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Firefox initally opens fine , but when I try to open another tab Firefox hangs or I get an unresponsive script message

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firefox initally opens fine right to my homepage. Then a few minutes later it starts hanging and I cannot scroll or do anything until it connects. Similarly when I try to open a new tab, the new tab either hangs forever, or I get an unresponsive script error message. I have tried resetting firefox and starting firefox in safe mode. nothing seems to help.

firefox initally opens fine right to my homepage. Then a few minutes later it starts hanging and I cannot scroll or do anything until it connects. Similarly when I try to open a new tab, the new tab either hangs forever, or I get an unresponsive script error message. I have tried resetting firefox and starting firefox in safe mode. nothing seems to help.

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Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.

You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.


Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

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Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

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I forgot that this problem seemed to start when I upgraded Firefox to the latest version, Could this be the problem? If so how do I restore firefox to an earlier version.

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Does your home page display any Flash media? After a recent Windows update, I had to disable protected mode in Flash in order to avoid all pages with Flash hanging. (Otherwise, protected mode was running fine for the past year.)

See this support article from Adobe under the heading "Last Resort": Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?