Strange "stalling" issue in FF2.0

mfellers · Post by **mfellers** » October 31st, 2006, 5:40 am

When I upgrade to FF 2.0, I'm encounter a strange issue. All starts well... I can browse, move around in multiple tabs, whatever. All appears to work normally. If, during this time, I exit firefox... it exits correctly (Firefox.exe process ends). However, invariably, if I continue browsing the web, eventually, pages quit loading. I'll click a link on a web page, or type in a new address.... and firefox will ACT like it's having trouble reaching the site. Oddly enough, though, I've let it run for over 5 minutes and I never get a timeout message. Once this happens, any new tabs I open, or any "Cancel navigation" and restart I do, have the same issue. Basically, Firefox becomes "dead" at this point (although it doesn't truly "lock up" in a hard sense).

If I click "File -> Exit" or the close button, it STILL acts like it's not really locked up. When I have multiple tabs open in this scenario, I get warned that I'm closing mutliple tabs. So the program isn't hard locked.

When I do go ahead and say that yes, I do in fact want to exit, it appears to close. However, firefox.exe never leaves the process list. It still shows using the same ram it was when it was open, but no CPU time. I have to terminate the process manually.

I have attempted to uninstall, remove all directories (in Program Files and the two sets of Mozilla directories in Documents and Settings), and re-install. Still the same results. I have run the program in Safe Mode, and still the same behavior.

When I revert back to 1.5.0.7, all is well.

I've tried upgrading over 1.5.0.7 (with no plugins installed). I've tried un-installing 1.5.0.7 and then installing 2.0. Same results.

I run anti-virus (Bitdefender) and a high grade firewall (Outpost), and have checked all the logs for the applications. Outpost isn't blocking anything from firefox, and bitdefender is showing no issues.

I have checked for Spyware/Malware, and none is present.

I have NO other stability/behavior issues out of ANY other app on the machine... including 1.5.0.7 of firefox.

Any clues? At this point, I am just thinking that FF2.0 may not be ready for non-beta status.

Thanks.

NewDaveyb · Post by **NewDaveyb** » October 31st, 2006, 5:44 am

Yes, I'm getting exactly the same "stalling" effect as you describe. No idea way unfortunately but I had no problems with 1.5.0.7, which I upgraded from.

David.

malliz · Post by **malliz** » October 31st, 2006, 5:47 am

Did you delete your profile and then reinstall firefox? Because your profile is NOT uninstalled and it may be corrupt
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folde ... rrupted.3F

mfellers · Post by **mfellers** » October 31st, 2006, 6:06 am

As stated in my original post, I deleted ALL of the install directories AND the Mozilla directories located in "Documents and Settings", which is where the profiles reside.

So yes, I deleted the profiles. I had to re-do all my settings and bookmarks (which I HAD copied, so no biggie).

Schnook · Post by **Schnook** » October 31st, 2006, 6:07 am

This is similar to a stall, but worse...

Especially after playing a crossword on Yahoo!, I kill (Alt-F4) FF to get rid of the Java machinery started by the crossword.

Somewhere between 50-90% of the time, FF won't restart, saying it's already running. However, it shows only in Task Manager under Processes--not under Applications, not on the Taskbar, not in SysTray. I have to kill it from TM/Processes.

I've reverted to 1.5.0.7.

VanillaMozilla · Post by **VanillaMozilla** » October 31st, 2006, 6:16 am

Folks, what happens if you shut the computer down after this problem occurs?

mfellers · Post by **mfellers** » November 1st, 2006, 1:22 pm

Vanilla:

Well, since I've un-installed 2.0 and reverted to 1.5.0.7, can't test at the moment. If I get some free time, might try it yet again to test that.

I had tried a normal shutdown of the computer after the issue (seeing if a reboot helped), but I had already terminated the process.... so depending on what you want to know, that might not cut it. You wanting to know if I got a message trying to shutdown while the process was "hung"? If so, I'll see if I can set aside time to try yet again.

VanillaMozilla · Post by **VanillaMozilla** » November 1st, 2006, 1:29 pm

Well, I suspect a problem with termination of XPCOM, but it's just a guess. If XPCOM can't terminate, that can actually give you an error message and pause the computer shutdown process. I suspect a problem with this Mozilla component, but I don't have enough on it for a useful bug report.

daveyb · Post by **daveyb** » November 2nd, 2006, 6:33 am

FAO VanillaMozilla:

I've kept with 2.0 but it is getting pretty irritating now. After a "stall", if you shutdown the computer (WinXP SP2) you get the 'Windows is trying to close a program' diaglogue box but you always have to press the "End Now" button as it can't end it itself (the Firefox process is still there in task manager but no I/O or CPU cycles being used).

I don't think it's much help but the summary error information I get is:

Error signature
szAppName: firefox.exe
szAppVer: 1.8.20061.1023
szModName: hungapp
szModVer: 0.0.0.0
offset: 00000000

Any ideas on a fix?

David.

mfellers · Post by **mfellers** » November 2nd, 2006, 6:52 am

Vanilla:

So I did another install of 2.0 to do the testing. Luckily (I guess) it's fairly quick to duplicate the issue.

The first time I got the stall, I had been browsing the CNN web site. I also viewed a WMP video while on it (successfully). A short time later, I hit the "stall".

On shutdown, I got a "End Now" scenario with "Media Event Sink Window". So, to see if it was video related, I restarted the machine, and browsed sites without video (Dell, this forum, etc). Got the hang again. This time when I shut down, got an "End Now" scenario with "XPCOM:EventReceiver".

Does that help?

Luckily, every time I revert to 1.5.0.7, all works again.

VanillaMozilla · Post by **VanillaMozilla** » November 2nd, 2006, 9:10 am

Daveyb, no, I have no idea except for the standard diagnostic.

Mfellers, yes that makes several reports of this, and I'll send in a bug report soon. Have you tried this with a new profile? That's the customary way of making sure the problem is in the browser itself. It's usually required for a bug report. Thanks for your help.

uranutopian · Post by **uranutopian** » November 2nd, 2006, 9:24 am

i'm sure you've already heard this, but i didn't see a post on this thread so i'll go ahead and put it out there. i've got an imac and am currently running tiger (10.4.8) and am having the exact same issue so it is not unique to windows. btw i love firefox and would love to continue using it if this issue is resolved...

VanillaMozilla · Post by **VanillaMozilla** » November 2nd, 2006, 10:42 am

Exactly what issue? Can you describe it? Can you post an error message?

mfellers · Post by **mfellers** » November 2nd, 2006, 11:20 am

VanillaMozilla:

Yes, I have tried a new profile. Basically, once I got the FIRST issue the first time, I tried fully un-installing, deleting the program directories, deleting the "Mozilla" folder under "C:\documents and settings\<my>\Application Data", and deleting the "Mozilla" folder under "C:\documents and settings\<my>\local settings\Application Data". That should fry all profile info, correct? I then re-installed and still had the issue. The ONLY file from my profile directory I carried over (copied out and copied back after all that) was my bookmarks.html file.

VanillaMozilla · Post by **VanillaMozilla** » November 2nd, 2006, 11:54 am

That's more thorough than I would have been two days ago. I see you got the cache too. Sorry it doesn't fix it.

Strange "stalling" issue in FF2.0

Strange "stalling" issue in FF2.0

FF 2.0 doesn't quit cleanly.