hello, could you provide your latest few submitted crash reports? please enter about:crashes into the location bar, copy the latest few report ids from there & paste them here into a forum reply. this will give us a better understanding what may be triggering those crashes.

Hello jerswing,

I had the same problem. I sloved it with some easy steps:

(1) Cleaning history and deleting cookies. (2) If Step (1) doesn't work reinstall your FF.

do not hesitate to contact me if the solutions doesn´t work.

Feel free to take your pick ... as you can see, hourly average is now beyond tolerable!

Submitted Crash Reports

Report ID 	Date Submitted
bp-bc50c5f8-680b-4906-8482-6dd4d2131130 11/30/2013 1:05 PM
bp-378a7403-eff2-4c56-869a-dab7f2131130 11/30/2013 1:03 PM
bp-4759de71-4ca4-4512-8f85-a36182131130 11/30/2013 1:00 PM
bp-88fcf7ee-01a2-4fa0-a0ae-38a242131130 11/30/2013 12:54 PM
bp-8a0900d2-bdad-463f-818a-c36882131130 11/30/2013 12:50 PM
bp-999ce4a5-8781-4b8c-a210-0328b2131130 11/30/2013 12:31 PM
bp-6acc8cf5-abe1-4210-9113-269002131130 11/30/2013 12:26 PM
bp-89aa4418-ca76-4e00-b7ce-d4a2b2131130 11/30/2013 12:18 PM
bp-45c26ee7-25b0-48e0-bd6f-97ed02131130 11/30/2013 12:03 PM
bp-2ea0156f-b52d-4e5c-aed9-217582131130 11/30/2013 10:23 AM
bp-58a81f2b-d0cd-4863-ac09-6a3a72131127 11/27/2013 8:52 AM
bp-26054402-d837-4a87-a747-476aa2131125 11/24/2013 6:19 PM
bp-2c338f39-3c37-4361-846a-79bfb2131125 11/24/2013 6:13 PM
bp-fc6fec2b-41d8-494a-b8db-3978d2131125 11/24/2013 6:07 PM
bp-8b79bcde-5c68-4530-9252-704d32131125 11/24/2013 6:05 PM
bp-cba2c38a-9825-405d-a896-ab51d2131125 11/24/2013 5:43 PM
bp-ce2668b6-2e3f-4631-ad0b-7e5982131122 11/22/2013 10:36 AM
bp-33a08297-65ab-4685-8e38-840f72131122 11/21/2013 8:55 PM
bp-cb88e977-9dea-4f3e-ba16-9cfcf2131122 11/21/2013 8:49 PM
bp-cf1e9d8c-10b5-44f7-be01-eac7e2131122 11/21/2013 6:46 PM
bp-339639c4-98c5-46cf-ac29-501122131120 11/20/2013 11:34 AM
bp-a6979b64-c5d2-4c91-b978-4b64b2131120 11/20/2013 9:31 AM

thanks for reporting back with these reports! most of the crashes seem to be related to hardware acceleration, so you could try updating your graphics driver, or in case this doesn't solve the issue or there is no new version available at the moment, disable hardware acceleration in firefox > options > advanced > general.

Yeah GFX = Hardware Acceleration.

Tried this;. seemed to work ... for nearly 20 minutes, until the next Crash! --- Now all my History & Cookies are gone [see my mention of "Firefox Reset" earlier] but the problem remains. --- Still open to workable suggestions ...

can you also post the subsequent crash ids? might be interesting to see if they are the same...

Above reply in response to tltoproxy's suggestion ". . (1) Cleaning history and deleting cookies..."

Laptop is Dell XPS with all latest drivers (c.2009)

I've now disabled hardware acceleration" in Options/Advanced & will report back if this helps/works.

Thanks to all!

Here's crash report post-cache/history/cookie cleaning (but before setting hardware acceleration OFF) --- bp-4d8ffd12-0b65-491d-9f10-aa7212131130 11/30/2013 1:45 PM

OK ... Cleared cache/cookies/etc. and set Hardware Acceleration to "OFF" and am STILL getting frequent repeated Crashes of FF 25.0.1

Back to my original Question: "Anyone know of a Stable earlier version that actually works with Win 8.1?"

Experienced NONE of this mis-behavior prior to last 2 or so FF Updates.

Appreciate any [non-troubleshooting] Guidance re stable FF version for Windows 8.1

Hi jerswing, there's too much diversity in (1) drivers, (2) add-ons, and (3) OEM and third party software to declare that any particular version of Firefox is or is not stable with a given operating system. While troubleshooting can be painful, I believe it remains necessary.

Do you have any new crash IDs?

Since the Flash Player plugin can be involved in many crashes, please also make these configuration changes if you can:

(1) Disable hardware graphics acceleration in Flash. See this support article from Adobe: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues

(2) Disable the protected mode feature in the mms.cfg configuration file. See this support article from Adobe under the heading "Last Resort": Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox? If there are permission issues editing the file, see the steps in: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/que.../979053#answer-506817.

I had similar problems , my firefox used to crash as soon as I opened, it seemed some problem with the switchable graphics application settings it seemed,as soon as I changed the switchable graphics mode based on power source no problem again! It is a windows related problem it seems as I never had such problem on similar versions at linux, this problem normally is seen in windows 8 and 8.1 laptops which have switchable graphics ,(some problem with the app graphics switch method from windows). switching to switchable graphics option based on power source will work:)

I have been having problems too - crash reports below. Will try uninstalling a couple of more add-ons but if anyone has an answer I would be great to hear it. FF has been great until recently - beginning to wonder if it is Google Hangouts update?

bp-21d9c0fa-5245-4e69-9ade-159bf2140118 18/01/2014 12:07 PM

11525144-a1f4-4b42-b707-6d4dddb8ee3e 9/01/2014 9:03 PM

Hi kiwinoel, since your crash report references Direct 2D as part of the process leading up to the crash, it could be an incompatibility with your graphics card/chipset drivers. Try disabling Firefox's use of hardware acceleration for graphics to see whether that resolves it.

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced

On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"

This takes effect the next time you exit and restart Firefox.

Hi Jscher

Many thanks - I will try that and see what happens. Most obliged for your help.

Noel

Hi Jscher

Well I made the change that and shut down - when I rebooted it failed straight away. Will give it a while now and see if it fails and let you know. Thanks again for your help.

Noel

r1n3 -- how does one change the "switchable graphics mode"? Firefox was working ok in Windows 8.1 for me until today...now it always crashes immediately on start. I'd like to try your solution but don't know how.

Hi guys - I disabled the HW acceleration but still got a few glitches - since ditching some HP Touch (fingerprinting) and scanning for malware things have settled down. The start of the change seemed to be the HW acceleration though - thanks for your help.