Firefox 2.0 Intermittent Crashes

I have been using FF 2.0 for a couple of months now. It works well, much better than IE and the previous versions of FF that I have tried.

Except for an annoying and intermittent problem with the browser crashing.


Every blue moon, it would suddenly freeze up, while a page is loading. The animated loading GIF is still moving, but nothing else is happening at he time when this occurs.

I can not get out of Firefox, and Ctrl-Alt-Del does not work either, to bring up Task Manager.

And I have waited just in case the page was loading very slowly. The most I waited was 20 minutes. That was the very first time it happened.

I would then have to unplug my computer and reboot. I know it's not the safest way to turn off a computer, but have no choice when this occurs.


I know now how to tell it is happening again. Fortunately it had not happened for at least a week now, but I know the odds are not in my favor, as it will happen again eventually unless I find out Why it happens.




Has anyone else here had a similar problem?

what version of Fx 2.* are you using? I'm using 2.0.0.1 on Gentoo GNU/Linux and I occasionally have a similar problem, admitidly I believe it was marked as unstable anyway.

You could always see if Fx 3.0a1 is any better.

www.mozilla.org...
ftp.mozilla.org...

Originally posted by Edn, admitidly I believe it was marked as unstable anyway.

Thanks for the tip, I might just stick it out, until a more tried and true version comes out.

It is only a minor inconvenience, so far. Not a major issue.

[edit on 1/9/2007 by Mechanic 32]

Well, today I finally uninstalled Firefox 2.0, and installed the last previous version of Firefox that I still had the installer for, ver. 1.5.0.4

After having three browser crashes in as many days, I thought it was time to change back to a version that had previously worked well for me.

Will post any odd behaviour here, with this version.

I don't anticipate that happening, but just in case....

I miss the spell checker already..

Mech,

I have been using FF 2.0.0.1 for ... well ever sense it came out I believe and have experienced no probs at all....

I am running XP pro, on a comparatively fast machine, 2.66 Intel duo core, with 2g of ram.

it has worked wonderfully for me. I did read something about some of the themes causing problems. I am currently using cylence, a mainly black theme that goes well with ATS..

Semper

Originally posted by semperfortis
Mech,

I have been using FF 2.0.0.1 for ... well ever sense it came out I believe and have experienced no probs at all....

I'm using the default theme.

For the most part it did work well, as I stated in my original posts here. But in time started having the random crashes. browser would freeze, and I wasn't able to do anything. Not even CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up task manager, to close the program.

So I uninstalled it, and am testing whether I will have the same problems with 1.5.0.4

At least I will be able to narrow down whether v 2.0 was the cause, or something else that is not readily apparent.

I won't conclusively know for a couple days for sure.

I really dread the thought of going back to IE.

That of course, would be the very last resort.

There is always Opera....

I use it when I am on Windows as an alternate. I usually have both FF and Opera up at the same time and just switch between them for checking previous posts etc...

I also use Netscape frequently. It has a new look and seems very user friendly...

Semper

thanks semper.

version 1.5.x.x.x is working okay.

so i'll probably keep this one for now.

I'm using FF 2.0.0.1 I do have an occasional crash but I can usually get out of it with task manager.
The most annoying thing happens if I've been online more than 2 hours, my USB mouse will suddenly quit working. If I plug in my spare USB mouse I can normally get out of that also.
Nothing major so far......

Originally posted by Beer_Guy
I'm using FF 2.0.0.1 I do have an occasional crash but I can usually get out of it with task manager.
The most annoying thing happens if I've been online more than 2 hours, my USB mouse will suddenly quit working. If I plug in my spare USB mouse I can normally get out of that also.
Nothing major so far......

Hmmm... Perhaps it is an issue with wireless/USB mice??

My USB mouse has an adapter so that I can plug it into the PS2 mouse jack, and I was using mine in that configuration.

Not only my mouse would freeze in it's tracks, but so would everything else, it seemed.

I couldn't get into task manager to save my life.

Anywho, 1.5.x.x.x is working okay.

