Major Problem: "Firefox... not responding" Message

[Guest]

I too am having this problem except in my case I can not even get FF to stop running through task manager. I choose firefox and click end process and it will not shut down. I can not even get the computer to restart. Any ideas?

[schapel]

Do you read http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs and follow the suggestions there?

[Guest wf14 8ra]

Hi I have been having this problem only since I upgrade to MS Vista using both ver 2 and ver 3. I can not close the program using task manager or delete the "parent.lock" file. If I switch to another user (guest) I can use Firefox ok. But the only way I have found is to reboot the PC which is a real pain.

[Corkscreewe]

Hi I have been having this problem only since I upgrade to MS Vista using both ver 2 and ver 3. I can not close the program using task manager or delete the "parent.lock" file. If I switch to another user (guest) I can use Firefox ok. But the only way I have found is to reboot the PC which is a real pain.

got completely the same problem - ff stops loading pages and then refuses to end (even using task manager)

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs has helped me a little - I followed the "Hang loading websites when using an automatic proxy configuration file" bug report and it makes my ff run a little longer between hangs ... but still not perfect

[Alice]

I have a similar problem. Just downloaded ff3 yesterday on Windows XP. This is what happens. If I close firefox and try to run it again without restarting the pc, I get "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system."

If I ignore that message and click on my ff icon again it DOES open ff but with NO bookmarks...none.
If after getting that message, I do a ctrl+alt+del and stop the firefox.exe and then start firefox..no problem..it loads with all bookmarks.
If I restart the computer...no problem again.

Omg, I just took this piece of advice...and it worked!!!! Piclens is the culprit. Hurrah!!!!!!!!!!

Disable PicLens and see if that solves the problem.

Thanks. I've added the PicLens extension issue to http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions and added a link to your post in the beginning of the Lost bookmarks article.

[LoudNoise]

Sorry about that Alice. I could have sworn that piclens was on the list.

[Alice]

Sorry about that Alice. I could have sworn that piclens was on the list.

No worries. I was just about to add PicLens to the extensions article based on posts in the "other" forum and, searching here, I found this thread.

I've isolated this problem to be PicLens; I was even able to find other Web sites (quite a few, actually) that has a bunch of people quitting PicLens due to this issue. Thanks, everyone, for the help!

Thank you too, for confirming it.

[Klow]

It's not PicLens!! I also have the problem and I don't use PicLens! Firefox was updated some days ago and the problem is still there! Well, I got used to it, actually. It became automatic to close FF with the task manager. But please, fix it.

[schapel]

It's not PicLens!! I also have the problem and I don't use PicLens! Firefox was updated some days ago and the problem is still there! Well, I got used to it, actually. It became automatic to close FF with the task manager. But please, fix it.

No one has said that PicLens is the only possible way to get the "Firefox is not responding" message. Try the suggestions here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs

[Alice]

Other extensions listed in the http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions article can cause Firefox to hang or stop responding at exit.

In this other forum topic, the Skype Extension for Firefox seems to have been the cause: http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&comments_parentId=115123.
In this forum topic, the problem extension was AVG Safe Search: http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&comments_parentId=89604

The "Firefox is already running but is not responding" error can also happen after running a Java applet. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Java#Java_applet_causes_browser_process_to_remain_in_memory_after_exiting_the_browser

Make sure you have the latest Java version installed, currently JRE 6.0 Update 7. Updating Java seems to have worked for one person having this problem. See the July 1 2008 post by jack_5 on page 2 of this forum thread: http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&comments_parentId=83277

In page 2 of the above thread, ken rentz posted on July 9 2008 that ..... "Zone Alert does not get along with the web shield component of Avast! anti virus. I removed ZoneAlert, and I have not had a hang since."...... Information on "web scanners" such as the Avast! Web Shield component are included in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Error_loading_websites#Websites_randomly_do_not_load

[JJP 75]

This is a Firefox 3 problem. I deleted the 3 version and downloaded Firefox 2 and the problem disappeared.

[schapel]

What are the steps to reproduce the problem in Firefox 3?

[Guest]

I have found that this problem only occurs for me when I have "multiple tabs" option selected. When I remove this option firefox then closes quickly and I no longer have to use the "Task Manager". I have reproduced this problem by enabling and disabling the "multiple tabs" option and always get the same results. I believe the problem lies with the way Firefox handles multiple tabs.

[LoudNoise]

Guest - Have you tried safe mode? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode Your problem sounds like it is extension related.

[schapel]

I have found that this problem only occurs for me when I have "multiple tabs" option selected.

What's the "multiple tabs" option? Where is it in the user interface?