Sorry to hear about the crashes!

Do you always get the Windows crash dialog instead of the Mozilla Crash Reporter? Unfortunately, it is difficult for forum volunteers to interpret the Windows crash data. If you have gotten the Mozilla Crash Reporter form, your Firefox may have logged some data that would help track down the cause of the problem. You can submit that data to Mozilla and share it with forum volunteers to see whether it points to the solution. Please check the support article "Firefox crashes - asking for support" for steps to get those crash report IDs from the about:crashes page, and then post some of the recent ones here.

Also and/or meanwhile, could you test in Firefox's Safe Mode? That's a standard diagnostic tool to deactivate extensions and some advanced features of Firefox. More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox.

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
• Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any less crashy?

Thank you so much for the reply! First time ever had a problem with Firefox, so appreciate help. Here is the report number:

bp-73ecf08b-cd55-4768-b101-a0bf32151005 10/5/2015 12:32 PM

ID: 73ecf08b-cd55-4768-b101-a0bf32151005 Signature: shutdownhang | WaitForSingleObjectEx | WaitForSingleObject | PR_Wait | mozilla::ReentrantMonitor::Wait(unsigned int) | mozilla::layers::ImageBridgeChild::ShutDown()

Can you access the report? Or is there something else I need to do? Thank you, Gail

Hmm, it's odd. That report is for a "shutdown hang" which usually would only occur when you closed the last Firefox window using the red "X" button, not when you were loading or trying to view a site (and usually not when you exit using the menu).

Do you recall whether you were closing a window, either the main Firefox window or a pop-up window, when the problem occurred? Is there any pattern to it?

I was on Twitter (once, it happened on Facebook also). Page just hung up, faded, and stayed that way. I hit the red X to try and close the page every time (this happened every time today). When I click the X, I get a pop up asking what to do. I posted the "details" in my first post above. I then clicked close the program, and restart Firefox. Don't know what else to do here. Thanks!

Oh, okay, I'll interpret that to mean that Firefox was not responding -- Windows fades the title bar in that case, and often shows NOT RESPONDING on the title bar, and since it didn't come back in a reasonable amount of time (30 seconds?), you used the "X" button to terminate Firefox.

Unfortunately, Firefox doesn't gather data on when it is frozen (after all, it is frozen), so solving it can involve a lot of guesswork. Our general support article on this problem is here: Firefox hangs or is not responding - How to fix.

Lately, many users have a not responding problem caused by the Flash plugin. For that, I suggest the following to minimize potential issues with Flash during your troubleshooting:

(1) To avoid unnecessary pain on sites where Flash is not actually essential, try setting Flash to Click-to-Play ("Ask to Activate"). This will delay Flash from starting on a page until you approve it.

To set "Ask to Activate", open the Add-ons page using either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Plugins. Look for "Shockwave Flash" and change "Always Activate" to "Ask to Activate".

With this setting, when you visit a site that wants to use Flash, you should see a notification icon in the address bar and usually (but not always) one of the following: a link in a dark gray rectangle in the page or an infobar sliding down between the toolbar area and the page.

The plugin notification icon in the address bar typically looks like a small, dark gray Lego block. (If it's red, Flash needs updating.)

The delay in activating Flash can help distinguish between problems caused on initial page load, styling, and script activation vs. loading/running Flash.

If you see a good reason to use Flash, and the site looks trustworthy, you can go ahead and click the notification icon in the address bar to allow Flash. You can trust the site for the time being or permanently.

But some pages use Flash only for tracking or playing ads, so if you don't see an immediate need for Flash, feel free to ignore the notification! It will just sit there in case you want to use it later.

(2) A common cause of unresponsive script errors on Windows Vista and higher is the protected mode feature of the Flash player plugin. That feature has security benefits, but seems to have serious compatibility issues on some systems. You can disable it using the Add-ons page. Either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Plugins. On the right side, find "Shockwave Flash" and click the More link. Then uncheck the box for "Enable Adobe Flash protected mode" and try that for a day to see whether it helps.

Well, while we were talking, it happened again. Page completely faded and hung up. I waited 10 minutes, and no box ever popped up, so I finally had to hit the red X to close the window. This time I got a message at the bottom of the page that "Mozilla is slow to start, click here to see how to speed it up. Link took me to the "Do a Refresh" page (which I did earlier). Is there any way to uninstall the update that was done last night? Everything was fine before they pushed that update.

Thank you, Gail

I just checked, and indeed, although I have Flash set to "always ask before activating", the protected mode was on. I unchecked it, and will go reboot Firefox. Be back in 10 with an update. Still wondering why this all started after the update though, have never had a problem before. Ah, the joys of software updates! lol

Well sir, I have no add-ons activated at all, completely rebooted my computer, Flash is not on at all, including protected mode. Went to try out twitter, and within 2 minutes, Firefox completed locked up again. Checked my email, still no response from Mozilla from earlier today when I submitted a crash report. I'm at a loss here. Going to go look for an earlier version of Firefox to install / fall back to. Don't know what else to do.

Just wanted to say thank you so much for all your time and trouble. Really appreciate it!

Gail

Gail said

Checked my email, still no response from Mozilla from earlier today when I submitted a crash report. I'm at a loss here. Going to go look for an earlier version of Firefox to install / fall back to. Don't know what else to do.

The people who compile crash report data do not do support, so you are in the right place for assistance. Please do not install Firefox from random sites! See this support article: Install an older version of Firefox.

Follow up for you, uninstalled Firefox, and grabbed an older version (39) from the Mozilla site. Everything is working perfectly here again! Wow - don't know what was in that update (40.0.3), but my system really didn't like it  :-).

Thank you again for all of the time you spent trying to help me out. You're an amazing person for assisting folks like me. Cudo's my friend! Have a great day!