400489 - firefox.exe in taskmgr but has no window and cannot be closed.

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[William]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8

FF.exe I see it in the task manager and has no window. I can use a session and there will be multiple ff.exe, but when I close them there is always one left over which can not be closed or killed. Is the same after I restart the computer. Tried to use Add/Remove programs through Control Panel, but it will stop every time and tell me I have to close FF before I uninstall. Catch 22 -  Can't close it can't kill it can't uninstall it. No other program hangs or is un-killable.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.shut down or restart computer
2.open add/remove programs to uninstall FF
3.will not uninstall and says to close FF first, can not close or kill from task manager
Actual Results:  
Just did (see above/previous discription)

Expected Results:  
Should be able to close FF, should not have FF.exe open without a corresponding window, should be able to kill FF.exe, should be able to uninstall FF.

Should be able to close FF, should not have FF.exe open without a corresponding window, should be able to kill FF.exe, should be able to uninstall FF.

Comment 1

[Nick Thomas [:nthomas] (UTC+12)]

Doesn't sound like a bug in the updater (since you updated successfully). If Firefox is in the task list on startup, and keeps respawning when you kill it, then that's more likely to be malware or a virus.

Comment 2

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

William, to be clear, when you write "FF.exe" you mean "firefox.exe" and not "FF.exe" correct?

Comment 3

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

William, do you happen to use -no-remote?

Comment 4

[Aaron Leventhal]

William, do you use any 3rd party password manager or assistive technology such as a screen reader?

There's also a new article about this on Mozillazine:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox.exe_always_open

Comment 5

[William]

Hello - Sorry to have delay on my reply, I've had the flu and it's kickin' my butt. Anyway I did a system restore to a date before the most recent FF upgrade and then boot in safe mode and removed it before it could load, then re-installed and it has been fine since. Yes I did mean "FireFox.exe". Thanks for keeping this current. I don't think I have much more to add since the new install FireFox has worked fine. Do you guys want this thread left open?

Comment 6

[Aaron Leventhal]

Because firefox.exe wouldn't close I think you have the malware issue from here:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox.exe_always_open

If that makes sense please let us know so we can close this bug.

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

=> incomplete based on comment 5 + no reponse to comment 6

Comment 8

[Richard DeJianne]

Same thing happens to me repeatedly. At least one day a week Firefox will just stop working. It cannot be killed by either ProcessExplorer.exe or Taskmgr.exe. A reboot is the only way to clear. I am at the point that I need to switch to a new browser. I am a Firefox user since V1 and hate to lose it. Right now at 08:15am on 10-25-2013 I am locked
for the 2nd time this week. I took a Windows Process Dump and I have two other from 06-10-2013 and 07-23-2013 that I
can supply if anyone needs it. Reach out to me at [e-mail]. 

Hopefully the dumps will help. Oh yea I am using Opera to enter this issue at BugZilla.