I've had the same issues with FF and my mouse. The mouse starts working again if you unplug it and plug it back in. I don't know why it does that though. My browser stopped crashing after I deleted one of the themes I had downloaded for it. I don't know if you all had downloaded any themes or not, but it's worth a try!

Well I have been having the same problem with FF 1.5.0.9, and this just started about 3 weeks ago.

The symptoms are identical so what does this tell you???

It isn't specific to your computer but is the result of something in our common software changing to cause the software to quit responding, which was why I switched to FF in the first place after IE would crash a couple years back.

Then, I had updated Windows and then IE would quit working.

Now is about the time Win98 is not being supported anymore and the new release of Vista.

My theory is Windows systems are designed to quit working and lose functionality after some time frime by either being coded that way or by being able to remotely add code to them from MS to make them have problems so that users will eventually have no choice and go out and buy new software/systems that will work and be compatible with FF or any software they are using.

Give it another year and you will probably have more and more issues.

I know for sure I will eventually have to buy Vista or XP as my computer is already way outdated...but I am postponing the obvious.

The good thing is it will free up this machine to start tinkering with Linux.

Originally posted by ben91069
My theory is Windows systems are designed to quit working and lose functionality after some time frime by either being coded that way or by being able to remotely add code to them from MS to make them have problems so that users will eventually have no choice and go out and buy new software/systems that will work and be compatible with FF or any software they are using.

Sounds like a conspiracy, I tell ya.

So far with 1.5.0.4 it is working good for me, with the exception of one occurance. What happened this time was that only my mouse cursor wouldn't move. I could activate the "File" "Edit"....etc, functions by hit, or miss. Also I was able to close Firefox through the Task Manager, by Ctrl-Alt-Del.

I believe this was a mouse-only issue though, unrelated to Firefox per se.

Hey, late to the party, I was on FF 1.5 and running perfect and then upgraded to 2.0 and had crash city. Then I wnet back to 1.5 but the crashes continued. In my case...it was a plugin/extension that was unstable and causing issues. I uninstalled it and have never had a problem since.

I stayed on 1.5 BTW, which is a very stable version.

ooh, ooh, ooh, what extension?

I only have a couple, perhaps it was one of them?

I've got Tabmix plus, Fasterfox, and adblock. Although I don't use adblock on ATS, of course.

[edit on 2/21/2007 by Mechanic 32]

Originally posted by Mechanic 32
ooh, ooh, ooh, what extension?

I only have a couple, perhaps it was one of them?

From what I remember, the extension was contacting a server. In fact, it was a gmail calendar extension I believe. It was hanging in the communication phase and causing a serious freeze/crash. P

If you only have a few, write them down and then remove one by one. You should be able to figure out if one of them is a problem and then add them back.

Hope that helps

I will if I ever decide to switch back to 2.0.

I do miss a couple of the features of that version, but this one is working fairly well, so I might just keep on using it.

ACK!!!

I think zedd jinxed me. just kidding, zedd.

Firefox 1.5.0.4 just crashed a few minutes ago, while I clicked a link to

www.i-am-bored.com...

from this post:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

in the status bar (I think that's what it's called) it showed:

"waiting for c12.statcounter.com....."

Everything froze at this point. No mouse movement, no "Ctrl-Alt-Del" options.

I'm going to disable all of my extensions, and see how it goes from there.



[edit on 2/21/2007 by Mechanic 32]

[edit on 2/21/2007 by Mechanic 32]

So far, I uninstalled all of my extensions, and succesfully clicked that link with no problems.

On to reinstalling tabmix plus, and to try that link again.....

So far so good..

Now to reinstall Fasterfox...

Okay still.....

Now with adblock plus installed, but disabled just as before...

Still okay.....


Hmmm...

I can't seem to duplicate the crash.

it will most likely happen again, when I least expect it.

In accordance with murphy's law, no doubt.

[edit on 2/21/2007 by Mechanic 32]

It could be to do with some addon's that you have installed into firefox?

Some of them only work on certain versions of Firefox.

Try disabling them all and if it's ok turn them back on one by one until it crashes again, then you'll know what one is the culprit .