Urgently need help getting FireFox to work!

[MsMagnificent]

Please advise, if you can!

:::Standing by:::

EDIT:

As pointed out I should be more forthcoming with details:

May have something to do with add-on's perhaps? But I also uninstalled &/or deleted all FireFox add-ons (along with FireFox itself) add-on's 2-3 times already and before I uninstalled/deleted them I restarted computer at least 3 times with each attempt, each download.

The initial, primary (to the point I can't get beyond the first page loading at all) problem I'm having (dognose if I'll have more problems once I get past this first one!) is that the home page --nor any other page, I tried democraticunderground.com next & of course it didn't work either!-- is that on the very bottom left of entire screen it says "Transferring data from flickr.com..." and then nada!

Additionally: Please note: The FireFox page also says it can help live with IRC chat - 'Chatzilla'; however Chatzilla is said to only work WITH(in) FireFox -- so I'm up the proverbial creek there too since I can't get a single page to load to even attempt to GET to Firefox's Chatzilla IRC.

Not to mention I've never, ever used IRC before in the first place... :/

[Midlodemocrat]

1. All you have to do is download it and run it.

What problems are you having? :shrug:

[Omphaloskepsis]

2. WTF...

What is your problem?

What OS?
What version of Firefox?
What is wrong?

This kind of stupid shit makes me want to never click on computer problem threads ever again...


Seriously... Give some fucking details.

[MsMagnificent]

3. No need to be nasty & rude, Omphalosklepsis

First, I have NO idea if anyone was on that could help me, so why waste much more time --my time to write it all out and yours to read all of it-- composing the problems. Your 'wasted time' was comprised of reading one or two short sentences. So sorry; but I won't swear back at you. If my post irritated you so very much, why not just bitch to yourself about me and others like me, ignore it and go on instead of taking your precious time to flame me?

Second, I have NO expertise this area -- my description of what my perception of the problem(s) may have muddied the waters more than just a general request for advice, with the hopes of one responding 'in what area?' or specific questions in regard to installation -- I'm certainly not sure what is germane to the problem here.

Sorry to be so snarky -- but you were certainly less than cordial and I didn't want to initially take up a lot of anybody's time and bandwidth.
Therefore, following is a sizable post. In case you're still interested or knowledgeable or magnanimous enough to offer whatever advice you may have without being verbally abusive, I still would welcome any help.

This is the situation:

The initial problem I'm having (dognose if I'll have more once I get past this first one!) is that the home page --nor any other page, I even tried democraticunderground.com next!-- is that on the very bottom left of entire screen it says "Transferring data from flickr.com..." and then nada but a blank window and stalled progress bar.

This may have something to do with add-ons perhaps? But I also uninstalled & deleted (or tried to)all FireFox add-ons (along with FireFox itself) & reinstalled 2-3 times already and before I uninstalled/deleted them I restarted computer at least 3 times with each attempt, each download.

The FireFox page also says it can help live with IRC chat - 'Chatzilla'; however Chatzilla is said to only work WITH(in) FireFox -- so I'm up the proverbial creek there too since I can't get a single page to load through Firefox to even attempt to GET to its Chatzilla IRC.

Not to mention I've never, ever used IRC before in the first place, so... :/

Explorer works just fine, however. Despite all this, I reset my modem and router, but still no luck getting Firefox to do anything. What exactly is "flickr.com" anyway? What does it have to do with Firefox? Also, the other funny thing that happens is that AFTER I close all Firefox (nay, ALL) windows and check the task manager to see that all is closed, when I go to do anything involving Firefox, the OS claims it is still running and I have to power cycle to get out of this situation. I have gone in and uninstalled Firefox with Add/Remove Programs and subsequently deleted all directories that seemed to be Firefox related, but every time I reinstall, all of the original add-ins I selected are already there. How does one get rid of them? I am beginning to suspect that's where the problem is but not entirely sure...

