Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

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psaulm119
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Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by psaulm119 »

I have now tried three Firefox extensions (Restart Button, Restartless Restart, and Restart Firefox) to shut down the browser and restart it, and they all will close FF alright, but not restart it. I'm beginning to think it is not a defective extension. What can I do to track this down?

I have disabled the java plugin (it isn't compatible with 8.0 anyways). I saw on http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs#Hang_at_exit this page that some security software can cause this. I only have Windows Firewall and MS Security Essentials running.

I'd really like to be able to quickly restart firefox after it gets sluggish, but I need to be able to make sure that it properly shuts down.

Any suggestions?
Paul
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dfoulkes
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by dfoulkes »

What happens if you just shut down Firefox normally... does it shut down in a normal manner?... all Firefox related processes are closed in Task Mgr?

Maybe the real issue here would be to attempt to resolve the "sluggish" issue? When it gets into that state... what kind of memory usage are you seeing?

And... if you have any of those shutdown/restart extensions enabled... and you start Firefox, don't do any work with it... and then click on the appropriate button... what happens?
As you can see she's (The CAT) always alert and on the prowl for Meoware !!
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psaulm119
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by psaulm119 »

I installed those extensions b/c I was having the same problem closing and then restarting manually. When I would do that manually, I'd get that error msg about Firefox running, and having to close it down first (the message would show when I tried to click on the FF icon in the Taskbar to start it again).

As far as RAM, I have 4 gigs of DDR3 and FF is going up to 800-plus megs (once), and 700-plus a few times.

I thought it was an extension, so I disabled them all and then re-enabled them bit by bit. None of them were causing it, although (of course) enabling all of them brought the RAM useage up a bit.

Personally, I don't shut down the computer until I'm taking this laptop out of town, so FF can run for 2-3 days occasionally. When laptop isn't shut down its in sleep, tho.

Perhaps I simply need to shut it down every night, then restart the next morning.
Paul
KWierso
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by KWierso »

Might be worth creating a new Firefox profile and importing your bookmarks/history/extensions into the new profile, just to get rid of any cruft that built up in the old profile. My memory usage was creeping up like you were experiencing, but then I made a new profile (with the same extensions), and my memory usage was halved.
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psaulm119
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by psaulm119 »

KWierso wrote:Might be worth creating a new Firefox profile and importing your bookmarks/history/extensions into the new profile, just to get rid of any cruft that built up in the old profile. My memory usage was creeping up like you were experiencing, but then I made a new profile (with the same extensions), and my memory usage was halved.


That might be it, although I have just started using FF a month ago (this time around), after Chrome started forcing me to display and print PDFs their way only, so I'm not sure how much crud has built up. I've noticed this problem almost immediately after I started using FF again.
Paul
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psaulm119
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by psaulm119 »

dfoulkes wrote:And... if you have any of those shutdown/restart extensions enabled... and you start Firefox, don't do any work with it... and then click on the appropriate button... what happens?


Closing down FF, then bringing it up again, I used the Restart Button extension, and it immediately shut down and then came back up, like I wanted.

So perhaps there is nothing wrong with the extension(s), but this is a FF problem.

I suppose I could cycle through the two other restart extensions.... Do you think that would help?
Paul
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dfoulkes
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by dfoulkes »

I don't use any restart exts... but it sounds like the real problem is Firefox hanging on close...

When I used to use Norton it would cause Firefox (and other MS apps. to hang) and they would never stop... so, what firewall/AV products do you use?

I'd really like to be able to quickly restart firefox after it gets sluggish

There are a couple recent topics about memory use of Firefox... causing it to get sluggish and/or just freeze... is that what you're seeing? And, when it actually gets too sluggish have you reviewed your memory usage?
As you can see she's (The CAT) always alert and on the prowl for Meoware !!
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psaulm119
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by psaulm119 »

I only have Windows Firewall and MS Security Essentials as my security apps.

I went through a troubleshooting sequence as suggested by an official FF memory problem page. It involved disabling all extensions, etc.

I never found one that made it zoom too high, which was why I was thinking it was just the time element---not shutting down for several hours or even longer. I know when I was doing this (disabling, then re-enabling extensions, one at a time) I don't recall it doing this. Perhaps I should have been more careful, and re-enabled one new extension after 4-5 days, just to make sure.... I think I went through it too quickly, as I was eager to get them all back.
Paul
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dfoulkes
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by dfoulkes »

I only have Windows Firewall and MS Security Essentials as my security apps.

