I noticed when I have had lockups that sometimes one of my tabs is on Facebook which is notorious for having a lot of scripts.

Sometimes I get a message saying a script is taking too long and whether I want to stop it, debug it or continue. It seems like Firefox needs to improve it's ability to handle scripts better.

spywriter007 said

I noticed when I have had lockups that sometimes one of my tabs is on Facebook which is notorious for having a lot of scripts. Sometimes I get a message saying a script is taking too long and whether I want to stop it, debug it or continue. It seems like Firefox needs to improve it's ability to handle scripts better.

For me, it happens when NO other tabs are open. Please don't side-track the investigation pointing to specific websites. The lockup has nothing to do with which site(s) are currently open. I get it clicking the (+) to open a new tab, when clicking File New Private Window, or when clicking one of the thumbnails on my FF startup page (usually Outlook 365, but the lockup occurs immediately, before it even sets the URL for Outlook), when it must be allocating resources for the tab. In years and years I've never had a lockup like this. All of the sudden, in April, I started getting these.

MichaelNicholas said ... Please don't side-track the investigation pointing to specific websites. The....

Very well said !

It's a fundamental problem, caused by opening new tabs with (+)

It was introduced with FF53

Let's not get sidetracked with web sites, add-ons, safe mode...etc. It's a basic bug that causes a total crash of the operating system UI layers.

I can confirm: It's still a problem with FF 54.0!

54.0 seemed to have messed up more than it fixed because now there are more freezes than ever, at least one every other day. I guess the "good" part is that at least those freezes just freeze FF, I can still move my mouse but I have to wait for FF to unfreeze which it will do on its own after about 30 seconds (or kill it through the Task Manager). A relative of mine has been complaining about FF-only-freezes too since the update to 54.0!

I did get another "locks my PC up" freeze less than an hour ago though.

Running programs at that time:

• FF (54.0)
• Skype (in tray)
• My usual Anti-virus/-malware software (in tray, no scans running)
• Rainmeter + mouse driver
• VLC (paused with a .mkv file)
• Curse Launcher (in tray)
• FTB Beyond (Minecraft, in the main menu)
• Windows Explorer (had just finished a search)

New programs:

• No new Windows updates, drivers,...
• I had to install a new version of Malwarebytes though (updated itself)

When it happened:

• I dragged the mkv file into VLC and immediately paused it
• Opened a new FF window (only one running then)
• Opened a new tab with the "+"
• Closed the first (original) tab that didn't have the tiles
• Clicked on the "Amazon" tile in the second (now only) tab
• Moved the mouse about 10cm/4"
• Bam... freeze! As usual: While it was still saying "Loading" and it didn't show the URL (so what MichaelNicholas mentioned)

Again a freeze on a website that I disabled NoScript for! That's what I've noticed with the last couple of freezes that I "documented" in this thread: It's only for websites that I have NoScript disabled for!

In Amazon's case that would be:

• amazon.de
• ssl-images-amazon.com

I don't allow scripts on Wikipedia or on my favorite gaming news website (I use tiles for them too) and I don't remember getting a freeze with any of them. But this is now the second (possibly even third) time that I got a freeze with Amazon (the other times were Youtube and another website I have scripts enabled for).

I know, I said that it was mainly clicking the "+" that causes the freezes but what if it isn't? I don't think it's a coincidence that the last couple of times it only happened when I tried to access a website I had scripts enabled for. It doesn't fully explain why I get the freezes so rarely (the last one was more than a month ago!) - even with visting Amazon at least once a day - but it looks a bit suspicious, especially since I have NoScript enabled by default and only disable it for parts of websites I absolutely trust.

AmityGames said

Very well said ! ...

AmityGames, you said at one point that it happened to you pretty much every time you opened a new tab through the "+", right? This means that we can easily test if it actually has to do with scripts in combination with loading a website and opening a new tab!

Please try the following:

• Install NoScript
• Restart the PC
• Do whatever you're usually doing but DON'T disable NoScript anywhere and always use the "+" to open a new tab.

If it should still freeze, I'm sorry for all the work/wasted time of having to verificate the Raid, if it doesn't, hey, we know a bit more!

MichaelNicholas said

For me, it happens when NO other tabs are open. ...

Please also try that. The more try it, the better!