We ran AdAware and Spybot just before the install, and have been using PC-cillin (Dell seems to recommend them most) on this computer (XP Media Edition). There was no previous version of Firefox on board; we just downloaded the latest version on their website. I don't think there's anything funky on our homepage, pretty much just straight HTML and a .jpg and .gif or two. We are using a firewall router, but no explicit firewall software beyond what came with Dell's flavor of XP. Still looking for all of the add-ons to kill them and reinstall a base Firefox; we do not recall seeing anything about "flickr", but there were a couple of add-ons that claimed to "enhance your web experience," but didn't say much about how or what they did. My hubby's idea of enhancing the web experience would be a DVD-ROM drive that kept his beer cold while he was rewiring the CAT-5 around the house. (He got home a little while ago & started to help, but we're still stymied - he's an engineer, but not IT).

That's the long story, if you've read this far.
Thanks.

[ghostsofgiants]

6. In his defense...

People who are knowledgeable with computers get people asking for help with little or any detail all the time. It starts to grate on the nerves, especially when giving details seems like common sense. It's like going to a doctor and just saying "I'm sick." instead of telling your symptoms.

[MsMagnificent]

11. I understand,

however my Doc would ask maybe 'can you be a little more specific?' rather than swearing at me and all the idiots like me. :)

Part of the diagnostic process is the 'doc' asking the right questions and knowing what details to connect. A layperson doesn't always know where to begin with details of what's going on -- especially when, as in my case, I know nothing about that software, there's a blank, stalled page and I simply have no idea what's going wrong.

I do respect Omphaloskepsis' knowledge, but if something so irks him/her, perhaps s/he should have ignored the post instead of indulging in invective. What point spending the additional time simply disparaging me (and others like me) to the extent that s/he did?

No hard feelings; maybe Omph should not even read posts asking for help and just have a beer instead, especially when dealing with posts in The Lounge! :beer:

With help from another thread in General Discussion, hubby was able to start up FireFox in Safe Mode and disable all the add-ons -- now we just have to figure out which add-on caused the problem and which ones we can safely use!

Thanks for responding; may both you and Omphaloskepsis have a great remainder of this glorious weekend! :hi:


And a hearty Thank You to everybody who helped!!!

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. I'm partly with Omphaloskepsis on this one

It *is* maddening to get a thread asking for computer help, and then no relevant information as to the problem itself, forcing us - those of us who love to help - to dig and dig for information from the person having the problem.

You might not notice this, because you've probably never clicked on a thread of someone needing computer help, but it's pretty standard to get informationless requests for help.

That said, it's no reason to castigate you too severely. I"m only saying that I understand the frustration, and the desire to strike out, after it's happened a hundred times.

It does become maddening when it happens again and again and again.... much easier if people would just post their problem to begin with, instead of "HELP ME!!!" and then force the helpers to do all the work of figuring out what the problem is before they can even begin to help solve it.

And even after Ompha's request for OS, Firefox version, and other information, you have it all buried in various places in your description, and still didn't give the version number of Firefox you were trying to install.

As to your specific problem, I don't have much to add other than that I had an add-on once that went all crazy on me (it was a weather one), and no matter how many times I deleted it, it was still there. I even deleted Firefox itself in the hopes that the *@(& add-on would disappear, but when I reinstalled Firefox, the %(#& thing showed up again.

Could be a problem with Firefox that it won't really delete add-ons, or maybe some add-ons are just written by assholes. I could never figure it out. Thankfully, it never affected the operation of Firefox; it just sits there in the corner of the Firefox window giving me weather data for some place I have no idea where it is, but certainly isn't here.

I began to think after that experience, and still do, that Firefox doesn't actually allow one to delete it entirely - there's always some part of it still there on the hard drive, ready to fuck up the next installation of it.

The initial problem I'm having (dognose if I'll have more once I get past this first one!) is that the home page --nor any other page, I even tried democraticunderground.com next!-- is that on the very bottom left of entire screen it says "Transferring data from flickr.com..." and then nada but a blank window and stalled progress bar.

I don't know what "dognose" means here, nor what you mean by "the home page", but it appears that for some reason Firefox is trying to download something from flickr.com (which is a photo hosting site, like photobucket and so on), and it can't get a response from flickr.com. How long have you let it sit there and try to get something? Usually, after a short time, the bowser should just give up and say something like "Couldn't find page". However, since you say the words "transferring data from flickr.com" is on the bottom left of the screen, and not the browser window, that means something is really messed up. It should only show that in the browser window, as it always does whenever one goes to a website.

But you say you that you tried other websites and got the same thing?

Very odd.

Very odd indeed. I wish I could think of a reason why it would do that.

