Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Let me file that under fuck it.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

This really is a full service blog.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Cancel the cowardly WaPo and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

You are here: Home / Science & Technology / Firefox Stability Issues

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  2. 2.

    Andrew

    What extensions do you have installed? 99% of the time firefox crashes are caused by a bad extension. Or flash. I hate flash.

  4. 4.

    gah

    I’d guess it’s an add-on causing the problem. Try disabling any ones you’ve added (or updated) since you started noticing the problems.

  5. 5.

    Blake Himsl Hunter

    I have been having trouble for the last two weeks on my work PC, and to a lesser extent my home PC. I’m decided to just slog through and hope the next update fixes it.

  7. 7.

    DMG

    I had a problem with it on my XP dekstop, but was fine on my Vista laptop. Turned out I had a problem with everything on my desktop though – Firefox, Media Player, IE, Anti-virus protection, firewall – seems I got infected with something and couldn’t even reinstall because the files would get corrupted whenever downloaded. Had to clean everything up and transfer files over in order to sort the mess out. Still not perfect, but it’s working…that’s progress.

  9. 9.

    The Craig

    Oh dear yes! I though it was just me. I was going to have to give up reading blogs, go outside and talk to real people.

    But Firefox did an update this morning, and I think the crashes have ended. I go back inside again!

  12. 12.

    Jill

    No, using on a Mac and it’s been fine. They did just issue an update, maybe that will resolve whatever problems you’re experiencing.

  13. 13.

    cleek

    i wish i had FF problems.

    instead my XP box has started locking up completely, or worse: it sometimes crashes all the way to reboot without warning.

    i miss Vista.

  15. 15.

    lovedog

    Same experience, been crashing all week (I thought it was god punishing me for all the internet scrabble playing).

    Got a notification from firefox on the new upgrade (3.0.7) and installed. No crashes since. . .

  17. 17.

    Laura W Darling

    As indicated in your earlier post with Colbert/TDS, I’ve had several FF crashes on my Mac in the last couple of weeks but IIRC, all of them have been here at BJ, usually when you’ve got something on the page like the clips of this morn.

    I think it’s happened more than a few times in just the last week.
    Can’t recall it happening on any other site or blog, ie, the total shut down crash. Often I forget to empty the cache and have to do a lot of force quits here at BJ, but that’s my fault for not clearing and restarting more often with all the surfing I do.
    (Also installed the new version just this morning when I was forced to re-start after the Comedy Central crash.)

  18. 18.

    db

    Like Craig, I had problems recently (Mac Leopard). But Firefox released an update this morning and things seem to be fine.

  21. 21.

    JD Rhoades

    I’ve had problems with FF on the home machine for weeks now, mostly REALLY slow loading and failure to completely close when I quit, so that the next time I try to use it I get a message saying "Firefox is already running" and I have to close it in Task Manager, which is a huge pain. Anyone else have this? I’ve been using Google Chrome instead which is fast fast fast (faster IMHO than Safari, which I tried the other day), but I miss some of my add ons.

  22. 22.

    TheFountainHead

    Just switched to Safari 4 beta. Couldn’t be happier. Noticeably faster than FF or IE.

  23. 23.

    gnomedad

    No problems outside the usual, which I tolerate ’cause I loves me some extensions.

  24. 24.

    Rainy

    It used to crash on me all the time when I was on my XP comp, but that comp had a Pentium III processor but with updated memory and video card. I just got a new Dell with Vista on it and it hasn’t crashed yet. I’m not sure why it does that sometimes. It does use a lot of memory though.

  25. 25.

    Kid G

    I’ve had problems with Firefox on Mac ever since I upgraded to Firefox 3. During an extended websurfing session, webpages stop loading completely, and many applets seem to stop working also. Eventually I reload firefox and the problem goes away, for a time.

  27. 27.

    The Other Steve

    Firefox 3.0.7 was just released and apparently fixes some stability problems according to the release notes. I haven’t had any problems myself and haven’t upgraded from 3.0.6 yet.

  28. 28.

    Comrade Mary AWOL

    I’m OK with FF 3.0.7 at home, but I was alerted to — but didn’t install — a 3.0.8 update. Could that be it?

