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General discussion

Firefox quit working

Nov 24, 2004 3:42AM PST

All of a sudden, when I click to use Firefox as my browser, it never gets connected to any website. In the lower left it shows that it is waiting for a reply from the website, and the icon in the upper right shows it is running, but it never gets the website.

The only thing I can recall doing is that in Ccleaner, instead of using the default checks, I went to Applications and checked Firefox/Mozilla's Internet Chache and Internet History. (I also checked "Automplete Form History" but that is for IE.)

Rather than fool around for hours as I often do when trying to fix something, I want to just reinstall Firefox. I understand from the Firefox website that I first need to uninstall what I now have and then install the version just issued. If I do that, do I need to backup my Firefox favorites?

grandpaw

Discussion is locked

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Re: Firefox quit working
Nov 24, 2004 4:17AM PST

Grandpaw,

Firefox has an excellent and very understandable user interface to clean the cache and history. I wonder why you should use any other program to do it. What's wrong with the thing built in?

It's always wise to backup your personal stuff before doing anything like an uninstall, even if you think it isn't necessary. It's so easy (in my version 0.8 Bookmarks>Manage Bookmarks>File>Export - later Import in your new version) that it just ain't worth the trouble to ask, in my opinion. Just do it. It won't harm at all.

Kees

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Kees, about Ccleaner
Nov 25, 2004 11:47PM PST

What's a body to do? In one of CNET's product reviews, Ccleaner is rated by 37 users at
http://www.download.com/3302-2144_4-10333623.html and all 37 of them rate it as excellent, some saying they use it daily. Some seem to say that if they had to give up either Ccleaner or their children, they'd give up their tax exemptions. They say that it cleans out stuff that the built-in cleaner does not and none of them indicate that it has caused them any problem. And Major Geeks recommends using it. So, naturally, it seemed like a good idea to me to use it.

Why do you think that using it is a bad idea?

grandpaw

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Re: Firefox quit working
Nov 24, 2004 5:54AM PST

Grandpaw,

A simple uninstall of Firefox, then reinstall should keep your Bookmarks intact. (At least it has on all my installations which went from 0.9, to 1.0PR, to 1.0 Final.) Still, as Kees stated above, it's ALWAYS a good idea to make backups of such. In my case, I simply import the favorites from Internet Explorer so they are already backed up in that program.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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Re: Firefox quit working
Nov 24, 2004 6:24AM PST

I find most third party tools for "cleaning" up a program, hard drive, browser, etc., cause more trouble than they are worth. I don't think a day goes by without at least one post from someone with a problem similar to yours. I think you would be much better off learning to use the maintenance tools that comes with every browser.

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Re: Firefox quit working
Nov 24, 2004 9:23AM PST

I was also interested in deleting the AutoComplete entries for passwords and forms and I couldn't find anything on Firefox comparable to what IE has in IE Properties. So I though that Ccleaner's program of deleting chache as well as history in Firefox might to the job. I did search around on the Firefox website and on Google for how to delete AutoComplete entries in Firefox, but didn't find anything.

I used the Ccleaner because I didn't realize it could cause problems (the fact that it is recommended by such as the Geek people misled me). And I figured I could clean both IE and Firefox at the same time, and Ccleaner, with its several default checkmarks, looked more thorough. And I had read somewhere that the IE program for deleting history and cookies didn't do a thorough job, so I figured a program devoted to that function might be better.

But no more. With computers at least, I'm changing from liberal to conservative.

Thanks much for the advice from all, which I will follow. grandpaw

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Re: Firefox quit working
Nov 25, 2004 12:23AM PST

I have, more than once, tried to remove Firefox through Add and Remove, and then install Firefox again. But Firefox still won't work. When I click on my Firefox desktop icon, I get a page with Mozilla Firefox as the title, and the icon in the upper right showing that a search is taking place, and with the explanation at the lower left saying it is looking up start.mozilla.org. But that never changes; it never finds start.mozilla.org. I have installed using the online installer and also using my Firefox CD.

I may have installed Firefox over Firefox without first removing the first Firefox. Anyhow, after I use Add/Remove to remove Firefox, and it accordingly leavs the Add/Remove list, and I search for files having the word Firefox in them, I get about the same list that I get before I "removed" Firefox, as though there was no removal. However, when I click my Firefox desktop icon, I get the message that Firefox.exe has been changed or removed. When I search for firefox.exe, I get:
UninstallFirefox.exe in Windows
Firefox.exe-28641590.pf in Windows Prefetch
UninstallFirefox.exe-12AAD7CD.pf in Windows/Prefetch

Any suggestions? No, I won't quit using my computer, despite the pressure from my family.

grandpaw

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More info
Nov 25, 2004 1:01AM PST

I have a Dell Dimension 2400; I use XP; I have plenty of free space. I have disabled all of my NOrton Security and SpywareBlaster, and made sure the XP firewall was off before uninstalling and reinstalling. Firefox worked fine for several weeks before this. I used System Restore to go back to a point when Firefox was working fine.