I shall meditate on this, and see if the brain storms anything helpful.

[MsMagnificent]

12. Again, I DO understand....

...but instead of putting a short story of all I did, I mentioned I was "Standing by" to monitor the page in case anyone did indeed answer.
Perhaps I should have been more explicit -- but being so ignorant of the entire process, I didn't know what would be cogent or not. No idea even about versions or OS (Just found out it was XP!) or anything else. What I do with my computer is turn it on and type -- and hope for the best.

As for the version of Firefox -- I did not see ANY version on that page. Perhaps it was there or in the download, but all I know is that is was (probably) the latest, therefore the best to date.

'Dognose' is a play on words of 'God knows' which a sci-fi author (I believe Asimov, but don't quote me) coined.
"The home page" is meant as "My home page", questionable choice of words on my part I guess.

We've never had 'Flickr' before -- so I'm assuming it was one of the add-ons from Firefox.


As I mentioned in my last post, due to some good advice from the General Discussion forum, we WERE able to fix it -- to get it to work we went into Safe Mode and disabled all the add-ons from Firefox.
Now if we can just figure out which add-on accesses 'Flickr' and leave it disabled so we can use at least some of the other helpful-sounding add-ons.

Take care, and thanks for the polite commentary! :)

[pokerfan]

14. power cycling?

Also, the other funny thing that happens is that AFTER I close all Firefox (nay, ALL) windows and check the task manager to see that all is closed, when I go to do anything involving Firefox, the OS claims it is still running and I have to power cycle to get out of this situation.

I have had this happen on occasion with Firefox crashes. Power cycling is almost always the last resort because it can lead to start-up and shut-down problems. In the future, try deleting the Firefox process using the Task Manager.

Flickr is a photo sharing application. Unless you installed it inadvertently, it was installed by the kind folks at Dell. I would remove it as it seems to be associated with your Firefox problem. It's not like you're using it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr

[Omphaloskepsis]

15. I am stuck as the family IT guy... And it sucks...

I am not your doctor.. I want to help because I like to. You are not paying me for help. I don't have to help.. I was being a dick to do exactly what happened.. Other people explained why your question was bullshit and I didn't have to type a damn thing. And when I said. "What the fuck is your problem?" I meant your computers problem, not you specifically.

Delete your profile. Google for instructions.

[yy4me]

4. What side of the bed did you get up on?

[yy4me]

5. The folks in the Computer Help and Support group are great!

I suggest you go there for a quick visit, I bet someone will be able to help you. They have bailed me out of lots of problems with guidance and kind words. Good luck

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. Do you perchance have a ZoneAlarm firewall?

I do, and I'm having the same problem. (I'm using IE right now. x()

Check here, with particular attention to the "known issues" link. There's quite a few of 'em.

Lemme know what you come up with, k? Good luck. :hi:

[Midlodemocrat]

8. That's so weird. I'm having the exact opposite problem!

I can run Firefox, but not IE and I am going to be screwn come Tuesday because IE has all my work bookmarks. Ugh. :(

[MsMagnificent]

13. Sorry you're having problems too

take a peek at post #12 -- starting Firefox in Safe Mode and disabling add-ons may help you, it certainly did us; ALL add-ons are off but it at least works now!! LOL

Take care! :)

[Maineiac]

9. It may not be the browser,

You might have picked up an IP hijack of some sort that misdirects all your TCP IP requests. If you are running Win XP, try soing a system restore back to a time when things were working.

[MsMagnificent]

16. Firefox running now, Thank You *ALL* very much for assistance!

As suggested, we opened FireFox's Safe Mode, disabling all add-ons with its check-box.

It appears that in one of the add-on packages of Firefox, although NOT specified by name as being included, Flickr indeed was installed. I know we had never installed it and that it had not come with the Dell package; therefore I can only assume it came with whatever FireFoxs photo add-on was. Flickr was never there before and I RARELY download any programs off the net unless CNet approves it and of course gives it a good recommendation -- way too many corrupt programs out there!

In any event, through all the responses received it appears that nobody else had had a problem with Flickr (at least through FireFox) before, so I have no idea why it hung up this computer!


But again, thank you for all your help, Firefox is now up and running (sans any add-ons) smoothly. Hurrah!

(So far.
*crossed fingers & knocking on wood*)