Mozilla crashing

[NancyATN]

OK, Hoov, as requested starting a new thread. Got issues with Mozilla crashing. Tried uninstall, reinstall. No change. Ran Spy Bot and CCLeaner, no change. Tried following Mozilla's support page suggestions, couldn't make it work. Won't run in Safe Mode either. Very buggy, will sometimes run, then crash, sometimes crash at start up. Open to suggestions.

[Mister2]

Hi Nancy,

A few questions to start:

- Is this your system running XP SP2?
- What version of Firefox are you running?  (Open Firefox and go to Help, About Mozilla Firefox)
- How are you starting Firefox in Safe Mode?
- What exactly happens when you start it in Safe Mode?

Let me know and hopefully we can start to pin down the problem.

[NancyATN]

I'm using XP SP3, Mozilla 3.5.5

I tried starting Mozilla in Safe Mode both through the Programs_Mozilla_Safe Mode and through "regular" Safe Mode with the whole computer in Safe Mode. It still crashes. I'm on Mozilla now, it started "OK" this morning but if I tried again it would probably crash, ie there is no consistency and it is crashing regularly. In response to your last question, nothing is much different in SM than otherwise.

[Mister2]

Have you experienced crashes with Internet Explorer (if you use it)?

Please download the K-Meleon browser, install it and try surfing for a while.  This browser is small and light, but is based on the Mozilla engine.  If you have no problems with this browser then we can move on to explore other areas.

[NancyATN]

No problems with IE at all. Using it now, mostly. Have used Firefox forever and not had a problem. I downloaded the other one and will experiment with it today. FYI, I uninstalled and reinstalled Mozilla when I first started having problems, with no change. Thanks!

[Mister2]

Did you remove your profile when you uninstalled?  Sometimes they can get left behind.
You should find it here - C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile folder>

[NancyATN]

No, I didn't. I will remove again and be sure and remove profile this time. Do you think that will work?

[NancyATN]

OK, uninstalled, manually removed profile, reinstalled ... no go. Still crashed. What's next? The light browser you had me install seems to work fine. Haven't used it extensively, but no problems. Firefox crashes within moments of starting ...

[Mister2]

Thanks for the info, I was wondering if it was the Mozilla engine causing the problem but it seems confined to Firefox.

Download Process Explorer.  Run the downloaded file (named procexp.exe), then go to File, Save As and save the report to your Desktop with the default name (procexp.txt).  Attach that file to your next post.

We can then see what else is happening that may be interfering with FF.

[NancyATN]

Here you go, thanks!

[Mister2]

Thanks, Nancy.
There are a few things there I need to check up on - I don't do iTunes ;)

In the meantime perhaps you could do the following:

Open Firefox and wait for the crash.  Then go to Start, Run, type eventvwr and click OK.  In the Event Viewer window click on 'Application' in the left pane.  If you see a line in the main (right) pane referring to Firefox, double click that line - a new window will open showing the details of the event.  Let me know the Source and the Event ID shown at the top of that window.

Also, and I'm working on a hunch here, run Process Explorer again (close the Event Viewer window it it is still open).  Look for the first line (near the bottom of the list) that starts with 'YahooWidgets.exe'.  Right click that line and select 'Kill Process Tree' and click Yes when the warning box appears.  Wait a few seconds for the process to stop.  Repeat for the next line starting 'YahooWidgets.exe' if it is still there, though it should have gone, too.  Now start Firefox and see if it still crashes.

(The changes you just made will be discarded next time you boot up).

[NancyATN]

I will get to this next step today ... been buried with holiday stuff and no time to mess with it. Thanks!

[Mister2]

No problem - I think we all suffer from that ;)

[NancyATN]

In eventvwr, no line or notification of a Mozilla issue.

Did the YahooWidgets thing, using Mozilla now, will wait to see if it crashes. Stay tuned! We had Christmas last night so I have more time to mess with it now!

[NancyATN]

Still crashing. Awaiting my next instructions.