Firefox Crashes (? BSOD) (/questions/971282)
For that last few months my computer has been locking up intermittently during the night. I have traced the problem to Firefox ver 26. Sometimes the cursor will slow down and then freeze while using Firefox. The computer is then completely locked up and needed a hard reset. I installed the latest beta version 27. Now Firefox is crashing to the BSOD. I need to get this fixed quickly. There are deal killer issues with all the other browsers however they all work and do not freeze. Windows 7 64bit 8G memory 256GB SS system drive, 1TB HD Intel Q9950 Gigabyte MB.
Chosen solution
Blue screen crashes are fairly rare and usually involve an incompatibility with your graphics card driver software. Start Firefox in its Safe Mode and disable hardware acceleration.
Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox
In the small dialog that appears, click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Reset)
Open orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced
On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"
While you're in settings review mode, disable ALL nonessential or unrecognized add-ons on these two tabs:
orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > Plugins category
orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > Extensions category
Usually a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.
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Chosen Solution
Blue screen crashes are fairly rare and usually involve an incompatibility with your graphics card driver software. Start Firefox in its Safe Mode and disable hardware acceleration.
Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox
In the small dialog that appears, click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Reset)
Open orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced
On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"
While you're in settings review mode, disable ALL nonessential or unrecognized add-ons on these two tabs:
orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > Plugins category
orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > Extensions category
Usually a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.
Did you check the event log for details about these BSOD crashes to see if you can identify the cause?
What video card and driver version do you have? as some Gefore drivers have been known to cause problems like freezing and even bsod while applications like Firefox or games was running.
ex https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/545180/so-are-the-320-18-drivers-officially-broken-/
Modified by James
I have tried jscher2000's suggestions to uncheck hardware video acceleration and disable unneeded adons. So far it's working but I really haven't given Firefox a thorough test. It will bee a few days before I know if that fixed the problem. It appears to be promising. Doug
[ NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti ]
Video Adapter Properties:
Device Description NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Adapter String GeForce GTX 560 Ti
BIOS String Version 70.24.11.0.55
Chip Type GeForce GTX 560 Ti
DAC Type Integrated RAMDAC
Driver Date 10/22/2013
Driver Version 9.18.13.3165 - nVIDIA Detonator 31.65
Driver Provider NVIDIA
Memory Size 1024 MB
Installed Drivers:
nvd3dumx 9.18.13.3165
nvwgf2umx 9.18.13.3165
nvwgf2umx 9.18.13.3165
nvd3dum 9.18.13.3165 - nVIDIA Detonator 31.65
nvwgf2um 9.18.13.3165
nvwgf2um 9.18.13.3165
Video Adapter Manufacturer:
Company Name NVIDIA Corporation
Product Information http://www.nvidia.com/page/products.html
Driver Download http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
Driver Update http://www.aida64.com/driver-updates
Where is the event log?
Info on Event Viewer: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/open-event-viewer
It Looks like the problem was with the video hardware as you said. I haven't had another crash for 10 days since I disabled video hardware acceleration.
I also disabled the NVidia 3D Vision Plugins. I don't use them so why not.
Thanks for the help! Doug