Kif,

You asked: "Can you confirm that you have re-installed 3.6.12 on that machine so that both the Win7 and XP PCs are using '12' again?"

Yes, you are correct. I've reinstalled 3.6.12 on both PCs as you figured. In summary, both Win7 and WinXP machines are now running 3.6.12, the Invisible Hand add-on has been uninstalled from both, and Firefox has been running on both with NO unclosable tabs having shown up since the point of the IH removal. :)

I'll be sure to post back if there is any change.

Frank

Hi again Frank.

Thanks for the clarification.

As noted above, I've not had much opportunity to test myself, but from your findings so far, IH does appear to be involved. Good stuff - hopefully your version of '12' will keep going without further issue.

But appearances can deceive. One can't discount the possibility that the re-installation of Ffox 3.6.10 and then 12 itself may have corrected an earlier faulty installation of '12', and that IH's role is co-incidental. Also, going from '10' to '12' obviously avoids 3.6.11, and it could be that the '11' update might also have been a factor.

What I might do now is to re-install '12' myself (as you did, by ignoring '11'), but also keep IH Add-on installed. If 3.6.12 runs normally thereafter, then the problem may have been caused by a dodgy update process, and IH's involvement may be either contributory (an interaction of two flaws) or co-incidental (in the wrong place at the wrong time, so to speak), rather than actually being the single source of the problem. It would be helpful if the growing number of people with the non-closing tab issue could post up whether or not they also have Invisible Hand installed. If not, then it may be reasonable to assume the root lies elsewhere. I for one know someone using '12' on Win7 with IH, but is not reporting problems. (I'll check again on that, just in case.)

Nevertheless, even assuming that Invisible Hand IS directly related to the problem, that would still lead to some unanswered questions. First is why did disabling the Add-ons (as was recommended above) have no effect? Second, why has '10' proved to be more robust than '12' in coping with the problem? (It took six days, without any subsequent changes to Ffox or any Add-ons, for the problem to reappear with '10', when it has been a daily problem using '12'.) Third, why has the phenomenon been random?

This last one hints at a boot problem, although for me 'locking' has occurred with tabs that were opened, subsequent '12' being loaded, as part of a browsing session, so maybe we're looking at an issue involved with how tabs are opened.

I'll let you know of any progress, and will monitor the thread for how you're getting on, Frank. However, because of the intermittent nature of the problem, I don't want to post anything positive prematurely in case it sends us in the wrong direction.

Cheers,

Kif

Duplicate entry removed.

Kif, you said, "... assuming that Invisible Hand IS directly related to the problem, that would still lead to some unanswered questions. First is why did disabling the Add-ons (as was recommended above) have no effect?"

To clarify, my experience (prior to my Invisible Hand 'discovery') was that: I restarted FF 3.6.12 in Safe Mode and ran it with no add-ons. There was no problem with an Unclosable Tab (UT). I then re-enabled each add-on in turn (including IH) and did not experience a UT. Thinking that just having used Safe Mode had apparently cured the UT problem, I restarted FF in normal mode. BUT -- the UT problem came back. That's when I started flailing. Using the simplistic logic that I didn't have the UT problem a few days ago, I decided to uninstall all my most recent add-ons. When I uninstalled three add-ons including IH, the UT problem went away (and hasn't reappeared since then). I then looked at the add-ons that I had in the WinXP machine and realized that the only one I had in common on both machines was IH. I uninstalled IH from the WinXP machine (having done nothing else to FF) and the UT problem went away there also. Post IH removal, I realize that my testing was not done in a purely scientific way, but my feeling is that since I don't have the UT problem anymore I'm happy and I don't need any more proof (i.e., for me, case closed). :)

Frank

Hi Frank.

That's great. Thanks for all your input, and I hope your browsing remains trouble-free.

For myself, FF on my laptop with '12' minus Invisible Hand seems to be working, but my desktop with '12' re-installed over '10' (without re-installing '11'), and with IH running, seems to be going okay too, which is a bit confusing! If the tab problem comes back I'll have a go at your method.

Cheers,

Kif

Kif,

Yes, thanks, my browsing using FF 3.6.12 on both machines since uninstalling Invisible Hand has been great. No unclosable tabs on either one since I uninstalled IH. :) I hope your browsing continues to be pleasant also.

I wish there was an add-on that could vet all add-ons (not just offer the canned warning that they're not compatible with the latest version of FF) and if there's a bad actor in the bunch, tell us which one it is, maybe even why. Over half of my current add-ons have been flagged in the past that they're not compatible, but they (and FF) continue to work just fine (with the exception of IH), thanks to the services of Nightly Tester Tools.

Frank

Hi Frank.

Just a quick update to start. After re-installing '12', the tab problem re-occurred with IH installed, but not as vigorously as before - it took a while be manifest itself, as it did with '10'.

