Topic: Firefox freezing.

[mistybear]

I've been having a lot of problems with FF, especially after the last update a couple of days ago.
Twice tonight it has shut down the old "FF has to close, sorry for the........"
At present with only 3 tabs open, CPU is over 50% and the fans are running very fast.
It also keeps freezing when opening new tabs, even the email notifier is stuck at the bottom task bar and can't fully appear,actually as I've been typing this, it has very slowly started to appear.    Even the smilies have frozen. 

[Simon]

Have you checked your task manager for running processes?  Anything using all your CPU?  If not, or if it's Firefox, it could be one of your add-ons isn't playing call with the new version.  Try updating your add-ons, and if that doesn't help, you may have to start uninstalling them, until you find the one causing the trouble.

[mistybear]

Thanks Simon, I always check the task manager. FF was using about 50% and then the help.exe (?) was using the rest. After that there was an update for Windows Defender, then it all went quiet again. 

It's calmed down now.

Add ons were updated yesterday, but I checked again, they're okay.

It seems okay now, so I'll just see if it happens again. 

[Simon]

It could have been WD updating and doing it's scan.  I wonder what help.exe is though?

[mistybear]

The problem started before the WD update, and it also happened earlier tonight and yesterday as well.

The Help.exe http://www.processlibrary.com/directory/files/help

I have seen it running before, along with svchost.exe. Between them they can almost render computer use basically impossible. I read some where it has something to do with the library.
Michael has suggested checking the temps. Motherboard   51 °C  (124 °F)
                                                           CPU   60 °C  (140 °F)
                                                            GPU Diode   64 °C  (147 °F)
                                                           GPU Ambient   48 °C  (118 °F)

They were higher about 10 minutes ago, should have checked when the fans were at full blast.

Anyway, I'm off to bed, will see if it does it again tomorrow, well later today.   

[chorleydave]

I think that update needs pulling immediately.  I have just received it and not only had all my Bookmarks disappear but all my toolbar buttons vanished too, except the rewind button at the far left of the toolbar.

Fortunately, I have Mozbackup, so I was able to retrieve my Bookmarks my doing a restore.  I got my toolbar buttons back by restoring the default set and then adding the few others (such as rewind and fast forward) that I use.

Not good though.  I would expect Microshaft updates to be troublesome, but not Firefox.  I'm afraid I've now turned off automatic updating in Firefox as I no longer have confidence to update the browser until several days of trouble-free updating has passed.

 

[Simon]

Curiously, mine updated with no problems.  I don't have many add-ons, and I wonder if there could be an issue with one of them, Dave, despite FF supposedly disabling any it finds incompatible?

[Baz]

couldnt really say about what Help.exe is but it depends where you look

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/Help.exe-8091.html

this doesnt sound good

[Simon]

It did make me wonder, Baz, particularly as it seemed to be using a lot of resources at times.   

[chorleydave]

Here is some info on help.exe.

[Simon]

Thanks for that, Dave, which would seem to confirm that it's iffy.

Kate, my advice to you would be to download and run Super AntiSpyware.  The Free edition is fine, and if there's anything there, it should find it.  If it says it can't remove something, try running the scan again in safe mode, and turn off System Restore beforehand.  Let us know how you get on. 

[mistybear]

Here is some info on help.exe.

Bloody hell, didn't read that about it. When it was running the other night, I went to delete from task manager, just to see what would happen, but it had finished and wasn't there anymore, I thought that odd. 

couldnt really say about what Help.exe is but it depends where you look

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/Help.exe-8091.html

this doesnt sound good

 
Definitely doesn't sound good. So much for my new Kaspersky AVP, it had been picking up everything. 

[mistybear]

Thanks for that, Dave, which would seem to confirm that it's iffy.

Kate, my advice to you would be to download and run Super AntiSpyware.  The Free edition is fine, and if there's anything there, it should find it.  If it says it can't remove something, try running the scan again in safe mode, and turn off System Restore beforehand.  Let us know how you get on. 

Does this play nicely with Kaspersky, as I had to uninstall my Comodo firewall so as to install Kaspersky first. 

But FF is doing some very odd things, it just opened a separate window for no reason? 

[Simon]

SAS Free should be OK with Kaspersky.

[Delgado]

Firefox has been a pain since the last two updates for me. Used to be first class, but now quite often pages dont load, and you get finished at bottom of page, and page is blank!

 Seems to me that all updates on all progs lateley are becoming a balls up!!