Firefox browser question [Archive]

slofox

19th September 2011, 17:44

Last four days, Firefox (6.0.2) keeps crashing on me every five bloody minutes.

Never done it before. Uninstalled/reinstalled. Checked and updated plugins etc. No viruses ad/spyware show in scans. To the best of my knowledge, I have changed nothing between it not happening and happening. But it's still happening.

A look at Firefox feedback pages seem to indicate that this is common - lots of similar grizzles.

Any ideas?

2Seat_Terror

19th September 2011, 17:47

I assume this is in Windows?

Not sure on a fix (if there is one) but you might try Google Chrome in the meantime. It's a rather nice browser as well, 2nd choice for me after Firefox.

steve_t

19th September 2011, 17:50

I'm on 6.0.2 as well and have had no problems. My thoughts are that it's one of your plugins that's causing issues.

sil3nt

19th September 2011, 17:52

http://www.google.com/chrome

steve_t

19th September 2011, 17:57

I'd move to Chrome but Firefox remembers heaps of passwords that I don't :facepalm::innocent:

martybabe

19th September 2011, 18:12

Yup, had loads of similar issues with Firefox. Don't use it any more, Chrome FTW.

slofox

19th September 2011, 18:16

I assume this is in Windows?

Not sure on a fix (if there is one) but you might try Google Chrome in the meantime. It's a rather nice browser as well, 2nd choice for me after Firefox.

Yeah, windows - XP.

Have thought about Chrome. Might give it the whirl...just hate using IE.

Funny how it goes along just fine for weeks on end and then suddenly, BOOM! Dumb machines. :angry:

Hitcher

19th September 2011, 18:18

I'd move to Chrome but Firefox remembers heaps of passwords that I don't

Chrome does too. Recent "upgrades" to Firefox have made it virtually indistinguishable from Chrome, minus the web store and a much tidier way of syncing across whatever location you're working from.

slofox

19th September 2011, 18:23

Chrome now in use. OK so far (2 minutes) :whistle:

Hitcher

19th September 2011, 18:30

The only problems you're likely to have with Chrome is if you've got less that 1 MB of RAM. Otherwise you'll soon grow to love it.

slofox

19th September 2011, 18:33

The only problems you're likely to have with Chrome is if you've got less that 1 MB of RAM. Otherwise you'll soon grow to love it.

2MB or so. Upgraded that a couple of moons ago.

SPman

19th September 2011, 18:39

Was running Firefox beta 7.0 on the laptop. After the last update on Saturday, it lost all it's functionality, no tabs, no refresh/forward/back.....etc etc etc. Bugger it - reinstalled FF 4.0!

sinned

19th September 2011, 19:45

Yeah, windows - XP.

Have thought about Chrome. Might give it the whirl...just hate using IE.

Funny how it goes along just fine for weeks on end and then suddenly, BOOM! Dumb machines. :angry:

The problem may not be Firefox but operating system. I see you are running XP. Best thing I did was bin the XP PC and buy a new one running Win7. I have auto updates on and run Uniblue Registry Booster to keep the registry clean. All my random XP problems have gone and Firefox is so reliable and cool.

Hitcher

19th September 2011, 19:52

I have auto updates on and run Uniblue Registry Booster to keep the registry clean.

I don't like the devious ways companies like Uniblue try to sell things to you. Fork over your hard earned coin and then find that there's more stuff you need to buy for a proper job. I use PC Tools. That's the same reason I gave up on AVG antivirus -- the pricks made it increasingly hard to find their free version. Avast won that battle. Until the licenses expire I'm currently using McAfee, not because it's good but because it was free on a new Dell.

sinned

19th September 2011, 20:01

I don't like the devious ways companies like Uniblue try to sell things to you. Fork over your hard earned coin and then find that there's more stuff you need to buy for a proper job. I use PC Tools. That's the same reason I gave up on AVG antivirus -- the pricks made it increasingly hard to find their free version. Avast won that battle. Until the licenses expire I'm currently using McAfee, not because it's good but because it was free on a new Dell.

You are correct about the marketing approach of uniblue. However, I did the google search for tools and the uniblue product was one of the best so I handed over $ and installed it. I also bought norton360 a year or so ago for virus + protection and don't have any reason to regret that cost. Because the PC is so important to me I am prepared to pay for good products.

2Seat_Terror

19th September 2011, 20:17

sugilite

19th September 2011, 20:48

I had that firefox issue as well, not responding comes up every few minutes (9 to be exact for my machine) though it would come back for another 9 minutes after 45 seconds or so. I too noted all the others having this issue on the mozilla forums. I tried all the suggestions and got no where. The only thing that fixed it for me was completely uninstalling it, including personal preferences, settings and other details.

