Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Technical Help and How To's Firefox, Vista and ...

OK, I've been having trouble with Firefox in Vista lately, where, after using it for some time, it just stops responding (I can scroll the page, but all links don't work - and the word "Stopped" shows at the bottom). I can close Firefox, but then I cannot open a new session until I restart (trying to end the process in the Task Manager does nothing; the process can't be removed). I have disabled most of my add-ons, only keeping Java because I use GMail, but I can't say that is the problem.

Anybody experiencing something similar?

I don't know if it has to do with the fact that I am using AVG Anti-Virus which I updated to version 9 in the last month, or if for some reason ZoneAlarm started causing trouble, or I have some malware that I don't know about.

Any suggestions?

malu

Well, I've been having a similar problem, but I'm still using XP. Firefox doesn't tell me it's stopped - it just freezes. I can't do anything else that involves the internet until the computer is restarted. And I usually can't accomplish this in the proper way. I have to unplug the computer. I also use AVG. I wouldn't say AVG freezes, but it seems to get "stuck" and doesn't turn off after a routine scan. I've been more thinking this is an AVG problem and as soon as I can get to Office Max or Walmart, I'm going to get another anti-virus and try that.

I hope it's not AVG. I've never had any conflicts with it before. One thing I did notice is that my wireless network seems to have intermittent connection problem around the time this happens, but then the network is fine and Firefox is not.

I'll keep trying to find an answer/a solution to this problem.

malu

My shortcut to these boards is saved in Firefox and I am using Windows XP. When I try to open it, I frequently get a message that Firefox cannot open because the last session has not closed. Luckily, if I close everything and wait a minute I can usually get back into it. But my antivirus program is McAfee, so I don't think it's an antivirus problem.

Let me explain in detail what was going on:

I would use Firefox normally for some time and then as I would try to click on some link, it would try to change the page (or reload it) as if the connection was VERY slow with the progress not moving on the status bar (at the bottom) and sometimes showing the word "Stopped" on the bottom left. And it would stay like that forever.

If I exited (through menu) or just closed the window(s), the window will disappear as if it was OK (no error), but after waiting a few minutes, looking at the Task Manager, the Firefox process would still be there, and trying to end the process wouldn't do anything.

Trying to open a new Firefox window after that would give me the "the session is already open" error, and the only solution was to restart the system (very annoying).

Yesterday, I decided to uninstall completely Firefox, AVG and ZoneAlarm, removing all the personal data, and then reinstalled from scratch, first ZoneAlarm, then AVG and finally Firefox. Let's see if the problem still continues. I haven't had the problem yet today, but it's early to say if it is fixed.

EDIT: Didn't work. Started happening again after 5 hours of use. My next decision is to disable (for a while) the Resident Shield of AVG to see if it helps. That way I'll know it's AVG.

malu

Yes, this happens to me. I don’t get the “stopped” message, but if I check the task manager, it will say the program is not responding.


I’ve had the happen a few times, too.


I’ll be anxious to hear what you find out.

I now have disabled all my add-ons in Firefox (I don't use any weird ones) and the Resident Shield of AVG. I'll have to test it at least for a day to see if the problem returns, as there is no fixed time when the problem happens.

Which version of AVG do you have?

malu

So far (since last Wednesday), I haven't had the problem again. I have since restarted the AVG Resident Shield, but I have uninstalled the Email Scanner module (since I only read emails on web pages, such as GMail, and don't use POP3 or IMAP, anyways). I also currently have Adobe Reader and Java 6 Plugin add-ons enabled (all others are disabled).

Will keep updating if it happens again.

malu

I had to uninstall Firefox from my last laptop when I was using Vista it. It just stopped working so I never did install it again and since I've had my new laptop I kind of scare to even try to install it onto Windows 7.

I haven't had the problem since I last posted (last month). I think that maybe reinstalling everything may have helped.

Or maybe it was a temporary Internet connection problem? Who knows.

malu