  29. 29.

    qwerty42

    I have problems with FF when trying to view video (flash) – so I usually use IE for that (IE kind of sucks, but has no problems with Bloggingheads, for example). I have found that FF can consume resources — having other windows in the same FF session — to such an extent I have to shut it down.
    re the problems between XP and Vista, it may be that XP was loaded on a machine that came with Vista. might be a driver problem.

  31. 31.

    The Other Steve

    i miss Vista.

    Wait until you see Windows 7. Holy cow does this release rock. They’re claiming RTM will be by xmas time, here’s hoping. But already the Beta is super good.

  32. 32.

    mak

    My Vista laptop will eventually freeze up if DON’T allow the updates to proceed for a while, as if it’s intentionally crashing in order to allow the update to load when I open Firefox up again.

    (I’ve been putting off updates since one of the last few made changes that annoyed me).

  33. 33.

    The Other Steve

    Hmm, release notes also say they fixed a bug with cookies. My cookies haven’t been working right on netflix and other sites. Downloading 3.0.7 now.

  35. 35.

    Laura W Darling

    Welp, I was over in email with only BJ open in my FF browser (Intel Mac) and it crashed again. So much for 3.0.7 making a diff for me.
    I’m blaming you, John. The total crashing only happens here.

  37. 37.

    Cris

    I have experienced no FF stability issues, either on Mac or Windows (running v3.0 on both).

    @cleek:
    anyone up for a little Name That Tune, 80’s edition?

    Dang it, even if I finally figure out what #7 is, I’ll still be behind Paige.

  38. 38.

    The Other Steve

    Dang it, even if I finally figure out what #7 is, I’ll still be behind Paige.

    Wow, I sat behind Paige in math class! :-)

  41. 41.

    slag

    A Mac user, and I gave up on Firefox this week for similar reasons.

    Went Camino and am pretty happy about it. It’s faster and it appears to give used memory back (a problem I kept having with Firefox). It bills itself as sort of a hybrid btwn Firefox and Safari, which I’ve found to be a fairly accurate description.

    BTW, looks like Michael Scherer still doesn’t get it: http://twitter.com/michaelscherer/status/1280357508. No surprise, but always sad to see that our media folks are either intentionally or unintentionally really dense.

  42. 42.

    Tom

    Also, does any have an issue with FireFox where it’ll freeze up every maybe 10 seconds. So, if I’m typing in a text box (like I am now) it’ll freeze up and I’ll have to wait a few seconds for it to unfreeze before continuing typing. I’ve been having this problem off and on for a few months. It’s REALLY annoying.

  43. 43.

    jetan

    Firefox was pretty hellish for me until I added the noscript and adblock extensions….you can still choose to see flash or shockwave, but they won’t launch without your say-so.

  44. 44.

    TheHatOnMyCat

    Oh well. There is Chrome.

    Wait until you see Windows 7. Holy cow does this release rock.

    Jim Cramer, ladies and gentlemen. Jim Cramer!

  45. 45.

    cleek

    @slag: "BTW, looks like Michael Scherer still doesn’t get it"

    Cole objection is word "fail." Dems did oppose Bush-hoped bills failed, agenda failed, etc, not U.S. Arguing semantics

    WTF language is that? Twitter is an abomination.

  46. 46.

    Paul_D

    Got an automatic update for FF yesterday on my XP machine. No performance issues as far as I can tell.

    Run a scan for spyware on your Vista desktop, perhaps?

  47. 47.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    A few weeks ago I switched to TheMostAmazingBrowserEvah and I’m totally happy. It’s the best evah. All those other browsers suck. Last time I said I was using the most amazing browser evah, I was wrong. This one is truly it.

  49. 49.

    John Cole

    @slag: No kidding, Scherer, the objection is to the “fail” aspect. We expect the opposition party to… oppose the other side’s policies. But that is fundamentally different from hoping upon hope for a failed Presidency.

    Pathetic.

  50. 50.

