Author Topic: Firefox is shutting my PC off (Read 10777 times)

kaveman1969 · « **on:** November 28, 2009, 04:36:59 PM »

Hey everyone. This one has me truly stumped.
It started when I upgraded to FF 3.5. I would be in the middle of surfing and my PC would just shut off. No blue screen, nothing. Just shut off and restart.

First, I thought it was a hardware issue. Maybe overheating. After monitoring it for a bit, that didn't seem to be the case.
I also couldn't duplicate it with any other browser...IE, Opera, Safari, none of them would do it.

Then I got to thinking that maybe the newest FF was the issue, so I uninstalled it and went to version 3.0. Same thing. Just randomly shut the PC off.

Yesterday I went to version 2.0, and immediately after install, just moved the mouse cursor to the FF quick launch icon and bam, shut down.

I've had the PC on now since yesterday with Opera as the browser and no issue at all.
I really like FF, but at this point it's unusable to me. Anyone have any idea as to what's going on or why?

I'm running XP with 2 GB of ram on a P4 2.6 Ghz processor.

Thanks in advance,

Kaveman

Allan · « **Reply #1 on:** November 28, 2009, 04:37:57 PM »

Have you scanned your system with both your av and MalwareBytes?

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 28, 2009, 04:44:28 PM »

Yeah. I've scanned several times with AVG and Kespersky online scanner as well as with Malwarebytes AntiMalware and nothing.

Every other browser works fine, it's just FF that seems to have an issue.

2x3i5x · « **Reply #3 on:** December 04, 2009, 01:32:34 PM »

did you try to create a new firefox profile?

maybe it would work to stop autoshutting your PC? Creating new profile should be like having a fresh installed Firefox once you do it....

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #4 on:** December 07, 2009, 02:13:19 PM »

Hey. Thanks for the reply. I'll give that a shot.

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #5 on:** December 08, 2009, 02:36:47 PM »

Just to update, I turned off the setting to automatically restart the PC when this error happens, so I could actually see what the PC was saying.
First I got an error message and could continue using the PC, then got nothing but blue screens when it happened.

After Googling some, I ran Memtest, and it seems one of my two newish sticks of Crucial 1024 Mb of ram has gone flaky.
Passed the test once, and failed twice. Removed the stick this morning, and I've been fine on FF all day.

I don't know why FF was the catalyst that caused the crashes, and no other browser would. Maybe it utilizes system memory in a different way than other browsers.

But, so far so good. Thanks to all that helped, we'll see how it goes from here.

Computer_Commando · « **Reply #6 on:** December 08, 2009, 02:53:51 PM »

Quote from: kaveman1969 on December 08, 2009, 02:36:47 PM

...I ran Memtest, and it seems one of my two newish sticks of Crucial 1024 Mb of ram has gone flaky. Passed the test once, and failed twice. Removed the stick this morning, and I've been fine on FF all day. I don't know why FF was the catalyst that caused the crashes, and no other browser would. Maybe it utilizes system memory in a different way than other browsers...

Never heard of a bad RAM module causing crashes in 1 program only.
That's a new one on me, have to file it away for future reference.
Good thing Crucial has lifetime warranty.

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #7 on:** December 08, 2009, 03:10:43 PM »

I'm no PC expert by far, but I have been around them since the Win95 days, even built a few PCs myself.

I've never experienced this either, but as stated, I don't have the experience that some on here do.

Is it that odd to have just one program/browser affected? I could play PC games like FEAR, Prey etc...the older ones that my PC could manage on high settings no problem.
Only time I ever had an issue was when launching FF.
Am I wrong in thinking that my problem may be solved?

Also, I wasn't aware that Crucial had a lifetime warranty. I don't recall filling out or receiving any warranty info when I purchased the memory from Tiger Direct. Maybe I did, but I don't think so.
How would I take advantage of the warranty?

Thanks.

