Firefox freezes whole computer randomly

Hey

For about two months now, when I do certain things on Firefox, it freezes. I catually don't know/can't tell what causes it to happen as in its not on certain sites each time. I could be on anything. And even if I have it minimised while i'm using another program it will still freeze my computer

When my computer freezes though. The only way I can get my computer back to normal is to physically restart by pressing the button on my computer. ctrl alt del do not work. I can't move the mouse so i cant go to start and then shut down.

Like I said I have no idea why this is happening.

I had my computer restored about a month ago, but I had the problem even before that. I completely uninstalled firefox following the instructions on the firefox site to completely uninstall. Then I reinstalled, and I still have the problem. But I never know when my computer is going to freeze so it's really furstrating because I have to use IE which is amazingly slow especially with tabs in comparison to firefox. I've updated microsoft, i've updated flash and all that stuff.

So could anyone help me out here please because I have tried everything.

I am not a techie, so please take what I say with a handful of salt.

Both google and firefox have been making many changes in the past two months, sometimes downloading beta apps without telling the users. I usually avoid beta when I can.

Sometimes I go into the toolbar and adjust the options settings for both firefox and for google, but I have found that the problems generally follow "upgrades" or downloads and resolve themselves after a difficult day or two. I have had occasional problems with freezing or not being able to access some apps easily. Also, I have found that some security patches from Microsoft Windows will interfere with firefox functioning for a while. I don't know whether these different software designer camps regard each other as hostile or not, but it seems to be a similar problem to having more than one security program on the same computer. Maybe unintentional programming conflicts?

The only security program I have is windows live one care and I only put that on after I restored my computer so I dont think that could be the problem. Nothing else at all.

I try to steer clear of beta versions of software and as far as I'm aware I dont have any. I dont have the latest firefox beta, I have 3.0.4. And I thought microsoft would update bearing Firefox in mind as many people are turning to firefox now.

I have seen problems related to this while searchin on the internet and someone mentioned something about driver updating? Maybe that could help?

Well, I am not qualified to give you any advice, but if you go to other sections of this site, you will see what a low opinion is generally held of Windows Security when left to its own devices. There are a lot of free, high-quality computer security programs described at BC, with links. You may have to experiment to see what will work with what you already have installed.

Firefox 3.04 is still pretty recent. You didn't say whether you also use Google.

Google? Their browser? No. I only have firefox and IE.

Having said about the security, I dont think that contributes to my problems with firefox. But tI maay search for security software which will not conflict with one care anyhow.

But yeah. Anyone else who feels they could give some more advice please?

You could try this

Taken from here

If Firefox previously worked but suddenly doesn't start, it may be due to some corrupt data in your settings. Uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox would not fix this problem because your settings are not removed on uninstall.

To test to see if this is the problem, use the Profile Managerto create a new profile. If the problem goes away, you can then move your bookmarks and other important settings into the new profile.

Edited by xblindx, 16 December 2008 - 05:39 PM.

Thanks. I'll try creating a new profile then.