I'm very surprised that a PC with a 3.33 GHz processor didn't come with more RAM than 368Mb. I don't understand how you made it this long with that small amount of RAM, I was having problems with Firefox 3.0 with only 528 Mb.

Either get more RAM if your motherboard came handle more, or stick with Firefox 3.6 until you can replace that PC. BTW, as far as security goes, you should update to the latest 3.6 version - 3.6.24. Firefox 3.6.24 is 16 security versions beyond the 3.6.8 version that you know have - all security updates, no new features and shouldn't be any worse as far as RAM usages goes.

Are you sure that the speed is 3.33 GHz and not something lower?

• Control Panel > System

A very old computer with Windows XP isn't likely to have a CPU with a speed beyond 3 GHz, but more likely to be in the 2 Ghz or lower range.

Edmeister, Thank you for your response. I will look into buying more RAM when I am able.

Also, do you know for how much longer ff 3.6 will be supported? It's easy to think that we all can afford new computers, but that would be a mistake to assume. I will hope to be able to buy some more RAM for my computer soon. I do wonder if my processor would work anyway, though.

I do have another question included in my original description: can you customize firefox to be a very simple and light user interface? Thank you.

Hello corel; You know, come to think of it, I had to wipe the partition several times due to a virus and may have used different install software from my old emachine W 3052, because somehow I kept getting a message that the software that came with the machine was corrupted.

the info. in control panel says it's an Intel(R) Celeron(R) D CPU 3.33 GHz, but it's for an E machine W 3052 and this box is a model T 3502; so your guess is good that it's a different speed. Not sure where to find the info on its processor! I have no book; as I said, it was a hand-me-down. Hmmm... this may be why my bus doesn't work properly... but that's another topic.

But probably no matter what it is, it seems that opening it up and looking at the memory card and then trying to find same speed and more RAM is the way to go. Question is, how much RAM will I need, and if processor is small and slow, would it even work for the higher number ff browsers? What's the highest edition browser that would work on this old machine?

How old is that computer?

You can find the latest Firefox releases here:

• Firefox 8.0.x: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html
• Firefox 3.6.x: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html

thanks, cor-el.

It's old! And... I read the model # wrong; pulled box out and looked with flashlight. It's a T 3508. Specs seems to say the processor is same as above. found this article on specs: http://www.epinions.com/specs/eMachines_T3508_Desktop_PC

edmeister was right in assuming it should have more RAM installed; it has 512.

will download 3.6.24 for now and then hope for a miracle regarding processor. memory seems easier; but how much RAM do I need total? thank you for helping!

uh-oh! i am having terrible problems since i tried downloading firefox 3.6.24. i am now in a horrible loop i can't get out of. i downloaded the installer, installed, keep reinstalling, and now i can't open firefox. i keep getting this message:

"Your computer must be restarted to complete a previous upgrade of Firefox. Do you want to reboot now?"

If i don't reboot, firefox won't open and i just keep getting this same message. if i do reboot and reinstall, the same happens. tried rebooting 3 times. i think i got a bad install. will i lose all of my bookmarks? egad, i hope not.

i can't see any way to roll back to what i had before; except a system restore to yesterday! please advise if you can! BTW, I am using Chrome because FF is unusable! Tried dumping and deleting setup; it didn't help. Add and remove programs: same message. I'm stuck in hell. dammit.

Do a clean (re)install and delete the Firefox program folder (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\).

Download a fresh Firefox copy and save the file to the desktop.

• Firefox 3.6.x: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html

Uninstall your current Firefox version if possible.

• Do NOT remove personal data when you uninstall the current version or you lose your bookmarks and other data in the profile folder.

Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.

• It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.