Computer_Commando · « **Reply #8 on:** December 08, 2009, 04:16:54 PM »

Quote from: kaveman1969 on December 08, 2009, 03:10:43 PM

...
1. Am I wrong in thinking that my problem may be solved?
2. I wasn't aware that Crucial had a lifetime warranty. I don't recall filling out or receiving any warranty info when I purchased the memory from Tiger Direct. Maybe I did, but I don't think so.
How would I take advantage of the warranty?...

1. You'll know soon enough. You did test the memory and 1 module was bad.
2. http://www.crucial.com/index.aspx
Read terms here: http://www.crucial.com/company/termsofsale.aspx#warranty
Contact Crucial for RMA, 1-800-336-8915

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #9 on:** December 08, 2009, 04:27:12 PM »

Thanks much. I'll check the Crucial site now.

2x3i5x · « **Reply #10 on:** December 08, 2009, 07:32:29 PM »

How old is your ram sticks? If it's still new enough, Tiger Direct could service you, if you preferred that.

Helpmeh · « **Reply #11 on:** December 08, 2009, 08:51:42 PM »

This idea just hit me, maybe firefox isn't the EXACT cause. Firefox could use those specific ram sticks and their flakiness is causing a crash. Windows shuts off to "protect" itself. @OP, have you disabled restart on error? http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tipstricks/f/automatic-restart.htm

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #12 on:** December 09, 2009, 05:32:53 AM »

I did disable restart on error, so I could actually view the error message. I can't remember the exact message but it was something like "firefox.exe application error The instruction at .......... referenced memory at .......... The memory could not be read".

After that, every time it happened it was a blue screen. Don't remember what it said at all now.

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #13 on:** December 09, 2009, 05:34:28 AM »

Quote from: 2x3i5x on December 08, 2009, 07:32:29 PM

How old is your ram sticks? If it's still new enough, Tiger Direct could service you, if you preferred that.

Thanks. I'll check my invoices and find out how old the memory is. I don't think they're quite a year old yet.

2x3i5x · « **Reply #14 on:** December 09, 2009, 12:20:16 PM »

Quote from: kaveman1969 on December 09, 2009, 05:34:28 AM

Thanks. I'll check my invoices and find out how old the memory is. I don't think they're quite a year old yet.

A year old? Then TigerDirect can't excahnge or refund your product. "TigerDirect.com will accept qualified and conforming products for exchange or refund within 30 days of the original purchase date." so their website says.

But you definitely could call them up and ask what's going on because they sold you the product and you have proof of purchase. They might have people there who can assit you and get you on your way....

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #15 on:** December 09, 2009, 02:08:41 PM »

Thanks. I'll give them a call and see what they say.

BC_Programmer · « **Reply #16 on:** December 09, 2009, 03:56:53 PM »

It could also be a motherboard issue, but that's kind of remote. only way to test would be to use the supposedly bad RAM module in another PC.

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #17 on:** December 09, 2009, 05:33:21 PM »

I just got the blue screen again in FF. "IRQ is not equal to" This is with the stick of RAM that tested bad out of the machine.

This is driving me crazy. I'm really at a loss now. New install of Windows XP yesterday as well.
How should I go about troubleshooting this?

Thanks.

patio · « **Reply #18 on:** December 09, 2009, 05:36:25 PM »

Sure...
Replace the RAM...

PS: It's not FireFox doing this....

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #19 on:** December 09, 2009, 06:12:57 PM »

All I was saying is that it only has happened when using FF. I guess if I used another browser as much as FF, at some point it would happen with that one as well.

Any ideas on troubleshooting this? This is a fairly new thing, last month or so. Any ideas would be appreciated.

killerb255 · « **Reply #20 on:** December 09, 2009, 06:24:54 PM »

Edit: Never mind...I should have read the entire topic...(I should have learned that by now...)

Anyway, there is no further troubleshooting if a stick of RAM is bad. Replace RAM. That's it. No voodoo. No other explanations.

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #21 on:** December 09, 2009, 06:31:20 PM »

Did that. Still getting a blue screen that won't let me do anything but reboot.

patio · « **Reply #22 on:** December 10, 2009, 07:38:56 AM »

Quote from: kaveman1969 on December 09, 2009, 06:31:20 PM

Did that. Still getting a blue screen that won't let me do anything but reboot.

