Firefox problems

[Cardinal Puff]

Bit of a Luddite and a noob here, preferring to work things out with a pencil (cue cracks about constipated mathematicians). I have Firefox as my browser, running Windows XP, but it's acting up a little. I'm unable to open multiple windows or even tabs. The settings seem OK for opening windows rather than tabs, I've downloaded and installed the browser multiple times in case it's corrupted, but it appears to keep some junk and when installed again it just gives me the same old problems as well as a screen problem I can't get rid of. The window seems to have a large blank toolbar type thing below it that has no function except to eat up space on the screen.

Any ideas how to nuke the bugger? Perhaps another browser is called for now that Firefox has turned out to be rubbish.

[MacBoero]

If the menu bar is visible, have you checked under the View > Toobars to see which bars have been selected?

If the menu is not visible right clicking in the top area where the menus are expected to be, should bring up a context menu which also allows you to select which toolbars are visible.

You can also customise the toolbars, and calling up the window to do that has a handy button "Restore Default Set" which might help.

[Parapunter]

Perhaps another browser is called for now that Firefox has turned out to be rubbish.Always a dangerous assumption that the software is at fault, when having admitted a lack of skills, the obvious suspect would be the wetware.;)

Click tools/options/tabs & ensure everyhting is to your satisfaction in there. in extremis, if you absolutely cannot get it working right, download & run CC Cleaner from Piriform.com (and nowhewre else) - this will tidy up a large number of problems on systems, but it would be a sledgehammer to crack a nut in terms of repairing Firefox - which by the way is a fine browser.

[Cardinal Puff]

Thanks for the gen. Checked all the settngs, played around with toolbars and each reload gives me the same rubbish. Need to get rid of what it stores each time I delete it from my sytem.

Reckon loading Safari and just sidestepping all the Firefox junk that isn't being deleted may be the way to go. May give CC a go too.

[green granite]

Firefox stores all profiles etc in the 'users>you>apps>firefox' directory delete this (after saving your bookmarks file somewhere else) and then re-instal fireFox.

[Keef]

As Green Granite says.

Something is corrupted in your profile settings somewhere, and those will reload from installation to installation. Find your address book and bookmarks, and save those somewhere else. Then delete the Firefox profile, uninstall, reinstall, and reimport the bookmarks etc. All should be well.

You'll also need to reinstall any add-ins (NoScript, AdBlock Plus and Web Of Trust are pretty well essential, others are "to taste").

[dazdaz1]

Keef..."profile setting" I use FF what is it?

D1

[Cardinal Puff]

Many thanks, folks. It won't even load Safari. I'll take a look at the profile and delete that too. All this started when I loaded a Chinese ZTE MZ30 USB modem. It's subsequently also managed to destroy a 500gig external drive that I had attached when I had the modem attached. Drive is seen after an age but is inaccessible. Modem has been removed and drivers deleted. Bit late but let's see if we can repair the damage.

Low budget third world carppy rubbish...:ugh:

[green granite]

dazdaz1, try reading this it will explain it for you.

Profiles (http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Profiles?s=profiles&as=s)

[rgbrock1]

Cardinal Puff:

For the life of me I cannot figure out how a USB modem can cause an external hard drive to misbehave nor how it could have corrupted a Firefox profile.

On the other hand, perhaps the external hard drive (IF it's USB) was sucking too much juice out of your USB ports causing the USB modem to misbehave?

[Keef]

Excellent link, GG. I was going to sit and write all that stuff down.

When you reinstall Firefox, dazdaz/Cardinal Puff, I would also install 3 add-ins that wil save you much grief later:
- Adblock Plus - stops all those annoying pop-ups that clutter the screen and get in the way;
- NoScript - stops external scripts from running and taking over your machine. It's a pain at first because it blocks 100% of them, including ones you are happy to have driving your PC for you. You tell it to allow those.
- WOT (Web of Trust). Checks every site you link to, and tells you if the site is a known dodgy one. It's saved me from a few false Bank sites and the like, although I'm pretty careful anyway.

For the life of me I cannot figure out how a USB modem can cause an external hard drive to misbehave nor how it could have corrupted a Firefox profile.

Something dodgy on the driver CD? Changed a driver that the USB hard drive was using to a "wrong" version?

[sitigeltfel]

I had problems with Firefox and a very helpful Prooner pointed me towards the Yahoo toolbar that was downloaded with an update. Removing it solved the problems.

If you have the Yahoo toolbar, and do not need it, get rid of it and see if that helps.

[Mr Optimistic]

Firefox seems to have generally slowed down so I switched to Opera. Recommend it as it allows me to access all email accounts direct from tabs.

[Mr Optimistic]

Uninstalling Firefox - MozillaZine Knowledge Base (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_firefox)