Yes, I've had the lockups in 54 as well. I am also getting a second type of "freeze" that I never did before, where it opens the new tab, but it does not allow any browsing. If I click on one of my shortcut sites on that tab, it doesn't do anything, but I can click (+) to open a second new tab and go to the same site. Back in the "frozen" tab, I can type a URL and it pops up completions for that tab, but if I press enter, it leaves the name there, but never loads any content for that site. Clicking the Reload current page arrow reloads the FF tab with my shortcut icons on it, not the URL I just typed. Hovering over the shortcut icons displays the URL both in popup and at the bottom of the window. So, it is not a complete lockup, but the tab just will not perform any browsing. Can someone at Mozilla try backing out the changes made since 51 or 52 and see if they fix these lockups and hangs?

MichaelNicholas said

Yes, I've had the lockups in 54 as well. I am also getting a second type of "freeze" that I never did before, where it opens the new tab, but it does not allow any browsing. ...

I've actually gotten the same bug too but only 3 times so far: Usually when a lot of tabs (7+) are open and I open a new one, it never loads the website. If I remember correctly, it still shows the URL but instead of displaying the website, there's only a white page with the spinning "loading circle". As soon as this happens in one tab, it also affects the other ones in the same window, reloading didn't help and new tabs were affected too. I can't remember if new tabs in a new FF window had the same problem or if the window wouldn't even open but I do remember that I had to close all of the windows (the red "x" worked) and afterwards everything was back to normal. I know that FF 53.x and 54.0 are affected but I can't remember if 52.x or earlier versions are too.

Do you want to open a new thread or should I?

Regarding the initial problem: So I take that you're using tiles/thumbnails on the "new tab" page too, right? What add ons are installed and how often does it happen after clicking on the "+" (every time, 50%, 25%,...)? Is there a way to make the freeze happen on your PC? If so, please do whatever causes it BUT pay close attention if you hovered over any of your tiles before the crash happens. Please also try installing NoScript, set it to allow no scripts and see if that changes anything.

The reason for that "hovering over a tile" thing is: Whenever you hover over a tile a small portion of that website seems to load in the background and if even a tiny part of the scripts load too, that would explain why I get a freeze even after the new tab has been open for a couple of seconds. I found out about that when one of the websites I had as a tile got blocked by Malwarebytes. Hovering over the tile then made the "website with the IP ..... got blocked" message pop up even though I hadn't actually opened the website yet.

Can you try this please to eliminate that it is a Windows issue :

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

Pkshadow said

Can you try this please to eliminate that it is a Windows issue : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

This did not solve my issue.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

After running that, I closed the only tab I had open, the microsoft support site above. I then clicked on (+) to open a new tab so I could open email and post my result and BAM Firefox locked up my computer again!

Neph said

So I take that you're using tiles/thumbnails on the "new tab" page too, right? What add ons are installed and how often does it happen after clicking on the "+" (every time, 50%, 25%,...)? Is there a way to make the freeze happen on your PC? If so, please do whatever causes it BUT pay close attention if you hovered over any of your tiles before the crash happens. Please also try installing NoScript, set it to allow no scripts and see if that changes anything.

Yes, I often use tiles to access frequently visited sites. No, I was not hovering when the lockups occur. I click (+) many times a day to open new tabs. It is less than 5%, maybe 1% of the time issue. It is not just (+). It also happens on File New Private Window.

Extensions - Cisco WebEx, Saved Password editor, Norton Security Toolbar (disabled), Zotero (disabled). Plugins - OpenH264 Video codec, Shockwave Flash 26.0, Widevine content decryption by google. I really don't think it has anything to do with these addons because the lockup occurs without accessing any site, just opening a new tab, even Private Window.

One thing - I usually open a new tab before closing the previous tab. This could lead to resource leaking. When closing FF, I always leave one new tab open then click on the red X. I don't click the red x when the last tab has content on it because I don't like the FF feature of opening the last page when I launch FF the next time.

I've been looking at Resource Monitor, and Firefox is opening several TCP connections. After closing all tabs, they slowly release 10s of seconds later.

Pkshadow said

Can you try this please to eliminate that it is a Windows issue : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

The problem started occuring after installing FF 53.0. Sure, it's possible that FF messed something up but I still don't think that it's a Windows issue. I can still try it but with how rarely I seem to be getting the freezes now (they're still annoying!) it most likely will be a long time before I can give you any results and then there's no guarantee that something else won't mess it up again in the meantime.

