Mozilla Firefox not working in XP

[Tinky]

My friend has asked for me to help her. We are unable to launch Mozilla Firefox browser on her lappy, we have tried all we can think of, including reinstalling it, but to no avail. At one stage we were told it was already running, but there was no sign of it. It did work up until a few days ago. Any sensible suggestions please? The last thing we did was to install 'Personas' on it would that have caused it to stop working if something was corrupted in the process?

[admars]

The last thing we did was to install 'Personas' on it would that have caused it to stop working if something was corrupted in the process?

yes, that could be it, if extensions go wrong they can cause problems, try running firefox in safe mode from the start menu so it doesn't use add ons.

failing that rename the firefox profile directory

c:\documents and setting\user name\application data\mozilla\firefox\profiles\
c:\documents and setting\user name\application data\mozillafirefox\Xprofiles\

and see if it works you should then be able to import bookmarks etc from the correct sub dir of the XMozilla folder

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder

[Tinky]

Eeeek! Will I be able to tackle that? I'm going to have to 'borrow' my friends lappy again and see what can be done. Many thanks Admars.

[MTJR]

Maybe this might help.

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/...not+responding

Have you done control,alt,delete just to see if Firefox is running?

[Peter_]

Go to control panel>add/remove programs, find Firefox and uninstall it then try downloading it again.

[Tinky]

Thank you MTJR, Maggy and Masque for your help. I tried uninstalling Mozilla through the add/remove progs, but it said it was still running. So did the control/shift/escape thingy to stop it running. Uninstalled then reinstalled it, but still no joy. Going to have another bash today if I can get hold of my friend and she is not going to be using her lappy. Thank you for your help!

[Wayfair]

Make sure you remove everything Tinky, so tick the box that says Remove my Firefox personal data, and also delete the folder C:\Program files\Mozilla Firefox.

Then reinstall.

Have you tried a system restore to a date when you knew it was working?

[Dai]

Could be a corrupted user profile as admars said. Is that the same laptop again?
Sounds like we may have to talk again

[admars]

if you do remove everything, backup bookmarks, if there's many

bookmarks
organise bookmarks
import and backup
export to an html file, and/or backup to json, remember to put them in a sensible place you'll find them later.

[Tinky]

Update:-

'Borrowed' my friend's lappy this morning, and for the benefit of those like myself who are lacking in the IT department, I did the following:-

Tried to start Firefox both with the desktop icon, and also in the 'all progs', but no joy. Tried control, shift, escape, to see if it was running, it wasn't. Deleted the program via the control panel. Reinstalled it again, 'Start' told me a new prog had been installed and gave me the option to start it in safe mode. In safe mode I chose to start without any add-ons. Hey presto that seemed to do the trick, and strangely all the favourites etc., were still there. However the home page in Firefox had been changed to 'incredimail'.....yes I know you don't have to tell me.

Thank you everyone who once again have come to my aid. Special mention and thanks to DaiNasty who I spoke to last evening and who solved my Disk Cleanup problem. Must add that it is very strange to put a voice to someone you have only previously known as a nom de plume(?) Pleasant experience to be sure.

This morning My pc is misbehaving and FF beta 4 has started to misbehave as FF3 did.No smileys allowed.

I cannot be bothered to work out why I'm going back to IE.