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Have tried all the forum's suggestions, Firefox still hangs with just one tab up

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I've been browsing these forms for days, and have tried every suggestion available in order to counter the constant (as in, "every time I click on a link or pull open a browser") hanging that I'm getting with FF.

This is a brand new, work-issued computer with precious little running on its system. Firefox, when loaded, hangs on every page. Every one. It's true that Flash-heavy pages and Twitter are worse than simple home pages and the like, but just getting through the relatively mild Mozilla forums came with freeze after freeze. As some have noted, the browser never crashes, it just freezes -- and my issues seem much worse than other posters' problems.

Because I'm not dealing with this problem with a bunch of tabs open, or after the browser has been open for a while. I've reset, re-installed, and restarted in Safe Mode. Nothing. I thought it was a Flash problem, initially, so I uninstalled that, re-installed older versions, and ended up reinstalling the newest versions. I've tried all the help tricks, like the hardware acceleration.

I can't stand Chrome, and don't want to use it, but I can't even browse on this browser, much less use it for work. This laptop was sent to me by my employers, a fairly massive internet behemoth, and I don't really want to send it back to them with a browser complaint, with them knowing that (to them, at least) a perfectly good browser alternative in Chrome is loaded in and ready to go.

Just writing this out has this hanging. Just adding the Troubleshooting Information has this hanging. I've been using Firefox for a decade now, and this is ridiculous. Please help.

I've been browsing these forms for days, and have tried every suggestion available in order to counter the constant (as in, "every time I click on a link or pull open a browser") hanging that I'm getting with FF. This is a brand new, work-issued computer with precious little running on its system. Firefox, when loaded, hangs on every page. Every one. It's true that Flash-heavy pages and Twitter are worse than simple home pages and the like, but just getting through the relatively mild Mozilla forums came with freeze after freeze. As some have noted, the browser never crashes, it just freezes -- and my issues seem much worse than other posters' problems. Because I'm not dealing with this problem with a bunch of tabs open, or after the browser has been open for a while. I've reset, re-installed, and restarted in Safe Mode. Nothing. I thought it was a Flash problem, initially, so I uninstalled that, re-installed older versions, and ended up reinstalling the newest versions. I've tried all the help tricks, like the hardware acceleration. I can't stand Chrome, and don't want to use it, but I can't even browse on this browser, much less use it for work. This laptop was sent to me by my employers, a fairly massive internet behemoth, and I don't really want to send it back to them with a browser complaint, with them knowing that (to them, at least) a perfectly good browser alternative in Chrome is loaded in and ready to go. Just writing this out has this hanging. Just adding the Troubleshooting Information has this hanging. I've been using Firefox for a decade now, and this is ridiculous. Please help.

All Replies (17)

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Boot your System(windows7) in SAFEMODE by holding the F8 key and check whether your firefox hangs or not

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Thanks for the suggestion, but because this is a work computer, it won't let me restart in Safe Mode because I don't have the administrator password.

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I have the same problem too. All of a sudden last week Firefox just hangs there. I'd like to reinstall everything but be able to save all of my bookmarks. I guess it's a new virus or something and they haven't caught up with it yet like the conduit search one and so on. I had one like the AVG search and didn't realize it was a virus at first. If only I could save my bookmarks and tags. I exported my bookmarks to other browsers but they only pick up the folders not the tags. Driving me crazy. I can't even access the Library. I guess they're hacked as well. This is why I still believe in paper files and typewriters and yes I still have one. No telling when some nutcase snooper might decide to just delete everyone's stuff for the fun of it.

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Mine wasn't even a virus, as this was a brand new out of the box computer. Unless yahoo dot com or Adobe's website are handing out viruses these days.

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Something somewhere is wrong on their end. It was usually Firefox that saved the day while Explorer acted up. Now I'm on chrome. It's okay but not like Firefox. Firefox, say something....anything about this.

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Hello,

Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration. Since this feature was added to Firefox, it has gradually improved, but there still are a few glitches.

You might need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).

