Firefox keeps crashing and I hates it, precious.

February 27, 2006 11:36 AM

I'm having trouble with my FireFox browser and need help fixing the problem.

This has been annoying me for a couple days, so I've started to write down the pages when it crashes, and the info when I get it.

I'm running Win 98, Firefox 1.5.0.1

Any help would be great, because I like Firefox over Opera and Explorer.

And yes, I'm going to go ask in the proper forums for help. I'm just hoping someone has an idea before I go do that.

posted by FunkyHelix to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Many Firefox users are finding a problem with what is being called 'Memory Leak'. This causes FF to be a memory hog and can stall or crash the program, while making other programs move slowly as well. This may not fix your problem (though there's a decent chance it will), but it is probably worth doing regardless.

To fix memory leak, follow the instructions at this page.
posted by evadery at 11:49 AM on February 27, 2006

And seriously Helix, time to ditch the Win98.
posted by daHIFI at 12:04 PM on February 27, 2006

I know. My new computer is having the hard drive installed, and the guy is bringing me up into the world of XP.

It was just so stable and lovely. *sniffles* I shall miss it.
posted by FunkyHelix at 12:10 PM on February 27, 2006

Sorry evadery, didn't fix the problem. Though an upside, the page loaded up enough for me to see the green background this time. But then, crash and burn and another return here using IE. :(
posted by FunkyHelix at 12:24 PM on February 27, 2006

The Firefox "Memory Leak"
posted by cellphone at 12:25 PM on February 27, 2006

Oh for fuck's sake, can you two take it outside if we're going to play a game of yes it is, no it isn't.

I'd just like to know how to fix my browser from crashing.
posted by FunkyHelix at 12:41 PM on February 27, 2006

Unfortunately, all that information dump you listed tells me is that Firefox referenced memory out of range (via the instruction mov eax,[ecx] for the assembly language crowd) to cause the failure, a result which could have about a few thousand causes.

Does this happen consistently on the problem pages, and if not, can you find a page where the crash consistently happens? That might help quite a bit when trying to track down the problem. If you get a consistent crash on a page, then you can try using IE or Opera on the same page, to reduce the possibility that there isn't a related cross-browser problem in the operating system or a net-related participant. You can also try browsing to the same site with Firefox in Safe Mode, to ensure that it doesn't think there is a remaining extension or theme, even though you haven't specified one.
posted by mdevore at 1:12 PM on February 27, 2006

This just helped for me :
go to new tab type about:config
right click for new -> Boolean
config.trim_on_minimize = true
this will bring the memory down when ff is minimized at least
posted by grex at 1:32 PM on February 27, 2006

I'd say the first thing you need to do is disable every extension you have installed, and see if it crashes then.

If not, start re-enabling your extensions one at a time, and try and find the culprit.
posted by CrayDrygu at 3:19 PM on February 27, 2006

When I've had serious Firefox problems, creating a new profile has nearly always solved them.

Find your default profile using the information at http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile, move or rename it, restart Firefox and see if that fixes it.

You can worry about getting all your bookmarks and stuff back later.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 4:10 PM on February 27, 2006

I rolled back from 1.5.0.1 to 1.5, and I've created a new profile. This has fixed everything. Now I just have to slowly add things back and figure how what happed. Thanks!
posted by FunkyHelix at 5:17 PM on February 27, 2006