268068 - firefox.exe process loads, but the browser window stops showing up

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Tom]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Build Identifier: 

Some General System Info:  Windows XP Pro SP2, AMD Athlon XP 2700 ~1.9GHz, 1Gb 
DDR400 SDRAM, MSI KT4 Ultra MS-6590 ATX Mobo with VIA KT400 NB & VIA VT8235 SB 
Chipsets, Total HDD Space is ~1Tb and Boot/System Partition has ~150Gb's of 
Freespace, 18 USB & 2 Firewire Ports, local digitalPersona Biometric Security, 
ZoneAlarm Security Suite (firewall, antivirus and more) in Conjunction with 
myNetWatchman (Automatically Reports Attack Attempts Logged by ZoneAlarm), 
PestPatrol Corporate and more.  The system is a custom built powerhouse, no 
component older than 18 months, with UPS providing ~2750VA of realtime 
(sinewave) line conditioning and power backup.

The initial Firefox PR1.0 didn't exhibit this problem - it began with later 
builds.  I've been unable to find even the slightest clue as to what is 
causing Firefox to load into memory, going through the normal HDD accessing, 
but failing to complete the action with a browser window.  At first, I thought 
it was due to extensions, since it coincided with their installation (but only 
after the program was restarted after a reboot), but it still began to happen 
after no extensions were installed.  I'm still trying to find some rhyme or 
reason for this problem.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. No special setup steps, with or without extentions installed (and if 
installed, only two or three).
2. Just running FF as normal; following a reboot, or after an idle period (as 
mentioned above), the problem would begin.
3.

Actual Results:  
FF would load, but would stop displaying a browser window altogether.

Expected Results:  
Display a browser window...obviously. ;)

There is no crash, no error messages, no Talkback crash ID, no Dr. Watson 
report, nothing.  Firefox.exe will always be found loaded and running with the 
Taskbar Manager, in the Processes list right where it always is.  I rate the 
Severity as Major but Critical would also fit, except for there being no 
crashes, lockups, etc., associated with FF.  I've searched through previous 
reports, but couldn't find anything similar; I hope I'm not overlooking 
anything that would make this report moot.

I ALWAYS keep ALL programs, utilities and drivers up with the most current 
updates/patches; same applies to the opsys.  I continue my search for 
something, anything that would be of more help!

Thx!

Comment 1

[Wolf [:wolf]]

Stops opening the normal browser window after it's been running just fine, but
will ALWAYS have loaded itself and firefox.exe is a process easily found in the
Task Manager; sometime it occurs after a reboot, sometimes after the system has
been ide for awhile (screen saver will have been running and ZoneAlarm firewall
lock is in place to prevent any outgoing traffic; Firefox, however, will NOT
have been running); in short, the firefox.exe process loads, but the browser
window stops showing up!

Comment 2

[Tom]

Whatever caused this problem was corrected a few nightly builds prior to the
official release Firefox v1.0 (which does well), so may no longer be an issue...?

Comment 3

[Bernd Kolb]

I have the official (german) release of firefox and the problem is still present...
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de-DE; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041108 Firefox/1.0

Comment 4

[Tom]

During the period I was experiencing the problem, I found a workaround that kept
me from having to reinstall the entire Firefox on each occurance.  I believe it
may also narrow down the bug location, too.  I took just the user.js and
prefs.js files from a new installation - you should find them under your system
profile thread, something like (my ex. is WinXP):

...\{profile name}\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{a_profile}.default

The .js files are text format; create user.js, if it isn't found.  Opening both
in a notetab (or other text editor) window, I would then copy the few lines of
settings found in prefs.js and paste them into user.js; I would then comment out
the block I just copied from prefs.js (the block is commented out as in C, by
putting a / at its start and a closing / at its end; you could also comment out
each line as in C++, by putting // before each line).  I make a backup copy of
each, for easy recovery when the problem occurs; as I went along, I would also
make new backups of just these two files...that lets you restore the most
current working copies.  I suspect that the problem may occur if some prefs
line(s) is/are either malformed, maybe left behind from an extensions deletion,
or might be incompatible with the currently installed Firefox...especially since
  it appeared to be related only to the prefs.js contents.  Hope this helps!

Comment 5

[Jonathan Fitt]

Doing the same thing for me, I think just since 1.0.4
I can usually get Fx to load if I restart the computer after a failed attempt. 
No idea why this should make any difference though.
No rhyme or reaosn I can see behind why it sometimes works, and other times 
just loads the process.

I'm running WinXP SP2 on an Acer Centrino 1.4Ghz, 512Mb RAM.

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

does it happen if you start FF using safe mode?  start|...|firefox (safe mode)
or from run/command prompt "firefox.exe" -safe-mode

Comment 7

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 8

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.

Comment 9

[mmortal03]

This bug needs to be reopened.  I am seeing this in Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20060925 BonEcho/2.0.  It usually happens when opening the browser from a .url (Internet Shortcut) file, and I have found that opening it by using firefox.exe has, in contrast, rarely, if ever, produced the bug.

Forcing the firefox.exe process to close, and then reopening firefox usually does the trick, but sometimes it takes multiple force-close-and-reopen's.