1st I downloaded the latest version, then I backed up my bookmarks from the bookmarks menu (import/export). Then I uninstalled and ticked the remove personal settings box. I used the iobit registry cleaner just to be sure. I rebooted, installed from new and the problem went away. I tried chrome, and a few others, but firefox suited my work processes better. I was very relieved when that issue finally went away.

steve_t

19th September 2011, 20:57

Chrome does too. Recent "upgrades" to Firefox have made it virtually indistinguishable from Chrome, minus the web store and a much tidier way of syncing across whatever location you're working from.

Yup, I know that Chrome and IE also will remember passwords for me but I can't remember the passwords to give to Chrome and I can't be bothered getting a bunch of passwords emailed to me cos I'm lazy so it's easier for me to stick with FF :innocent:

Or does installing Chrome copy over all bookmarks and passwords from your old browser these days?

sil3nt

19th September 2011, 21:11

There is a setting in chrome (most browsers have this as far as i know) to import browsing data from any of the browsers you have installed.

http://blogmines.com/blog/images/upload/2009/06/image15.png

sinned

19th September 2011, 21:12

Yup, I know that Chrome and IE also will remember passwords for me but I can't remember the passwords to give to Chrome and I can't be bothered getting a bunch of passwords emailed to me cos I'm lazy so it's easier for me to stick with FF :innocent:

Or does installing Chrome copy over all bookmarks and passwords from your old browser these days?
Another diversion - passwords. I installed Roboform to manage all my passwords and logins to sites. Over 100 logins with strong passwords on most of them and 1 login via Roboform. I also have a usb drive with roboform and data for travelling. All problems solved for ever.

scracha

19th September 2011, 21:44

Another diversion - passwords. I installed Roboform to manage all my passwords and logins to sites. Over 100 logins with strong passwords on most of them and 1 login via Roboform. I also have a usb drive with roboform and data for travelling. All problems solved for ever.

The big flaw in that is if you plug in your Roboform USB drive into a PC containing a key logger. Then the bad guys have ALL your passwords.

Uniblue is adware as far as I'm concerned. It also doesn't uninstall properly (leave reg entries, task scheduler entries and files everywhere).

steve_t

19th September 2011, 21:53

There is a setting in chrome (most browsers have this as far as i know) to import browsing data from any of the browsers you have installed.

You're the man! But I'm still fine with FF. I dunno why. It's just familiar. However, when I have used Chrome, it seemed to have the edge on speed... really fast!

slofox

20th September 2011, 08:12

steve_t

20th September 2011, 08:18

So, all's good now with GC installed?

slofox

20th September 2011, 08:24

So, all's good now with GC installed?

Ran fine yesterday whilst I was using it. No crashes and slightly faster than FF.

Still got FF on this (home) computer. But it runs Vista, not XP. (Don't get me started on Vista!) No FF problems so far.

Thing is, the work puter that had the problems is relatively geriatric now and does not have a lot of disk space available which I believe does not help. I could swap them over but it's such a hassle I'll prolly leave things as they is...

steve_t

20th September 2011, 09:16

Ran fine yesterday whilst I was using it. No crashes and slightly faster than FF.

Still got FF on this (home) computer. But it runs Vista, not XP. (Don't get me started on Vista!) No FF problems so far.

Thing is, the work puter that had the problems is relatively geriatric now and does not have a lot of disk space available which I believe does not help. I could swap them over but it's such a hassle I'll prolly leave things as they is...

Hard drives are pretty cheap these days. You could easily grab another one for the work computer and shift all your documents, photos, movies etc to that 'data' drive and leave the C: to just be for the windows installation etc.

Something like this
http://www.pbtechnz.com/?item=EXHDD0160

Or this
http://www.pbtechnz.com/?item=HDDWD4504

I'd probably buy new to reduce the risk of data loss on failure though you hopefully have backups for everything anyway ;)

avgas

20th September 2011, 09:22

I downloaded Linux Mint (using a file-sharing program :shit:) and therefore have no use for any anti-virus, registry cleaner, or other such shouldn't-really-be-needed performance sapping software. :innocent:
You can download it via here...
http://www.linuxmint.com/

Most user friendly linux out there with the exception of MacOS and Android.
Very handy to "XP/Vista" users. As many things are similar.

slofox

20th September 2011, 11:45

Hard drives are pretty cheap these days. You could easily grab another one for the work computer and shift all your documents, photos, movies etc to that 'data' drive and leave the C: to just be for the windows installation etc.