So I also uninstalled IH2.8 and things seem to have improved. I have since installed IH2.4 as a further test (v2.7 is almost as recent as v2.8, so might not have been a good testbed). Using IH2.4 seems to be working fine so far... famous last words!

I agree it seems odd that Add-ons seem not to be fully tested or vetted that allows this sort of thing to happen, but it also has to be said that while there are 47 (so far) registering this as a problem in the counter above, that is a small percentage of total users. Nevertheless, when I first came here it was only a handful.

Unfortunately, those other users visiting here aren't reporting whether they are running IH2.8 or not. Consequently, the recommended solution we seem to have found might not be entirely accurate. I'm still a bit bothered about whether 3.6.11 had a part to play, as I wasn't making much progress switching off Add-ons and using Safe Mode until I overwrote '12' with '10'. Stability remained improved (but not perfect) after re-installing '12' over '10', while my laptop was still blighted running an untouched version of '12' which had previously been '11'. (I hope that wasn't too confusing!)

So to summarise, what we might've found is that:

1/ if you are running Invisible Hand 2.8 on Firefox 3.6.12, uninstall the IH Add-on, relaunch Firefox, and see if the problem persists.

2/ if you are not running IH2.8, or uninstalling IH2.8 doesn't work, try installing 3.6.10 over the top of 3.6.12 (i.e. not uninstalling '12' first'). If that fixes it, either stick with using '10' and hope '13' is better, or try re-installing 3.6.12 over the top of 3.6.10 if you want to have the most recent version. You can get a copy of 3.6.10 from the oldapps.com website (I found trying to get a copy of '10' from Mozilla very difficult and gave up.)

3/ if the problem has gone away, and you want Invisible Hand back (because it is rather useful), try installing the 2.4 version, and hope that 2.9 is better. 2.4 can be found through the Mozilla add-on pages; the "View all versions" link is tucked away at the bottom of the IH front page.

But with all the above, give it time, because even if the tab issue appears fixed, the problem has a random element to it which might be deceptive.

I think - or hope - I'm done. Thanks again for your input, Frank, and for bringing my attention to Nightly Tester Tools, too - I wasn't aware of this Add-on, and will have a look.

Happy browsing,

Kif

LATER: Got a message from my friend using 3.6.12 on Win7 with IH2.8. She wasn't having problems, but now is. She'll try uninstalling IH2.8, then re-installing IH2.4. Since she has not performed any other tinkering with Ffox or her Add-ons, this might provide more information as to whether IH2.8 alone is responsible. -K-

Kif,

You can get a copy of any version of Firefox all the way back to 1.0 from FileHippo.com at this link:

http://www.filehippo.com/download_firefox/

These are just a few of the more recent ones: Firefox 3.6.12 Firefox 3.6.11 Firefox 3.6.10 Firefox 3.6.9 Firefox 3.6.8 Firefox 3.6.7 Firefox 3.6.6 Firefox 3.6.4 Firefox 3.6.3 Firefox 3.6.2 Firefox 3.6 Firefox 3.6 RC2 Firefox 3.6 RC1 Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 Firefox 3.6 Beta 4 Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 Firefox 3.6 Beta 2 Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 Firefox 3.5.15 Firefox 3.5.14 Firefox 3.5.13 Firefox 3.5.12 Firefox 3.5.11 Firefox 3.5.10 Firefox 3.5.9 Firefox 3.5.8 Firefox 3.5.7 Firefox 3.5.6 Firefox 3.5.5 Firefox 3.5.4 Firefox 3.5.3 Firefox 3.5.2 Firefox 3.5.1 more...

(Sorry, they were copied and pasted as a column, but they show up in this post as an unformatted paragraph.)

And yes, the Nightly Tester Tools add-on is your "key to the kingdom" of Firefox.

Enjoy!

This will probably be my last post on this topic, unless something changes for the worse. But I'll keep checking back to see how others are doing.

Frank

Oldapps.com has previous versions of Ffox from 0.8 as well (but why you'd want anything less that 1.0 is beyond me!), but thanks all the same for the tip.

-K-

I too had this problem after the latest Firefox update. I also am (was) running Invisible Hand. I merely disabled it, not uninstalled it, restarted FF and the tabs were behaving correctly! I then enabled Invisible Hand again, and the tabs were acting up again, where the 1st tab is always there! Even after you 'close' it when it's the only tab, and then you open a new tab, and the 1st is there again! So, it's Invisible Hand somehow interfering with it. I will wait until Invisible Hand posts an update and maybe that will correct it.

Hi "gwilliamhouse".

Thanks for confirming what was hitherto just suspected. The odd thing is that I disabled IH2.8 and it made no difference - only removing it seemed to work - which kind of led me astray.