Then perform these steps:

  • Click the orange Firefox button at the top left, then select the "Options" button, or, if there is no Firefox button at the top, go to Tools > Options.
  • In the Firefox options window click the Advanced tab, then select "General".
  • In the settings list, you should find the Use hardware acceleration when available checkbox. Uncheck this checkbox.
  • Now, restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.

Additionally, please check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in the following Knowledge base articles:

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Thank you.

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A common reason for poor performance is the Flash plugin. Where there's a video it's obvious that Flash is being used, but many pages also use Flash for navigation, data storage, or analytics. Here is some standard guidance that addresses the most common issues.

(1) If Applicable - Make sure all recorders/downloaders that interact with Flash media are as up-to-date as possible, or disable them.

(2) Disable hardware graphics acceleration in Firefox and in Flash

(A) In Firefox, un-check the box here and restart:

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced > General > "Use hardware acceleration when available"

(B) In Flash, see this support article from Adobe: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues

(3) Disable protected mode (Windows Vista/7/8) -- I was able to avoid this for a year or so, but a recent Windows update caused Firefox to hang for extended periods until I did this.

See this support article from Adobe under the heading "Last Resort": Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?

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Waka, jscher,

appreciate the response, but these suggestions are all over these forums, and performed them long ago in this process to no avail.

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Hello,

Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox program files( you will not lose bookmarks, history etc.) and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:

Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  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).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
    • Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
  4. 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!

Thank you.

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I'm about 45 minutes in to surfing around after the clean reinstall, and no freezes just yet. Tempted my fate by bringing up a few flash-y tabs (Twitter, email, played a long video) at once to see if things hung, all good luck so far.

I'll keep bashing away, but we may have a breakthrough. Thank you.

  • knocks on wood*
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And, of course, literally a second after I send that I go back to the computer I'm referring to and it freezes while just on Twitter. Arg. Not a long "(Not Responding)," but a frustrating one.

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I tried this three times and yet, after each relaunch it freezes, and it won't let me go anywhere near the history or bookmarks folder. As soon as I try to touch the history tab it freezes everything. Sad to say that I'll lose all those tags in the library and I can't get a straight answer regarding how to save the library. I'll need to reinstall everything from scratch otherwise I'll keep getting the blue screen of death.

Can anyone tell me how to at least just save the file that has the library file on it so I can reinstall it when I completely reinstall my computer from scratch for the umpteenth time?  Thanks if anyone can answer this. 
  Also sad to see the day when Firefox isn't my go to browser.  Guess i got too comfortable.
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Hi mdeborah827, your places database (stored both history and bookmarks) might have become corrupted. If you can let go of history, please try this:

(1) Open your currently active Firefox profile folder using:

Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" button
(on Mac, "Show in Finder" button)

(2) Leaving that folder open, return to Firefox and Exit

(3) Pause while Firefox finishes updating files in your profile folder

(4) Rename places.sqlite to places.old

(5) Start Firefox. It should import your bookmarks from backup, including tags.

Is the Library dialog accessible again?

Also, to preserve your Firefox settings, copy this entire folder and all its contents to an external drive. In particular, make sure you get the bookmarkbackups folder.

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Hi mdeborah827, regarding blue screens of death, Firefox doesn't usually cause these. One way they could happen is incompatible graphics card drivers. For that, you need to disable Firefox's use of hardware acceleration.

You usually need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).

(WIN) orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced
(MAC) Firefox menu > Preferences > Advanced

On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"

If you restart Firefox, is the issue resolved (or at least improved)?

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This allowed me access to the library with NOTHING in it. I can't access my old tags and bookmarks because NONE of them appear now. This is the fourth time I've lost bookmarks that I carefully preserved. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted Firefox.

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hmm, have you tried reading this article on recovering bookmarks

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Hi mdeborah827, could you check the contents of the bookmarkbackups folder you copied to a safe location -- do you have multiple backed up files with different date stamps and do any of them look large enough to contain your missing bookmarks? Waka_Flocka_Flame linked to an article on how to restore any files that look promising.