Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Widows reporting ff crash after normal shutdown?

  • 16 replies
  • 28 have this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by tim-v

more options

Minor exit problem, but now 2-3x in about one week. About:crashes may show last weeks, but NOT today. Nothing recent has brought up Moz crash reporter. Noticed same xul.dll report, last week and today. Below is from WINDOWS crash report today.

Problem signature:

 Problem Event Name:	APPCRASH
 Application Name:	firefox.exe
 Application Version:	19.0.2.4814
 Application Timestamp:	5138a1d3
 Fault Module Name:	xul.dll
 Fault Module Version:	19.0.2.4814
 Fault Module Timestamp:	5138a0ed
 Exception Code:	c0000005
 Exception Offset:	00172818
 OS Version:	6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
 Locale ID:	1033
 Additional Information 1:	a7aa
 Additional Information 2:	a7aa91f17ea749d42a4de3b390fa5b3d
 Additional Information 3:	a7aa
 Additional Information 4:	a7aa91f17ea749d42a4de3b390fa5b3d

Again, just a minor exit problem report, after an otherwise normal exit.

Minor exit problem, but now 2-3x in about one week. About:crashes may show last weeks, but NOT today. Nothing recent has brought up Moz crash reporter. Noticed same xul.dll report, last week and today. Below is from WINDOWS crash report today. Problem signature: Problem Event Name: APPCRASH Application Name: firefox.exe Application Version: 19.0.2.4814 Application Timestamp: 5138a1d3 Fault Module Name: xul.dll Fault Module Version: 19.0.2.4814 Fault Module Timestamp: 5138a0ed Exception Code: c0000005 Exception Offset: 00172818 OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3 Locale ID: 1033 Additional Information 1: a7aa Additional Information 2: a7aa91f17ea749d42a4de3b390fa5b3d Additional Information 3: a7aa Additional Information 4: a7aa91f17ea749d42a4de3b390fa5b3d Again, just a minor exit problem report, after an otherwise normal exit.

All Replies (16)

more options

Provide the crash report starting with bp-


We're sorry to hear that your Firefox seems to be crashing when you open it. Please perform the following steps to give us a crash report ID that helps us find out more about the cause of the crash.

  1. Press the following shortcut to get a Run window: [Windows] + [R]. This should bring up a window that contains a text field.
  2. In that text field, enter %APPDATA% and press Enter. An explorer window should open.
  3. From that explorer window, double-click on the Mozilla folder, then double-click on Firefox and then on Crash reports. Double-click on submitted.
  4. Now, you should see a list of files that contain reports. Go to View > Arrange Icons by > Modified to get the most recent files at the top of the window.
  5. Open the most recent 5 files with a text editor and copy the IDs.
  6. Paste each ID with bp- into the reply window on the forums.

Thanks in advance!

You can find more information and troubleshooting steps in the Troubleshoot Firefox crashes (closing or quitting unexpectedly) article.

more options

Such issues can be caused by plugins that are unloading properly.

Are you using Clear history when Firefox closes?

more options

More info, in case it helps. Was exiting from facebook (today at least), and had also been to several other routine pages before that. Always use laptop with 4g hotspot through cell phone, but am at the fringe of 4g coverage, so sometimes pages whiteboard or load slow because of that. Clicking reload always takes care of that issue, but might not help if there's any exit notification(s) needed by fb/chat. Was green light in lower right, but only on home page, and was NOT chatting. Just guessing, in case it's only me having this firefox exit problem, because only meant to help narrow it down for everyone, if anyone else is crashing like this (AFTER exit).

more options

(folder info requested above)...

Most recent from 2013.01.06 Crash ID: bp-d94e87a8-8148-4547-8ebc-c2c062130107 Only other one in that folder, from 2012.11.27 Crash ID: bp-abda0b50-095d-42e3-885b-b7a3d2121127

more options

Try to delete the secmod.db file in the Firefox profile folder.

You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder
more options

(other info requested above)...

Yes, am set to clear form and search history on exit. No, did not use any forms or searches today. No, none of the other clear on exit options.

Again, neither the clearing, nor the exit crashing matters much to me, just doing my part to help bring out and clean up any potential problems, e.g. for the next version release (if it's more than just me).

