6] : 2 : 1 : \n MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IPv6] : 2 : 2 : %SystemRoot%\\system32\\mswsock.dll \n MSAFD Tcpip [RAW/IPv6] : 2 : 3 : \n RSVP TCPv6 Service Provider : 2 : 1 : %SystemRoot%\\system32\\mswsock.dll \n RSVP TCP Service Provider : 2 : 1 : \n RSVP UDPv6 Service Provider : 2 : 2 : %SystemRoot%\\system32\\mswsock.dll \n RSVP UDP Service Provider : 2 : 2 : AdapterVendorID=0x8086 StartupTime=1412081227 EMCheckCompatibility=true ProductName=Firefox AdapterSubsysID=00000000 Theme=classic/1.0 Vendor=Mozilla InstallTime=1411648186 AdapterDeviceID=0x0106 ReleaseChannel=release Notes=AdapterVendorID: 0x8086, AdapterDeviceID: 0x0106, AdapterSubsysID: 00000000, AdapterDriverVersion: 8.15.10.2752\nD2D? D2D+ DWrite? DWrite+ D3D10 Layers? D3D10 Layers+ FramePoisonSize=65536 Version=32.0.3 FramePoisonBase=00000000f0de0000 ServerURL=https://crash-reports.mozilla.com/submit?id={ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}&version=32.0.3&buildid=20140923175406 AdapterDriverVersion=8.15.10.2752 useragent_locale=en-US Add-ons=Noia4Options%40ArisT2:1.8.9,idme%40abine.com:1.40.349,adblockpopups%40jessehakanen.net:0.9.2,donottrackplus%40abine.com:3.2.1127,avg%40toolbar:18.1.9.799,%7B972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd%7D:32.0.3,cam%40sdrocking.com:7.0,info%40mp3it.eu:1.4.1,sortbookmarks%40bouanto:2.3,jid0-Z0Vu9hJlqV0fhIAPqPfmUCNubYQ%40jetpack:1.0,uriloader%40pdf.js:1.0.277,%7Bd10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d%7D:2.6.4,jid0-GXjLLfbCoAx0LcltEdFrEkQdQPI%40jetpack:2.4.4,HighlightedTextToFile%40bobbyrne01.org:2.4.4,%7Bb9bfaf1c-a63f-47cd-8b9a-29526ced9060%7D:1.7.28,%7B82AF8DCA-6DE9-405D-BD5E-43525BDAD38A%7D:7.3.16540.9015 BIOS_Manufacturer=Insyde Corp. ProductID={ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384} URL=http://forum.heraldtribune.com/posting.php?mode=reply&f=14&t=24775 BuildID=20140923175406 CrashTime=1412083633 StartupTime=1412083525 PluginHang=1 ProcessType=plugin additional_minidumps=browser,flash1,flash2 PluginVersion=15.0.0.152 CpuUsageFlashProcess2=0 NumberOfProcessors=2 CpuUsageFlashProcess1=0 PluginName=Shockwave Flash PluginCpuUsage=0 PluginFilename=NPSWF32_15_0_0_152.dll

Followed your instructions on renaming the mozilla folder. Still nothing.

Yeah that crash report is too old and not relevant to what you are experiencing.

After renaming the Mozilla folder, did Firefox create another one when you opened the browser?

Try reinstalling Firefox again. After uninstalling, delete the entire Mozilla Firefox folder in "C:\Program Files (x86)\" or wherever you installed your browser. The only thing I can think of left is that residual files from your previous install interfered with the new install. If you don't have a copy of the latest version of Firefox, make sure you download it from the official site - https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ (or https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/)

Let us know if that works!

Yes, firefox did create a new one.

OK. I have the newest version.

I uninstalled Firefox, then verified that the Mozilla folders in both the Appdata folders and in the Program Files (x86)\ folder, were gone. Then installed Firefox Setup 32.0.3.exe.

Nothing. All directories were recreated, though.

Unfortunately I'm not sure why it won't start up for you. I've asked for more help.

In the meantime, check out the article: Firefox won't start - find solutions in case there was something that was overlooked.

Hello any luck if you boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen)  ?

thank you

Yes, firefox works in windows safe mode.

If Firefox works in Windows Safe mode then probably the problem is in your security software (firewall, antivirus, antispyware etc) or maybe a system driver, that is running on your computer.

thanks again

I uninstalled the new Firefox and reinstalled an older version. It works fine. I updated it to the newest version and it refused to open, again. SO, I uninstalled the new version and reinstalled the older one. It works fine. version 15.0.1.

Hi singledad, I understand that AVG scanned a part of Firefox and removed some of the files that may have been infected and now it only opens when you click on a link. I also understand that the previous version that was on the computer does not do this.

In AVG you may need to access a rule that was created after the scan http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firewalls#AVG_Internet_Security in order to allow the newest version of Firefox to open, as ideato had suggested.

If changing the rule does not work out, please post back. Older versions of Firefox do play a bigger risk in security as with each update there are security releases as well.

Hello, i can confirm guigs2's reply above. Note, that a lot of FREE antivirus software or suites (include firewall etc) may block access to web browsers sometime especially after an update, it is common ...... secret !  :-)

thanks

I am not using the AVG firewall. The firewall is not included in the free version.

I did not have the older version of firefox installed on my computer and I completely uninstalled the new version, three times. I finally Installed the old version and it works.

Also, after installing the older version, I clicked on "about" to see the exact version I was using. It started to instal the newest version without asking and I had to uninstall both, again, and reinstall the old version again.

This might be a hunch, but have you tried an new profile with the newer version. If you can run a small test without changing anything about the working installation, when you install Firefox, choose a different folder. When you start it up, Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles and see if the new profile will allow you to start Firefox.

When i was renamed the appdata Mozilla File before uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox, did that not also start a new profile?