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General discussion

can't get mozilla firefox to open....XML Document

May 28, 2010 1:48AM PDT

My computer is a dell dimension E521 dual core with vista, Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, and Mozilla Firefox as my browser, for years. I was some place where I should not have been, and got an STD and herpes, which Microsoft Security immedately told me about,and Malwarebytes got rid of, two Trojans. Now I have to re-set Firefox everyday, and reboot, in order to get it to open. When I opened the Firefox file, there's a Blocklist.xml posting in there in red that says blocklist xmins. I have un-installed Firefox and re-installed with a fresh download, but I still have to reset it in default every day to get it to open, next day, have to reset it again.........Please Help Me...

Discussion is locked

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Might be another virus
May 28, 2010 5:35AM PDT
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Well, Brechan, That took care of that.......... I think...
May 28, 2010 11:46PM PDT

I ran the Super Anti-Spyware and it came up with two gen. Trojan alerts, so I quarantined them and so far it seems to be working. Is this where I tell you about the 53 AD-ware tracking cookies that also came up? After I ran the full scan and the reboot, an error message came up when opening...."error loading C:/users/lopez/appdata/local/temp/cofiinst.dll the specified module could not be found" My guess is that it is sitting in quarantine with the herpie attached to it. My first question is do I need to replace the specified module with a clean one, or not, and secondly, how you I delete the error notice from coming up on start-up? I'm not sure yet if Mozilla Firefox will open on it's own yet, because I was using the computer till after 3:00am this morning and probably re-set it as my default browser while I was on it, without thinking. So I won't really know until it rests and what the new blocked list from Mozilla Firefox finds.

Markflax,......I went to Mozillazine and read about the process for the blocklist, very interesting.... I'm thinking that this could be involved also because, although I read every entry on the Blocklist and did not have any of them in my computer, but now, I have 3 items that have been disabled by mozilla Firefox because they are not compatible with Firefox 3.6.3, and they all came from Firefox. I deleted two of them, and will look further into the third one. But I do need to say that you, Markflax, and Brechan have been a great help to me, and I want to thank you both for taking the time to do so. I'll be back with more results later today, but I just want you to know that your help is greatly appreciated.

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I agree with Brechan
May 28, 2010 6:02AM PDT

about using one of those scanning utilities. If you can't download SUPERAntispyware or visit the F-Secure site in Firefox, use another browser like IE.

That Blocklist.xml is a Firefox document that lists add-ons that Mozilla considers harmful, so it may be that you have a malicious add-on installed in Firefox. They may be add-ons or plugins.

More about Blocklist.xml here; http://kb.mozillazine.org/Blocklist.xml

Once you have done the scans, I would look at the add-ons Firefox has and if you cannot find any obvious culprits, do an elimination test. Disable them all, test. Enable one at a time, then test, and so on.

Mark

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You guys wre right......
Jun 1, 2010 1:18AM PDT

there was still another bug hiding in the computer, and not the OS. Super Anti-Spyware found it, and now it's no more. Malwarebytes says I have out of date Java installed, and I'll be addressing that as soon as I know which one it's talking about. Thank you both for your help and support.

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out-dated Java
Jun 1, 2010 6:37AM PDT