Firefox crashing

[FredLC]

Hello there, fellas.

Since the version 4 of firefox is out, it's been crashing on my Dell Studio XPS.

I downgraded to version 3 again, but I think using an old version is a security risk.

When version 5 came out, I installed the latest drivers for my video card (a 1mb Geforce GTX 260) directly on the Nvidia site, and installed no problem; than I download and installed version 5 of firefox.

The only difference so far is that it now crashes after the interface shows up, not before (thought it crashes every single time, without allowing me to navigate at all - it simply gives me a "program not responding" message, as the software freezes.

I've seen in the net some vague references of some incompatibility between firefox 4 and nvidia, but have no clue how to fix it. Everything works fine in my laptop (that has an ATX video card).

You guys know how to fix this, or can you point me to somewhere I can find some personalized assistance? I'm using chrome now, and it's good, but I really like the Firefox...

Regards .

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Actually I was under the impression that 4 & 5 are still in beta. I'm using 3.6 currently which is stable. I'd recommend using a stable version unless the beta has features you really interested in (e.g. I use the beta version of Audacity and a few others.)

 

[GoodGame]

4 was live. 3.6 is obsolete and being phased out (losing security support). 5 is supposedly live, not beta.

Probably better to report it to the developers than ask here.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

4 was live. 3.6 is obsolete and being phased out (losing security support). 5 is supposedly live, not beta.

Probably better to report it to the developers than ask here.

Weird. I'm gonna wait until the addons I use are compatible though.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

I am running 5 without any problems...

Probably better to report it to the developers than ask here.

Yup.

 

[Quintillus]

FWIW, Firefox 3.6 is still supported and will be receiving security patches for another couple months. In fact it just got an update within the past week. So running it isn't a security risk, at least not yet. Firefox 4, on the other hand, is not supported, so running Firefox 4 is a potential security risk. 5 is out of beta and is supported.

I'd recommend posting somewhere on Mozilla's site about the problems, they're much more likely to be able to help you. In the meantime, you can run 3.6 through at least July without having to worry about security issues. It's still my preferred version, too, though due to website compatibility reasons.

 

[innonimatu]

You guys know how to fix this, or can you point me to somewhere I can find some personalized assistance? I'm using chrome now, and it's good, but I really like the Firefox...

Firefox definitely went the way of bloatware with version 4 (and so did Opera recently). My suggestion is that you move to seamonkey: far more stable, development wise, than Firefox, you can still use the same add-ons, and hasn't succumbed to the silly idea* of stripping away controls yet.

Of just use a linux distribution which does backports. Debian continues to be my golden standard.

* yes, silly: F11 always worked fine for full-screen!

 

[Zelig]

Firefox definitely went the way of bloatware with version 4 (and so did Opera recently).

How so, for either browser?

(Also, the Opera installer is still less than half the size of the Seamonkey installer.)

 

[Grisu]

do you have any addons installed? if so, have you tried disabling them first?

 

[FredLC]

do you have any addons installed? if so, have you tried disabling them first?

I have a few adds, yes; some dictionaries, a few download helpers - all I used ok in the version 3.x I used, and supposedly, that would only come along after the firefox did a compatibility check. Anyway, I can't uninstall them, the program crashes upon loading, I can't access any menu.

Firefox definitely went the way of bloatware with version 4 (and so did Opera recently). My suggestion is that you move to seamonkey: far more stable, development wise, than Firefox, you can still use the same add-ons, and hasn't succumbed to the silly idea* of stripping away controls yet.

Of just use a linux distribution which does backports. Debian continues to be my golden standard.

Well I use windows 7 in my system.

Anyway, I'll look into seamonkey, nut if I'm forced to change, I'll most likely stay with chrome, that sens to be working fine, and use the internet explorer for the websites with compatibility issues (seems a lot of the web is optimized only for IE, or IE and FF; Anyway, chrome is a good bet as the google people do have a nack for getting large market shares...

Regards .

 

[innonimatu]

How so, for either browser?

Well, opera is trying to trow in everything but the kitchen sink, and the newer versions of Firefox are memory hogs with the developers not caring about fixing memory leaks.

Anyway, I'll look into seamonkey

If you're coming from firefox 3 do try that one. Firefox was originally a fork from seamonkey and by version 3 the codebase was nearly the same. I guess that underneath it still is, as Add-ons are (afaik) compatible.

 

[Souron]

Firefox always had memory leaks.

 

[FredLC]

Well; I unistalled it and erased the folder mannually. The new install worked. It surely was some add-on issue.

Thanks for the help, though, people.

Regards .

 

[GenMarshall]

Well; I unistalled it and erased the folder mannually. The new install worked. It surely was some add-on issue.

Thanks for the help, though, people.

Regards .

It's usually best to disable all of the addons except one and go through each one to see which is the culprit.

 

[Souron]

It's usually best to disable all of the addons except one and go through each one to see which is the culprit.

If your trying to find the one broken add-on, a binary search would make more sense than a linear search. Disable half of them, see if the problem persists. If it does, repeat by disabling half again. If it doesn't re-enable the half you just disabled, then repeat.

 

[classical_hero]

I remember when I had a massive memory leak in Firefox, is was causing me many problems. I should have checked my addons first, but eventually I found out that the Australian Dictionary was the cause of the leaks so once I removed it it did not cause any problems.