MichaelNicholas said

Yes, I often use tiles to access frequently visited sites. ...

I wasn't talking about actively hovering but quickly moving your mouse over one of the tiles to click on the "+" instead of taking the long way around the edges of your screen to get to it. With how close the tiles are to each other you will hover over one of them at one point or another when you're moving your mouse from the task bar to the tabs.

With how rare it is for you too I'm not sure if there's a point to try NoScript. We'd need someone who has the problem a lot more regularly than we do to try it. Really hoping that AmityGames can give it a try!

My add-ons: Extensions: AdblockPlus, NoScript, Norton Security Toolbar (disabled) Plugins: OpenH264 Video codec, Shockwave Flash 26.0, Widevine content decryption by google

As for how you handle opening/closing new tabs: I'm doing the same thing! When I open a new FF window, I always open a new tab to get one with tiles, then close the original one. Plus, I always leave an empty tab open as the last tab in line, so I can quickly access a website when necessary. Before closing FF, I close all the tabs except the last, empty one and only then I press the red "x" for the exact same reason. All of that I've been doing for I can't even remember how long anymore.

TCP connections: Yup, 15 here at the moment with 5 tabs open (including an empty one). Even Skype only uses 4.

I also want to add something to the non-crash-freezes: My relative who's been getting these too has his own website that uses a lot of JavaScript and he told me that he keeps getting a lot of freezes with FF when visting that website. Sometimes FF unfreezes after less than a minute and sometimes it even takes up to 10 minutes until FF is working properly again! He's also using Win 7 (64 bit) and FF 54.0 and he started complaing after the update to 54.0. So no matter if the "+" freeze is connected to my relative's and my "no lockup" freezes, there's something wrong with how FF is handling scripts now!

A slight detour for you but there is a extension called Fat-Free Fox that may help slim you back down.

The other thing I am thinking is that you might have to uninstall and go into the registry and pull out Mozilla folders there before doing a clean install.

Or a registry cleaner which will clean everything up and possible issues but only way to get ride of FF all versions.

Now this also a thought https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

Does this also happen if you open a new blank tab?

You can do that by setting the Home page to about:blank and middle-click the toolbar Home button. You can also bookmark some tiles and open these via a middle-click in a new tab.

Maybe do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer if you haven't done this recently.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware

Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.

Make sure you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
• AdwCleaner:
  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
• SuperAntispyware:
  http://www.superantispyware.com/
• Microsoft Safety Scanner:
  http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
• Windows Defender:
  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender
• Spybot Search & Destroy:
  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
• Kasperky Free Security Scan:
  http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

• Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
  http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Win 10 was a great option and I loved it. Now, with all these issues with FF, Flash and all the crashes, Its become a real pain. I have reinstalled Win 10 3 times and it only solves the problem for a bit. I almost cant use FF at all now.

Firefox 54.x not responding issue started a few days ago for me. browser Locks up when multiple tabs are open and video is playing. I updated to Beta 55.0b13 (64-bit) today hoping to find resolution. The freeze continued. So I thought that I would disable add-ons and found that every single one that I installed was marked "legacy". Also discovered that major changes will be in effect Nov 2017. The list of extensions compatible with ff57 is pretty small and missing favorites like ad-block... ~~ Windows 10-x64 home  :(

One thing to try is deleting bookmark backups, to locate them run a search for bookmarkbackups. It'll be the only result or top result, enter the folder and the files there are file type is JSONLZ4, all the names start bookmarks followed by a date and a bunch of letters. Delete all the files that are there, then go to Firefox and check your addons, I had to restart some but I'm not sure if was related to Firefox locking up or the deleting of the backups.

If there no files or the issue persists then it may be malware related or problems with program files. If the latter you'll need reinstall Firefox, it should fix malware related issues also if necessary. If it becomes necessary to reinstall Firefox you can backup your bookmarks and once everything's restored you can delete the backup JSONLZ4 afterward. I find the system locking up interesting, a reinstall may cure that also if it persists as a fresh install would ensure clean files and default software settings if something got messed up somehow.

I'm on FF 55.0.3 (9/2/2017) and have not had any lockups for several weeks now, so somewhere after FF 54 my laptop got stable. I wish I knew exactly what fixed it. Was is a Windows update? A Firefox update? A Microsoft .Net update? After I backed out and re-installed .Net updates, seems to be when it got stable.