Hi kobey.

Screenshot can tell more than hundreds of words. If you have taken a screenshot, you can easily attach it below this box for and answer. Right below the text "Add images" is a button, which will open a file picker for you.

It wouldn't work on the original attempts yesterday. Just kept going around and around. Worked ok with this reply though.

)

Thank you.

I do not see any similar message there, and the translator is actually translating for me, but that does not necessary mean, there is no problem on some server closer to you. But if it works in other browsers, I would suggest to start with cleaning Firefox cache and maybe cookies too.

Well, I've : • cleared FF cache & cookies • disabled Ad-Block & no Scripts • restarted FF / restarted Windows 7 • tried it using a VPN (Comodo's inbuilt one... which sees me located in England, outside London, instead of Sydney Australia where I am)

No change. My gut tells me it's Firefox. But I guess that only a FF programmer can say whether or not they've coded that message into the browser.

Might be easier to just use Chrome as my default browser.

But thanks for your help, mate.

)

You seem to be trying the right sort of troubleshooting steps. Maybe you have security related software or some addon affecting the results. Try Firefox in its safe mode, with all plugins disabled. If that does not help try similar in Windows own safe mode.

• Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode

There is no reason to expect a message in the middle of a web page to come from Firefox. Keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+C will bring up Firefox's built in Inspector tool which should confirm the source of the message when you use the mouse to highlight it. Ctrl+Shift+K will bring up the error console. Click the clear button on the top to clear the errors, reload the page an look again at errors now relating to that particular page.

Details on tool use see for example https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Page_Inspector/How_to/Select_an_element

It is supposed to be possible to post screenshots attachments to initial posts now. One issue is that unlike some other mozilla fora this one only accepts smaller files such as jpeg or png under a certain size. A bitmap image would probably fail.

It seems to work ok attaching an image to an initial post I just tested it with /questions/1113701

G'day, john99

Thanks for your long answer.

• Tried again in FF Safe Mode. -- Still doesn't work • I updated the plugins. -- Still doesn't work. • Deactivated the plug-ins. -- Still doesn't work.

At this point, I think I've done everything except a complete reinstall. It's not clear what I lose as my FF is highly customised (by my simple standards). I'm not even sure if I could restore it all again if I lost functionality (because I'm sure a lot of that wouldn't be in my profile). Here's an example of my display...

Next image is result of SHIFT-CTRL-C (bottom part is very wide so not included)...

The 3rd image is result of SHIFT-CTRL-K...

Except for full reinstall or Refresh to factory settings, I think I did what you asked.

)

Snapshot of the FF Inspector javascript for that message :

G'day kobey, Just an initial response, I am running short of time today.

I (or other regulars) will not make suggestions that cause loss of data or settings or make permanent changes (other than updates); without warning you first.

I do not think you have tried Windows own safe mode yet. Then try Firefox's safemode within that.

• Starting your computer in safe mode (Windows SafeMode)

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/start-computer-safe-mode#start-computer-safe-mode=windows-7

Hi, john99

Yes, I did actually try both FF Safe Mode (first) and then Windows Safe Mode (second). Which is separately, how I read the sequence that the original instruction suggested. Sorry, I forgot to mention Windows Safe Mode. But it wasn't done together. FFSM within WSM.

I just tried that now and there's no change. Same hot-pants pink message for FFSM running under WSM (with networks).

Perhaps I've been blacklisted by Microsoft because, as an occasional home user, I actually use the service now and then, lol. But it didn't work in normal mode with a VPN (England) with the cache & cookies cleared, so M$ might have started downgrading my functionality because I've resisted upgrading to Windows 10 (I'm only half-serious there) ; maybe I need to start looking at Windows Updates but it's ok in Google Chrome running normally.

As said before, I still haven't tried a full Firefox reinstall but I really want to avoid that. I'm not a tech guy and I'm sure I'll never get it back to the way it is now.

From my limited knowledge, it seems very weird that it doesn't work in the combined safe modes. That's bare bones. And I've done nothing to my system between the times it was working ok and when it started giving the error.

Thanks for staying with me and for your continued help.

)

Tried changing DNS using first Google and then OpenDNS and no change. Same error.

Screenshots show DNS after each Bing Translator attempt...

Create a new profile to test if your current profile is causing the problem.

See "Creating a profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues

If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

Woot !!!!

Success ! Thank you cor-el !

How it got fixed (in case it's helpful for anyone else) : 0. tested the old profile [OP] one last time. 1. I created a new, raw profile [NP] as per your instructions and backed up both old [OPBK] and new [NPBK] profiles. 2. I started manually copying folders/files from the [OP] to the [NP] and testing that, to see if it was going rogue. • all the folders first --> [OP] -> [NP] -> no problems • the files, progressively • when I got to cookies.sqlite, got the familiar hotpants pink error ; restored [NP] from [NPBK] and continued. • all ok until I reached permissions.sqlite --> pinko error again. • so, instead of continuing, I thought to try and correct the [OP] (because fixing that seemed easiest & quickest) for the 2 fatals : cookies.sqlite & permissions.sqlite. • I did an about:permissions in the address bar of FF running the [OP] • Scrolled down to http://www.bing.com/ in the list • Cookies : changed blocked --> allow • open popup windows : changed blocked --> allow • Exited FF and run FF again using changed [OP] ... and the translator worked... no communist messages.

Note : I'm now using the [OP] again, and not the [NP] with files copied across from the [op].

I guess it will take a few days of testing to ensure that the fix endures. I'll do that and try to solve any problem... but if I can't, I hope it's ok to return and continue in this thread.

I do not know how those permissions got changed. I don't know enough to have done it myself. Best guess is that NoScript or something similar decided to blacklist Bing for some reason. Maybe Bing did something odd one time I used it and the app reacted to it. Anyway, it's gopod now and I know how to solve this kind of error in future.

Thank you again, cor-el. Another version of Superman, for sure ! You have been a great help, as have the other experts here ! John99 taught me a lot as well. And thanks and good wishes to Michal Stanke !

Note : Marking Bing untrusted in the NoScript extension doesn't actually cause the pink error. But It does prevent the translation in other ways so perhaps NoScript had its finger in the pie somewhere.