Firefox Woes [Fixed]

[electrochrisso]

Has anyone encountered this problem before, and even better have a solution as to what has gone wrong.

I have been having intermittent problems with Firefox 11 for a while, and it has finally screwed something up with windows, after it had a major crash, which has also effected the normal loading of IE9 too. After a fair bit of time searching the web, found that a lot of other people have had the same thing happen, for a few years now,so it is not just limited to FF11, but the gurus of FF have no solution to fix the f***up. No point in upgrading to FF13, as the consensus on the web is FF is getting worse as it gets more bloated, this is true because when I went back to FF3.6.28, it runs so much faster and smoother, but did not solve the mess FF has left behind.

The Problem:
Firefox will not open until there are 2 firefox.exe Processes running in the Task Manager, one uses about 2mb the other about 14mb, this will happen only after several attempts trying to get FF to run normally, when I close FF there is still one instance in the task manager, but will be gone from the Applications tab, same with IE which also takes several attempts to load, then there are 3 instances when running, when I close either of FF or IE and kill off the remaining instances it will also close the other browser at the same time. If I run as Administrator it will load first time, every time, with only one instance in the processes.

I uninstall FF11 and IE9, then install FF 3.6.28, same problem, at least it gave a little more explanation to why it will not load properly unless as administrator, a dialogue box comes up XUL Runner, Couldn't Read Application.ini, I have checked and it is there.

The only thing I can think of is a registry entry has been corrupted, or some other corrupted network related script, and perhaps when run as administrator, takes a different path when firing up the browsers.

All of my other programs seem to load and run ok, including the many html editors, with built in browsers, and PB web gadget runs as good as usual, even though IE has been removed, but I guess the API stuff is still there.

A big thanks to anyone who could come up with an answer to this.

[IdeasVacuum]

I don't have a definitive answer but most of FF's woes actually seem to be add-ons compatibility. For that reason, v13 is a good choice because it does checks of the add-ons you have. I'm using v13.0.1.

So, if you get FF running, you could disable all add-ons and see if the stability returns. If it does, you can add them back in one-at-a-time, testing FF along the way.

I think I'd rather save a System Restore Point, un-install FireFox using Revo Uninstaller Revo, install FF v13.

[electrochrisso]

Thanks for reply IdeasVacuum, I will try as a last resort.
I am pretty sure all of the plugins are gone, appart from the usual ones, besides FF will not even load in safe mode, so does not even get as far as the option to load with no plugs. I even uninstall FDM not that I had associated it with FF.
I think it must have something to do with the UAC, because if I disable UAC and try to load FF as administrator it will not load properly, when I enable UAC and run as administrator it loads properly straight away, the other strange thing is WampServer can fire up FF without a problem, and why should this problem also affect the normal loading of IE9, so it must be when FF crashed and dissapeared, it upset some other setting in windows, probably easy to fix if I could find out where.

I will no get too carried away with this, if I cant find an answer, as I can still load in the browser as administrator and it runs ok, and I do not want to play around with my current setup as I have a lot of important programs I use all the time, so when I upgrade my laptop later on this year, and port all of my programs over I will do a complete re-install on this one, probably turn it into a Linux machine.

[IdeasVacuum]

...Of course another solution is to switch to Goggle Chrome, which I find is a bit faster than FF anyway.

[Thorium]

I am using SeaMonkey. Uses also the Mozilla engine but is as bloated as FF.

If you have this problems after a browser crash it's possible you got some maleware that used a exploit in the browser and crashed it while doing so. I would recommend a complete system reinstall.

[electrochrisso]

If you have this problems after a browser crash it's possible you got some maleware that used a exploit in the browser and crashed it while doing so. I would recommend a complete system reinstall.

I did a full malware scan as soon as it happen, and am sure it is not that, besides this has happened to people many times before, and no mention of malware being the cause, and would think that FF would have a notification about this particular problem, also gone through all the malware plugs listed for FF, and I only have what came with the original FF install.
A full system reinstall is out of the question for the time being, until I upgrade later this year, I can live with this, who knows I might find a solution before then, and I will maintain a consistent backup of my data.

[dman]

I switched to Chrome several months ago as FF crashed my system numerous times, it started from V10, it works on other systems, so it maybe a dodgy driver. I find Chrome to be a little faster too.

[electrochrisso]

I have managed to get everything working good again, luckily I found a suitable system restore point, and I only had to spend an hour getting everything back up to scratch.
I could not find a suitable way to solve this problem other than to do a system restore, even though I spent a long time reading dozens of posts related to it, and even the best windows gurus had no answer, other than it pointed in the direction of UAC gets a bit messed up with the browsers, so I guess when FF11 crashed, windows was probably writing to somewhere at the same time.
I have decided to stick with 3.6.22 (until FF team sorts itself out), because it works so much better, and it is the final release, last build on 3/9/2011, so I can assume it is stable, and reliable.

[culita]

every Firefox version until 13.0.1 are slow and crash for extensions reason.
13.0.1 is starting fast, is stable , i use it by 3 weeks i think , i have no problems here! thanks Mozilla !

[electrochrisso]

every Firefox version until 13.0.1 are slow and crash for extensions reason.
13.0.1 is starting fast, is stable , i use it by 3 weeks i think , i have no problems here! thanks Mozilla !

Sounds good, I will test this version out for a while, then upgrade after I hear more good comments.

[culita]

do not upgrade!!!! is wrong !!!! you must uninstall (accept the option to delete your preferences and all stuff is now under firefox)
restart your computer and install 13.0.1 , flash plugin mozzila and ax for internet explorer ,then make sure you know what extension are install over,cause everyone make an extension that slowing down your browser they think they done a great job ..but for you isn't the same..
cheese

[electrochrisso]

Thanks for feedback culita, I am thinking of upgrading soon, so it is probably best to un-install all traces of firefox I currently have, then fresh install the latest version, I think that is what the go is.

[Bisonte]

Thanks for feedback culita, I am thinking of upgrading soon, so it is probably best to un-install all traces of firefox I currently have, then fresh install the latest version, I think that is what the go is.

The ONLY way, if you have troubles before