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Firefox won't start

  • 7 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by ericdeeson

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Firefox has never given me a problem. Today it will not start at all. I have tried updating, uninstall and re install and nothing works. System is Win 8 64 bit with Intel 2700K , 16 g memory and Gtx 570 x2 video cards in SLI mode. No changes have bee made to hardware or software to cause this problem. I have turned off anti virus software with no results.

Firefox has never given me a problem. Today it will not start at all. I have tried updating, uninstall and re install and nothing works. System is Win 8 64 bit with Intel 2700K , 16 g memory and Gtx 570 x2 video cards in SLI mode. No changes have bee made to hardware or software to cause this problem. I have turned off anti virus software with no results.

Chosen solution

I've had the FF won't start problem for two or three months, with several FF versions, and no change to the machine before the horror started. Sometimes I'd have to click on the icon fifty or sixty times before it would start; other times (the most common of late) I'd have to re-instal, and then it would work as long as I didn't close FF.

Today I've spent about four hours trying various internet solutions - starting with creating a new profile (BEWARE poor and incomplete instructions there so I could not access my saved personal data; fortunately I could synchronise the new profile with the FF on one of my other machines (none of whom have had this problem by the way).

Finally (I hope), following the link from this article to Uninstall FireFox MAY have cracked the problem enough for me to survive - after re-installing, I needed to click on the icon only three or four times before the program started up.

Fingers crossed.

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All Replies (7)

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Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox and any leftover program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps one by one:

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from http://www.mozilla.org and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (click Exit from the Firefox or File menu) and confirm all upcoming messages.
  3. Now, uninstall Firefox by following the steps mentioned in the Uninstall Firefox article.

IMPORTANT: On Windows, the uninstaller has the option to remove your personal data and settings. Make sure that you do not check this option; otherwise all of your bookmarks, passwords, extensions, user customizations and other Firefox user profile data will be removed from your computer.

After uninstalling Firefox on Windows, delete the "Mozilla Firefox" program folder, located by default in one of these locations:

  • (On 32-bit Windows) C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
  • (On 64-bit Windows) C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
  1. Go to the Windows Start menu and click on "Computer".
  2. In the Explorer window that opens, double click Local Disk (C:) to open the C:\ drive.
  3. Find the "Program Files (x86)" folder or "Program Files" folder.
    • On 32-bit Windows, double-click the Program Files folder to open it.
    • On 64-bit Windows, you will see a "Program Files (x86)" folder AND a "Program Files" folder. Open the Program Files (x86) folder.
  4. Look for a Mozilla Firefox folder. If you find one, right-click it and select Delete and confirm that you want to move the folder to the Recycle Bin.

Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:

  1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
  2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

Please report back to see if this helped you!

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Thanks for the fast reply. Sorry but doing the uninstall and re-install didn't help. Followed the instructions but I noticed that I do not have a shortcut in the programs at all. I get a shortcut in the apps section but nothing in programs. It seems that I had one before. Sure going to hate using brand x browser.

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A possible cause is security software (firewall,anti-virus) that blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.

Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.

See:

See also:


Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

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Success! The problem was caused by the update not downloading and installing properly. I booted into safe drive and was able to start Firefox. It caused a popup saying that the download failed and would I like to try again. Once the update was installed everything works fine. I just have to rebuild some of my favorites and passwords.

Thanks for all the help. I hope this helps someone else.

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Chosen Solution

I've had the FF won't start problem for two or three months, with several FF versions, and no change to the machine before the horror started. Sometimes I'd have to click on the icon fifty or sixty times before it would start; other times (the most common of late) I'd have to re-instal, and then it would work as long as I didn't close FF.

Today I've spent about four hours trying various internet solutions - starting with creating a new profile (BEWARE poor and incomplete instructions there so I could not access my saved personal data; fortunately I could synchronise the new profile with the FF on one of my other machines (none of whom have had this problem by the way).

Finally (I hope), following the link from this article to Uninstall FireFox MAY have cracked the problem enough for me to survive - after re-installing, I needed to click on the icon only three or four times before the program started up.

Fingers crossed.

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I have found that the problem is the update is not installing properly.

I solved the problem by uninstalling Firefox in Windows normal mode leaving the profile intact. I then re-booted into safe mode (it did not work un-installing in normal and re-installing in normal mode. Only in the procedure Here) and re-installed the updated Firefox. It has been working since then. Hope this helps someone else. Thanks all.

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Yes, this seems to have worked, though it seems to have taken a while to bed down - uninstal FireFox; re-start; press F8 as soon as the computer re-starts, to enter Safe Mode; then re-instal FireFox.

The first few computer re-starts after doing that seemed to take two or three attempts to get FF going - but now it starts first time after each re-start.

Phew!