    Laura W Darling

    @cleek: It’s a good thing you post scores as the game is in progress. Keeps idiots like me who feel proud of their "maybe 16, tops" from cluttering up your comments section.

  51. 51.

    Tonal Crow

    Meanwhile, on the GOP’s (in)stability issues, Politico’s Ben Smith says that "one former [GOP] party official" said of Steele that:

    He’s like Howard Dean, cubed. People are kind of waiting to be led, and he’s just leading himself into green rooms.

    Only someone eyeballs-deep in Kool-Aide could compare Steele’s effectiveness with Howard Dean’s. They’re so deep in denial (and so deep in Dean-hate) that they still don’t realize that Dean brained them — twice — with his much-maligned "50 State Strategy".

  52. 52.

    TheHatOnMyCat

    @John Cole:

    What I don’t understand is that even our team doesn’t call them on it. Last night, Rachel "grilled" Pawlenty over it, and never said to him "Look, if you want his policies to fail, then you want America to be injured …. just so you guys can look good. What is up with that?"

    Correct me if I am wrong, but how do those policies fail without harm to the country, and what are these assholes doing besides rooting for harm to the country in order to make themselves look good?

    So why aren’t the t-heads — at least the GOOD ones like Rachel — asking the goddam question?

  53. 53.

    greynoldsct00

    I’ve had problems with FF on the home machine for weeks now, mostly REALLY slow loading and failure to completely close when I quit, so that the next time I try to use it I get a message saying "Firefox is already running" and I have to close it in Task Manager, which is a huge pain. Anyone else have this?

    I’ve been having these same problems… maybe the update will fix it

  54. 54.

    Evinfuilt

    Been crashing a lot (even once is a lot for firefox, but today 3 times… twice here.) About to restart it so 3.07 will install.

  55. 55.

    cleek

    It’s a good thing you post scores as the game is in progress. Keeps idiots like me who feel proud of their "maybe 16, tops" from cluttering up your comments section.

    yeah… i really shouldn’t do that. and i don’t quite know why i do.

  56. 56.

    The Populist

    I’ve noticed it’s really, really slower than it has been in the past. I am running it on both a Vista and XP machine.

  57. 57.

    Shygetz

    Yes, tons of problems with it on my Vista machine. I installed Safari 4 to see if that cleared it up, but that was sucking too. I did a system restore to a backup point before the crashes and a restart, and that seems to have cleared up Firefox. Still no idea what the problem was.

  58. 58.

    Caladan

    Try Updating you’re Adobe Flash software. The only time I have stability issues with Firefox, is when a site is trying to use a new/modified Flash API.

  59. 59.

    slag

    @TheHatOnMyCat: I agree. But the good thing is that most Americans seem to know the score on that. I believe a majority polled say that Repubs are obstructing for political–not principled–reasons.

    Anyone looking in from the outside can easily see what’s going on. It’s those who are too close to the situation that don’t get it.

  60. 60.

    Dennis-SGMM

    Well, Democrats, it’s been fun while it lasted:

    At the same time, Republicans are looking toward a younger generation of future leaders to guide their party over the next two years.

    When asked which Republicans will likely emerge as the face of the party, GOP senators name about a half-dozen other candidates, such McConnell, Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) and even McCain’s former rival, Mitt Romney.

    -From: The Hill

    Every one of the pols mentioned has a mind full of creative alternatives floating in a sea of invention. McConnell, Kyl, Romney, a "younger generation"? I guess that, compared to McCain, they are.

  61. 61.

    TheFountainHead

    Also, does any have an issue with FireFox where it’ll freeze up every maybe 10 seconds. So, if I’m typing in a text box (like I am now) it’ll freeze up and I’ll have to wait a few seconds for it to unfreeze before continuing typing. I’ve been having this problem off and on for a few months. It’s REALLY annoying.

    I had this exact issue. It’s what caused me to jump to the Safari 4 Beta. No more occasional lock-ups.

  63. 63.

    SnarkIntern

    Omg, an unclosed strike tag will strikethru the rest of the webpage all the way down.

    John, I hope you got a refund for this thing. This is the Plymouth Valiant of websites you got here.

  66. 66.

