505062 - occasionally on startup Firefox will freeze/lag and require force shut down of computer

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Artemis]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.1.1) Gecko/20090715 Firefox/3.5.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.1.1) Gecko/20090715 Firefox/3.5.1

I saw some similar issues, but nothing specifically relating to this issue. (If I missed a search result, my apologies.) Sometimes when I start up Firefox, it will freeze. It won't just affect Firefox, but my entire computer. The exact effects are more like extreme lag. Anything I try to do has about a ten second delay. Typing in the address bar, scrolling, opening a new tab, anything. This also affects anything else I'm currently working on. If I switch to another program, it will hang for about ten seconds, then switch to it, but those programs work fine.

I tried a reinstall, a complete erase and reinstall, tried it without any add-ons and created a new user profile, but the problem still exists. Every other program still works fine, and it happens completely at random. It will be working fine, I'll close it, re-open it, and it will start acting up. I'm not sure what the differences are that create this situation.

Force Quit does not have any effect, even in the rare times I can access the menu due to the lag.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open Firefox. This is honestly the only thing that I have to do.
Actual Results:  
Freezes/lags, making any action nearly impossible. Does not resolve itself, Force Quit has no effect, entire computer affected.

Expected Results:  
Open smoothly and allow normal operations.

It's all in the Details. However, note that when this happens, I do not get any crash notification or error messages of any kind.

Comment 1

[u348128]

This looks more like instable hardware. It has rather unlikely that Firefox can crash the entire computer (OS), just on startup.

Do you have similar problems with other programs? Is your computer on a hot place?

Comment 2

[Artemis]

(I hope I'm using the correct input box for this reply.)

It is not to do with hardware. Apart from Firefox, every program works completely fine, the computer shows no other issues, and everything is completely normal. The computer sits on my desk with proper ventilation, and according to my heat monitoring program, is within normal temperatures. Before the upgrade, there were absolutely no issues with Firefox whatsoever, and as of now, this is the only issue I have on this computer at all.

Perhaps it is not the application itself, but a script or some form of request that Firefox makes when it starts up that could cause the issue?

Comment 3

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

>It is not to do with hardware.
That you get some issues only with one single application doesn't mean that it's the application.

Firefox can consume all available CPU power but that would not cause such hangs because Firefox runs only with normal process priority.
There is one thing that would cause a global issue, if Firefox would consume all the available RAM and the OS must swap.
Can you please watch the used RAM and CPU power used by Firefox if you get this issue ?

Comment 4

[Artemis]

That's true, though I'm not entirely sure what would cause it, since the issue happens sporadically, and it's only happened to Firefox, and only since the upgrade.

However, I did manage to take a screenshot today. It took a few tries but it finally froze up right on schedule, and I had activity monitor open, so I snagged this screenshot: http://wimg.co.uk/dqa.png

I'm not sure exactly what it means, however, so can someone with more tech experience point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

Comment 5

[Artemis]

Also, if it means anything -- I also have Windows installed on this Mac, and I have the updated Firefox there as well, and I don't seem to have any issues with the Windows version.

Comment 6

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Looks like the memory used by Firefox is low (67mb) and the used CPU is also low if the numbers are percent (8.0)

Comment 7

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Reporter, are you still seeing this issue with Firefox 3.6.12 or later in safe mode? If not, please close. These links can help you in your testing.
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles
Also, please consider using the most recent Firefox 4 beta build, your bug may be resolved there.

Comment 8

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.13 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.