Firefox will not start?

Question

All of a sudden I can't get firefox to start on my laptop. I click on it and it comes up in the processes but just never starts. I ran avg virus, malwarebytes, and spyware terminator with no viruses or malicious software found. I also ran Eusing registry cleaner, no help. I then used restore to put the comp back to when firefox was starting then removed and re-installed firefox (newest version but not the beta). Still nothing. It's a Toshiba with Win XP, 4GB ram, and plenty of disk space left. I did notice that when I'm looking at my processes, firefox was taking lots of memory (100k +) for awhile then would dip back down to 10k but not start. It also won't start in safe mode (firefox safe, not Windows) Any ideas?? Explorer works and my internet connection is fine but I'd rather get firefox running again.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

The easiest way to see what the problems is with Firefox (and a lot of programs, actually) is to try starting them from a command prompt or console. Open a command prompt and start it by just typing "firefox" at the prompt and see what happens. You should see some console messages in the console window that will give you a clue to the problem.

One other issues that's common with Firefox is that there's a broken lock file left behind in your profile. This can happen when the browser or system is not shut down properly. FF is supposed to detect this and help you fix it, but sometimes it might not. Look in your Firefox user profile for a file called something like "!lock" (that's what it looks like in Linux. If the browser isn't running, try deleting this file and restarting.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Thanks Joe, just deleting the lock didn't do it but you pointed me in the right direction. I had to delete the entire profile and start from scratch.

Answer 2

Update it the simplest thing to do