Suddenly FF 39.0 is "unable to connect" to any web page
I'm running nearly identical installations of FF 39.0 on two Win 7 Pro computers. On computer 1, for the last two hours I have gotten "unable to connect" on every URL I have tried. It can access locally stored stuff, such as the troubleshooting info. FF on computer 2 is fine, and Chrome and IE work fine on computer 1.
The problem began while watching a streaming Netflix movie on computer 1. Suddenly the picture froze, and the speakers emitted a nasty repetitive sound - it possibly was about 2 seconds of the movie sound track playing over and over. The computer's controls totally locked up. I could only stop the noise by powering down with the computer's power button. I restarted the computer in safe mode, then restarted it in normal mode. Now everything on the computer seems fine - except Firefox.
I tried restarting FF in safe mode; same problem in that mode. I have saved copies of the troubleshooting info in both safe and regular mode, and also a copy of the submitted crash reports list. I'll share these if you'll tell me how. (Can't do it with the "Share Data" button, of course, because I can't get to this ask-a-question form on computer 1 - I'm posting this from computer 2.)
The only thing I haven't tried is "Refresh Firefox". I'd really rather not do that, as it will wipe out all my add-ons and customizations.
Would appreciate any help you can offer.
Chosen solution
Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test.
.... You can check for issues caused by malware.
Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer. Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.
- Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - AdwCleaner:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml - SuperAntispyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/ - Microsoft Safety Scanner:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - Windows Defender:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender - Spybot Search & Destroy:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Kasperky Free Security Scan:
http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan
You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.
- Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446
See also:
- "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked
All Replies (5)
Chosen Solution
Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test.
.... You can check for issues caused by malware.
Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer. Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.
- Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - AdwCleaner:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml - SuperAntispyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/ - Microsoft Safety Scanner:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - Windows Defender:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender - Spybot Search & Destroy:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Kasperky Free Security Scan:
http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan
You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.
- Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446
See also:
- "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked
I tried "Refresh Firefox", and that didn't fix anything. I'm wondering if uninstall/reinstall would do any better. Or is that the same thing as "Refresh"?
cor-el, thanks for your suggestion about looking for malware. I'm trying the refresh/reinstall path first, because it seems easier. If that doesn't work, I'll then look for malware as you suggest.
I went ahead and reinstalled, and it still doesn't work.
See attached screen-shot record of the reinstall process. The only weird note is at screen 04, where the download stub failed, but the sequence is screen 05-06 got by that OK. The by-now-familiar failure screen is 07.
So unless anyone has any further suggestions, I guess I'll have to try the malware path (tho it seems unlikely to me).
Modified by kenatsun
Did you try to boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode in case your security (anti-virus) software is causing this issue?
The problem has solved itself. I don't know why or how.
For the record, since my last post, what I have done is:
1. Initiated a full system scan with my existing anti-malware (Norton 360). Somewhere in mid-run, the system froze up. I hard-rebooted it. 2. Initiated a full system scan in safe mode with networking with my existing anti-malware (Norton 360). Somewhere in mid-run (after processing 200,000+ files and finding no malware), the system froze up. I hard-rebooted it. 3. Back in Windows normal mode, I started up FF. It works!
Go figure.
Anyway, thanks co-rel for your suggestions and support.
Modified by kenatsun