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Firefox popups like the print dialog do not open

  • 2 replies
  • 9 have this problem
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  • Last reply by fishTail

fishTail
fishTail
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I am running FF 28.0 (build 20140314220517) on a Windows XP SP3 laptop. A few weeks ago, probably after the last update of FF, I noticed that I could no longer pull up the print dialog window. I've also noticed that other dialog windows like "File>Save Page As..." do not open as well. If I wish to save a link I must use a plugin like "DownloadThemAll!" because the "Save Link as..." won't open its dialog window.

Starting FF in Safe mode did not change this behavior. Also starting up FF using a brand new profile did not fix the problem.

If it matters, I'm using Avast! Antivirus. I've temporarily disabled Avast's shields to see if that made a difference but it did not.

I am running FF 28.0 (build 20140314220517) on a Windows XP SP3 laptop. A few weeks ago, probably after the last update of FF, I noticed that I could no longer pull up the print dialog window. I've also noticed that other dialog windows like "File>Save Page As..." do not open as well. If I wish to save a link I must use a plugin like "DownloadThemAll!" because the "Save Link as..." won't open its dialog window. Starting FF in Safe mode did not change this behavior. Also starting up FF using a brand new profile did not fix the problem. If it matters, I'm using Avast! Antivirus. I've temporarily disabled Avast's shields to see if that made a difference but it did not.

All Replies (2)

guigs
guigs
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Hi fishTail, Thank you for your question. I understand that some menu dialogues in Firefox are not functioning as intended. There are a few you mentioned: the print dialogue, save page as.., and save link as dialogue. All of which still did the same thing after disabling avast and starting Firefox in Safe Mode.

Please do a virus scan and a extension troubleshooting because safe mode only disables add ons. Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems. If you cannot save as What to do if you can't download or save files For the printing issue, please reset the printer settings with the help of this article: Fix printing problems in Firefox


Please post back if you need more help :-)

fishTail
fishTail Question owner
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This is just a follow-up post for anyone who might benefit from this. But to summarize in a sentence: my problem with Firefox 28 is due to Avast antivirus.

First let me say thanks to guigs2 for the suggestions even though they didn't help. :-)

The details: I had already tried safe made which didn't make a difference. Based on guigs2's link I then turned off hardware acceleration and switched to the default theme. Neither of these made a difference and I still could not bring up any dialog windows with FF. Lastly I disabled all extensions but that too was fruitless.

So at this point I felt it wise to try to start from scratch and uninstall Firefox and re-install. After doing that, I still had the problem and frustration was at an all time high. Sigh.

My gut feeling was that Avast was involved. But no matter which Avast shields I turned off, it didn't make FF start working as it should. So I uninstalled Avast and rebooted and now FF dialogs were back! Success!!

I am now using AVG instead since re-installing Avast killed FF dialogs again. I'm much more fond of Firefox than Avast so if one has to go, it certainly wasn't going to be FF.

I'll check the Avast board for any info but I doubt if I'm going back to them.

-FishTail