Firefox crashes all the time
Firefox keeps crashing several times a day. I have a brand new computer and am not sure what is causing this.
- I have run Norton and Malware bytes and don't see any malware. - I read some forums about Evernote and clearly causing issues. I have disabled them and still keep getting the crashes - This has also happened in safe mode
Here are the crash reports and would appreciate help on this.
Thanks
Report ID Date Submitted bp-5cafe2c3-2a5b-4d36-b879-823f12150615 6/15/2015 5:48 PM bp-be041a80-8a13-491a-bd73-2c77f2150615 6/15/2015 5:34 PM bp-05caef67-4074-4bc1-b72d-79b302150614 6/14/2015 7:12 PM bp-ae8ac753-60f8-4527-a95b-2ef4f2150613 6/13/2015 12:52 AM bp-059ca632-0902-4f77-ad10-93b8d2150612 6/12/2015 5:09 PM bp-3a8a3d99-b31a-43c4-b539-ac1e42150612 6/12/2015 12:50 AM
All Replies (13)
Unfortunately, the four newest crashes occur in a Symantec (Norton) component. Could you use Live Update a few times to make sure you have the latest release?
Do you recall the circumstances of the crashes, for example, loading a page, loading a video, downloading, closing a page, closing Firefox, etc.?
I think there is a known problem with some Norton product(s) exiting out of Firefox using the "red X" button, so if that seems to be a factor, please try to exit out of Firefox using the menu. Either:
- "3-bar" menu button > "power" button (that's the button at the lower right)
- (menu bar) File > Exit (you can tap the Alt key to activate the menu bar if you do not ordinarily display it)
One interesting thing about the statistics for those crashes: the vast majority of users reporting them run Windows 8.1, with a smaller number running Windows 8 and near zero on older versions. For comparison, the average crash I see tends to affect Windows 7 users the most. I'm not sure what that means, except it could indicate that the more secure handling of memory and other resources in Windows 8 and 8.1 may have Firefox and Norton stepping on one another's toes in a way that isn't a problem on earlier versions of Windows.
But that doesn't really help you...
Thanks for the postings - appreciate you looking at them.
- In general, live update runs several times a day on Norton in the background. I have run it manually just to be sure as well.
- Crashes occur all the time on different websites. I am going to general websites such as nytimes or CNBC
- When the crash occurs, I don't get a norton notification of exiting an application. When you talk about the "RedX" button, do you Norton ending firefox in these crash reports?
- Do the crash reports tell you what caused Norton to initiate the crash?
Anything other troubleshooting which comes to your mind?
Thanks
About the exiting, I meant that some users closing Firefox using the "red X" who have the Norton toolbar get a crash during shutdown. That doesn't sound related to your crashes.
I'm not a programmer, so in reading the crash reports, I'm trying to interpret what Firefox was trying to do from the available clues. If you scroll down to the "Crashing thread" and read from the bottom up (starting at row 46), it looks like the page triggered an event (this could be anything from "finished loading" to "scrolled down" to "moused over something") and Firefox then was running a script. At some point, Firefox called into coffpl38.dll, which a random website says is a component of Norton Identity Safe, which may be running because you have the Norton Toolbar. As you move up from there, several other Norton/Symantec components and some Windows libraries are called before the thread crashes, but since I don't know the ultimate purpose of this chain of events, I can't say whether the page was doing something bad that Norton is correct to intercept, or what exactly was going down.
- Does Norton get called towards the end in each of these crashes?
- The websites are all mainstream such as nytimes, wsj - so they wouldn't be doing something for Norton to block
- I assume Norton would check all web pages in general. So could these processes be running all the time and not be related to the crash?
Thanks
If you look at the red lines in the crashing thread table, those are the Norton/Symantec components. Certainly Norton is monitoring nearly everything Firefox does, and usually without incident. I don't know what's happening with these particular crashes, other than what I was describing before: some script runs and then Identity Safe gets involved.
Do you use Norton as your password manager? If that isn't essential, maybe there is a way to disable Identity Safe individually and see whether that makes any difference.
No - I don't use Norton Identity Safe.
I appreciate you taking the time to help me out.
I am getting really frustrated because Firefox has become unusable due to the frequent crashes. At the same time, I really like Firefox and prefer it to IE or Chrome.
Do you or does anyone else have suggestions on figuring out what's causing this?
Thanks
Does it help to disable the Norton Toolbar? External features of Norton will still run, so I'm not sure this will make any difference.
You can try it on the Add-ons page. Either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
In the left column, click Extensions. Then you can find it on the right side and click Disable.
Often a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.
Any improvement in stability?
Still no improvement in stability. Here are a few new crash reports. Would appreciate it if you could take a quick look at them
Thanks for all your help
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bp-778e28a7-ea54-4f39-b229-acfe02150619 6/19/2015 12:36 AM bp-cebcdef5-23b8-4de5-b588-745b42150618 6/18/2015 1:16 AM bp-5d0d7264-8e5d-49bb-9051-792562150618 6/17/2015 9:52 PM
This is still a problem with Norton software (you can see the couictlr.dll in the crashing thread in the crash report). This DLL is part of part of Norton Confidential.
Make sure you have the latest updates of all Norton components.
You can use Norton Live update to check for updates of your Norton software. Keep updating until no more updates are found.
Try to disable Norton extensions/toolbars in Firefox.
Not sure this is for your version of Norton, but perhaps it could help:
- Norton Internet Security 2015: Turning off or turning on Identity Safe
- Norton 360 (2014): Turning off or turning on Identity Safe
- Do you see couictlr.dll causing all the crashes or is it different processes in crashes, some of which are Norton and some are non-Norton?
- I always keep Norton updated and Liveupdate runs in the background at least 5 times a day
- I believe I had turned identity safe off and have never used it. Will recheck again to make sure it is off.
- Do you think this is definitely a Norton problem or is it that Norton scans all processes - so there is always a Norton process running in the background?
Thanks
At the point of the crash, Firefox had triggered intervention by Norton (for some reason) and the crash actually occurs in the Norton component that Firefox triggered. That's my interpretation from the crash reports; I don't know exactly how/why the Norton software is getting involved with what Firefox is trying to do.