What causes Firefox not to start and at those times I get this message: Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system.
I am using Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I do not recall the problem occurring when Windows 7 was first released. This has been happening for several months now with all versions of Firefox. 3, 4, and 5. I have searched online for a solution to this problem. I have tried every fix listed here and online that I could find. The problem remains. Does anyone have a fix for this?
All Replies (6)
The following may not completely eliminate having to terminate Firefox through the Windows Control Panel but it will come very close.
Plug-in and tasks started by Firefox may continue after attempting to close Firefox The "X" in the upper right-hand corner closes the Window (same as Ctrl+Shift+W) but even if it is the last Firefox window, it does not necessarily close Firefox .
The only proper way to exit Firefox is to use Exit through the File menu, not the "X" in the upper right corner of last Firefox window. In the Beta that would be Alt+F then X
- Firefox hangs | Troubleshooting | Firefox Support
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Firefox%20hangs#w_hang-at-exit
Use the Windows Task Manger to remove all running firefox.exe in the "Processes" tab of the Windows Task Manager, then restart Firefox.
If Firefox will still not start, remove the parent.lock file from the profile which is created each time Firefox is started to prevent other Firefox tasks from running, see
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use#Remove_the_profile_lock_file
Avoiding Problems with close/restart choose either extension
- Use to close and restart Firefox after enabling or disabling an extension, switching to a new theme, or modifying configuration files, then you don't have to worry about delay or have to look in the Task Manager to see if Firefox is closed yet.
Both extensions use the same keyboard shortcut "Ctrl+Alt+R" or a file menu option.
- "Restartless Restart" extension for Firefox 4.0+ only (2 KB download )
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/249342/ - "QuickRestart" extension (34 KB download)
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/3559/
I have tried Restless Restart with no success. The problem remains. Quick Restart is only compatible with older versions of Firefox. I may try that but I see no reason why I should need to use an older version of Firefox.
I have also used alt + F then X to exit Firefox. The problem remains.
Unfortunately I am giving up on Firefox after all these years as the problem remains, is very annoying, and there seems to be no solution at this point. I will check back in a few months. Or years.
See "Hang at exit":
I have tried every procedure listed in these two articles. The problem remains. I am currently using Firefox 3.6.18. The problem was the same with Firefox 4 and 5. It does not seem to matter which version of Firefox I am running.