Firefox Broken & I Can't Fix It

Help! I don't like using IE

[jdkuehne]

Firefox inexplicably broke and I haven't been able to figure it out. I'm hoping someone else has run into this same problem and knows the solution.

When I start FF, the screen looks normal, but if I open a page, the browser window remains blank, but I can tell the page is being dowloaded by modem & disc activity. If I open more than one tab, I can only tell they (or anything)are open because when I close FF it warns me that I'm closing multiple tabs. If I click on the recent URL down arrow, a blank list opens on the left side of the screen. The File, Edit, View, etc, buttons do not function, although "double-click to check for updates" does work.

I've uninstalled, rebooted, and re-installed to no avail. Any suggestions?

[kaled]

Try reinstalling into a new directory. If that works, you may have to copy the bookmarks file (not sure). You'll also have to reinstall any entensions.

When you've finished, you can delete the old directory.

Kaled.

[choster]

Did you recently upgrade, e.g. to 1.0.3? If so, any installed extensions might be interfering with normal functioning.

I had similar serious issues moving from 1.0.2 to 1.0.3 where the menus were extraordinarily slow to open and I could not browse any pages. Disabling them requires editing some config files, v. [kb.mozillazine.org...] .

In my case the main culprit turned out to be User Agent Switcher 0.6.5, so I have uninstalled it until the next version is released.

[jdkuehne]

Thanks Kaled & Choster for your replies. Choster hit the nail squarely on the head. I restarted FF in safe mode (I had forgotten it existed when I first posted) and uninstalled the useragent switcher extension - hurray! broken no more.

[Purple Martin]

I experienced the same problem. After some digging around I discovered that even after closing the browser there was still a Firefox process running. So a quick fix for this problem is:

CTRL-ALT-DEL > Task Manager > Select the Firefox process > End Process.

Once you have done that you can open the browser and it will work properly, however this quick fix won't stop the problem re-occurring.

[g1smd]

There is a newer version of the UA switcher that does work with Firefox 1.0.3 - I installed it when when I installed FF for the first time a few weeks ago.

[choster]

Well shortly there'll be a 1.0.4 out, stay tuned :).

[g1smd]

I assume this refers...

[theregister.co.uk...]

[Timotheos]

You guys are great. I've been having the same problem even after upgrading to 1.0.4. Uninstall the User Agent Switcher and now everything works. Be gone frustration ;-)