Firefox crashes
I just bought this laptop (Dell Inspiron 15R Touch) in mid-December, and upgraded to Windows 8.1 soon after. Firefox was working quite well for a bit, but after the upgrade, it completely failed. Not only do I have to run it in Compatibility mode with websites I am required to use daily, it hangs and crashes constantly when trying to navigate around pages. The best example of this behavior can be found when I use the website allnurses.com, which behaves very well in both Chrome and IE11. It would appear that the shockwave and/or flash are causing problems, but it can't be the only thing, because I get a strange mixture of script errors, adobe sad faces/crash reports, and pure sudden crash and shutdown. I have updated FF, reset FF, disabled hardware acceleration, and offered dark gifts to the Lord of IT, all in vain. Please help me, Mozilla-wan Kenobi. You are my only hope (to make it through this next semester without boiling my laptop in rage).
When I checked my Mozilla crash record, it shows crashes happening nearly every three minutes. I c/p'd just today's.
bp-72625b54-5a2d-4cae-96a6-d079c2140114 1/13/2014 8:17 PM c5d1730a-bb9a-4020-9b63-6732c247d69e 1/13/2014 8:15 PM 1f7cbb72-4a01-46e8-a77e-59c44256b06c 1/13/2014 8:15 PM 71543cd2-24cb-4f9f-8007-3d7cc427f0f0 1/13/2014 8:15 PM d4171a6a-8dbe-4e34-bd40-1bbab7358309 1/13/2014 8:14 PM 16f9e6e1-ed95-4e23-9f9d-cb443ef3cfc9 1/13/2014 8:14 PM 81efaab4-f6ea-449d-8843-67daf192959c 1/13/2014 8:12 PM 8c1bd468-61a9-48cf-8b26-0af4a6e21a28 1/13/2014 8:12 PM 1f57ce0f-740d-4b31-928a-af02e0f7faa9 1/13/2014 8:12 PM ed8b5208-4a30-4f10-ac1d-4f244e73e2ca 1/13/2014 8:12 PM b52b36b1-280a-45a9-86be-538322a7b50f 1/13/2014 8:11 PM f00792c8-af64-4290-b12d-d8ce365408c3 1/13/2014 8:10 PM 27539b18-2e6d-416d-b257-51e98d1699b9 1/13/2014 8:09 PM 9fb209c8-0833-4972-90c8-899cc5e0ee21 1/13/2014 8:09 PM 9cd5a587-535b-441c-b56d-b6ac892ebadb 1/13/2014 8:09 PM 8221bc82-3d05-49d3-8f79-9b0982b8985b 1/13/2014 8:09 PM 435d29dd-2a68-4082-b026-a1dfb8987624 1/13/2014 8:08 PM c9964cf0-aa4f-4013-8f11-350273e27fb5 1/13/2014 8:08 PM 0995dcf3-544a-495d-812b-c25b98f281df 1/13/2014 8:01 PM 57a6f6ad-1735-4551-82de-ac80da7e5649 1/13/2014 8:01 PM 7ad2c608-c2a9-49ce-a0c1-f3c64d5fe50f 1/13/2014 8:00 PM ddbeb7d3-9f88-40eb-a2f0-5d15aca781f1 1/13/2014 8:00 PM 59e30a73-ebea-41ee-a01c-f313ee2c4e97 1/13/2014 7:59 PM bp-c656f7bc-cb26-499e-8248-cf01a2140114 1/13/2014 7:59 PM 400b514a-51bd-404c-98e4-c8c5f54c725e 1/13/2014 7:59 PM 5cd48d09-03b2-49dc-83a8-8c9b57708b72 1/13/2014 7:59 PM a9ab9152-69c6-4785-af23-4760ef774e51 1/13/2014 7:59 PM feb31977-06c4-44c7-a1bf-a04d850ce62b 1/13/2014 7:56 PM
Chosen solution
One feature of the Flash Player plugin, the protected mode feature, only runs on Windows Vista and higher. This feature is a bit buggy, and subtle differences in Windows could create problems for it.
When you re-enable Flash (inevitably, since many sites demand you have it), consider disabling the protected mode feature. The following pages provide information on how to do that.
- Adobe support article under the heading "Last Resort": Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?
All Replies (6)
That looks like a problem with the Flash plugin.
You can check for problems with current Flash plugin versions and try these:
- disable a possible RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin extension for Firefox and update the RealPlayer if installed
- disable protected mode in the Flash plugin (Flash 11.3+ on Windows Vista and later)
- disable hardware acceleration in the Flash plugin
Firefox doesn't have a compatibility mode for websites, at least not anything comparable to IE's. Are you using the compatibility options provided by Windows on the Firefox program shortcut? That might create more problems than it solves...
Having not understood half of your suggestions, cor-el, I did go and uninstall my Adobe flash on the laptop. Not surprisingly, that fixed my issues with FF, so I'm trying to decide if I can live without flash or not. Haven't had an issue yet, so I might leave it off for a while. Thanks for helping me figure out which program was misbehvaing.
Jscher: Yes, I am using the Windows shortcut compatibility. I was advised to do so to use a specific website (ATI Testing) required by my instructors. The website IT told me this would fix the incompatibility of their website with FF/Win 8.1 . Are you saying this is actually making things worse? Because if that is so, I will have some choice words for the IT department.
Thank you both for your help. It isn't exactly fixed, but it is usable now!
Hi Dharstad1, here is my understanding of the Windows compatibility modes: as you change to earlier and earlier versions of Windows, changes introduced in the newer versions that older applications might stumble over are effectively rolled back. The compatibility manager intercepts those system calls and responds as though it were an older version of Windows.
That shouldn't be necessary for Firefox, and I don't understand why it would make a difference with websites, unless the difference is related to Windows' ever tighter security model. Or perhaps it is required for an old plugin to work correctly? I don't know. IT's advice might have been based more on "it helped one guy" than actual testing.
Chosen Solution
One feature of the Flash Player plugin, the protected mode feature, only runs on Windows Vista and higher. This feature is a bit buggy, and subtle differences in Windows could create problems for it.
When you re-enable Flash (inevitably, since many sites demand you have it), consider disabling the protected mode feature. The following pages provide information on how to do that.
- Adobe support article under the heading "Last Resort": Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?
That fixed it, as far as I can figure. Thank you so much!! Nothing like something so small as a crippled flash to make a great laptop into a chunky paperweight.