Your bookmarks and other profile data are stored elsewhere in the Firefox Profile Folder and won't be affected by a reinstall, but make sure that you do not select to remove personal data if you uninstall Firefox.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall

cor-el; i tried! i can't uninstall it. i can't run it. i can't reinstall it; already went to the page and tried as admin. i tried everything. did system restore. am on as admin. right now.

maybe if i install some other version than 3.6.24. but i can't do anything. i am locked in that loop. i can't even get back what i had before i started this, which i thought a system restore would do. i've been at this 5 1/2 hours. it's 2 am. all i get is that message to reboot, or nothing opens. i could go into files but i don;t know which files contain the bookmarks or my personal data. i tried to find them so i could copy and save them someplace... so i am at a total loss as to what to do. there are 411 files in the firefox folder. if the profile information is stored in another place than there, i'd feel better about deleting it. that is, if i COULD delete it. can't do through add or remove programs. i think i will give this up for tonight; morning is fast approaching. i hope to pick this up again tomorrow or wed. (tomorrow is a full day and night); my head is simply not clear enough to do this now. thanks for your help.

i think i will try installing some other older, but newer than 3.6.24 version, if there is one that my computer can handle. ff website doesn't make it easy to find older versions! i can't believe there's nothing between 3.6.24 and ff 8!

i think it's too late. it already uninstalled my profile when i downloaded the installer the first time. then it didn't install it back properly; so no bookmarks! i have a log of the install/uninstall. should i post this as a new question and try to find the deleted files somewhere on this computer? i can send a copy of that log, but need to know if i should post this as a new question. i can't deal with losing all my bookmarks right now. that is too depressing to even think about. let me know what you think. i may be up all night working on this, i may not. right now i am not doing any more actions until i am absolutely sure they will work; and i'm not. looking in the firefox folder, i see that some folders were duplicated but when i try to open things i get messages like "incomplete script", etc. i don't want to do even more damage by doing something wrong when i don;t know what i'm doing!

If you've deleted your profile folder when you uninstalled Firefox and didn't make a backup your personal data then only an undelete utility like Recuva might be able to bring those files back. For bookmarks it would be best to try to recover a JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

• Recuva: http://www.piriform.com/recuva

• https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Recovering+important+data+from+an+old+profile
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Backing_up_and_restoring_bookmarks_-_Firefox

hi cor-el; i am pretty sure i have those json backup files in the backup folder, because i found those. i can't open them to know if they were compromised by the install, though.

i never uninstalled firefox. what i did was save the download installer and installed. it was doing "a little housekeeping" several times, said to reboot, which i did; and now, this mess. i never uninstalled the old firefox; didn't know i had to, as i have not had to before or if i did, the wizard prompted me on what to do.

i have never had problems before upgrading with firefox; this is the first time. status still the same. that loopy message to reboot to finish the upgrade, but of course, the upgrade never finishes and i have a corrupt install; who knows why. 

of course this leads to more questions:

how do i delete the firefox folder when i don't have the option to uninstall it or remove it from add/delete programs? just drag it to the trash? won't i have to also get rid of the corrupted or erroneous registry files too? much of this is beyond my knowledge at this point; i can do basic things on the computer and figure out simple things, but i'm not a techie. can i be sure that the backup files aren't in the firefox folder locatioh when i do delete it? if they're also in there, where should i save them? desktop?

do i use the recurva app first before deleting anything? since i can't get into firefox to do a profile or bookmarks backup, that is out.

thanks so much and especially for the links, which i am bookmarking on opera as admin.

off to do my day. will tackle this again later on tonight; probably after 10 pacific time. thanks for sticking with trying to help me.

hello; i just erased the post i started with, because my status has changed. i searched in the firefox folder and found the uninstall folder, and this time, uninstall worked perfectly, and it gave me an option to save my personal info! YAY! i installed ff 3.6.24 without a hitch; FF is Baaaaaack!

However, I did get a window saying my computer doesn't have enough resources for the latest version of 8, but that I should install the latest compatible version of firefox; which version would that be, I wonder? It takes me to the same page with the ff 3.6.24 downloads. I already have that now.

I am going to mark this as solved; thank you cor-el for helping me with this problem and sticking with me as i whined and moaned, and tried to get the courage to "just do it!"