Firefox dysfunction

[PhunkSpunk]

Starting yesterday, Firefox stated not working. My scroll-down bar on the right is unresponsive to my cursor, as are certain links. For example, when I place my cursor over the search on wikipedia, it does not respond. Actually it doesn't work on the JUB search option (above), and when I place the cursor on the right side of the screen. It's as if it had a stroke.

At first I thought it was my computer, but both explorer and chrome work fine.

I have not gotten an upgrade recently.

 

[kallipolis]

^I use FF and have not experienced this problem.

 

[PhunkSpunk]

It was working fine for me until two days ago.

 

[T-Rexx]

I think one of the reasons people have been having trouble with IE and FF on Windows may be underlying malware on their computers.

I say this because I have a netbook with Windows on it which recently acquired a rootkit I cannot get rid of. The malware attempts to redirect FF to advertising sites but sometimes only succeeds in interfering with some of its functions.

Chrome seems immune to the rootkit, presumably because of the way it is sandboxed on Windows.

 

[Deandbn]

if you are using windows 7 and IE9 and MSE you should not be having all these problems

 

[GamerBear]

I think one of the reasons people have been having trouble with IE and FF on Windows may be underlying malware on their computers.

I say this because I have a netbook with Windows on it which recently acquired a rootkit I cannot get rid of. The malware attempts to redirect FF to advertising sites but sometimes only succeeds in interfering with some of its functions.

Chrome seems immune to the rootkit, presumably because of the way it is sandboxed on Windows.

My Firefox freezes randomly and I just did a virus check and no malware at all. That's when using Malwarebytes too.

 

[T-Rexx]

^ The point is that the anti-virus programs can't find everything.

Rootkits are always difficult (and sometimes impossible) to detect, and zero day malware won't be in the database for many months.

Just because an anti-virus program says you're clean doesn't necessarily mean that it is so.

 

[GamerBear]

^ The point is that the anti-virus programs can't find everything.

Rootkits are always difficult (and sometimes impossible) to detect, and zero day malware won't be in the database for many months.

Just because an anti-virus program says you're clean doesn't necessarily mean that it is so.

How many people on here do you think have rootkits on their computer?

So how does one solve this? How do you know if you have rootkits if anti-virus software is pointless?

 

[Corny]

My Firefox freezes randomly and I just did a virus check and no malware at all. That's when using Malwarebytes too.

This used to be an issue with an old flash version. Is your's up to date? Does it also happen when you run it without addons?

 

[GamerBear]

This used to be an issue with an old flash version. Is your's up to date? Does it also happen when you run it without addons?

Flash is updated, and even went through my addons and disabled them all. Did the same things that made me freeze and it will still freeze for like 20 seconds. I cleared the cache thinking maybe it might of been that but still didn't solve the problem. Might end up down grading Firefox to 3.6.

 

[Corny]

Backup your bookmarks, and delete your firefox profile. You might have been using this for a long time through all the upgrades, and sometimes this is the cause.

to start the profile manager, exit firefox and run:
firefox.exe -ProfileManager

 

[T-Rexx]

How many people on here do you think have rootkits on their computer?

I don't think anyone knows the answer to that question.

So how does one solve this? How do you know if you have rootkits if anti-virus software is pointless?

Rootkits can be difficult or impossible to detect. That's actually the point of a rootkit - extreme stealth. But you might suspect that something is up if your browser is getting redirected, cookies are getting erased, internet access seems too slow, or drive access is problematic (just to name a very few).

Read about some means of detecting them here.

They are always difficult to remove, and sometimes impossible to remove without reformatting your hard drive and re-installing your OS.

But it isn't just rootkits. There's a lot of malware out there which manages to escape detection by anti-virus programs for any number of reasons.

The point is, a "clean" report by an anti-virus program doesn't necessarily mean you are truly infection-free. Especially if your computer is manifesting odd behavior, you might want to take further action.

 

[GamerBear]

When I opened the profile manager the only thing listed was the name default. So I deleted that and made a new profile. Hopefully that works.