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Firefox crashes/hangs cmputer when switching between tabs

  • 11 replies
  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by MikeZZ

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Firefox crashes when switching between tabs. Worse than usual crash, the last page i was viewing is there but unresponsive to mouse or keyboard including contr-alt-delete. Must push and hold the power button on my Dell XPS8940. Windows 10 Home 21H2 OS Build 19044.1586. Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4170.0.

There was a window with 7 tabs, 1 playing a youtube video and 5 with videos not playing, one other site with no audio and another window with a website streaming only audio. When the system stopped, the speakers made an odd sort of buzz sound until powered off. I am on the latest version FF 99.0.1 but a similar crash happened on version 98.0.1. Before that this Dell never locked/crashed up this way.

This Dell PC has Realtek audio just like our HP W10 laptop and they both had issues when new with all sound not working when playing a youtube video only in Firefox (HP Feb 2021 and Dell Oct 2021). Launching Groove Music and playing an mp3 always got the sound working. Problem did not cause any program to crash. Windows updates to drives eventually fixed the problem but it only even happened in Firefox. Current problem is new in the last month or two and only on Dell.

Firefox crashes when switching between tabs. Worse than usual crash, the last page i was viewing is there but unresponsive to mouse or keyboard including contr-alt-delete. Must push and hold the power button on my Dell XPS8940. Windows 10 Home 21H2 OS Build 19044.1586. Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4170.0. There was a window with 7 tabs, 1 playing a youtube video and 5 with videos not playing, one other site with no audio and another window with a website streaming only audio. When the system stopped, the speakers made an odd sort of buzz sound until powered off. I am on the latest version FF 99.0.1 but a similar crash happened on version 98.0.1. Before that this Dell never locked/crashed up this way. This Dell PC has Realtek audio just like our HP W10 laptop and they both had issues when new with all sound not working when playing a youtube video only in Firefox (HP Feb 2021 and Dell Oct 2021). Launching Groove Music and playing an mp3 always got the sound working. Problem did not cause any program to crash. Windows updates to drives eventually fixed the problem but it only even happened in Firefox. Current problem is new in the last month or two and only on Dell.

All Replies (11)

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We're sorry to hear that Firefox is crashing. In order to assist you better, please follow the steps below to provide us crash IDs to help us learn more about your crash.

The crash report is several pages of data. We need the report numbers to see the whole report.

  1. Enter about:crashes in the Firefox address bar and press Enter. A list of Submitted/Unsubmitted Crash Reports will appear, similar to the one shown below.
  2. Copy the 5 most recent Submitted Report IDs that start with bp- and then go back to your forum question and paste those IDs into the "Post a Reply" box.

Note: If a recent Report ID does not start with bp- click on it to submit the report.

(Please don't take a screenshot of your crashes, just copy and paste the IDs. The below image is just an example of what your Firefox screen should look like.)

Fx64Beta-aboutcrashes-unsubmitted

Thank you for your help!

More information and further troubleshooting steps can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox crashes (closing or quitting unexpectedly) article.

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There are no crashes reported, when i type about:crashes this is what i get :

No crash reports have been submitted.

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It happened again, this time I am on version 99.0.1. Only 2 tabs open, 1 of them playing a youtube video and it seems to crash when I was scrubbing thru the video to skip a section. Loud buzz from speakers, keyboard and mouse unresponsive I have no extensions and 2 plugins that I did not install, OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc. v1.8.1.1 and Widevine Content Decryption Module provided by Google Inc. v4.10.2449.0.

Clearing cache did not help. This is eventually going to screw up my system and if I can't find a solution i'll be forced to use another brower for youtube.

Any help would be appreciated.

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I've just disabled Widevine. It might take a while to know if that is the cause because it is very sporadic but when it happens its a serious crash.

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Widevine is only used for playing DRM protected content and that is normally only used by websites like Netflix and Amazon Prime and other websites that restrict access due to licensing and normally not by YouTube for free content.

Anything in the Browser Console about those crashes ?

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Where do I find the Browser Console, is there a log?

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See:

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Is there a log I can save from the browser console going back to 5/31/22 what it last crashed? The only thing on the console tab was several content security policy errors about the current page (this support page). When I went into the console on a new tab the console tab was blank.

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I have tried with addons disabled. I only have the 2 stock addons mentioned above to begin with. OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc. and Widevine Content Decryption Module provided by Google Inc The problem is that there is a long time between these crashes. I'd have to boot into Safe Mode all the time as it might be a month or two before the next crash. I will try Private mode for Youtube since that's always what causes the deep level crash. Private mode all the time would render no history which would be a problem.

Thanks for the tips.

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Crashed again tonight. Cntrl=alt-Del doesn't work, had to hold power button again, windows recovery screen comes up with advanced troubleshooting and restart options.

4 windows open, 1 of them with 3 tabs including the youtube video i was scrubbing through. It seems clicking on the timeline with or without actually scrubbing to a different point causes the crash. I don't think I have had it crash without clicking on the timeline in a video.

Now on 101.0.1, Widevine Content Decryption Module provided by Google Inc. is the only addon.