Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

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hbien
Guest

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by hbien »

More information on the crash. First, the plugin is "NPTURNMED" version 1.0.0.7. It appears to use WMV as the basic player as the installation file is called "wmvfirefoxplugin_1005.exe". Still trying to determine if WMV plugins have the same fault. Unfortunately, there are no crash logs because Windows forces a shutdown due to DEP. Windows event log only reports
faulting application "firefox.exe, version 1.9.0.3071, faulting module unknown, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x017b8b38". Possibly NULL pointer error?
dzdrazil
Posts: 2
Joined: June 21st, 2008, 9:36 am

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by dzdrazil »

Well, I apparently failed to mention this, but I got the crash from a clean install, no plug-ins. Created new profile and new install just to double check. I'll try re-downloading it and doing another clean install, but it seems that downloading anything causes a crash, and I never get the crash report pop-up...
romana 3
Posts: 15
Joined: June 20th, 2008, 1:55 am
Location: Adelaide - South Australia

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by romana 3 »

dzdrazil wrote:Well, I apparently failed to mention this, but I got the crash from a clean install, no plug-ins. Created new profile and new install just to double check. I'll try re-downloading it and doing another clean install, but it seems that downloading anything causes a crash, and I never get the crash report pop-up...

Yes, the same thing happens to me when I download anything. I don't get a crash report and I've checked my plugins and its not that plus I don't have the Turner plugin installed.
sfox
Guest

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by sfox »

This happens to me constantly as well. It happens on random sites and I've noticed an increased chance of it happening on gmail. Has anyone found a fix to this yet? I don't have the Turner plugin and a new profile did not solve the problem.
AriD
Guest

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by AriD »

Me too.
Lots of crashes, especially with gmail open.
Always an error about DEP.
Running Vista Ultimate 32, 4gb ram, Centrino duo, on a Fuj tablet
VanillaMozilla
Posts: 13808
Joined: November 7th, 2005, 11:26 am

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by VanillaMozilla »

Folks, keep in mind this thread is about data execution prevention. Just checking. I suspect some of you might be talking about ordinary crashes. Ignore this if it doesn't apply to you.
Knur Kin
Guest

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by Knur Kin »

I found this page from google trying to find a fix... But this only EVER happens when I'm going crazy with plugins. I get a reproducible crash when I'll do something like use firegestures to open a new tab, then piclens opens up, use gestures to go to the previous tab, and close it, then click on something in piclens. I get a crash almost every time somewhere in this process. Keep in mind I get random crashes too, it's just that I get a guaranteed one with this process. I don't know how helpful this would be (if at all) seeing as how people get them with no plugins. The odd thing is, all of my crashes are a combination of normal crashes combined with DEP crashes, with normal ones being more often.
Knur Kin
Guest

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by Knur Kin »

OOPS, I meant fast dial, not piclens. Sorry.. if it matters anyway.
R2D277778
Guest

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by R2D277778 »

Using Vista Home Premium on a new Dell XPS m1530.
It's probably a vista problem.
once it crashes, vista locks the program and you HAVE to end the task - it doesn't give you any options.
fs2
Guest

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by fs2 »

Acer Aspire 5920G
Intel C2D T7300
2 GB RAM PC667
Nvidia Geforce GO 8600 GT, 256 MB
Vista Home Premium, SP-1

seems to be completely random, sometimes on some secured pages, other time I can browse all I want, the same deal as with the rest, it's bugging me like crazy... frequence differs as well from twice a day up to 20+ times a day, sometimes FF asks me to send in a crash report, other times it doesn't. hope it can be resolved with a bug-fix because this crashing-business is reaaaallly annoying.
Firefoxstarter
Guest

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by Firefoxstarter »

Guys, I was having the same problem described by many of the users above. Crashes every 2 minutes..esp when I visited bank sites. I had adblock extension on my mozilla firefox 3.. so called final version. I removed that and now i am not seeing any of those crashes. Hope this helps.
Ron Ca
Guest

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by Ron Ca »

Firefox 3.0 is very unstable when I try to use Gmail. It will crash, but you never no when.
I hope they going to fix this problem soon. If not, people may switch to IE :( or are going to look for another browser.
I did really liked Firefox 3.0, but because I can't trust it anymore to be stable, I switch back to Firefox 2.0 and I'm even thinking of using Opera ......

So people of Firefox, please fix this issue or you will loose firefox-lovers and that would be a pitty
hbien
Posts: 3
Joined: June 22nd, 2008, 9:19 am

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by hbien »

Did some more research into this. Seems like the DEP is possibly the end result of multiple sources not necessarily one common theme. However, I must say it sounds like Vista+Firefox 3 is having the issues. I took a XP machine, installed FF3 and the Turner plugin and had no problems. Notably, the plugin wanted to "update" Windows Media player (said a component required updated) before it would play. This makes me suspect it's a digital rights management (DRM) issue which Vista is much more anal about. I strongly suspect some component in WMP's DRM or Vista's DRM now conflicting with Firefox 3 in some weird fashion to result in the DEP crashes. Because my DEP was set to check only core Windows services, there is no other option to disable DEP in Vista. I think many people experiencing crashes upon media playing are probably related to DRM/plugin incompatibility but those that are experiencing "random" crashes probably have something else going on. In the meantime, would be nice if people who already have Firefox 3 installed and are running Vista could confirm that the following steps will reliably produce a DEP shutdown of Firefox 3: Go to http://www.tbs.tv and try to watch any show. Install the Turner media plugin as requested. I also strongly suspect it's not the Turner plugin per se but rather WMP's DRM which makes me want to find other websites out there that use WMP streaming with and without DRM for me to test.

In the meantime, is there a debug version available that I can download and install to get a crashlog/call stack/debugging symbols for Windows (Visual Studio or gcc) so that I might be able to better track down at this this once source of DEP? Thanks.
prism
Guest

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by prism »

In my case the crash was due to add on "PicLens". I feel some add ons are not tested on Vista.
VanillaMozilla
Posts: 13808
Joined: November 7th, 2005, 11:26 am

Re: Random Firefox 3 Crashes- Vista Data Execution Prevention

Post by VanillaMozilla »

hbien wrote:Because my DEP was set to check only core Windows services, there is no other option to disable DEP in Vista.

You do NOT want to disable DEP, even if Vista doesn't turn it on by default. It's really an essential security provision, in my opinion. It's unfortunate that a lot of computers don't have it.

I think I have an idea what's going on, though. Data execution is a questionable practice of storing executable code in the data section of a program, so the program can be modified. The reason it's questionable is that malware is largely based on getting users to run data as code, and if you're going to run these programs you have to turn off DEP. Bad idea. There are some legitimate programs that will trigger DEP. That could include some plugins. Personally, I would get rid of them, no matter what they are.

I suspect that many of you are finding them. As usual, since they are running under Firefox, Firefox gets stuck with the bill. In other words, I'll bet some plugins or maybe extensions are using data as code. Unfortunately, I can't help much, because my computers do not have DEP capability.
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