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Firefox crash with high cpu usage

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  • 3 have this problem
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  • Last reply by ideato

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I have the latest stable version, 44.0.2, and the last few days I cannot access the internet. By double clicking Firefox's icon, the application appears 7-8 seconds later and not instantly as it did a few days ago. A few seconds later, even when I am trying to view the add-ons installed, firefox freezes and uses one whole cpu core. No matter how time passes, firefox stays that way. I tried to restart my computer in safe mode with networking but nothing changed. It is not responding. I cannot reset settings as I cannot go through the menu to do it as it freezes before doing it. I have a Toshiba laptop with windows 7 x64 Home premium with SP1. What is wrong with Firefox and how can I fix it?

I have the latest stable version, 44.0.2, and the last few days I cannot access the internet. By double clicking Firefox's icon, the application appears 7-8 seconds later and not instantly as it did a few days ago. A few seconds later, even when I am trying to view the add-ons installed, firefox freezes and uses one whole cpu core. No matter how time passes, firefox stays that way. I tried to restart my computer in safe mode with networking but nothing changed. It is not responding. I cannot reset settings as I cannot go through the menu to do it as it freezes before doing it. I have a Toshiba laptop with windows 7 x64 Home premium with SP1. What is wrong with Firefox and how can I fix it?

Modified by doctor-M

All Replies (7)

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Hello doctor-M, the behavior you mentioned exist only when firefox is open, or...trying to open ?

Please see if you have the same issue in a new firefox profile.

thank you

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As I said, it opens some seconds later than it used to show up. I tried the solution with the new profile and seems to work fine. How can I import favorites and other things from the other profile?

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I created a new profile and copied the files needed from the old profile to the new one. Now everything seems to be normal again. Thanx a lot my friend!! Be good!!

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you are welcome, take care :-)

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I am back to this post as the problem appears again. I know the solution but I need to know why it is happening again. So, I made a new profile and started copying files from the orifinal profile to the new one in order to see which file causes high cpu usage. After many tests, I figured out that things go crazy when I copy these files: places.sqlite, places.sqlite-shm, places.sqlite-wal and prefs.js. When these 4 files from the original profile are copied in the new one, things go bad. And I am asking: why?? What is wrong with these files and what can I do to prevent this situation in the future?

Modified by doctor-M

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places.sqlite contain, bookmarks, favorite icons, keywords, browsing history. Probably the issue is in prefs.js file which contain changes made to the defaults, and also, settings from some extensions. Did you try firefox safe mode ?

thanks