Firefox not responding

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Although I have not been having BSODs, I do have a random recurring problem on a W10 box. The Firefox on that box sometimes has short intervals of unresponsiveness, especially when trying to switch to a different tab. Sometimes it just takes a few extra clicks to get it to switch tabs when that happens, but sometimes it brings up a “Firefox is not responding. It may respond again if you wait” box with “Wait” and “Close” options. On previous operating systems (e.g. W7) I could click “Wait” or ignore this and wait for the browser to respond normally again, but since moving to W10 it always acts like “Close” was clicked, including, after a few seconds, if I do not click either button! This effectively turns a minor problem (short periods of the browser being stuck) into a major one (frequent browser crashes).

What could be causing this behavior and how do I make it respect the user choice to “wait” rather than “close”?

[Moderator edit] moved to a new thread

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We need a few more details to be able to help.

Firefox version.
Windows version.
Memory (RAM) size.
Hard disk type. size and free space.

cheers, Paul

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I’ve had the same issue.  It’s been going on since I upgraded to v134, and happens on both Win10 and Win11 24H2.  It literally ‘freezes’ the browser …. no scrolling, no switching tabs, and whatever webpage I’m viewing on the browser at the time cannot be controlled.  The only other thing I notice when this happens is there is an inordinate amount of CPU usage.

But it only lasts for 30-60 seconds, and then kinda works itself out. I do notice that 134 is noticeably slower even when the freeze is thawed. Their forum is quite active with similar reports, but no one has uncovered a fix yet. I’m guessing (hoping) that 134.0.1 sends these bugs to the roach motel.

"War is the remedy our enemies have chosen. And I say let us give them all they want" ----- William T. Sherman

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Maybe the new 134.0.1 will fix this.

https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/134.0.1/

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/134.0.1/releasenotes/

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The browser being occasionally sluggish is not the issue I am looking to fix. I doubt that can be helped without beefier hardware, which I can ill afford at this time.

The issue is the new behavior of crashing shortly after any appearance of the “Firefox is not responding. [Wait] [Close]” option dialog, even if “Wait” is chosen or no action is taken.

I suspect this is something Windoze 10 is doing, not something Firefox is doing, and I want to know how to disable this unwanted behavior of auto-choosing “Close” regardless of the user’s actual decision.

I don’t think any of the hardware specs or anything else are relevant in this case, as I suspect a Windoze misfeature rather than a hardware problem. The one thing that would be relevant is that it is Windoze 10 home 23H2. But in case it matters, the Firefox is the latest version(s) (probably the last several, at least) and the machine has 8GB RAM and a good chunk of a terabyte free on the boot volume. Disk space cannot plausibly be the issue in particular.

But what I’m looking for is a “don’t kill apps for periods of unresponsiveness” setting in the OS, rather than a fix for Firefox’s bouts of sluggishness. It’s the OS escalating what was a minor issue into a full-fledged crash that is 98% of the problem, with the rest being the other 2%.

Also: why was this moved? The only reason I could even find it again was that it was still in the recent stuff sidebar and a control-F for my name turned it up there.

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If Firefox crashes there is nothing Windows can do about it, regardless of having already alerted you that the browser is not responding.

This is likely to be a Firefox issue, not a Windows one.

cheers, Paul

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Alex5723

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Under Firefox Settings -> General scroll down to “Performance”
Uncheck “Use recommended performance settings”
Then uncheck “Use hardware acceleration when available”

I’ve had hardware acceleration cause problems with FF. See if this fixes your problem. If not, put the original settings back.

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PL1

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It is not a Firefox issue. In researching it I have come across sporadic reports by other people on other sites of other apps crashing shortly after producing a “not responding” prompt, all of them on W10. What I have not come across is a solution. This is clearly a W10 problem and I want rid of it.

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Still nobody has told me how to deactivate W10’s “kill unresponsive apps without user consent” setting.

I am awaiting that information.

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Maybe nobody knows?

cheers, Paul

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SueW

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