grandpaw

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Re: More info
Nov 25, 2004 3:24AM PST

That's strange.
If I go to start.mozilla.org I get www.google.com IE 6.0 here).
If I ping start.mozilla.org I get

H:\>ping start.mozilla.org

Pinging www.google.akadns.net [216.239.59.104] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.239.59.104: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=239

I assume:
- you have set start.mozilla.org as your homepage (or it wouldn't go to it); but why that homepage?
- you can reach start.mozilla.org on your XP machine with IE
- you can't reach any other site with firefox, as you write in your first post
- you can reach all other sites with IE

Of course, your current troubles started with cccleaner seemingly corrupting your cache or history or whatever. That aren't components installed by the setup, so they aren't removed by the uninstall and stay corrupted whatever you do (un)installing. You must remove them manually from Explorer,as with all files added with use in stead of install.

I would advice the following procedure:
1. Make a new XP-account and try Firefox logged on as the new user. There won't be a shortcut on the desktop or in the Start menu, I assume, so you have to run it from Windows Explorer. Browse to the firefox folder in Program Files and run the program. You should be able to read the location from the properties of your current shortcuts also. My bet: it works perfect.

2. Then locate the the Firefox or Mozilla or Phoenix folders in your (old) profile (presumably somewhere in My Documents and Settings and delete them. My bet: if you delete enough the program will run in your old account again.

Hope this helps.


Kees

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Re: Firefox quit working
Nov 25, 2004 2:49AM PST

Is the desktop icon or shortcut new? If not, delete it and create a new one.

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Re: Firefox quit working
Nov 25, 2004 3:48AM PST

HI grandpaw

However, when I click my Firefox desktop icon, I get the message that Firefox.exe has been changed or removed. When I search for firefox.exe, I get:
UninstallFirefox.exe in Windows
Firefox.exe-28641590.pf in Windows Prefetch
UninstallFirefox.exe-12AAD7CD.pf in Windows/Prefetch


Clean your prefetch folder !

You'll find it > C:\windows\prefetch

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Re: Firefox quit working
Nov 25, 2004 7:06AM PST

It was scary, I had so many files there that I knew about, but I breathed in deeply and did it. Thanks, grandpaw

PS. MS, of course, says nothing about Prefetch in its H*ll and Suppository program, though it does refer to some KB articles that, from the titles, seem to deal with some rather arcane matters. I've gotten a lot of information about what to do to keep my computer clean, but none of it touched on prefetch. How do you folks learn these things?

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Red, red, is the color of my own face
Nov 25, 2004 7:11AM PST

I uninstalled and reinstalled for the umteenth time, with the same result. Someone told me to reset the homepage and I reset it to About Blank It looked just like the homepage my Firefox installation took me to, except that the former one had a long URL that I don't remember, except that it had Firefox somewhere in it.

Anyhow, this homepage was not trying to find something as were the ones I had been seeing. I put google in the address bar, and, this is the embarrassing part, I got a message to uncheck Work Offline, a message I had not previously gotten. When I did, Firefox started browsing for me as it used to. If I checked Work Offline, I must have done it in my sleep, or else my memory is even worse than it was.

Let's all agree not to tell this to anyone, okay?

grandpaw

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Re: Red, red, is the color of my own face
Nov 25, 2004 7:16AM PST

ROFL Grandpaw.

Don't worry, it's happened to me as well. Happy


Mark

PS, your secret's safe with me, and all the thousands of people who read these posts.

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Thanks, Mark, boy, is that a relief
Nov 25, 2004 9:03AM PST

grandpaw

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Do tell it!
Nov 25, 2004 5:38PM PST

Grandpaw,

The way I read this discussion, you just discovered a BUG in Firefox: if you set Firefox to Work Offline AND set a home page on the web (not blank, not local) AND restart the program, then it keeps you waiting forever.

Experiment a little bit, and if the story is consistent and true, go to www.mozilla.org and report this as a bug. Open source programs like this one only get better and better if the developers are being told of bugs.

But glad to read your problem was solved so easily.

Kees

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I don't know, Kees, I hate to be the bearer of bad news
Nov 25, 2004 11:04PM PST

Just kidding. Yes, I'll do as you suggest. The good news is, it's not all me. Thanks, grandpaw

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glad to hear from you again
Dec 24, 2004 10:54PM PST

I really was worried because couldn't find any more posts from you and I enjoy them so much. So happy to see you again and happy christmas grandpaw please keep on posting it helps us all

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I think I'm being hit by the same problem...
Dec 24, 2004 2:28PM PST

Firefox just quit working for me too. It could very well be a bug in Firefox.

Well, lets see if I can get Firefox working again.

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Nevermind...
Dec 25, 2004 2:53AM PST

I got it working again...

But I'm not sure why it started, or why it quit. :-S

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Grandpaw,you can delete ...
Dec 25, 2004 4:15AM PST