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Firefox keeps crashing my computer while playing graphics-intensive games, yet with Firefox off they function perfectly.

  • 18 replies
  • 8 have this problem
  • 595 views
  • Last reply by Pinkupi13

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Hello, I've installed various games onto my computer such as Garry's Mod, and several other 3D type games that work perfectly fine without Firefox on, no crashes no problems. Several of my games (exception is minecraft), whenever I have firefox just up and running, it will just crash my computer. Black screen instantly, no warnings, just instantly switches everything off. I've scanned several times, I have no viruses and the games work normally without firefox.

But what could firefox be doing to cause my computer to crash with them on? Is there a way to fix it?

Hello, I've installed various games onto my computer such as Garry's Mod, and several other 3D type games that work perfectly fine without Firefox on, no crashes no problems. Several of my games (exception is minecraft), whenever I have firefox just up and running, it will just crash my computer. Black screen instantly, no warnings, just instantly switches everything off. I've scanned several times, I have no viruses and the games work normally without firefox. But what could firefox be doing to cause my computer to crash with them on? Is there a way to fix it?

Chosen solution

Okay, gained some stability, promising. Refreshing creates a new profile and resets Firefox settings, so yeah, you would probably lose those tabs.

How many tabs do you have open? I have a creeping suspicion the number is going to be way high, if losing them is a real threat (why not use a bookmark folder?). If so, might want to look into reducing that number or seeing if canceling preloading would help stability... even so, prolonged megatabbing doesn't sound sustainable.

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All Replies (18)

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HI Pinkupi13, I can help with the Firefox crashes however in order to troubleshoot the resources that my first suspicion would be are in these articles:

We're sorry to hear that Firefox is crashing. In order to assist you better, please follow the steps below to provide us crash IDs to help us learn more about your crash.

  1. Enter about:crashes in the Firefox address bar and press Enter. A Submitted Crash Reports list will appear, similar to the one shown below.
  2. Copy the 5 most recent Report IDs that start with bp- and then go back to your forum question and paste those IDs into the "Post a Reply" box.

Note: If a recent Report ID does not start with bp- click on it to submit the report.

(Please don't take a screenshot of your crashes, just copy and paste the IDs. The below image is just an example of what your Firefox screen should look like.)

aboutcrashesFx29

Thank you for your help!

More information and further troubleshooting steps can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox crashes (closing or quitting unexpectedly) article.

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I've been avoiding it for months and there was one result with BP. Keep in mind; firefox itself is not crashing, firefox is CAUSING my entire COMPUTER to crash. Here's the only one I could find. bp-123f4f96-0c2d-4a16-89c9-b5b5f2150127

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hello? I still need this issue fixed

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I understand that it is causing the entire computer to crash and this is a very bad experience.

Unfortunately this crash id is from a crash back when Firefox was on version 35. However since its still happening I am assuming that this is the same issue.

Since originally the issue was reported to happen due to the way Firefox handles memory. I can recommend taking these troubleshooting steps in the meantime while the issue is investigated:

and an add on collection :

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Take a look at this.

http://prntscr.com/8hnjcd

The date as I am typing this is the 18th of September. I repeatedly tested several games and finally received a crash today. However, if it had even showed a crash report, I would have brought it to you.

This issue is so bad firefox cannot even document it. So it is not the one I posted, it is infact another issue entirely. Since I'm right it's causing my entire computer to crash, it crashes so fast it doesn't even have time to generate a crash report. The cause of this lies elsewhere.

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"The cause of this lies elsewhere." I agree. I can't explain for certain what causes Firefox to BSOD an entire computer but I feel like it's either related to the graphics card, a 3rd party program running in the background that clashes when firefox get launched or some corrupted driver or system files that firefox needs buried deep in Win 7.

I have seen one other person get this exact problem and we troubleshooted the hell out of it. Even tried Windows Safe Mode in case it was malware. We never found the cause or a solution. If I were to get even more suspicious I would blame a rootkit. A different type of virus that is invisible and hides deep in the OS. But that seems a bit farfetched.

I gave some detailed tips in another thread about fixing BSODs. Check out my posts here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/958612?page=2#answer-438556 https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/958612?page=2#answer-439272

If you figure anything out, let us know.

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do you mean blue screen or black screen? Because I don't get that with code or whatever when the computer shuts down, it literally just blacks out. No warnings, instant black.

If it was the graphics card though I'd assume it would be crashing with other programs too? Chrome especially acts completely fine when one of these applications are on.

