New Firefox update ain’t working here
Drat, I loaded up the new Firefox update, released yesterday, on my old XP machine and first it crashed several times on just the first few Web pages (if a browser crashes when you open TechMeme you know something is nutty). Now Firefox isn’t opening at all. I’d avoid this update until more people test it.
UPDATE: Looks like it is some sort of interaction thing with Google’s Web Accelerator. I removed that and Firefox started working again. I’ll work with the Firefox team to figure out what’s at fault here.
Powered By 
July 18th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Hey! Now that will teach you to use Firefox! ;-)
July 18th, 2007 at 11:15 am
The update seems to be working for me. Wow, something that works right on 64-bit Vista! ;-)
July 18th, 2007 at 11:18 am
I have been having so much trouble with Firefox that I am actually contemplating uninstalling it. Just stick with Safari, I say! Of late, it won’t even load pages normally. And when I tried to update, it crashed a couple of times. Plus it’s so darn slow. Even Camino’s better.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:23 am
I just did the update about an hour ago (WinXP SP2) and so far.. have not had any problems.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:29 am
my updated works fine, although I envy the speed of Safari on Windows! If only RoboForm would work with Safari I would be a convert.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:32 am
reminds me of an old saying i heard from a grumpy games coder to a computer noob…
“its always the secretary that blames the typewriter”
July 18th, 2007 at 11:55 am
I ran it all day today (I’m in Europe), and this thing is solid. The only causes for crashes or hangs here are bad web pages with plugins like Flash, Java applets and such which block the browser while loading.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Using it right now with no problems. XP Pro 32bit.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Thats interesting i installede firefox on an xp machine at work today and no problems.
Maybe its a FF plugin thats causing the problem
July 18th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Hey Scoble,
You know me and I’m working in QA over at Mozilla these days. QA here did quite a bit of testing on this release, especially with upgrade scenarios, so I am surprised that you’re having problems.
I’m wondering if you could give more details on the issue that you ran into? Did you note where it said it was crashing or can you get it to crash again? Any details might help us find a root cause for the issue that you’re seeing.
Starting it up in safe mode might help narrow down if it is a problem with an extension that you have installed. This is done with a command-line parameter:
firefox -safe-mode
This is detailed at http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode_(Firefox).
Feel free to email me and we can chat.
Al
July 18th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Al, it looks like it might have something to do with Google’s Web Accelerator. I uninstalled that and it started working again.
July 18th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Hasn’t Google’s Web Accelerator always caused problems for people? I’d never install it.
July 18th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Yet *another* shiny, new thing that is all hype?
July 18th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
We’re looking at GWA. So far, we’ve done updates with it on a few machines and haven’t seen a problem. Were you running the most recent version?
July 18th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
I like Firefox quite a bit, and as browsers go, it’s one of the best, but it’s a bit bloated these days. I miss when browsers were just browsers. The old tenet of having a program do one thing well has been lost.
If I had to have one browser, it would be Konqueror, the KDE browser. It’s small, light, faster than Firefox, and much more stable. The KDE guys created a great rendering engine with KHTML. So good, in fact, that Apple based Safari on KHTML.
One of the best things about Konqueror is that it blocks all ads by default.
http://www.konqueror.org/
July 18th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
“I’ll work with the Firefox team to figure out what’s at fault here.”
Do you even know C? Do you know how to check out code using a repository? Do you know the Firefox code?
Bob, please stop using the word “work” to describe what you’ll do. You’ll write a blog post composed of several sentences about it. You’ll send an email or call a friend of a friend of a friend to whine about firefox crashing.
That’s all you’ll do. Leave the work to people who can actually do something, you charlatan.
July 18th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
“One of the best things about Konqueror is that it blocks all ads by default.”
I haven’t used Konqueror in a few months, but I doubt it blocks all ads.
I’m using firefox and Adblock Plus with G-filter with subscriptions from EasyList (USA), EasyElement, and ABP Tracking Filter. Except for blog posts that are ads disguised as actual content (like what we see here when Robert gushes about Microsoft silverlight, one of his sponsor’s products, or the Apple iPhone) I haven’t seen advertising in months.
July 19th, 2007 at 7:35 am
The new update won’t let me post to Blogger and I have no idea on how to “uninstall Google accelerator.”
July 19th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
When I try to install the update it pops up a window that reads please wait while firefox update with a bar under it that is scrolling. Then it pops up another one over top of it that say I can’t install the update and to check whether I have administrative rights which I do then if I click OK button or X the same thing happens it opens firefox the way it was, no different.
July 20th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Running it since an hour after it came out. No crashes at all. Do you have a lot of add-ons?