There are seem to be inconsistencies from person to person (or rather system to system!), since I had fewer problems with IH2.8 using 3.6.10 than using 3.6.12, but IH2.8 does seem to be the culprit regardless. However, I'm still finding IH2.4 is working with Ffox 3.6.12 just fine.

Kif

Started having this problem recently. Based on previous posts I uninstalled Invisible Hand (which I just added recently) and that solved the problem. Using Win 7, Firefox 3.6.2. Didn't check IH version before I uninstalled.

I've had this problem for a while now too. I'm running Windows 7 , FF 3.6.12 and also have IH 2.8 installed. I disabled all add ons and the problem went away, I added them back one by one to see which one brought the problem back. Much to my surprise, IH was not the culprit, at least not after several restarts of FF and various testing.

The real culprit, as evidenced by several process of elimination tests was StumbleUpon toolbar 3.76. After I enabled it (last one on the list to be re-enabled) the problem came back. I disabled it, and the problem went away again.

Anyone else seeing cases where SU is causing this tab problem?

Hi Dnoo.

I've never used StumbleUpon, so for me that wasn't an issue. As noted above, I did find that for some reason disabling the Invisible Hand 2.8 add-on wasn't sufficient - otherwise I'd've found the problem earlier - but that IH had to be uninstalled completely. Of course, the randomness of the problem did make accurate testing difficult, because one couldn't predict whether FF would misbehave or not each time the browser was opened to check for changes in performance.

It could be that there is also something amiss with StumbleUpon which has the same effect, or that the SU toolbar and IH2.8 in combination is an issue, but I couldn't comment on that. However, I don't think it's a co-incidence that so far no-one has reported having this problem without have IH as well.

As an FYI, I'm still using 3.6.12 with IH2.4 and still having problem-free browsing so far.

Kif

Why does this result shows only on page 6? Maybe FF need google's help in operating a search engine? theres has been more posts similar to this and it is also not sshowing in search???

Anyway, my first tab is suddenly closing, but now the last tab is not closing.

I was having the same problem using FF 3.6.12 and Invisible Hand 2.8. I have disabled IH and will see how it goes.

Thanks for the feedback on this. Unfortunately it didn't show up in testing and we haven't been able to reproduce the problem, but we have received similar reports from a few users.

There are two fixes for this issue: - Some users have reported that simply disabling and then re-enabling InvisibleHand fixes the problem.

- If that doesn't work, please roll back to version 2.4 which definitely does not have this problem. The only functional difference between 2.8 and 2.4 is that 2.4 does not support 1-click sharing of deals from InvisibleHand to facebook/twitter. 2.4 is available from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11377/versions/

Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused. We're working to fix this.

Feel free to email me on info@getinvisiblehand.com

Best

Robin (InvisibleHand Founder)

Incidentally, we've been trying and trying to reproduce this - unsuccessfully so far. So we suspect that there might be another add-on conflicting with InvisibleHand.

Could anyone affected by this issue post a list or screenshot of their other installed extensions?

Thanks for your help.

Robin (InvisibleHand Founder)

Robin wrote: "So we suspect that there might be another add-on conflicting with InvisibleHand. "

I'm back here because I received an update notice that IH2.9.1 was out. I installed it yesterday evening , and today I had locking tabs that wouldn't close again. I've gone back to 2.4 for the second time, and things seem fine again. I am still using FF3.6.12, and the only add-on installed subsequent to my last posting is Nightly Tester Tools, on Frankie's recommendation (see above).

I've appended a screenshot of my current add-ons as requested, to which you need to add Norton IPS 2.0 and Reload All! 0.9.5.2, which are beyond the scroll.

Since replacing 2.8 with 2.4, I have had no repeat problems with Firefox. The add-ons, when updates have arrived, have all been updated, save IH2.4. Only the arrival of IH2.9.1 has ended that run.

I don't think it's a co-incidence that 2.8 has added features over 2.4, and that IH2.8 appears to be less stable. Given that the same browser version using varying versions of the same add-ons has remained stable, until IH2.8 or above is installed, suggests more that the later versions of IH are conflicting with other add-ons than other add-ons conflicting with IH.

Back again, and I'm hoping this will be the last time.

I've been using the beta version IH2.9.2 on my desktop PC for three days now. I also replaced 2.4 with 2.9.1 on my laptop to run side-by-side tests, but just as with 2.8, 2.9.1 kept locking tabs open as it had on my desktop; in fact it seemed rather worse than it has been with 2.8, but that's a subjective observation. The laptop has now been had 2.9.2 running for two days.

Joy of joys, Invisible Hand 2.9.2 seems to have fixed it, with all attempts to make it mess with Firefox failing. IH3.0 is due out today (at time of writing), and that will carry some of the DNA of 2.9.2, I believe.

So thanks to Robin and his team for fixing IH so we can all run the latest version again, and to everyone, especially Frank, who contributed to this thread.

Kif