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Is Firefox 3 crashing regularly for anyone else?

By
Gary Cutlack
on June 20, 2008 Comments (42)

Or is it just me? About 50 percent of the time Firefox 3 generates this weird error message when I close it down. Not when it's running, but when I close it down. Firefox shuts, then up pops the error. It is marginally annoying, to put it mildly.

No, Firefox, you haven't crashed, I've just closed you down on purpose. Can't you tell the difference between being closed and crashing? You're supposed to be all-new and clever. Internet Explorer has never done this to me (probably because I last used it in 1999).

firefox3-close-down-crash.jpg

I am, and you will no doubt all tell me this is the reason, using Windows Vista. My new PC came with it and I can't be bothered 'downgrading' to XP, OK? And it's definitely a Firefox 3 issue. The previous versions were working just fine.

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  • Marc

    FF3 on XP Pro. Frequent hangs. It doesn't really crash but seems to sort of hang and lock up on some pages, especially on pages with Flash content. Problem is, I can't close it after that and all programs requiring an internet connection (IE, Thunderbird) seem to seize up to. The big problem is, I can't kill Firefox when it hangs. The process won't be killed.

  • Clint Collier

    This is very frustrating. We have 4 computers running FireFox (3.06)and only one of them does this, crashes out of the blue all of the time. It is my wife's desktop so I'm taking a lot of grief over this. All machines are running XP Professional or XP Home. Only one, not the one crashing, has SP3 installed. Only add on installed on the crashing computer is the one is the Skype extension.

    Can find no common thread for this problem!

  • normanw

    I have used every version of Firefox since it was first released, on a number of machines running under Windows 98, Windows XP and Linux. With one minor exception, I have never experienced any problems using Firefox. The exception is actually not a Firefox issue but is caused by the KeyScrambler extension, which sometimes causes Firefox to hang while starting for the first time after the computer is booted. Closing and restarting Firefox overcomes this. The solution would be for me to uninstall KeScrambler, but it does provide valuable extra security in a business environment, so I choose to put up with the very minor inconvenience it occasionally causes.

    A faulty extension or plugin is the most likely cause of the symptoms described. Not all extensions are truly reliable and all should be installed with caution. This is a failing of the problem extensions, not of Firefox. Extensions are provided by independent developers.

    Another possible source of trouble is Win XP Service Pack 3, which has caused a host of problems for many users. There is really no point in installing this since it is little more than a single packaging of all past Win XP updates and bug fixes. It is possible to revert from SP3 to SP2, which is far more stable, to see if this overcomes the problems being experienced with Firefox. SP3 is known to prevent many applications working normally.

  • I have the same problem. I'm using Vista, and every time I close FF3 (well, more like 95% of the time, but still TOO OFTEN) I get the same message... not a big deal, since FF never crashes when I'm using it... but I hate having to re-log-in to all my websites every time I re-open FF.

  • Brandon

    do you have bitdefender installed? if so disable the antiphishing toolbar, that seems to have fixed my crashing. ff3 was either asking to send an error report everytime i closed it or windows would tell me it crashed. since disabling the bitdefender toolbar it's gone away. i know ff3 and my bitdefender both had updates recently, so one of them is the offender. the toolbar itself never asked to be updated, though.

  • Gary Cutlack

    Yes, I'm happy to report that mine has stopped crashing all the time. Sadly, I didn't notice what it was that triggered it. It just started behaving all of a sudden.

  • Ben

    I have the same problem same window appears for me frequently :(

    did anyine find a soultion for it guys?

  • This happens to me often, although I think only on my Vista machine. Whereas XP does not do this when closing it. Another issue that I have which seems common is sometimes when browsing it just closes down on its own in an instant with no Mozilla crash report or anything. This happens a few times every day.

  • Arun

    yeah i do have the same problem with FF3. i have 2 systems one with vista home premium n another with XP SP2. FF3 crashes in both the systems. the crash is triggered by almost all sites, including gmail, yahoomail & youtube.

  • ACiD

    I've had similar problems and when this forum suggested that I remove addons that may be causing the error I just tried that and it works now without crashing. Before every time I visit this page it crashes on me but now it's not. The addon I disabled is the AVG Safe Search. Maybe it's not yet compatible with FF3.

  • Jim

    It is a complete mess and Mozilla need to do something about it now. Removed, reinstalled, made other recommended fixes, none have worked, there is a serious problem with FF3

  • K

    It seems to crash pretty frequently for me as well. Youtube being the trigger site for me.

    I'm glad I'm not the only one. I've lost quite a few online drawings to this problem. I hope they fix this soon.

  • Heather

    Firefox 3 is crashing an enormous amount. Especially from Gmail and Youtube and Facebook. So it's related to more complex sites I think that use AJAX.

    Pretty bad timing for Firefox because this opens the door for people to switch to Chrome or go back to the latest MSIE.

  • jackoByte

    crashes quite regular for me on xp pro seems to be website related as when I start it again and choose restore previous sessions it crashes again.

  • Fresh XP installation done... Fresh firefox 3 installation done... i just open mailbox... it crashes frequently!