July 21st, 2007 at 2:23 am
Everytime I turn my firefox 2.0.0.4 on it shows that there is a new important update. I try to install it and it shows that there is a problem in installing the partial update and instead it will go for a full installation of the new version. It downloads and tries to install the new version. Firefox restarts in all these processes. And it again shows the important update (partial) information. And the cycle is repeated and on and on. At least five times I have gone through this cycle now. It is downloading and installing the full version of the update everytime. And then again shows the partial update information. And fails to install that. And again goes for the full installation, only to show the partial update info as soon as firefox restarts after the installation.
How to get rid of this problem? I am working on an AMD athlon 64 bit machine with windows XP SP2 installed (and up to date).
July 21st, 2007 at 2:36 am
I wrote this entry and posted it to Mozilla’s recommended user forum => http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=2976128#2976128
But, this thing is continuing and I don’t really know why the update is not working.
July 21st, 2007 at 8:26 am
The new update could not connect to the Internet (Vista Platiform). Need to find an earlier version.
July 21st, 2007 at 8:29 am
July 20, 2007 Firefox update had major problem. It could not connect to the Internet (vista Platiform). How can I find an earlier version of Firefox?
August 1st, 2007 at 6:45 am
I loaded the updates to my firefox program recently and now I can’t even get the program to open up and run, not even in safe mode. When I open windows task manager I can see that firefox is running as a process but it doesn’t show as an application running. I hate to uninstall it because I am guessing I will lose all my bookmarks that I’ve saved.
August 4th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
I did the Firfox update yesterday on my XP platform. Since the update, Firefox times out and I can’t get any pages. The error console says “Overflowing” Not sure what to do except….stop using it!
September 20th, 2007 at 7:38 am
I have been using firefox since it first came around! This new update I recieved yesterday is total shit! Lets put it this way I have never ever once had any issues with firefox and loved it dearly,, but now this shit happens! quit updating the damn thing so much! Now when I goto open firefox it totally crashes my comp(restarts it). Firefox needs to do more testing on different os’s before releasing shit upgrades. Uninstalled it and using opera now and safari! They dont have any issues with restarting my pc. BTW athalon xp 3200+ asus a7n8x deluxe mobo, 1 gb hyper x ram, 200 gb hd, soundblaster live 5.1 sound card, ati radeon 9550 with ati tv wonder pro pci. It has nothing to do with the pc itself its virus and adware/spyware free. This pc works flawless and has for 3 years.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:20 am
2.0.0.6 works fine on me, 2.0.0.7 to .9 failed to load pages
Vista OS
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Pissed I am.
So, the last two updates Firefox downloaded in the background persistantly crashed (writing to you on IE). This is unbelievable. Didn’t they test the damn thing?
So, to get 2.0.0.7 installed, FINALLY, I went to add and remove programs (Windows XP -> Control Panel) and deleted the older version of FF. Then 2.0.0.7 installed… until today with another flippin’ update giving the same error: One or more files could not be updated. Please make sure that all other applications are closed and that you have permission to modify files, and then restart FireFox and try again.
Of course this is bologna because I am the one and only user and admin on my home system (same error as last update).
I hope the developers of FireFox get their shit together. I’m a CIS major at the university. I can only imagine my Mom facing this problem and the undo stress.
November 4th, 2007 at 2:29 am
Sorry, but this is not a problem unique to Firefox.
This is a Windows XP issue, and I too have the same problem with both Firefox and Adobe Pro when they try to install updates in the background.
I get the exact same error with both of them.
I have contacted Adobe about the problem and they pointed me to many MS Tech Notes about the problem.
If you search the web then you’ll find many other people have the same problem with Firefox, Adobe, and many other apps under XP.
I still haven’t found what files or folders don’t haven’t the correct permissions, but when I do, I’m gonna kill something………..
Ray.
November 5th, 2007 at 7:38 am
One issue I’ve had is after having updated Firefox the installation can’t complete successfully and I get the message that one or more files could not be updated. The issue in my case was a program called Aqua dock which is a Mac-like application doc for windows. After Ctrl>Alt>Del and going to processes, simply close down Aqua Dock and try re-installing Firefox.
Worked for me, anyways…Cheers.
March 27th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
I never install google web accelator, but have same problem.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I also downloaded the update and this is what I am getting.
Unable to connect
Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at sympatico.msn.ca.
* The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
moments.
* If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer’s network
connection.
* If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.
I do not have google accelator.
July 18th, 2008 at 9:53 am
I just downloaded the update and it won’t even start. I get this:
We’re Sorry
Firefox had a problem and crashed. We’ll try to restore your tabs and windows when it restarts.
Tried a few times and… nothing.
I don’t have google accelerator either.