Sorry... I re-read your posts but missed that you had already stated that. :oops:

If I were you and this mystery(s) were still ... wellll, a mystery ... and nothing raised its ugly head I might think about creating a test profile, make zero/no changes to it and then visit a number of sites that you go to... leave their tabs open etc.... and just let it sit for days? ... then check out its mem-usage and/or other things that you can check for.
You can create that profile and then have it running at the same time as your normal profile. By doing this the results of seeing what happens to that test version should at least indicate whether something in your default profile is messing stuff up.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Opening_a_new ... er_profile
As you can see she's (The CAT) always alert and on the prowl for Meoware !!
FrankTheTank
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by FrankTheTank »

I have only had this problem in past versions of FF. In FF7 and 8 they seemed to have fixed the problem for me. What I use to do was create a short cut to end all programs on my desktop. Do a google search on how to do this.
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psaulm119
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by psaulm119 »

dfoulkes wrote:
I only have Windows Firewall and MS Security Essentials as my security apps.

Sorry... I re-read your posts but missed that you had already stated that. :oops:

If I were you and this mystery(s) were still ... wellll, a mystery ... and nothing raised its ugly head I might think about creating a test profile, make zero/no changes to it and then visit a number of sites that you go to... leave their tabs open etc.... and just let it sit for days? ... then check out its mem-usage and/or other things that you can check for.
You can create that profile and then have it running at the same time as your normal profile. By doing this the results of seeing what happens to that test version should at least indicate whether something in your default profile is messing stuff up.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Opening_a_new ... er_profile



OK you are suggesting I create a new profile with a vanilla FF running? Or all the normal extensions that I normally use, in my "old" profile?

That sounds like a good plan... I just want to know how to properly execute it...
Paul
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dfoulkes
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by dfoulkes »

Frankly, I kind of got side-tracked here... the first thing you should have tried is starting Firefox in safe-mode. Use it in that mode for as long as you can then see if it gets sluggish and/or has any shutdown issues. If not then it's probably one of your extensions causing the problem.
This is only for Firefox safe-mode...Don't check off any of it's safe-mode boxes...
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode

What safe-mode does
* The status of plug-ins is not affected.
* Custom preferences are not affected.
* All extensions are disabled.
* The default theme is used, without a persona.
* userChrome.css and userContent.css are ignored.
* The default toolbar layout is used.
* The JIT Javascript compiler is disabled.
* Hardware acceleration is disabled.

If the above test does not work then the below is a followup of some of the stuff I was talking about B4.

I would create the new (call it TEST) without any changes to it... including extensions etc.

Make sure that you've created a desktop shortcut to it using the -no remote line command in the shortcut...
I have a FEBE profile for stuff like that and my shortcut looks like this...
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -no-remote -p "FEBE_Restore"

Start your normal Firefox and then start that -no-remote one. Visit a number of of your normal sites and then just minimize that Firefox... just let it sit for some time.

One other thing... here's a list of known extension problems... you might want to review it...
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions
As you can see she's (The CAT) always alert and on the prowl for Meoware !!
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psaulm119
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by psaulm119 »

OK, although a new profile is essentially running FF in safe mode (as long as no changes have been made), is it not? The only things I have done is had the password manager save a few passwords. Right now, after a day or so of this test profile, the most my memory useage has gotten has been 250 megs.

When I get back tonight, I'll see if I can get back into the old profile and then run that in safe mode. I can do that for a couple of days w/o restarting the computer so that should affirm that it is in fact an extension (if in fact memory stays below 300 megs).
Paul
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psaulm119
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by psaulm119 »

After several days of running only FlashBlock (the extension I couldn't live without), and for today, Readability, the only times I've had problems with RAM getting above 500 and making FF sluggish is when I have 15 or so tabs.

I'll try running just these two for a few more days, but I have seen FF get like this with FB alone, so I'm pretty sure that this is the culprit.

Unfortunately, Adblockplus doesn't work as well on what I want blocked, and I didn't see anything else in the Addons site that can do what FB does, so I'll probably just live with having to restart FF every time I get over 10 tabs, or something like that.

Tomorrow I'll start brining in my other extensions, just to see if any other extension will also have this effect. I think all the rest have substitute addons, tho, so I can probably find replacements for them if they also make FF sluggish.
Paul
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dfoulkes
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Re: Problems with Firefox not shutting down properly

Post by dfoulkes »

FWIW.... I don't use FB because NoScript does the same thing... you might want to review it on AMO.
Also for some info...
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions
As you can see she's (The CAT) always alert and on the prowl for Meoware !!
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