firefox wont open up for me!!

snowfire · Post by **snowfire** » March 3rd, 2005, 10:50 am

Hi! All,

This is the topic over at CastleCops: http://computercops.biz/postt109185.html

And, I did all my scans...the only thing found was the following:

"...Wrong... AdAware Critical Object just found. I have no idea if it is related.
This is the info: Registry Value Identified; Vender-windows; Type-RegData;
Cat.-vulnerability;Oject-Hkey_users:s-1-5-21-1605616401-645757453-568730
901-1003\software\policies\microsoft\internet explorer\control panel "Homepage" 0; Comment-manual changing of browser start-page restricted.

I have no idea what this means...is windows the culprit? or is this just related info? I don't use IE and have it locked down (striped down) as much as I know how without destabilizing windows. I did set the IE homepage to about:blank ages ago..."

Shutdown and bootup were flawless. Memory usage is no longer intense or irratic...which was the only apparent problem I was having. I sure hope you all have found a solution. Wish I could help...but I am still clueless as to what was going on! And, hopefully that last sentence remains in the past tense.

snowfire

ankh · Post by **ankh** » March 3rd, 2005, 1:18 pm

I suggest you try searching for that phrase "manual changing of browser" in Google and see if there's anything familiar in the results. It could be you just disabled one of your antivirus/antispyware apps, maybe one you didn't know you had.

I tried that search; this is the first item it locates:
http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6142-0.htm ... eID=739646
_______________
5. Lavasoft Ad-aware SE Personal, http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/. Be aware that Ad-aware will find 2 vulnerabilites that should NOT be removed if Spybot SDHelp and TeaTimer are installed. You will see a blue rubix cube, vendor is Windows, Type is RegData, Category is Vulnerability, Comments are "Manual changing of browser start-page restricted" and "Manual changing of internet-settings restricted". DO NOT REMOVE THESE!!" ---

Note I'm NOT much of a Windows user. But, check it out at the CastleCops page where they can focus on issues other than Firefox better.

ankh · Post by **ankh** » March 3rd, 2005, 1:26 pm

Meanwhile, on my office PC -- Firefox still will not start; still gets an hourglass and blinking icon in the bar at bottom of window when tried. Today I waited about 15 minutes, then was able to select it in Task Manager where "firefox.exe" appears, right click it and was able to delete it. Something still broken.

In case other odd behavior at the same time FF won't start up rings any bells:

AdAware still finds nothing (SE, latest update is about 2 weeks old now)
Symantec finds nothing, and keeps popping up warning its AutoProtect is disabled; the office Tech Support says that's not a problem, but the log file also shows zero scans - maybe it's been "Crying Wolf" for a while and now broken, I dunno.

Possibly coincidentally, while FF is broken on the Windows box I have to use IE, and IE this morning quit with this message; dunno, just dunno.
___________________________________
Microsoft Visual C++Runtime Library
Runtime Error!
Program: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team for more information.
---------------------------------------------------------

"Terminate in an unusual way" occurs exactly one place, Microsoft's search results: in a sample chapter of a book on debugging Windows, as a nasty bug the author hoped would be fixed, that he mentioned in case Microsoft didn't fix the bug in the release and anyone ever saw it. Ha! Ouch! Gotcha! Ow!

So -- all this puzzlement says, no clue; could be FF hit a Windows bug here, or some other app or infestation did.

snowfire · Post by **snowfire** » March 3rd, 2005, 2:30 pm

Hi! All,

Is this interesting or not??

So...everything seemed (and was, I think) honky-dory. Decided to check Ad-Aware's configutations. Ok, everthing is fine. Then decided to take a look at Ad-Aware's "Process Watch"...still everything is fine. Then decided to click "off" (lower left-hand corner) "limit to visible windows". AND BANG!!

Instantly I receive four alerts one after another: Firefox, The Bat, NOD32 AV, and winamp were blocked from connecting to the net...by Ad-Aware! I could exit and reopen winamp and it worked. The Fox seemed fine. The rest (above) I couldn't get to work.

So, I shut-down...and guess what appeared: XPCOM...etc! It wouldn't close, wouldn't respond...so I killed it, again. Re-booted...still couldn't get NOD32 or The Bat to connect to the net according to Outpost. (OP has on occasion shown that it was being blocked from connecting to the net...couldn't figure out why...now maybe I know)

On a hunch, I went into ProcessGuard and removed all of Ad-Aware.exe "allowed Actions" except its ability to "read" protected items... it was no longer allowed to modify protected apps.