    Brian J

    As I was about to click into this thread to see what people were saying, Firefox shut down and told me there was an error. So yes, I see what you’re saying.

    I blame Obama and the stimulus package. Also, Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, and MSNBC.

  69. 69.

    Martin

    President Obama this morning officially named Vivek Kundra as the US government’s federal Chief Information Officer.

    Yay! Moar open-source people, plz.

  71. 71.

    Rick Taylor

    I haven’t noticed any unusual problems with firefox on either my mac or pc.

  72. 72.

    bago

    @mak: It’s like the vulnerabilities discovered in the code base are exploiting buffer overruns and doing WTFTW while your system is vulnerable. It’s almost as long as you are vulnerable people will keep exploiting the vulnerabilities of those who would do that. It’s almost as if as knowledge of a vulnerability spreads, more people exploit it. It’s almost as if they are betting on people not updating their software to patch vulnerabilities so that they can do their activities under your name.

    Almost.

  76. 76.

    Tonal Crow

    @bago: Some browser security advice:

    1. Don’t use IE except for windows updates direct from MS;
    2. Create one non-privileged account for each kind of browsing you do (e.g., general, wingnut sites, personal finance). Use ACLs (explorer/properties/security tab) to deny each such account access to everything but its own files (i.e., c:\documents and settings\browser1…). Then run an instance of your browser in each account using runas /user:. These steps make it much more difficult for attackers to compromise your system and your data; and
    3. If you don’t know how to do (2), ask a competent IT person whom you trust.

  77. 77.

    Rick Taylor

    Firefox just crashed on me on my mac. Come to think of it it crashed the other day; I didn’t think much of it. Just downloading the update.

  78. 78.

    Cris

    @cleek: yeah… i really shouldn’t do that. and i don’t quite know why i do.

    In spite of what coaches say in interviews, players really do pay attention to the scoreboard.

  79. 79.

    nylund

    A couple weeks back, I was having major firefox issues as well. Finally gave up, uninstalled, and reinstalled. Been working perfect ever since.

  81. 81.

    ezdidit

    I just updated my Firefox software, and now it works just fine. The problem had been most prominently noted as an incompatibility with the new version of Adobe’s Flash Player, but I think it was more than that.

  82. 82.

    cleek

    In spite of what coaches say in interviews, players really do pay attention to the scoreboard.

    i guess i was trying to encourage people who were close to try to catch the leaders. i didn’t think about the fact that seeing high scores also discourages new people from trying at all.

  84. 84.

    Calming Influence

    I haven’t had any trouble with Firefox on a Dell laptop running Vista, no addons. I just got an update notice for Firefox 3.0.7, and checked the release notes:

    This list covers some of the known problems with Firefox 3. Please read this before reporting any new bugs.

    All Systems

    * If Flash content is active when Firefox crashes, the Crash Reporter may not activate (bug 422308). This issue is fixed in Flash 10.
    * Deleting an entry from the history sidebar, then invoking the Clear Private Data tool can result Firefox crashing (bug 426275)

    http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.0.7/releasenotes/

  86. 86.

    Jay C

    I’ve run FF on my two Dell notenotes (W-XP): one has had
    zero

    problems – ever; the other one has had a frequent-crash issue since I had to re-install FF via download when I lost my OS to a BSD issue.

    Try "Firefox Safe Mode" (Start>All Programs>Mozilla Firefox>MFF (Safe Mode): it disables all add-ons and extensions – you have to deal with the default skin, but at least the basic browser won’t crash (or at least that’s how it works for me).

    Aside: Mozilla’s Support Forums proved useless for my problem – they kept asking for the Mozilla Crash Reporter data, and when I said that MCR wasn’t working, I merely got a couple of head-scratching posts informing me that MCR was "supposed" to be the default Crash Reporter. Unfortunately, as the "default", it can’t be user-activated/deactivated, and so my inquiry just petered out.

  88. 88.

    Calming Influence

    By the by, John, you could also go more rogue and install SeaMonkey: "Web-browser, advanced e-mail and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and HTML editing made simple — all your Internet needs in one application. "
    It’s another open-source Mozilla project; I used it up until a month ago when I got a new laptop, and will probably go back to it. Very much like Firefox, with fewer addons available, but enough good ones not to matter.

