Problems With Mozilla Firefox 30. Couldn't Load XPCOM.

Discussion in 'Software' started by Novice22, Jun 14, 2014.

  1. Novice22

    Novice22 Private First Class

    Was having problems with newly upgraded Firefox 30.
    It was running very slowly and I was getting a number of scripts
    most often Script: chrome:/global/content/bindings/text.xml:32
    As I do not use Chrome, although it is installed, I was surprised to
    get this message.
    I decided to overwrite Firefox with a fresh download and exited the
    running version.
    Now Firefox will not open.
    I could not find it and Windows cannot find it.
    When I click on the desktop icon I get a message that says;
    Cannot load XPCOM.
    This is a Vista machine.
    I don't want to do a fresh install as I am terrified of losing my files.
    Any help would be appreciated.
     
  2. chookers

    chookers Staff Sergeant

    Look for this folder:
    C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox

    If you find it, make sure it has a file called firefox.exe in there or just firefox if you don't have file extensions showing; either way, the file should have the Firefox icon in front of it. I'm thinking that perhaps the fresh installation failed.

    Don't worry about what it said about chrome. It doesn't mean the browser called Chrome. Not too sure what it IS referring to but it's to do with the workings of Firefox. That confuses a lot of people. If you looked around your Firefox folder, you'd find files with the word 'chrome' in them.
     
  3. Novice22

    Novice22 Private First Class

    Many thanks chookers.
    I see Mozilla Firefox listed in the programme files in C.
    There is no icon or exe, but it is listed exactly the same in Windows 7.
    Just a little file icon to the left of it.
    It is listed as created on 14 June 2014 - but that would be the one
    that failed.
    What do I do next?
    Thanks again.
     
  4. _nullptr

    _nullptr Major Geeky Geek Geek

    Try uninstalling Firefox, then go to the Program Files directory and if the Firefox directory still exists, then delete the Firefox directory.
    Install the new version.
     
  5. Novice22

    Novice22 Private First Class

    Thanks.
    I am afraid to uninstall in case all my files and add ons do not come
    down with the new programme.
     
  6. _nullptr

    _nullptr Major Geeky Geek Geek

    I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't, I had to do the same (uninstall/install) when I upgraded to v30.
    You could always try just deleting the Firefox directory from your Program Files directory, then install.
     
  7. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    Sounds like you are running without either system or file backups. Continue like that and you WILL lose your files at some point. You could start a thread about it if you would like more info about backup strategies and methods.
     
  8. Novice22

    Novice22 Private First Class

    OK Earthling.
    Will do.
    Thank you.
     
  9. chookers

    chookers Staff Sergeant

    Programs and personal files are two different things. Firefox is a program; you can uninstall it and not lose your music, photos, etc. But a new installation (I think) will create a new profile and that new profile wouldn't have the bookmarks and history in it that you have now. Here's a link to being able to keep/restore that information if you find you need to:
    Recovering important data from an old profile
    My personal preference would be to only rescue bookmarks but then, I never save passwords which is one thing a lot of people like to do.

    Addons are also called 'extensions.' The article won't show you how to copy those across because as it says, they could be the cause of the problem. You would reinstall your addons one at a time after reinstalling Firefox and see if one of those creates the same problem again.

    Do you know about Safe Mode with Firefox? It doesn't mean restarting your computer in Safe Mode; it means starting Firefox in a different way to normal. It used to be that we went to the Firefox folder in the Start menu but that looks to have changed. This article says you can start in Safe Mode by holding down Shift as you start Firefox:
    Troubleshoot Firefox issues using Safe Mode

    If you are able to start in Safe Mode, rescuing bookmarks becomes a lot easier and you could ignore the first article.
     
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2014
  10. Novice22

    Novice22 Private First Class

    I wish I could start in safe mode but, unfortunately, I don't
    have Firefox to do the various clicks on.
    I still get the message Cannot load XPCOM when I try to open Firefox.
    Will take a closer look at your other suggestions and see what the prospects
    are.
    It would be easy enough to get bookmarks from XMarks, but open tabs might
    not come down on a new installation.
     
  11. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    Earlier you said 'it's listed the same in Win 7' so if Win 7 is problem free and uses the same bookmarks you could always use Firefox Sync to recover your bookmarks to a fresh FF install in Vista. I don't see why losing open tabs could be important.
     
  12. Novice22

    Novice22 Private First Class

    Yes, that's why I wasn't worried about bookmarks, why I said I can get them from XMarks.
    The saved tabs are different on the two machines.
     