Thanks again, and good night for tonight.

more options

(action requested above)...

Okay, renamed it (to keep in case gets any worse being gone) For if it matters, secmod.db was a 16kb file dated 2012.09.02

Note: run three ff profiles (mainly for triple twitters, and mainly only one at a time), and only deleted it in this one. Will post if any of the three crash again, and eventually mark yours as the solution if it seems to fix it for this profile, but it may take awhile to know anything for sure. Do use all three, every day, and this one particular profile by far the most, so should soon have some sense of if it helps, but am obviously only guessing unless one of them crashes again.

Thanks again to all for my (and your) far favorite browser!

more options

You can also try to create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

more options

New but very similar crash info from today...

Still from the most used profile, but will now lean more to the other two (per the suggested profiles experiment). Still had been on facebook earlier, but was nowhere near there on exit today. Think the last tab closed today was either slate or wikipedia.

Still no Moz crash reporting window, at least not in any recent weeks. Still not shown in about:crashes, but last entries are twice on 2013.03.03, and once on 2013.01.06 before that. Unknown if directly related, but 3.3 could have been the known incident(s) from last week, when it did not yet seem to be any reoccurring issue. They cannot now be converted to bp-numbers due to "throttling," nor the two from this week because theses latest ones definitely don't even show up at all in about:crashes.

Again, all known incidents had no Moz crash window, just the Windows crash menu. Each time was immediately after an otherwise normal and intentional shutdown, and xul.dll was always reported as the fault module.

Problem signature:

 Problem Event Name:	APPCRASH
 Application Name:	firefox.exe
 Application Version:	19.0.2.4814
 Application Timestamp:	5138a1d3
 Fault Module Name:	xul.dll
 Fault Module Version:	19.0.2.4814
 Fault Module Timestamp:	5138a0ed
 Exception Code:	c0000005
 Exception Offset:	00172818
 OS Version:	6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
 Locale ID:	1033
 Additional Information 1:	a7aa
 Additional Information 2:	a7aa91f17ea749d42a4de3b390fa5b3d
 Additional Information 3:	a7aa
 Additional Information 4:	a7aa91f17ea749d42a4de3b390fa5b3d
more options

More info...

Fairly new and stock laptop, no other probs. Heavy on ff add-ons, but have used most for years. Security is MS Essentials, but not new and doubt if related. Most recent add-on was the HTML5, but also doubt of related. The other two profiles do not need or use this most recent add-on. Now scrolling up and down, the two signatures look identical, but they were each taken from each crash on each day. They are not an inadvertent copy.

more options

And again, but from the same old profile (no help to narrow down)...

Still just a minor speedbump after an otherwise normal exit, and could easily be ignored, but since the Moz crash reporter does not even know about it, neither do any of you unless we tell you. Will keep trying to lean to the other two profiles to help narrow things down, even if only for me, and just keep posting anything learned along the way for the rest of you.

Looks like two more have joined in with same type of problem over the last couple of days. Please feel free to add your own info, and/or links to your own threads. Thanks either way.

Problem signature:

 Problem Event Name:	APPCRASH
 Application Name:	firefox.exe
 Application Version:	19.0.2.4814
 Application Timestamp:	5138a1d3
 Fault Module Name:	xul.dll
 Fault Module Version:	19.0.2.4814
 Fault Module Timestamp:	5138a0ed
 Exception Code:	c0000005
 Exception Offset:	00172818
 OS Version:	6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
 Locale ID:	1033
 Additional Information 1:	a7aa
 Additional Information 2:	a7aa91f17ea749d42a4de3b390fa5b3d
 Additional Information 3:	a7aa
 Additional Information 4:	a7aa91f17ea749d42a4de3b390fa5b3d
more options

What I would suggest is a systematic approach, by following these troubleshooting steps:

Troubleshoot and diagnose Firefox problems

more options

1.(reboot) had already tried routinely, and recently, but now did again 2.(clear cookies and cache) had NOT tried, but now done for the known problem profile, and will also do if any trouble with the less used others 3.(ff safe mode) now, and will always try to operate this way in the near future, and may as well lean back to my busiest profile for your method

There is a conditional branch after step 3, which will take time to determine either way due to the intermittent nature of the crash

Thanks for now, as always

more options

(attributing to interactions, but closing out due to snowball effect)...

