Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Firefox is locking up and the problem appears to be related to plug in container. Is there a fix for this?

  • 2 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Jon

more options

Using Windows XP, one tab open in Firefox, selected an item on the webpage, loading icon appeared and kept going, closed Firefox, tried to open Firefox, message that Firefox still running, closed firefox.exe using Task Manager, able to run Firefox again. This has been happening a lot lately and I don't remember it happening in previous versions of Firefox.

Using Windows XP, one tab open in Firefox, selected an item on the webpage, loading icon appeared and kept going, closed Firefox, tried to open Firefox, message that Firefox still running, closed firefox.exe using Task Manager, able to run Firefox again. This has been happening a lot lately and I don't remember it happening in previous versions of Firefox.

Chosen solution

Firefox uses plugin-container.exe to run Flash and other plugins. The theory is that if the plugin were to crash, it would not crash all your tabs, just any active plugins. Are you getting a message that a plugin crashed?


If I understand the problem correctly, Firefox is hanging or freezing when trying to open a link, and you are exiting Firefox, after which it won't start up again until you kill firefox.exe in the Task Manager.

Have you noticed any pattern to when Firefox freezes or stalls?

How are you exiting Firefox (for example, from the menu vs. red X button vs. Ctrl+Alt+Delete)?

In case you haven't seen it, this article might be useful: Firefox hangs or is not responding - How to fix.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (2)

more options

Chosen Solution

Firefox uses plugin-container.exe to run Flash and other plugins. The theory is that if the plugin were to crash, it would not crash all your tabs, just any active plugins. Are you getting a message that a plugin crashed?


If I understand the problem correctly, Firefox is hanging or freezing when trying to open a link, and you are exiting Firefox, after which it won't start up again until you kill firefox.exe in the Task Manager.

Have you noticed any pattern to when Firefox freezes or stalls?

How are you exiting Firefox (for example, from the menu vs. red X button vs. Ctrl+Alt+Delete)?

In case you haven't seen it, this article might be useful: Firefox hangs or is not responding - How to fix.

more options

After updating Flash and resetting Firefox, I have not had the problem that I had reported.

Thanks for the help.