Firefox freezes entire system on first "complicated" web site visited
First, I use the word "complicated" because I think it is the first web site I visit that requires Flash, but I have not been able to prove that. I know it is not all web sites or simple web sites. I didn't want to offer bias in the question by claiming it is Flash, but that is my instinct.
Anyway, I have been working on this for about a month or so, The behavior is as follows. After a Windows reboot, I start Firefox, and after visiting a few websites, it freezes my entire system; no mouse, not ctrl+alt+del, nothing. Completely locked up. After about a minute or two, it unlocks, and I can use Firefox fine until after the next system reboot. Once I know a website is "complicated", ie, causes this problem, it will _always_ cause it if it is the first visited of the complicated class. However, after the initial freeze, I can visit any website, "complicated" or not, including the original one, fine.
So, say site A and site B cause this problem, but site C does not. I can visit site C and ones like it all I want, as soon as I hit A or B the first time, it freezes as above, then I can hit A B or C in any order all day fine after it unfreezes. Once I reboot, I am back to the same situation. It is 100% reproducible in this way.
What I have done/ what I have --
1) I have no extensions and I use the default theme 2) I have tried turning off graphics acceleration as suggested in another article 3) I have upgraded FF and Flash; FF version does not seem to matter 4) I have disabled every single plugin I have. I do note that the length of the freeze is much shorter when all plugins are disabled
None of the above have fixed the problem.
This started happening after I did a Windows update on Apr 7, 2016. I do Windows updates manually, but it is beyond my pay grade to uninstall each Window's update to attempt to find a causal relationship. It may be coincidence,
As I said, I suspect the problem sites require Flash, but I can't prove that. However, it is still a problem when Flash is disabled, as I said.
I run Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium fully updated, Malwarebytes premium AV, and FF 43.0.1. Since I have verified it is independent of FF version since at least 35, I have not checked for updates.
TIA for any help.
Wszystkie odpowiedzi (2)
I previously did the new profile thing, and the same thing happened.
I now believe it is a Windows bug. I started using IE for a problem site, and the problem did occur, just deeper into the site.
I thought it was fine with IE, as my test with FF was to simply visit the site, and it would happen. On IE it did not happen when I did the same thing. However, on IE, when clicking thru parts of the site, it did happen. I guess it is just that the 2 browsers ask Windows to deal with the fonts at different points.
Anyway, if I knew how to disable downloadable fonts on IE, I could conclusively prove that now, but I rarely use IE, so I don't know even if you can do that. Maybe I will look into this if I have some time.
I have never used Chrome on this system, but I believe it is installed. Maybe I will try that as well.
Bottom line, looks like a Windows and not FF bug after all. Again, thanks for your help.
In case it's a broken file issue, you might try: Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files - Microsoft Knowledgebase