Nothing real definite, but enough to chart my own future course. There were no crashes in safe mode, and already tried removing the suspected add-on, and disabling ALL, but am soon moving the whole profile. The add-on was fully wanted but not fully needed (for me at least), and there have now been at least two types of minor but now increasing problems (crashes and indirect bookmarks) with the one profile where it was used.

(crashes) The add-on was installed on 2013.03.05, which seems about the time the crashes began. They did not seem to occur in the other profiles, nor did they seem to continue in this last week or so (in safe mode on this one, nor in normal mode on the other 2, where HTML5 was never added). The assumption at this point is that it may have a minor exit problem, but probably only if used in a secondary (not default) profile, like where it was.

(indirect bookmarks) The bookmark window no longer shows subfolders, EXCEPT in safe mode. There are only blank lines (i.e. whitespace) where they should be shown. The bookmark sidebar works okay, in either mode, and the other two profiles still work fine. Disabling ALL add-ons, and even fully removing the suspected one do not fix the bookmarks problem, even after reboot, so will add a new profile (but not the add-on, nor safe mode).

Unknown if the bookmarks are even related to the crashes (they otherwise, and much more directly appear to have been confused by using safe mode over this last week), but since restoring bookmarks in this profile does NOT help, it means leaving this one profile behind, and starting another profile.

For the record, even though it's long been my most used profile, this was only a secondary (never the default) profile in the first place, and that fact might have been the "real cause" of both problems, or at least just as likely as any pervasive problems, with either the add-on, or with safe mode (then the bookmarks). There was also a file renamed (earlier in this thread), but that step did not change either known problem (still crashed, and folders were still showing, like normal, in all modes, until "safe mode" was used).

For anyone else, in case it really was any direct relation to the add-on (with or without using secondary profiles), it was "HTML5 Desktop Notifications 1.2.2," which does appear here on Mozilla (exact same author and version numbers, but without the "5" in the title) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/html-notifications/?src=userprofile , but was (nevertheless) installed directly from MightyText.net , which is an sms text, via my remote Android, via their Android app, via the laptop/browser website application.

The app works fine, with or without the add-on, and the add-on also works fine, with or without the MightyText tab open. For example, some Google - documented desktop notices for G-mail (if open in Chrome, or in ff with the HTML5 add-on) were also popping up as an unexpected but very welcome bonus (with or without the MightyText tab open). Both types of these desk notices were very handy, but neither are worth my converting everything onto the default profile, and neither type are worth my adding this early add-on to another secondary profile. Activity still shows on the tab(s) top(s), just not also down at the laptop / desktop notification corner.

Maybe someday, such HTML5 notices it will be NATIVE to Firefox (you have my vote), or I may try a later version of this add-on down the road, but the secondary nature of my existing setup does not warrant any direct update request, even if there were any direct link to either one of my own indirect problems. Secondary profiles alone are obviously not the root, but unless the normal ff configurations have problems with the add-on, and/or with causing bookmark display problems after safe mode, they are one factor. Along that line, it never did crash while using, or exiting from, either app.

Since it does not affect the other profiles, it will remain if anyone has any questions, but will no longer be otherwise used, and can count as closed.

(not solved, but equal credit to two or three for helping with navigations)

more options

Try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

more options

(acceleration test)...

No change. The bookmark window still displays blank lines wherever there should be subfolders shown. It still works in correctly in safe mode, but this was never a problem until after safe mode was used (every day for about a week). Do remember adding columns, and changing the column order, and it did not act fully normal in safe mode either, but the subfolders did not vanish until eventually attempting to return to normal operation after the week long test (described above) in safe mode every day. If it now needs a reset (per your first link), thus needing to add back in all my normal add-ons, it seems better to start with a fresh profile, since this one is already not the default anyway. Not sure if the probably unintended length or extent of use in safe mode alone, or the also probably unintended use of secondary/non-default type profiles in safe mode was a factor, but for my limited purposes, it just seems like too much of a reach to have to chase down these snowball effects. They are minor, but they seem to arise from the already extensive testing for the original minor problem. Thus, for my purposes, it all seems plenty well enough understood to keep it from repeating in a fresh profile.