  13. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    OK, if your bookmarks are safe, and there is - as has been explained - no risk to your personal files, what's stopping you from completely removing it and reinstalling?
     
  14. Novice22

    Novice22 Private First Class

    Hi Everyone.
    I am happy to report that I have reinstalled Firefox and everything appears to have been reinstated.
    Unfortunately it is not responding at the moment, possibly due to unresponsive scripts which had been an issue.
    I expect that it will eventually come around when it clears itself - that's what it has been doing since the updates 29 and 30 were introduced.
    They seem to require much more memory.
    When it is fully working I will try it in safe mode to see if these scripts are linked to an add on.
    As I say, the problems have only been present since the introduction of Firefox 29.
    It is good to see it back on the laptop at least, and it gives me hope that I can get it working properly - now that I have something to work on.
    Sincere thanks to everyone for getting me this far.
    The problem is not yet resolved, but is looking much more hopeful.
    Many thanks.
     
  15. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    The current generation of browsers, particularly Firefox and Chrome, use huge memory caches and may not perform well at all on under-specified systems. How much RAM does this Vista system have and when FF is running how does memory utilisation look in Task Manager? I can't actually remember how Vista reports this info but I guess it will be available in Task Manager somewhere.
     
  16. Novice22

    Novice22 Private First Class

    It is running again now and I am using it to respond to your questions.
    The Vista machine is about 7 years old and has 2GB of RAM.
    Firefox with a lot of open tabs, which I tend to do, would use a max of about
    600,000K.
    I use a lot of add ons as well.
    It is running very well as I write, but it is extremely slow to open since the introduction of Firefox 29.
     
  17. chookers

    chookers Staff Sergeant

    An addon that I find responsible for a lot of unresponsive script messages appears to be WOT. That said, I consider it an essential addon UNLESS I discover another that does the same thing with less trouble. That also said, WOT doesn't usually cause enough trouble for me to have ever bothered looking into fixing/replacing it.

    I, too, am running Firefox on Vista with 2gb memory on a Dell Latitude D530. The Vista version is Business. I often have a lot of tabs open with no major drama apart from the occasional unresponsive script errors and I usually tell it to continue and the system recovers normally within a few seconds, occasionally more like quarter to half a minute and only on extremely rare occasions does it take longer.

    @Earthling - not recovering your open tabs is a pain in the neck if you've a few things on the go and may not remember what they all are. It's a hazard of being interrupted and trying to manage things in a concurrent rather than linear manner. However, history often helps there but sometimes the session information goes astray and you just have to hope there was nothing important underway.
     
  18. Novice22

    Novice22 Private First Class

    I don't use WOT but I do use McAfee Site Advisor which, I believe, has a similar purpose.
    My laptop is an old Medion Vista machine, but I prefer using it instead of the newer Toshiba Windows 7 machine which has 4GB of RAM and has 64 Bit.
    Lately the Medion can take a long, long time to open - since Firefox 29. The problem seems to be unresponsive scripts which cause Firefox to freeze.
    Earlier on this - Monday - morning I got a script saying "Script: chrome/browser/content/browser.js:16348"
    That held up things for quite a while.
    chookers, you were the first to my rescue the other day and I am very grateful to you, as I am to all who are contributing.
    It is wonderful the way people are so willing to give of their time and knowledge to help total strangers.
     
  19. _nullptr

    _nullptr Major Geeky Geek Geek

    Try starting Firefox in Safe Mode, this will launch Firefox with your add ons temporarily disabled. That way you can work out whether one of the add ons is causing the lag/script problem. This is completely safe to do, all the add ons will be enabled once you close Firefox and start it as you normally would.

    To launch in safe mode, press Alt + H to open Help, then select 'Restart with Add-ons disabled' or
    Exit all running instances of FF, then hold the Shift key down and launch FF.

    Report whether the browser is responsive in safe mode.
     
  20. Novice22

    Novice22 Private First Class

    I was not able to start Firefox from cold in Safe Mode as Firefox needs to be already open to run that.
    It took about 2 minutes to open and froze as soon as I clicked on it.
    That was just a short interval and Firefox fairly zipped along once it got going.
    I didn't see any scripts.
    Today I ran extensive Malware and Virus checks and nothing showed.
    Emsisoft took 3 hours and 10 mins of deep scanning and found nothing.
    When I download Firefox 30 a separate Firefox download of 116kb came with it.
    I hadn't noticed that happening before.
    However, there appears to be nothing suspicious on the laptop.
     

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