Shut-down, again. No XPCOM...etc appeared!!
Re-booted.... ProcessGuard Alerted that Ad-Aware was blocked from modifying not only the apps mentioned above but also:
explorer.exe
notesholder.exe
outpost.exe (which finally answered my question as to why OP was blocking itself)
pshotlaunchvvl.exe
sgmain.exe (spywareguard)
sgbhp.exe (spywareguard)
processguard.exe !!!
teatimer.exe (spybot S/D)
watchdog.exe (RegRun Security Suite Gold)
nod32.kui
nod32.krn
iwctrl.exe
winpatrol.exe
ps2.exe

I still don't know what this all means. Nor how crippled Ad-Aware might be now that it can only read my protected apps. So you can be sure that I am now headed over to CastleCops Ad-Aware Forum.

And, by the way...I restored the reg value that Ad-Aware alerted on as a critical object. Thanks!!!!

snowfire

ankh · Post by **ankh** » March 3rd, 2005, 5:30 pm

Hmmm. Curiouser and curioser. While hung, firefox.exe PID keeps changing - is that normal? It prevented Windows from shutting down, CPU use at 100%.
Getting worse rather than better. AdAware still finds nothing; Symantec AutoProtect is still disabled mysteriously.

I decided to recheck the version of FF1.0 that's been broken on my office Windows machine since yesterday, after various other oddities and hearing that all the tech support people are busy today.

I deleted the Profile out of the Profile folder and tried to relaunch again from the icon bar at bottom of window.

I got a dialog box mentioning the old profiles (all "busy") and deleted them and created a new one and told it to run. I then got the same hang, blinking icon, hourglass stuck on the cursor tip, and went ctrl-alt-del to look at the Process.

Two things I noticed in the Process Manager, after sorting by CPU:

CPU is at 100 percent (I ended up powering off the PC, it would not log off or quit at all, no way nohow). Before ending up there, also noticed:

firefox.exe keeps changing its Process ID, every few seconds. I've never noticed that before; it may be perfectly normal in Windows 2000, but looks odd.

firefox.exe no longer will quit even with a quick hilight and alt-E, nor a right-click; it now always says it's not the kind of process that can be quit.

There's still no sign of the app actually running, of course.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » March 3rd, 2005, 6:37 pm

> firefox.exe keeps changing its Process ID, every few seconds.

This means the app is continually being killed and re-launched. Sounds like your machine is hosed in very many ways and I couldn't guess what's causing that or your other problems. I do know of one normal condition that causes Firefox to shut itself down and re-launch, but a new profile should have taken care of that.

ankh · Post by **ankh** » March 3rd, 2005, 9:19 pm

The problem seems also to be described in this thread:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=228620
("looks like it's running but it's not") which is new. I asked there if that person also sees the PID changing.

I'm out of the picture til Monday when I go back to the office where this Windows 2000 box is and see what Tech Support did. By the way, by the time I left, I had to use the power button, Windows wouldn't shut down. It kept getting worse all day.

And AdAware still wasn't updated since 2/16 -- I'm hoping they'll have something identified, I still suspect this started when the spyware got into the PC.

deepsecret · Post by **deepsecret** » May 7th, 2005, 9:49 pm

Hey all,
I know is a lil late, but I'm using ff 1.3, an alla sudden the XPCOM:EventReceiver hit me.

I had Mcafee 2005 , didnt like it, removed it and installed panda 2005.

I managed to STOP the problem, by uninstalling Panda 2005. So I'm writing this on FF, but without an anti-v or a firewall.

See if it helps wit u guys

craigevil · Post by **craigevil** » May 7th, 2005, 10:24 pm

Shabdix · Post by **Shabdix** » July 25th, 2006, 4:17 am

I tried FIREFOX alone and have the same problem with no Firewall but NOD32 AV.
I'm just a web developer i had test my web sites and testing Drupal CMS that FIREFOX crashes only there.
I thinking that FIREFOX had a bug in html parsing or sending post data.

Shabdix · Post by **Shabdix** » July 25th, 2006, 4:18 am

I tried FIREFOX alone and have the same problem with no Firewall but NOD32 AV.
I'm just a web developer i had test my web sites and testing Drupal CMS that FIREFOX crashes only there.
I thinking that FIREFOX had a bug in html parsing or sending post data.
OS:WIN 2003 SERVER FF:1.5.0.3

ault · Post by **ault** » March 28th, 2010, 5:19 pm

I had the situation where I couldn't run a download or uninstall because firefox appeared to still be running. After a lot of fiddling and tinkering in areas of the computer I was really uncomfortable with I realized that the solution was simple. Go to the Task Manager and click on the Processes tab. Delete anything related to mozilla or firefox and exit. Before doing anything else go to My Computer->Add/Delete files->mozilla and uninstall it. It will now uninstall it. Then go ahead and download the latest version of Firefox. I have had this happen to me twice so even if it hasn't happened to you yet...this is a handy little trick that seems to be really easy and effective.

Post by **Dartman** » March 28th, 2010, 5:39 pm

Please look at the dates of threads before posting to them. This one is from 2005.

Thread closed.

firefox wont open up for me!!

While hung, firefox.exe PID keeps changing - is that normal?

Re: firefox wont open up for me!!

Re: firefox wont open up for me!!