What is the BSOD message in it's entirety ? ?

New or used stik of RAM ? ?

Are they in the correct slots ? ?

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #23 on:** December 10, 2009, 12:29:39 PM »

I haven't gotten the blue screen today, but the one I got yesterday said that windows was being shut down to protect my PC with the message "IRQ not equal to or less than"...that's all I remember.

Both sticks of Ram were purchased earlier this year from Tiger Direct.

My PC will only hold two sticks. I ran Memtest with both sticks in and it failed on test #4. Removed the stick in bank 2 and re-ran Memtest.
The stick in the first bank passed twice with no errors at all.

Took stick out of bank 1 and replaced it with the stick from bank 2 to be sure. Ran Memtest and it passed the first time, so I ran it again and it failed. Ran it a third time and it failed again.

Removed that stick and re-installed the original stick from bank 1 back into bank 1, ran Memtest one last time and it passed with no errors.

Like I said, no blue screen today, yet. But I did get it twice after testing the memory yesterday.

Thanks for any suggestions in advance.

patio · « **Reply #24 on:** December 10, 2009, 05:12:24 PM »

Stik #2 is faulty...

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #25 on:** December 10, 2009, 05:44:39 PM »

Thanks, lol. I was starting to get that impression myself.

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #26 on:** December 10, 2009, 07:31:50 PM »

Not to point fingers, but I got to thinking about what I had changed on my system in the past month, and the thing that stuck out was switching to AVG 9 free edition.

I removed that yesterday as well, and my PC has been fine since.

Obviously my memory failed, but after removing the stick yesterday, I still had issues. After removing AVG, none so far and it's going on 16 hours. Much longer than I've gone without an error this week.

I'll give it a few days and see what happens, but all seems well right now.

2x3i5x · « **Reply #27 on:** December 10, 2009, 11:54:42 PM »

Odd.

Grab yourself another antivirus. A computer can't go without one.

BC_Programmer · « **Reply #28 on:** December 11, 2009, 09:37:48 AM »

Quote from: 2x3i5x on December 10, 2009, 11:54:42 PM

Odd.

Grab yourself another antivirus. A computer can't go without one.

Yes it can.

It's just not a good idea for most people.

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #29 on:** December 11, 2009, 11:44:31 AM »

I installed Avast anti-virus, and so far everything is working fine. I Googled people having issues with AVG and found a lot, none with my particular problem though.

It is strange, but I'm glad my PC is running OK....for now anyway.

Thanks to all who offered assistance.

patio · « **Reply #30 on:** December 11, 2009, 06:03:00 PM »

You still have a bad stik of RAM...no matter how smooth things seem right about now...

kaveman1969 · « **Reply #31 on:** December 11, 2009, 06:45:49 PM »

Which has been removed from the machine and is going to be replaced by Crucial....I don't even have to pay shipping.

All in all, I'm much better than this time last week. Thanks.

2x3i5x · « **Reply #32 on:** December 11, 2009, 07:56:22 PM »

Quote from: kaveman1969 on December 11, 2009, 06:45:49 PM

Which has been removed from the machine and is going to be replaced by Crucial....I don't even have to pay shipping.

All in all, I'm much better than this time last week. Thanks.

Great, at least you're on your way

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Author Topic: Firefox is shutting my PC off (Read 10777 times)

kaveman1969

Allan

kaveman1969

2x3i5x

kaveman1969

kaveman1969

Computer_Commando

kaveman1969

Computer_Commando

kaveman1969

2x3i5x

Helpmeh

kaveman1969

kaveman1969

2x3i5x

kaveman1969

BC_Programmer

kaveman1969

patio

kaveman1969

killerb255

kaveman1969

patio

kaveman1969

patio

kaveman1969

kaveman1969

2x3i5x

BC_Programmer

kaveman1969

patio

kaveman1969

2x3i5x