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Click any link, Ff loads blank address and freezes

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

When I open Firefox by clicking a link, Ffox opens with the address bar blank and freezes. Only Windows Task Manager will take it down. If Ffox is already open when I click the link, a tab to the link opens normally. Win 7-64 Home Premium w/ all updates. The pc has plenty of disk space, processor and RAM. Started sometime last spring. Ffox ver. 55.0.3 (32-bit)

When I open Firefox by clicking a link, Ffox opens with the address bar blank and freezes. Only Windows Task Manager will take it down. If Ffox is already open when I click the link, a tab to the link opens normally. Win 7-64 Home Premium w/ all updates. The pc has plenty of disk space, processor and RAM. Started sometime last spring. Ffox ver. 55.0.3 (32-bit)

All Replies (3)

Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?

There is no opportunity to hold the shift key when I click a link. But I used the Help procedure to disable all addons. I can close Firefox. Firefox reopens with no addons active. with Firefox closed, when I click a link, it opens as described and then freezes. Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't know about safe mode.

Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration in Firefox. Since this feature was added to Firefox it has gradually improved but there are still a few glitches.

You will need to restart Firefox for this to take effect so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.,) and then perform these steps:

In Firefox 54 and below:

  1. Click the menu button New Fx Menu and select Options (Windows) or Preferences (Mac, Linux).
  2. Select the Advanced panel and the General tab.
  3. Uncheck Use hardware acceleration when available.
  4. Close Firefox completely and then restart Firefox to see if the problem persists.

In Firefox 55 and above:

  1. Click the menu button New Fx Menu and select Options (Windows) or Preferences (Mac, Linux).
  2. Select the General panel.
  3. Under Performance, uncheck Use recommended performance settings. Additional settings will be displayed.
    Fx55Performance-disableHWA
  4. Uncheck Use hardware acceleration when available.
  5. Close Firefox completely and then restart Firefox to see if the problem persists.

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

If the problem is resolved, you should check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in these Knowledge base articles:

Thank you.