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Firefox freezes and the freeze then rapidly spreads to the rest of the computer, forcing a cold reboot.

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  • Last reply by Mad78

Mad78
Mad78
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The problem started a few weeks back. I'd be browsing the web with several tabs open, when suddenly the browser would freeze, staying stuck on the spinning wheel. At first it would only be Firefox that froze but in the space of several minutes the laptop would have stopped responding. I was also unable to force quite Firefox. The two websites that seemed to be most likely to cause the crash were Kotaku.com and YouTube. I've noted that it would take about 20-30 minutes (sometimes more) for the problem to appear.

The problem started a few weeks back. I'd be browsing the web with several tabs open, when suddenly the browser would freeze, staying stuck on the spinning wheel. At first it would only be Firefox that froze but in the space of several minutes the laptop would have stopped responding. I was also unable to force quite Firefox. The two websites that seemed to be most likely to cause the crash were Kotaku.com and YouTube. I've noted that it would take about 20-30 minutes (sometimes more) for the problem to appear.

Chosen solution

Does your computer run out of memory when this happens.

Try to keep an eye on the current memory usage to see what is happening.

You can check for problems with current Flash plugin versions and try these:

Try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox (you need to close and restart Firefox).

  • Firefox > Preferences > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.

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 cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over the problem.

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All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

Does your computer run out of memory when this happens.

Try to keep an eye on the current memory usage to see what is happening.

You can check for problems with current Flash plugin versions and try these:

Try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox (you need to close and restart Firefox).

  • Firefox > Preferences > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.

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 cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over the problem.

Mad78
Mad78 Question owner
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I've deactivated Hardware acceleration and that seems to have solved the problem for the moment. I've also installed a monitor to keep an eye on my memory usage. Thanks alot for the quick answer =)