Troubleshoot Firefox Browser Problems & Issues And Then Resolve Them

Some days pass and you have no problems or trouble, and on other days, the nightmare just doesn't seem to stop. Internet Browsers, designed to make using the world wide web through the internet a great experience. But every now and again, problems crop up and most often, no easy remedy seems to be available to get us up and back on our feet again.

This is dedicated to showing you the most common problem occurrences and how to easily and simply remedy your issues to get you back to what you want - browsing the web.

This easy to use and simple checklist can easily resolve a swag of issues you have with using Firefox, and they can occur more often than you may realize. Most people do not realize to check for this because, they take these for granted. (Some of these tips are also useful for other computer issues as well)

• Check the lights on your internet modem. Especially if you suddenly have appear a "error 404" or "Server Not Found" message in your browser and did not navigate anywhere else or start a new web page for viewing. (See Example #1) If you have no lights, your internet modem either - has no power, or may have a USB or Ethernet cable disconnected, either from the modem or from your primary connected computer. So check that power cable and / or your Ethernet/USB cable.
  
• Your modem may be connected to your Internet Service Providers server, but cannot connect to the internet. This often happens when your ISP is doing maintenance work on their servers or resolving an issue that affects all customers. Your connection to the server light on your modem is on, but no light is showing for the internet connection.
• Check your firewall settings, if someone has recently or yourself has changed the firewall settings, you may have set it too high to access the worldwide web. This frequently happens in settings for either Windows Internet settings or a 3rd party Anti-virus suite with firewall, or a stand alone firewall program.
• If you type in the name of a website or select it from your bookmark file and that specific websites returns a "Error 404 - unable to connect" message, it may be only that website is down. if you try another website and all is OK, then the previous website you were using is having server or other web issues, not your browser or modem.
  

I still encounter this issue from time to time, especially when I close Firefox and then realize I need to check on one more thing. When you close Firefox, occasionally it will stay 'in memory' and still be an enabled running process. This process stops you from starting up Firefox again. The only way to close it, before restarting is to close the running process by;

Open the Windows Task Manager Processes (by pressing the Ctrl+Alt+Delete keys together, choose Start Task Manager, and click the Processes tab) look for the listing that reads "firefox.exe" (without the quotes) and click the End Process button.

Now you may start Firefox again.

There are a multitude of reasons this may happen, but here is the most common four reasons Firefox may be slowed down in operation.

• Add-Ons & Extensions, if you have recently upgraded from a medium release version (from 3.5 to 3.6) your add-ons and extensions will need to be updated, or in the instance of them unable to be updated, removed completely. Go to this resource here for detailed instructions from the Mozilla blog on uninstalling or disabling add-ons and extensions. These items commonly slow down, stop or freeze Firefox from working in a normal manner.
  
• Old version of Firefox running - ensure you have updated to the latest version of Firefox, currently version 3.6.6 at the time of this hub being written. Go to this website to get the latest version and click on the Upgrade Your Firefox link on the page.
• Ensure you have updated all your other integrated plug-ins, Firefox commonly uses Adobe Flash & Shockwave, Sun's Java platform, Apples Quicktime and Microsoft's Media Player, for playback of music and video files on web pages. You may have others that also require updating.
• Check for virus and malware, these nasty buggers wreak havoc on computers especially with Internet Browsers
  

This list is not inexhaustible, and there will be rare curcumstances when you discover an issue with normal Firefox operation that the scope of this Hub cannot cover. If you have an issue not easily recognizable here, first attempt to try the Mozilla Help support and knowledge database and research your issue further.

Here is a list and possible solutions to some more uncommon issues.

• Firefox Hangs with hyperthreading - there is a known issue with some older Pentium chips with hyperthreading enabled, try disabling hyperthreading or a BIOS update for your motherboard.
• Some Bookmarks no longer function - in the rare circumstances that your current bookmark/s do not work, check to see if this has happened after upgrading to a new version of Firefox, or the website listed in your bookmark has changed or become corrupted. If this is the latter case, delete your bookmark, navigate to the sites top home page and re-bookmark.
• No sound playback - this may simply be a low or no volume setting accidentally set using your Windows sound mixer. To fix, open your sound mixer and check your master volume and Firefox are set to play back sound with volume.
• Some websites have pop ups that appear when a web page loads, if your web page hasn't loaded with a pop up, look for the yellow bar across the top just under all opened tabs, and select 'Allow/Block pop-ups for this site' from the Options button. This is useful if you are downloading a file, and the web page pops up a small window for allowing a download.