587724 - Mozilla becomes unresponsive during USB file transfers "(Not Responding)" in title bar

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Chris]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.2.8) Gecko/20100722 Firefox/3.6.8
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.2.8) Gecko/20100722 Firefox/3.6.8

When transfering a large file over to a slow USB stick, I've been having Firefox become completely unresponsive about 10 seconds into the transfer (after windows stops intensive HDD access and starts moving the file to USB).

The window fades out in the standard manner for unresponsive programs in Windows 7 and if I force it to close (have to do this via task manager), then re-open firefox, the new firefox window becomes unresponsive instantly.

Once the file transfer is complete, firefox returns to normal. Firefox is the only program that becomes unresponsive during these kinds of file transfers on the system.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1.When Firefox is open, copy a single large file to a very slow USB stick
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Jo Hermans]

Maybe it's fixed in the Firefox 4.0 beta, with bug 513074 ?

Comment 2

[Chris]

I don't have permission to put a beta version of firefox on my systems so I can't test that to see if it fixes it.

Since I posted originally, I've been trying to consistantly replicate the issue. It doesn't happen every time but it seems it's far more likely to occur if I start a second large transfer to the USB partway through the first.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

what brand and technical specs for the speed of this USB stick?

iirc "The window fades out in the standard manner for unresponsive programs" produces (Not Responding) in the title bar

see Bug 487375 and the bugs in this query
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?chfieldto=Now&query_format=advanced&chfieldfrom=2008-01-01&short_desc=usb&field0-0-0=short_desc&short_desc_type=anywords&type0-0-0=nowordssubstr&value0-0-0=headph%20mouse%20trackbal&resolution=---&resolution=FIXED&resolution=INVALID&resolution=DUPLICATE&product=Core&product=Core%20Graveyard&product=Firefox&product=MailNews%20Core&product=Thunderbird&product=Toolkit

Comment 4

[Chris]

(In reply to comment #3)
> what brand and technical specs for the speed of this USB stick?
> 
> iirc "The window fades out in the standard manner for unresponsive programs"
> produces (Not Responding) in the title bar
> 
> see Bug 487375 and the bugs in this query
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?chfieldto=Now&query_format=advanced&chfieldfrom=2008-01-01&short_desc=usb&field0-0-0=short_desc&short_desc_type=anywords&type0-0-0=nowordssubstr&value0-0-0=headph%20mouse%20trackbal&resolution=---&resolution=FIXED&resolution=INVALID&resolution=DUPLICATE&product=Core&product=Core%20Graveyard&product=Firefox&product=MailNews%20Core&product=Thunderbird&product=Toolkit

The stick was a very cheap, very slow unbranded one. It seemed to take far longer to copy over files than most sticks I use but I don't have it any more so I can't do any detailed checks/benchmarks. It's possible the stick itself was faulty but it still only affected Firefox which indicates Firefox was handling it badly when other programs were fine.

I haven't been able to replicate it with any sticks I've used since but none of them have been as slow as that one was.

Probably not of any help identifying but the stick in question was plain black and rounded but featured a flat, clear edge with a red activity LED behind it.

Comment 5

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Reporter, Firefox 4.0.1 has been released, and it features significant improvements over previous releases. Can you please update to Firefox 4.0.1 or later, and retest your bug? Please also create a fresh profile (
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles), update your plugins (Flash, Java, Quicktime, Reader, etc) and update your graphics driver and Operating system to the latest versions available. 

If you still continue to see this issue, please comment. If you do not, please close this bug as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME

filter: prefirefox4uncobugs

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

WFM per comment 4