Firefox closing suddenly when I type in a box - but only sometimes.

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Very occasionally, my Firefox (26, but 25 did it too; on XP SP3) closes
when I type in a box; the latest one was typing in the address bar, i.
e. I was changing the URL. (Previously I've mainly encountered it when
it's a box on a web page, such as typing into the Google search box.)

When this happens, it closes instantly - leaving me sort of going "wha?"

(The close is far faster than when I actually tell Firefox to close!)

If I re-open, it comes back, with all tabs, but usually with the same
sensitivity (i. e. it closes instantly when I start to type in a box).
On about the second or third re-open, it brings up the "this is
embarrassing" window, but when that is told to, it comes back (still
with the oddity).

Usually (I think always), if I put the text I want to put in the box
(today, it was the edit to the URL) into the clipboard (e. g. from
Notepad), and paste it rather than typing it from the keyboard, Firefox
behaves.

Usually, it "gets better" - I don't have to do anything. For example, it
is now sitting there (with my 46 or so tabs) from last time, and I just
tried adding a character to the URL in the box - and it let me, without
closing. (I also tried with one of the boxes on the page displayed - in
this case the ebay search box - and same, i. e. Firefox didn't close.)

I'm not _really_ expecting anyone to have a solution - for a start, the
hordes are going to descend saying I'm using an ancient (really? only a
few months!) version, and I should use the latest (some will say with
Classic Theme Restorer). But I just thought I'd ask. (Even if nobody
knows the cause, I'd be interested to know if anyone else has
experienced the same symptoms. Unfortunately, I can't say what triggers
the behaviour! [Or its disappearance!])

(Perhaps I can reduce - I know I won't stop completely - the floods of
"upgrade to the latest version" responses by saying, do you know what
was causing this behaviour, and that that specific bug was fixed at
version X? Because if not, saying upgrade, though there may be many
other good reasons [security scaremongering not least among them], is
not a solution to this specific problem.)

It's rare enough not to be a real problem - hard to say as I've not been
logging, but probably less than once a week, and as I say seems to get
better of its own accord anyway.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

No, I haven't changed my mind - I'm perfectly happy with the one I have, thank
you.

[Ed Mullen]

John, I have not seen this. Some things to try:

1. Safe Mode to disable extensions
2. Take note of other running programs that might possibly be causing this
3. Try a new profile


--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net/
"It doesn't matter what clothes I wear I'll still look trashy!" - Dolly
Parton

[Chris Ilias]

Does the Mozilla Crash Reporter come up? If so,
1. Open Firefox.
2. Go to Help-->Troubleshooting_Information. That should open a new tab
with info about your Firefox setup.
3. Under "Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days" click on your latest crash
report. That should take you to a web page starting with
"https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/"
4. Open a reply to this post and paste the address of your latest crash
report.
We can then look at the data specific to your crash and have a better
idea of what is causing the problem.

--
Chris Ilias <http://ilias.ca>
Mailing list/Newsgroup moderator

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message
<mailman.1191.142885544...@lists.mozilla.org>, Chris

Ilias <nm...@ilias.ca> writes:
>On 2015-04-12 11:00 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
>> Very occasionally, my Firefox (26, but 25 did it too; on XP SP3) closes
>> when I type in a box; the latest one was typing in the address bar, i.
>> e. I was changing the URL. (Previously I've mainly encountered it when
>> it's a box on a web page, such as typing into the Google search box.)
>>
>> When this happens, it closes instantly - leaving me sort of going "wha?"
>>
>> (The close is far faster than when I actually tell Firefox to close!)

[]

>Does the Mozilla Crash Reporter come up? If so,

No. The Firefox window just disappears, as if I'd never opened Firefox.

>1. Open Firefox.
>2. Go to Help-->Troubleshooting_Information. That should open a new tab
>with info about your Firefox setup.

It does indeed.

>3. Under "Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days" click on your latest crash

There are only three occurrences of the string "Crash" in the page: two
are "Crash Reports about:crashes", and the third is
"dom.ipc.plugins.flash.subprocess.crashreporter.enabled false" [I don't
think the problem is Flash-related].

>report. That should take you to a web page starting with
>"https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/"

I clicked on "about:crashes" which was a link, and it took me to
about:crashes, which has a list of Submitted Crash Reports, the latest
of which was 2015-1-17.

>4. Open a reply to this post and paste the address of your latest crash
>report.
>We can then look at the data specific to your crash and have a better
>idea of what is causing the problem.
>

I think it crashes so swiftly that there's no time for it to do anything
like file a report! It's more a matter of it disappearing; there's no
message from the OS that something has crashed. Just, it's there, I type
a character, it isn't there. (It _could_ be related to other weird
problems I'm having with the keyboard, though I can't think how; all I
could think of was maybe an unexpected Alt-F4, but I just tried that,
and it still comes up with the "are you sure you want to close all those
tabs" message.)

Thanks for trying, though (and especially for not saying "upgrade to the
latest version" without actually addressing the fault!). And thanks too
to Ed Mullen:
1. to enable safe mode, I'd have to restart FF;
2. other running prog.s: only the two parts of my news/email client
(Turnpike - last changed about 2007 IIRR) - the connect one, which does
the sending and collecting of news and email, and the other one, which
operates as an Explorer shell extension; probably an Explorer window;
and maybe a notepad+ one.
3. Try a new profile - I'd rather not, but might consider it if this
becomes a more frequent problem. As it is, it only happens rarely, and
usually clears itself in a short time.

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

There's not an app for that.

