Firefox 2.0 Not Working

October 26, 2006 5:32 PM

I updated to Firefox 2.0 yesterday and everything was fine. Today, after using Firefox periodically, I came home and tried to start it and nothing happened. In Windows Task manager, I can see that the firefox.exe process is running, but the actually browser is not popping up. I've tried rebooting and I've checked for spyware. What gives?

Also, between the time earlier today that Firefox was working and the time this evening that it stopped, I added nothing. I hadn't even turned my computer off in the interim. Let me know if there is anything else I should mention that might be important. Thanks!

posted by Falconetti to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Response by poster: Also, I forgot to add that IE is working.
posted by Falconetti at 5:32 PM on October 26, 2006

I had this happen with FF 1.5. I uninstalled it and reinstalled it and never had a problem again. With my FF2.0, I had some problems with my GreaseMonkey scripts that I used for GMail macros, but I found a fix online already. There is also some mention on LifeHacker regarding losing your bookmarks with the installation of FF 2.0 and other issues.

I think if you reinstall in a different directory as they suggest for the bookmark error, it should help.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 5:42 PM on October 26, 2006

When this happens, I just kill the process (all of the firefox processes, if more than one is running) in the task manager and start Firefox again. If Firefox will still not start after a restart, I would start with checking the Windows event log (in the Administrative Tools menu).
posted by matthewr at 5:44 PM on October 26, 2006

Also, does Firefox start in safe mode?
posted by matthewr at 5:44 PM on October 26, 2006

Response by poster: I tried killing the process but that didn't work. It also doesn't run in safemode. I wil check out the Windows event log, thanks.
posted by Falconetti at 5:49 PM on October 26, 2006

I'm afraid I don't have a solution, but I've been noticing that 2.0 is kind of twitchy about remembering window state & visibility. I think ultimately, we need to wait for a patch.
posted by Good Brain at 5:51 PM on October 26, 2006

Best answer: read this yesterday
posted by Substrata at 5:57 PM on October 26, 2006

Response by poster: Substrate, thanks! I followed the instructions from the blog post linked to in your comment and it solved the problem. The culprit was MacAfee [sp?] Site Adviser. Once I was able to uninstall that, I was back in business and I am now happily posting from Firefox 2.0. Thanks everyone for your help, it is greatly appreciated.
posted by Falconetti at 6:05 PM on October 26, 2006

Kill all running FF processes and start it with the -profile switch. See if it'll open into a new profile. Alternatively, log in as a different user and see if it'll run. If that doesn't work, uninstall, delete your profile folder(make sure you do this) and reinstall.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 6:05 PM on October 26, 2006

Now if somebody can just write an update for metafilthy...
posted by koeselitz at 6:17 PM on October 26, 2006

koeselitz wrote "Now if somebody can just write an update for metafilthy..."

koeselitz: Install Nightly Tester Tools extension, then use it to make Metafilthy compatible. It works. I used it on your comment. See?
posted by caution live frogs at 9:36 PM on October 26, 2006