  89. 89.

    Max

    No problems at all with Firefox on my XP computer or my Mac.

    Somebody mentioned cookies. I have Firefox set up to automatically delete cookies every time I close it. Also use CCleaner regularly on Windows.

  90. 90.

    Nate

    YES! I’ve been having the same problems and thought it was me. I re-installed several times and it kept happening. Now I’m not sure what the deal is.

  92. 92.

    Ravi J

    Why not just reinstall?
    Just make a list of extensions you have. Install one by one to see what extension is causing the problem. I never had FF crash on me, ever.

  93. 93.

    Dr. Larry Mitchell

    I’ve had problems with Firefox since thet came out with 3. I’ve been using it for five years, and they messed up my favorite browser. Since I switched to Opera 9.62, however- no problems.

  95. 95.

    Mark Gisleson

    Because I’m pretty much a full-time pirate blogging on a single-processor G4, I’ve been having Firefox problems up the wazoo for months — and with all different versions of Firefox.

    I don’t think it’s a Firefox problem, I think it’s a problem with the insane ramping up of Flash/Java ads on newspapers and blog sites, compounded by the fact that most of us have multiple open tabs going most of the time.

    I’m grabbing that new upgrade (appreciate hearing about it in this thread) but that doesn’t change the fact that some tiny-dicked POS in Russia is at this very moment trying to figure out how to break the new Firefox. Hackers desperately want to keep security-free Microsoft products in the game, and the best way to do that is to break Firefox. (Safari is fine, but I’ve never figured out how anyone can blog without using two browsers: one for links, one for posting.)

  96. 96.

    Ken Lovell

    It’s the old story … take a great product and dick with it until it’s crap, like the one it replaced.

    See also Trend Micro security software.

  98. 98.

    Hedley Lamarr

    My main browser is Opera, and I use Chrome for Gmail.

    Satisfied always,
    Hedley

  99. 99.

    justcorbly

    I use Safari on a Mac. I also use a couple of other applications built on Safari’s WebKit engine. Each of them, including Safari, crash on occasion. When they do, OS X pops up a little box telling me the details of the crash. In almost every instance, the culprit is Flash.

  100. 100.

    justcorbly

    @Mark Gisleson:

    "I’ve never figured out how anyone can blog without using two browsers: one for links, one for posting."

    Tried a desktop blogging client? You won’t need to keep two browsers open. MarsEdit works fine for Mac.

  101. 101.

    Cal Gal

    For a couple of months, Firefox has been disconnecting me from WiFi, which I share from our neighbors with their permission (and with a financial contribution). Mac OS X 10.5.6

  102. 102.

    MeDrewNotYou

    I know I’m a little late in the game here, but if no one mentioned it, Firefox updated to 3.0.7 today. I’d read the comments, but an 8hr old tech support question probably won’t have the funny.

  105. 105.

    Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse

    Hmm. Now that I’m home, my copy of 3.0.6, which had been working perfectly, crashed twice in one hour.

    I’ve just upgraded to 3.0.7. Let’s see how this works.

  106. 106.

    Darkrose

    I’ve been having a lot of FF problems (on Vista and Tiger), but it’s mostly been on the Mod The Sims 2 site. I installed the NoScript extension, which seems to have solved the problem for now.

  107. 107.

    marty

    I’ve had Firefox for several years, and it has almost never crashed….literally, not more than about 6 times in about 3 years…these past 2 weeks, it’s crashed at least 3-4 times….

    Something seems to be up with it

  108. 108.

    Mulder

    I’ve occasionally had FireFox get crash-y on me.

    I’ve found that nuking my profile in use will often fix it. Make sure you back up first the data that’s important though — booksmarks and the like.

    For profile locations, check out Firefox Profiles at Mozilla.com.

  110. 110.

    EL

    No problems when you first posted this, but starting yesterday night I’ve had repeated crashes. I’m on an IMac running 10.5

    And John, if someone figures out a fix, please post on the front page!

Comments are closed.