Firefox won't start

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cheezit
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Joined: December 10th, 2004, 1:21 pm

Firefox won't start

Post by cheezit »

I am using Firefox 3.5.11. It was working flawlessly this morning. I shut my computer off (Windows 7) and went to work. When I got home this afternoon, I started my computer up. Firefox will not start. I tried restoring the computer to an earlier time. No luck. For what it's worth, Thunderbird won't start either. Any ideas on what to do?
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LoudNoise
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Re: Firefox won't start

Post by LoudNoise »

For Firefox, first try safe mode. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode . If that solves the problem a extension or theme is causing the problem.
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cheezit
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Re: Firefox won't start

Post by cheezit »

It won't even start in safe mode.
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dfoulkes
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Re: Firefox won't start

Post by dfoulkes »

Did you shut down your computer "hard" or did you close out all applications and then use the "Shut Down" in the Win7 start menu?
As you can see she's (The CAT) always alert and on the prowl for Meoware !!
cheezit
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Re: Firefox won't start

Post by cheezit »

dfoulkes wrote:Did you shut down your computer "hard" or did you close out all applications and then use the "Shut Down" in the Win7 start menu?

I shut the computer down using "shut down" like I always do. The interesting thing about all this is that it isn't just Firefox. Neither Thinderbird nor Sea Monkey will start either. Everything else on the computer that I've found so far works fine. I tried reinstalling Firefox, Sea Monkey and Thunderbird and they all still don't work. It just seems that if there is a "Mozilla" attached to the program, it no longer works. :cry:
cheezit
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Re: Firefox won't start

Post by cheezit »

Oh, and I have also tried restoring to a couple of different times. Still no go.
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dfoulkes
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Re: Firefox won't start

Post by dfoulkes »

First... was that "Shut Down" after you closed out Firefox and TB?

If so then I would start looking at your Firewall as the problem.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firewalls

And this...
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_will_not_start_up

Plus... when you attempt to start Firefox are there any messages at all...and have you opened up your Windows Task Manager to see if anything Firefox related is listed in the Processes heading?
As you can see she's (The CAT) always alert and on the prowl for Meoware !!
cheezit
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Re: Firefox won't start

Post by cheezit »

dfoulkes wrote:First... was that "Shut Down" after you closed out Firefox and TB?

Yes
dfoulkes wrote:If so then I would start looking at your Firewall as the problem.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firewalls

And this...
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_will_not_start_up

I use Windows firewall, but I haven't changed a thing. Would a firewall stop the programs from ever starting or would it just keep Firefox and T-Bird from connecting to the net?

dfoulkes wrote:Plus... when you attempt to start Firefox are there any messages at all...and have you opened up your Windows Task Manager to see if anything Firefox related is listed in the Processes heading?

No messages for Firefox. With both Firefox and Sea Monkey, when I double click on the desktop icon, the windows hourglass shows up like it does for every program that is starting up, but in this case it is only for a split second then disappears. T-Bird gives me a message that it is already running, except that it isn't running. Nothing Mozilla related shows up in the Task Manager.
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dfoulkes
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Re: Firefox won't start

Post by dfoulkes »

Would a firewall stop the programs from ever starting

Yes...

Did you review that link I gave you about FF not starting?

You might want to give this a try... it does not install into Windows like normal installs so when you're finished with it you can just delete it's folder. It's the portable version of Firefox and doesn't associate itself with your installed FF.
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable
Whether it runs or not should indicate something.

Also, what AV software do you use?

One more thing... you could disable your Firewall (just for a quick test!! then enable it again)... try to start FF up with it disabled.
As you can see she's (The CAT) always alert and on the prowl for Meoware !!
cheezit
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Re: Firefox won't start

Post by cheezit »

Also, what AV software do you use?

Microsoft Security Essentials.

I'll try the link this afternoon after I get home from work and report the results back. I'll also try turning off the firewall.
cheezit
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Re: Firefox won't start

Post by cheezit »

I downloaded the portable Firefox. It works fine, with or without the firewall turned on. Now here is where it gets interesting. Firefox portable is installed in its own folder, totally unrelated to the regular Firefox folder. *IF* Firefox portable is open, my links to the regular Firefox work, but they open the portable version. If the portable version is NOT open, the links to the regular Firefox do not work. The regular version of Firefox won't open by itself regardless of whether the firewall in on or off.
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dfoulkes
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Re: Firefox won't start

Post by dfoulkes »

cheezit wrote: *IF* Firefox portable is open, my links to the regular Firefox work, but they open the portable version. If the portable version is NOT open, the links to the regular Firefox do not work. The regular version of Firefox won't open by itself regardless of whether the firewall in on or off.

