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Firefox crashes

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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watching some how to videos u tube and just quit

watching some how to videos u tube and just quit

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Did Firefox display the Mozilla Crash Reporter (so you could submit crash information) or did Windows display the small dialog to restart the application?

You could check on whether Firefox recorded information about this crash using the internal about:crashes page as described in the last section of this article: Troubleshoot Firefox crashes (closing or quitting unexpectedly). If you have crash report IDs, it would be great if you could post them so we can learn more about what is going on.


If we assume this a Flash-related crash, this is some standard guidance that addresses the most common issues with the Flash Player plugin. I'm sure you've seen some of it before, but just in case:

(1) If you have any recorders/downloaders that interact with Flash media make sure they are as up-to-date as possible, or disable them temporarily.

(2) Disable hardware acceleration in Firefox and in Flash

(A) In Firefox, un-check the box here:

"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced > General > "Use hardware acceleration when available"

That takes effect the next time you exit and start Firefox up again.

(B) In Flash, right-click the media and choose Settings, then the first mini-tab and uncheck the box to use hardware acceleration. More information in this support article from Adobe: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues

(3) Disable protected mode (Windows Vista and higher)

The protected mode feature of the Flash player plugin has security benefits, but seems to have compatibility issues on some systems. You can disable it by creating or editing a settings file. The following pages/posts provide different approaches for that:

Flash needs to completely unload from memory (exiting and starting Firefox up again might help) before this takes effect.

Any improvement?

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Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window