Sometimes I'd only turn on the computer on a game, on a really hot day and with only firefox, skype and the game on, crashed at least 3 times. heat normally doesn't affect it that much normally but with firefox, skype and almost nothing else except maybe my printscreen program running in the background, the issue was annoying. Also, the printscreen program wouldn't be causing it as it runs while I'm using the game without firefox, and no crash whatsoever.

dunno about system files.

I would think someone else had the problem, so I looked it up before I made this thread and I found firefox crashing but not it crashing the entire computer.

I'm not sure if that's my problem. Or even what is.

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Some clarifications here:

Firefox, on it's own, cannot crash your computer. It is a userspace application and as such does not have the privilege to access the kernel needed to cause a blue-screen, or in your case, kill the computer all together.

That being said, there are many programs that ARE kernelspace applications, and DO have the ability to kill your computer, and many of them DO have hooks into Firefox (Graphics Drivers, Firewalls, etc.). If these hooks are poorly written, or something that Firefox does exposes a bug in the software that no other program does, then the kernelspace application will crash your computer, but it will seem like it is Firefox's fault because Firefox is doing something no other application does.

What does this mean for you: Basically you need to expand your troubleshooting. My suggestion in this case would be to update your graphics driver. If that doesn't help, turn of Hardware Acceleration in Firefox. Turning off hardware acceleration. Since this happens when Firefox is open and you are playing games, it seems likely that Firefox is using the graphics card at the same time as the game and for whatever reason the driver freaks out.

I'd also check for malware, Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware as well as install every OS update there is (including the optional ones).

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The last time I updated my graphics driver it said it was fully done. I then had to get the latest driver from a friend because Microsoft was being horrible and not sending it to me after various games of these were breaking polygons.

So just turn off hardware acceleration and test it again? I ran a malware scan a few days ago and found nothing as far as I saw related to firefox. I've installed all the optional and mandatory updates, except for Skype because that's just updating the program when I don't want it.

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I turned off hardware acceleration and I left firefox on(I restarted it for it to take effect of course), but it STILL crashes my computer while playing the same games. What's left to try? I've seen ALL of these options on other forums when I was looking the problem up. My computer has problems with firefox and with other applications, dead set in stone.

Modified by Pinkupi13

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I scanned the previous correspondence and I can't see extensions, plugins, or Firefox Safe Mode mentioned. I would suggest testing with Firefox in Safe Mode to see if it's actually Firefox or a plugin or extension. Firefox (Flash, really) can get really heavy if you listen to music/videos on it while playing demanding 3D games.

This is the first time I've heard of the entire computer instantly crashing, so to me it sounds like a hardware issue.

Typical rig-crashing games in my experience have been ones that cause an extensive power and/or heat load (usually via the GPU). Most have been fixed by using v-sync or other mechanicsm to limit framerate so the GPU doesn't get out of hand.

If even Safe Mode fails... reinstall or Refresh?

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I don't have any videos or music playing, that's usually windows media player, which I also have when these games function perfectly without firefox on. i'll try soon but it might be a while.

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Alright - it's always a more complex equation the more software you have running (not to mention the hardware differences). If you absolutely need some type of software running, it could pay off to try an alternative program to find a winning combination.

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Alright I tried the firefox safe mode and it still crashed, granted after about 40 minutes. I don't want to reinstall as I might lose my tabs (that's the reason I have firefox!) and I don't know what refreshing does but it sounds equally bad.

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Chosen Solution

Okay, gained some stability, promising. Refreshing creates a new profile and resets Firefox settings, so yeah, you would probably lose those tabs.

How many tabs do you have open? I have a creeping suspicion the number is going to be way high, if losing them is a real threat (why not use a bookmark folder?). If so, might want to look into reducing that number or seeing if canceling preloading would help stability... even so, prolonged megatabbing doesn't sound sustainable.

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I share this program with another in the house and bookmarks aren't an option because they've filled it up to ridiculous degrees.

I'm really not sure.

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Well, if there's ever a reason like corruption or a hardware malfunction and the session can't be restored, those tabs are as good as gone. Bookmarks are safe (as long as you have backups, in case of accidental deletion or corruption) - even if their folder is lost in a sea of garbage.

I know the pain of shared computers; grew up with 3 users, 1 PC. Luckily modern programs like Firefox have profiles, so if you wish, you can separate user assets by assigning each user their own profile. I haven't used separate Firefox profiles in a long time, but I think they still separate session (tabs) and bookmarks, for example.

Maybe look into Firefox profiles for a solution (and back those tabs up as bookmarks, even if you can't use the folder right now)? I suspect you could reach full stability with a reduced tab load.

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I have session manager which happens to do wonders on this stuff. much better than firefox's dumb storage.

i'm not sure because time can fluctuate between instances.