298707 - possible laptop "mouse" problem - or problem with crashing randomly

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Keyboard Navigation, defect)

Description

[Leah Bourne]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4

Since updating to Firefox 1.0.4 I have had a strange problem that I do not see
on your lists of problems.  At random intervals, when I try and select an option
on a webpage or attempt to scroll down the page using the far right hand side
arrows, Firefox will freeze.  The window goes blank, and then one of two things
happens - either the browser crashes completely and has to be restarted (usually
ok with all its parts intact) OR the browser stays functional but loses all of
the bookmarks, bookmark toolbar tabs, and sometimes the yahoo toolbar.  This
problem has increased in frequency over time since downloading the latest
version.  I cannot seem to link the problem to any specific website, but the
sites I visit most often are:  www.fark.com, usgs earthquake activity, usgs
volcanic activity report, aish.com kotel wallcam, yahoo and yahoo messenger, and
u-connect university of kentucky and webuk.  Unless there is some background
function the browser is doing of which I am unaware, the episodes seem
completely random.  It now happens at least once every time I go online. 
Interestingly, the part about the bookmarks disappearing has only started in the
last week or so.  Before that it was just the white screen and then a crash when
attempting to scroll or select something using the laptop's "mouse buttons."  

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1.open firefox and check email at yahoo, or go go fark.com, or usgs.
2.attempt to scroll down screen using far right lower corner arrow, or click on
any option button on the page, using either a USB mouse or the laptop "mouse" keys.
3. if screen goes blank, wait several seconds. 
Actual Results:  
One of three things will happen:  a) the screen will refresh and act normal; b)
the browser will give a message saying it needs to close, or will lock up, and
everything will be fine when you re-open it; or c) when you re-open, all
bookmarks and bookmark toolbar data will be lost; and rarely d) the yahoo
toolbar will disappear but reappear when you restart (so far this has not
permanently disappeared and needed to be redownloaded.  Only the bookmarks
disappear permanently, so far).  The problem appears in pages that have not been
bookmarked and pages that have - there seems to be no pattern whatsoever that
would indicate why the bookmarks vanish.


Expected Results:  
I am uncertain whether the problem is with the browser understanding the mouse
commands, or whether some hidden function of the background operations is being
attempted and is failing.  I lack the technological expertise to determine
exactly what the problem is - but what the browser should have done is scroll
down the page, or go to the new page as selected, and leave the bookmark list
intact.

My computer is a gateway m305crv vc1.0, approximately 2 years old. It is running
windows xp home edition, and internet is connected either by a home lan using
dsl, or wireless internet card add-on when at the university.  The problem
appears in both internet environments, though it occurs much more frequently at
home.  The lan has been using the same hub that it was before I updated firefox,
so I don't think that's the problem. I am also running norton antivirus,
pestpatrol, windows firewall, and the wireless card software, all of which were
being used before the update.  I am very happy to get to the end of this long
form with no problems!

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Can you provide a talkback ID?

Comment 2

[William Cline]

Does this problem occur when running Firefox in safe mode? How about a fresh
installation of the latest nightly build with no extensions (no Yahoo! toolbar)?
Someone will mark this as INVALID if we cannot get more information to send to
the engineers.

Comment 3

[Monika]

aaaa