Firefox 3 problem

One one of my systems many times when I close Firefox the system freezes up. When I am able to get Task Manager open I find that in the Processes tab (not the application tab) that firefox.exe is still running and using nearly 100% CPU. I can end the process and the system returns to normal.

I was hoping someone here might have some insights as to what could be causing this. I found references in my searches to some people reporting high CPU usage while surfing with FF sometimes but nothing to do with its process remaining running and using up all CPU after closing FF. I have no problems while surfing, only upon closing the application.

Both of my systems are running XP Home SP2 with almost identical software setups. Both have FF 3 (latest) with only one extension NoScript. Only the older desktop is haing this problem. Any ideas?

 

Dunno if any of these have any relevence.
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Firefox hangs#Hang_at_exit
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Firefox is already running but is not responding

Seems FF3 has a few issues, so I will stay with a previous version for now.

 

Are you running the newest JAVA?

 

Thanks for the links tradetime. I do have the latest Java AKAJohnDoe, it is Java 6 update 7.

I may have possibly solved the problem. I deleted an old Spybot S&D file that I found in my FF profile folder and so far (knock on wood) I haven't had the lockup problem upon shutdown of FF. I had gotten rid of Spybot long ago and the file was a leftover I guess. I don't know why the file would have had any effect on FF at shutdown but I was grasping at straws trying to fix my problem and saw an unneeded file and deleted it. Next I was going to delete my FF profile and start with a new one if deleteing that file didn't do the trick and see if that would help. Hopefully it is fixed but the way things usually work for me is that now that I have announced it may be fixed...bang...right back to it. I'll cross my fingers.

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to respond.

 

Just an update on the problem I was having with FF in case it might help someone else down the line.

I thought I might have solved the problem by deleting the Spybot S&D file I found in my FF profile but the problem did return. As I said before, the problem was intermittent, so it took awhile to find the cure.

After the Spybot file deletion failed to cure the problem, I next tried deleting my FF profile altogether and starting with a new one. The problem returned. Next I uninstalled FF (rebooted), removed related registry entries left behind (rebooted), and then reinstalled FF (rebooted). The problem still came back.

Finally on a hunch, about a week ago I uninstalled ThreatFire and ran the RemoveThreatFire tool as well. Since that time I have not had FF lock up. I would usually have seen at least one lock up in that time frame. Especially since I was opening and closing FF many times to test if the problem would come back. So I believe I have actually solved my problem.

I had never had a problem with TF and FF before I first reported it in this thread and actually I still wasn't having an issue with the two on my other system. I have since uninstalled TF on both systems though since my father was beginning to report strange issues with TF on one of his computers (alerting on programs it never alerted on before and not remembering his answers to the alerts, even though he checked the box telling it to.)

Maybe they had an update sometime that started the problems, I don't know. Since I was having problems and since Symantec has aquired PC Tools I have decided to abandon TF, at least the last version. I am trying to decide if I want to either go back to the last version of CyberHawk or the first version of TF (as brought up by another Wilders member) or just rely on Avast and Returnil as I am now for resident protection.

FYI:
I haven't noticed any speed/performance increase since uninstalling TF on either system so I guess it wasn't weighing me down any in that respect.

 

Threatfire has always had a conflict with what ever pc I put it on eventually. To me it simply isn't worth the hassle of troubleshooting all the time. The latest version of TF worked the best IME, especially on Vista. Personally I would go for the Cyberhawk version or just leave it off altogether.

Thanks for the followup on your situation. I have a similar problem with Iexplore.exe but it's not TF related .

 

I reinstalled Cyberhawk on both my systems early this morning to replace Threatfire and so far I have not had any lockups from Firefox upon closing it as I did with Threatfire. I do have one very small annoyance though that I didn't have with Threatfire. I don't even remember having it in the past when I used to use Cyberhawk. When I open some programs I notice a bit of a delay in them opening. The most noticeable delay though, and the one that is kind of bugging me, is that when I click Start>Turn Off Computer there is a several second delay before the window pops up with the Standby, Turn Off, Restart buttons. I didn't have this delay with or without TF installed. It just began after installing Cyberhawk.

Is anyone else who is still using Cyberhawk (Easter where are you) having this same issue? I admit that it is a minor inconvenience and if it is the only one I suffer from going back to Cyberhawk then so be it. I am just curious if it is just my systems that react to Cyberhawk in this manner or if other users notice it. I don't know what version of Cyberhawk Easter is using but I only had what I believe is the last version in my collection (version 2.0.4.34), so it is the one I am using.

Thanks