Firefox and Thunderbird crash on opening
Since yesterday both firefox and thunderbird freeze upon opening. It seems to happen within seconds and sometime before they even appear on screen and I can just see the process in the task manager. I don't get a crash report, firefox sometimes asks if I want to try safe mode or a reset but it always stops responding before I can even click an option.
I can't even try a new profile because the profile manager freezes too!
I tried downloading the Microsoft safety scanner but it hasn't made a difference!
Any ideas?
All Replies (10)
Hi nowinaminute,
you can start Firefox in Safe Mode by holding down the shift key while starting Firefox.
Can you open Firefox this way?
Hi there,
No that doesn't help unfortunately.
Try to boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.
They appear to work ok in safe mode, interestingly they seemed to be ok when I booted back into normal mode but it didn't last, I could browse freely for about 40 seconds then it froze again and now both programs freeze almost instantly again.
If you have submitted crash reports then please post the IDs of one or more crash reports that have this format:
- bp-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
You can find the IDs of the submitted crash reports on the about:crashes page.
- You can open the about:crashes page via the location bar, like you open a website.
If you can't open Firefox then see:
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Mozilla_Crash_Reporter#Location_of_crash_reports
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Mozilla_Crash_Reporter#Viewing_crash_reports
If it works in Windows Safe mode then you have a problem with other software, likely security software or a system driver, that is running on your computer.
Make sure that you have the latest updates of your security software.
You can use the Autoruns utility to see which software and services gets started.
I can find the crash reports manually the but the most recent one is from August last year!
I haven't changed any drivers recently, the only updates have been to firefox and thunderbird a few days before this started.
Windows security essentials is up to date.
Okulungisiwe ngu nowinaminute
Actually come to think of it there were some windows updates on the 14th...
A lot of .net framework updates, will try removing them as I don't have system restore activated.
Funny how these updates take seconds to install yet minutes each to uninstall, almost like you're being punished for removing them lol
Removing the updates didn't work, in the end I found a program in the startup list with the tale tale randomly generated file name "ziwae.exe" description: WPCMaintenanceComputer Copyright: National Aircraft Expert!!!!
Needless to say taking care of that resulted in firefox and thunderbid behaving normally!
Apparently the Microsoft scanner is NOT catching everything!
Okulungisiwe ngu nowinaminute