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Firefox freezes on certain websites and paralyzes Windows

  • 9 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by Eric

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continuation of this thread, which I don't think should have been closed: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1041432

I'm adding a website that has caused the same problem. It just froze Windows for almost a minute: http://www.audubon.org/field-guide

This does not happen with the same version of FF on my work computer, also Windows 7. I wish someone at Mozilla would take a look at this issue, as I am not the only one encountering it. --Eric

continuation of this thread, which I don't think should have been closed: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1041432 I'm adding a website that has caused the same problem. It just froze Windows for almost a minute: http://www.audubon.org/field-guide This does not happen with the same version of FF on my work computer, also Windows 7. I wish someone at Mozilla would take a look at this issue, as I am not the only one encountering it. --Eric

All Replies (9)

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Guide to North American Birds

I got on with no problem.


check this:

  • see if there are updates for your graphics drive drivers

https://support.mozilla.org/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration

  • disable protected mode in the Flash plugin (Flash 11.3+ on Windows Vista and later)

https://forums.adobe.com/message/4468493#TemporaryWorkaround

  • disable hardware acceleration in the Flash plugin

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/891337 See also:


Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web Link} by holding down the <Shift>
(Mac Options)
key, and then starting Firefox. Is the problem still there?

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Hello Fred-

  • The graphics drivers are up to date.
  • Your second link pointed to a page that seemed to be addressing a Real Player issue, which I don't think applies to me. But I followed the procedure in the Last Resort section (less the "01." in front of "ProtectedMode=0"). (This might be a better link to for that procudure, btw: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Disabling_Protected_Mode_in_Flash_11.3). With protected mode off, there was no delay loading any of the offending websites. I then closed FF, restored protected mode, restarted FF, and tried all the sites again, none of which froze. This seems to support my earlier conclusion that Flash is not the culprit (from when I followed jscher2000's suggestion near the bottom of page 2 of thread linked at top). I can't be sure that simply restarting FF is enough to trigger my issue; it may require a system restart, which I did not do in the above procedures (see my third post my the original thread linked above).
  • See my original thread regarding FF Safe Mode.

Thanks for your time. --Eric

PS- Do you know if "@" works to ping forum users?

@wizzlbang @charonn0 @jscher2000 @cor-el @alan_r

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EricUniqueUsername said

PS- Do you know if "@" works to ping forum users?

I do not know.

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FYI all- I am still encountering this issue a couple versions of Firefox later. These sites usually (but puzzlingly not always) paralyze Windows at first visit per Windows session: facebook.com http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/tv-listings?cmpid=xf_dash_tvl# and a new one today: birds.cornell.edu/calendar (during the paralysis, the status bar at bottom of FF window read: "transferring data from use.typekit.net") FF 42.0 on Win7 sp1

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Hi Alex- That page refers to this condition: When Firefox hangs, it stops responding to your clicks and keystrokes and doesn't seem to be doing anything. Also, a "(Not Responding)" label is displayed in the title bar and the mouse cursor becomes a spinning wheel when it's over the Firefox window. But the "not responding"/spinning wheel is not what happens on my system. When FF loads certain websites, it paralyzes Windows completely for 20 seconds or so. Quite annoying. And only on the first load of that page during a given Windows session. That aspect must be significant for someone who knows how to troubleshoot these things, but I haven't found anyone yet. I've gone through some of the things on the page you linked, and other procedures presented in the original thread I posted (see link at top). Thanks, Eric

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More info re paralysis: Just now when Facebook paralyzed the computer, the status bar read "transferring data from static.xx.fbcdn.net"

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Thanks, Fred, but the problem is not limited to that server address.