  • Gary Cutlack

    Ever the mighty XP can't handle FF3?

    It's worse than we feared possible.

  • JackA

    Its crashing like anything. FIREFOX is the NEW EXPLORER! - I love firefox, and firefox 3 has some great features, but I haven't been able to shut it down properly without a crash.

    On top of that, has anyone else noticed that the "go" button from the address bar has been removed? now you need to press enter all the time and cant drag and drop addy's to the address box and press go with the mouse. Pain in the arse when your reading stuff on the bed and away from the keyboard. Going to bed with the mouse wasn't a hassle, i don't want to wake up with a keyboard for my pillow though!

  • Gary Cutlack

    If only there was a viable alternative...

  • JackA

    Its crashing like anything. FIREFOX is the NEW EXPLORER! - I love firefox, and firefox 3 has some great features, but I haven't been able to shut it down properly without a crash.

    On top of that, has anyone else noticed that the "go" button from the address bar has been removed? now you need to press enter all the time and cant drag and drop addy's to the address box and press go with the mouse. Pain in the arse when your reading stuff on the bed and away from the keyboard. Going to bed with the mouse wasn't a hassle, i don't want to wake up with a keyboard for my pillow though!

  • sreenivas

    do tell all others..i don hav time to register in all the websites....http://bbayles.googlepages.com/antivu... heplfull...fite against the damn vundo trojan

  • sreenivas

    guys i had this problem too...but now its repaired follow the steps carefully in the link i have give below...this really solves the problem guys....http://bbayles.googlepages.com/antivu...

    its actually caused due to a vundo trojon virus it seems....follow the above link for further details

  • Ron Barham

    I'm on XP. I've had the same trouble since downloading FF3

  • FF3 crashed on Vista...I uninstalled it and tried the "portable" version with the same results.

    I have had no problems on XP.

  • toddb

    I am running Vista --- I crash 6-10 times per day. I am almost ready to switch to IE (ark!)

  • Lee

    Since updated to firefox 3 getting MANY crashes just like the 1 shown above. never did b4 update. xp pro 32bit ..

  • gsantos

    Even worse in my case - it crashes without me instructing it to :p

    Firefox 3 may very well be the most downloaded in 24h (at least that's what they were aiming at) but it's also the buggiest release I've ever seen of it... And I'm growing tired of using it now.

  • aford

    Aham Its pretty crappy. It crashes almost always for me. Dell notebook,INTEL,XP. I am going back to version 2.5

  • Paul

    The same here. Since FF3 I get this message more than 10 times a day. I still can not pin point what triggers it.

    I'm thinking of downgrading to version 2.14 because i didn't have this problem in that version.

  • Tom

    Happens to me to, especially when I am using google reader. Never happened with FF2.

    I have Vista x64

  • I don't even get to the crash screen. FF3 just hangs. I have to use Task Manager to force quit. Not sure what's wrong - I'm using XP Pro 64-bit.

  • Randall Lind

    I have the same issue seems to be every 4th time or so when I shutdown Firefox 3. I am on vista also.

    I didn't have an issue with Firefox 2.0

  • Juan

    It's crasing for me everytime I use it. Windows XP, and Intel inside.

  • John Prado

    Same problem here.

    It crashes regularly.

    Maybe a problem with AMD cpus???

  • FF3 is crashing almost every 5 minutes ! I've tried disabled every plugins, but that's definetely an "inner" problem.

    That's so sad, I love the "awesome bar", but that's just to annoying !

  • felix

    I had the similar problem when I right click a link, FF3 crashed and showed me the message box.

    The problem was solved by finding out and removed the add-on which caused it.

    And the finding was the Download Helper add-on.

  • felix

    I had a similar problem when I right click a link, FF3 crashed and showed me the message box.

    The problem was solved by finding out and removed the add-on which caused it.

    And the finding was the Download Helper add-on.

  • Working fine for me on both Vista and XP. Maybe uninstall all your add-ins/extensions, and FF3 and do a clean install?

  • carlos

    It crashes frequently for me. I´m using an Intel iMac. I temporally solve the problem if I open firefox 2, close it normally and then again open firefox 3. But obviously this is not a desirable situation.



  • Juergen

    I've had FF3 repeatedly crash under XP - always the same page, Plaxo.com, and always right after trying to delete somebody from the adress book...

  • Perros

    I've run it on Vista and XP with no trouble. So I wouldn't expect it to be a Vista issue.

    -Perros-

  • Gary

    I am very much a low-power user and haven't touched any settings since the upgrade. And I defintiely wouldn't want it remembering my past "sessions". That could cause trouble.

  • L.Rawlins

    It could be something to do with the session support that Firefox recently added. Dependant on whether or not you use it or have toyed with its settings of course. (It can save the tabs you currently have open upon exiting in order to re-open them the next time you start the software.)

    Perhaps download the 'PortableApps.com' version of Firefox 3 and see if you have the same problems running it from a memory stick. You'll then be able to troubleshoot whether it's Firefox or the Vista installation of Firefox that's causing your problem on your hardware.

    That's all I can think to advise since I don't use Firefox myself. Hope it helps though.

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