firefox

[KDLA]

Does anyone, upon closing a FX session then beginning a new one, get the message "Firefox is already running...."? I get that quite often, and don't know why. I've done some reading, and checked for viruses mentioned. But, so far, no reason can be discovered.

[aj_nsc]

You're not the only one, I get it quite often too. Sometimes the firefox process goes away on its own and I can open it up again without getting that message, but other times it can go on forever so I have to open up Task Manager and end the process manually.....let me know if you come up with anything....;)

[scragar]

when you close firefox it normaly continues cleaning up for a half second or so, a good way to demo this is to monitor your ram usage as you close firefox, when the ram usage goes down after closing firefox is when the process finaly ends itself.

If firefox is just running endlessly it may actualy be a problem associated to a plugin(flash being the most likely contentder), since firefox will wait endlessly for the plugins to quit without trying to force it, which can cause a bit of a problem.

[KDLA]

it may actualy be a problem associated to a plugin(flash being the most likely contentder)Is that true, even if the last page viewed did not include flash?

Sometimes it clears up in a minute, but other times it takes longer.

[scragar]

Is that true, even if the last page viewed did not include flash?If flash is running at any time and starts acting up it could just refuse to close when it's no longer in use, lasting even after firefox is closed(good reason to use noscript and adblock right there), I am not saying flash is always going to be the problem, but from my experiences flash is the problem around 95% of the time(on linux it's called npviewer and is a child process to firefox when running).
Sometimes it clears up in a minute, but other times it takes longer.
If firefox is taking a long time to close like that you may want to look into what firefox is doing during that time, some process managers(and in my opinion any good process manager) should allow you to see what files the program is accessing(if you can log this to a text file, firefox touches the lock file a few times(once as it starts to open, then again once it's open, once more when you go to quit, and a final time as it's finished cleaning up), you can use this pattern to find the problem). A few things you could try:

Stop firefox clearing personal info as you leave(privacy tab of the settings).
disable your history, especially if you do long sessions(since firefox keeps the current settings apart from it's actual config file it saves your history to as it quits)
Disable add-ons that store settings
Reduce cache size(not likely to be any good, but it could help)

I do think monitoring what firefox is doing is the best way to find the problem though.

[drhowarddrfine]

Apparently there are issues with Adobe and flash on Firefox (Linux only?). Adobe only gives lip service to Linux and won't even talk to BSD for whatever reason. I never noticed the problem till I started using Ubuntu; and even then, not until I allowed Flash to run.

I especially have issues after visiting this forum. It has to do with that highly annoying SitePal ad up in the corner.

[David Harrison]

I get that error sometimes, it's very annoying. Also, Firefox 3 is SIGNIFICANTLY slower to start up. Even after the main window opens I still have to wait for a couple of seconds before I can actually do anything. FX 2 opened instantly and was ready to use.

I disabled the update check and that reduced the start up time quite a lot, previously it would hang for 5 - 10 seconds (or at least it would seem like that) on starting.

As far as flash goes, I never go anywhere without my Flashblock (http://flashblock.mozdev.org/).

[WebJoel]

...upon closing a Fx session then beginning a new one, get the message "Firefox is already running.... All the time! Fx3 is notable for it. *I* am finding that I close too many windows or applications too quickly, this happens and it really PMO. :(

I am all-but SWITCHED to "SeaMonkey" which is still Gecko, a bit more "Netscape-like" than I would really like, but it is sister to Firefox....Firefox 3 is SIGNIFICANTLY slower to start up. Even after the main window opens I still have to wait for a couple of seconds before I can actually do anything... Sure is!! Fx3 opens just about as fast (that is to say, SLOW) as InternetExploder does.
Again, SeaMonkey is faster. Admittedly, I have FAR FEWER addOns to SeaMonkey than Firefox, -if that even really makes any difference.

CHROME has SPOILED me totally rotten!! You know, CHROME has plans to adopt Mozilla-like AddOns/Extentions! ;-)

Chrome, once I dblClk the icon, takes FIVE SECONDS to load a ready-to-use screen!! Firefox 3 takes about 45-60 seconds... WAAAY longer than Fx2!

[KDLA]

It seems to happen randomly for me. Sometimes, it happens when I'm viewing local HTML files in multiple tabs. Other times, it's when I've got a load of "real" websites loaded.

Also, Firefox 3 is SIGNIFICANTLY slower to start up. Even after the main window opens I still have to wait for a couple of seconds before I can actually do anything.
I've noticed that, too; even with most of my extensions disabled, & I do not use a theme.

If I click on the Fx icon again, thinking that nothing's happening, I then get one of those little 250px or so windows in the upper left hand corner. It's a bizarre behavior.

IE has always loaded quickly for me, so Fx experiencing these issues is a real bummer.

[drhowarddrfine]

Firefox 3 takes about 45-60 seconds... WAAAY longer than Fx2!
Then you have other issues. Not only do I never see that but FF3 is known for its speed and significantly smaller memory footprint. I don't know what you mean by that screen but nothing takes that long on any of my machines including my P3s running at 550Mhz and 256Mb ram.

Talk like that reminds me of when I ran Windows and browsing would slow to a churn after a while. Not just with FF because I didn't use FF all the time back then, but all browsers. I had to reboot Windows so I could surf some more.

But even now, when I do use Windows, I never see anything resembling crashes, long delays, long startups, multiple tab or extension issues...nothing...except for this flash thing which I only noticed recently.

So there's something wrong with your machine. Time to clean up, defrag, or whatever you people do nowadays.

[Fang]

@ drhowarddrfine
You might not see problems with Fx, but there are many who do, including me.
Very slow startup, tiny window particularly after a crash, inconsistent incorrect rendering.
These problems are due to a corrupted profile. This means removing Fx and it's user files on a regular basis.
Mozilla changed the structure of the profile with Fx3, it just seems unstable. Fx is the ONLY browser that crashes.

My son has a new Vista system, after 2 weeks Fx refused to start up giving a "Critical error" as the cause. iTunes can cause the problem, but it's not installed. I will be investigating to-day.

[WebJoel]

I defrag, optimize, addBlock, spyware-remove, steamline and other things, IUam VERY adept at keeping things 'clean' and private yet Firefox runs slow for me, Ever since v.2.-something, I have been less-than impressed although it is stull FAR better than IE-anything.

Firefox is known for memory leaks though and maybe that is my problem...
In fariness:...iTunes can cause the problem, my wife DOES have iTunes installed on the XP/IE whatever so maybe that is part of the problem...

[drhowarddrfine]

What I'm saying is it's not a Firefox thing, or even any browser thing, but a Windows thing like I mentioned above. It depends on what you've installed/modified in the past, even if totally unrelated. The registry gets modified, who knows?

I do know that my 2 brother-in-laws, wife and two sons (one's a big-time gamer) never mention such things but they never install/uninstall much of anything. I've started using my wife's notebook just to surf the last week or so. She won't let me install anything on it, though. Have no issues. And the same is true of my 10 FreeBSD/LInux machines.

So I have a very hard time understanding this.

[Fang]

The majority of problems stem from a corrupt Firefox profile not from the Windows registry.
Badly designed add-ons that can't work together. I have uninstalled Firebug as, in combination with other add-ons, it causes Fx to crash.
Google know there's a problem and promise to have some mechanism to prevent this when add-ons become available for Chrome.