Something like this
http://www.pbtechnz.com/?item=EXHDD0160

Or this
http://www.pbtechnz.com/?item=HDDWD4504

I'd probably buy new to reduce the risk of data loss on failure though you hopefully have backups for everything anyway ;)

I have an external hard drive that I use as daily backup of vital files. This is backed up again to the home computer "once a week"...(which means when I remember...)

The internal HDD is still pretty crowded though - not a lot of space left. I really ought to get in there and chuck some junk out I suppose...one day.

slofox

20th September 2011, 17:26

Hmmmmm - interesting.

Had the full system crash this afternoon - happened when I changed pages on the browser.

After a restart, the AV program (Trend Micro) popped up a box warning about a latest upgrade maybe causing instability. Plus other possible causes as well of course.

On reflection, I remember a similar incident about two weeks ago. Not that long before FF started falling over.

So I've put in MSE instead and shut down Trend-Micro. So I'll see what happens over the next week or so and maybe give FF another trial in a day or two. Watch this space...

george formby

20th September 2011, 17:31

I may be a million miles away but the last time I had an issue with FF playing up I just had to clear the cache & update it & bingo, jobs a carrot.

I run FF on 8 computers & very rarely have an issue, Internet Exploiter on the other hand.....

scracha

20th September 2011, 18:57

I dropped Norton years ago after running into endless problems with it. Had to take it to the PC shop to get it uninstalled - wouldn't allow uninstall on its own...shop (PB Tech) had a special program to uninstall it.
"Special program". Like the freely available "Norton Removal Tool" on the Symantec website? There's "special programs" I've had to use to remove AVG, Avast, Trend, Nod32, etc so in its defence, Norton AV/IS has been pretty damn good since 2009ish. Trend's in the naughty corner this week as their little blue "Free Upgrade to 2012" is popping up on lotsa computers and buggering some of them up good style.

Be warned that if your PC is old and shite it might not have SATA interfaces for new hard drives. Quick way to quickly reclaim disk space is to reduce the System Restore disc space from it's default 10%. Similar with the recycle bin (1% is fine lol!). You can also erase your temp folder contents (use crap cleaner if you can't do cmd prompt) and if you view hidden files you can erase most of the $NTUninstallKBblahblah files in the c:\Windows folder (do not erase $hf_mig$ though).

If you're really short of space, then you can change the default location of the "My Documents" folder (docs, videos, music, photos) to your external USB drive.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310147

Yeah...linux.....advisable if you're just surfing the web, word processing & email, especially on a shite old pc. However, if you're doing other stuff then there's just too much stuff it CAN'T do without a lot of shagging around (especially for the average computer user).

steve_t

20th September 2011, 19:32

Be warned that if your PC is old and shite it might not have SATA interfaces for new hard drives.

http://www.pbtechnz.com/?item=HDDWD1257

;)

scracha

21st September 2011, 07:05

http://www.pbtechnz.com/?item=HDDWD1257

;)

I suspect that is no longer available. I normally use PCI->Sata as far better value + when PC shits itself you're still left with a working SATA drive. Remember to add SATA driver BEFORE cloning drive otherwise it's a PITA :-)
http://www.dove.co.nz/jump/4672

Spearfish

21st September 2011, 07:27

You can download it via here...
http://www.linuxmint.com/

Most user friendly linux out there with the exception of MacOS and Android.
Very handy to "XP/Vista" users. As many things are similar.

Is it similar to ubuntu?
I've tried a machine running "ubuntu"(sp?) still working passed its use by date (1998) because of the low resource requirements. Is mint the same thing different flavour? (no pun intended)

avgas

21st September 2011, 08:02

Is it similar to ubuntu?
I've tried a machine running "ubuntu"(sp?) still working passed its use by date (1998) because of the low resource requirements. Is mint the same thing different flavour? (no pun intended)
Yep. Same background, but better user interface. I never had to type a single line of code!!!!!
You want a new program - you go to the program library and download one, it installs itself like any windows PC. Has office/firefox etc already built in and setup. And its a piece of cake to install.
Everything is sort of layed out like XP too. You have a start menu, my documents, settings, programs etc
Also if you install 'wine' on it, you can run lots of windows programs quite well on it too.
Its a shame that none of my work programs operate on it otherwise I would have moved every PC and all the work PC's onto Mint. Its well....mint.
Download it, and put the CD into your computer - give it a trial run before installing it.

slofox

21st September 2011, 09:03

Norton AV/IS has been pretty damn good since 2009ish. Trend's in the naughty corner this week as their little blue "Free Upgrade to 2012" is popping up on lotsa computers and buggering some of them up good style.

I dropped Norton well before 2009 so don't know about recent iterations of it.

Trend is in my naughty corner too - for that very reason! Doubt I'll renew it again.

Incidentally, the external HDD works just fine on the machine in question.