I'll assume by links you mean Firefox shortcuts on your desktop???

I'm not sure about why those links would use the Portable one... maybe Windows assumes that any open Firefox will do... not sure about that.

This is all acting like something in Windows updated when you booted your PC up and decided to block out FF and TB...or something like that. To have both of them not run at the same time is weird and tends to point to something like that. Was it "right after" booting the PC up that you tried to start FF or was it a little later...IE Windows took some time to do some updating?... I know you said that you did a recover but that doesn't always do it's job.

You might want to get into that Microsoft Security Essentials and if you find anything in there relating to those two apps... delete it and let the app. re-learn the apps.

I'm also wondering if something got into your Hosts file and messed around with it. And, do you run anything outside of FF/TB for maintenance... like CCleaner or ??

Another thing to attempt to see if you can wake up FF is to see if you can create a new profile to test with... if/if not then that will just be some more info about this...
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows

One more questions... you state that you have links on your desktop (or at least it sounds like that) and you use them to start FF ??? or do you start FF with the normal icon that would be either pinned to your Win7 task bar or from the Start button?... just wondering what "things" you use to start it up.

Oh Hell... just... just... just... another question :) and I have to ask this because many, many users look at the wrong heading... in Task Mgr... are you looking in the Processes heading? to see if that stuff is running?... lots of people just look in the Applications tab.
As you can see she's (The CAT) always alert and on the prowl for Meoware !!
cheezit
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Joined: December 10th, 2004, 1:21 pm

Re: Firefox won't start

Post by cheezit »

dfoulkes wrote:I'll assume by links you mean Firefox shortcuts on your desktop???

That's correct. Sorry for the confusion.

This is all acting like something in Windows updated when you booted your PC up and decided to block out FF and TB...or something like that. To have both of them not run at the same time is weird and tends to point to something like that. Was it "right after" booting the PC up that you tried to start FF or was it a little later...IE Windows took some time to do some updating?... I know you said that you did a recover but that doesn't always do it's job.

I have all of my programs set to never update unless I say it's OK. They don't update automatically. In fact, if there is a program that won't allow me to control the updates for that program, it doesn't get installed on my computer or it gets uninstalled when I find out.

You might want to get into that Microsoft Security Essentials and if you find anything in there relating to those two apps... delete it and let the app. re-learn the apps.

They aren't listed anywhere in MSE.

I'm also wondering if something got into your Hosts file and messed around with it. And, do you run anything outside of FF/TB for maintenance... like CCleaner or ??

No, I don't use anything like CCleaner.

Another thing to attempt to see if you can wake up FF is to see if you can create a new profile to test with... if/if not then that will just be some more info about this...
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows

I'll try that this evening.

One more questions... you state that you have links on your desktop (or at least it sounds like that) and you use them to start FF ??? or do you start FF with the normal icon that would be either pinned to your Win7 task bar or from the Start button?... just wondering what "things" you use to start it up.

Oh Hell... just... just... just... another question :) and I have to ask this because many, many users look at the wrong heading... in Task Mgr... are you looking in the Processes heading? to see if that stuff is running?... lots of people just look in the Applications tab.

Question 1. I have an icon on the desktop, one by the start button and the listing in the programs menu. I've tried all of them and none of them work.
Question 2. Yes, I looked in processes. :wink:
cheezit
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Joined: December 10th, 2004, 1:21 pm

Re: Firefox won't start

Post by cheezit »

Since I detest Internet Explorer, until I could get Firefox working again, I decided to look for another browser. I downloaded Opera to try it out. When I was installing it, I got an "Error 1606" which said it couldn't access the network location. I looked on Microsoft support site and found the following page. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/886549#FixItForMeAlways

I downloaded the "Fix it for me" program and ran it. It fixed all of the issues I was having with Firefox and Thunderbird. So I didn't need Opera after all. I'm a happy camper again. :mrgreen:
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malliz
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Re: Firefox won't start

Post by malliz »

Thanks for letting us know :)
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