[easyt...@gmail.com]

https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/85c19b40-233b-4156-86b3-5f7fa2150418

[easyt...@gmail.com]

https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/85c19b40-233b-4156-86b3-5f7fa2150418

[Burry]

Is your virus scanner (url protection, etc.) active and
"protecting" you?

[Swifty]

On 12/04/2015 16:00, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> Very occasionally, my Firefox (26, but 25 did it too; on XP SP3) closes
> when I type in a box; the latest one was typing in the address bar

There are times (and rare circumstances) when the "Ctrl" key can become
"Sticky". Which means that your firefox might close if you attempt to
write the word "whether" (for example). Your system has seen "Ctrl+w".

This happens to me about once a month, but it is exacerbated by my use
of a program which allows me to type 21°C by pressing "21" AltGr "dg" "C"

The trick is in the AltGr key, which has been programmed to interpret
the following two keystrokes as a mnemonic for special characters. But
this program sometimes seems to leave a residual/sticky "ctrl" pending
(and it's devilish hard to get rid of; I often reboot)

One way of getting one of these "Sticky ctrl" keys is by pressing ctrl
several times in succession. This is controlled by settings, but I
think the multiple ctrl key sequence is on by default (since most people
don't press ctrl repeatedly)

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message
<mailman.2243.143009715...@lists.mozilla.org>, Burry

<burrynu...@ppllaanneett.nnll> writes:
>On 12.04.15 17:00, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
>> Very occasionally, my Firefox (26, but 25 did it too; on XP SP3) closes
>> when I type in a box; the latest one was typing in the address bar, i.
>> e. I was changing the URL. (Previously I've mainly encountered it when
>> it's a box on a web page, such as typing into the Google search box.)

[]

>> It's rare enough not to be a real problem - hard to say as I've not been
>> logging, but probably less than once a week, and as I say seems to get
>> better of its own accord anyway.
>>
>Is your virus scanner (url protection, etc.) active and
>"protecting" you?

Thanks for coming back.

I'm pretty sure it's not that, because (a) I don't have any sort of
webguard turned on, (b) it comes and goes (hasn't happened for a while
at the moment), (c) the URL box was just the latest incarnation: typing
in any box, just as the search box on web pages that had them, made it
happen.

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"When _I_ saw him, he was dead." "uh, he looked exactly the same when he was
alive, except he was vertical." (The Trouble with Harry)

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message
<mailman.2265.143011477...@lists.mozilla.org>,

Swifty <steve....@gmail.com> writes:
>On 12/04/2015 16:00, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
>> Very occasionally, my Firefox (26, but 25 did it too; on XP SP3) closes
>> when I type in a box; the latest one was typing in the address bar
>
>There are times (and rare circumstances) when the "Ctrl" key can become
>"Sticky". Which means that your firefox might close if you attempt to
>write the word "whether" (for example). Your system has seen "Ctrl+w".

Interesting thought. I _am_ having occasional keyboard problems (not
hardware: I get them with an alternative to the built-in keyboard, _and
even with the on-screen one_!), so it could be that.

>
>This happens to me about once a month, but it is exacerbated by my use
>of a program which allows me to type 21°C by pressing "21" AltGr "dg"
>"C"
>
>The trick is in the AltGr key, which has been programmed to interpret
>the following two keystrokes as a mnemonic for special characters. But
>this program sometimes seems to leave a residual/sticky "ctrl" pending
>(and it's devilish hard to get rid of; I often reboot)

I use AllChars, which uses the Ctrl key in that manner: it doesn't
conflict with other prog.s, as it's not _at the same time_, it looks for
a tap on the Ctrl key _followed_ by another sequence (so for example
Ctrl _then_ 1 then 2 gives ½ the half character). From your description,
whatever it is you use is similar but with the AltGr key. (Which, for
any US users who are puzzled, is the right Alt key, which isn't the same
as the left one in UK and many other keyboard layouts.)

>
>One way of getting one of these "Sticky ctrl" keys is by pressing ctrl
>several times in succession. This is controlled by settings, but I
>think the multiple ctrl key sequence is on by default (since most
>people don't press ctrl repeatedly)
>

It is. They're the accessibility options; holding down some of the keys
(I forget which) for something like 5 or 8 seconds turns some of them on
too - it usually pops up a box asking if you intended to turn on
whatever you did, with the option to say no. (One of these options I
actually leave on is I think called toggle keys, which doesn't change
any actual behaviour, it just makes a little sound when you turn on or
off any of the lock keys, which I find useful as I often hit the caps
lock key by mistake.)

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

[»Q«]

In
<news:mailman.2347.143017461...@lists.mozilla.org>,

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6...@soft255.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> In message
> <mailman.2265.143011477...@lists.mozilla.org>,
> Swifty <steve....@gmail.com> writes:
> >On 12/04/2015 16:00, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> >> Very occasionally, my Firefox (26, but 25 did it too; on XP SP3)
> >> closes when I type in a box; the latest one was typing in the
> >> address bar
> >
> >There are times (and rare circumstances) when the "Ctrl" key can
> >become "Sticky". Which means that your firefox might close if you
> >attempt to write the word "whether" (for example). Your system has
> >seen "Ctrl+w".
>
> Interesting thought. I _am_ having occasional keyboard problems (not
> hardware: I get them with an alternative to the built-in keyboard,
> _and even with the on-screen one_!), so it could be that.

If you set browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab to 'false', then only
the tab will close with ctrl+w. That won't solve the problem, but it
should help you figure out whether a sticky ctrl is causing the problem.

[Swifty]

On 27/04/2015 23:38, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> I use AllChars

As do I, I was referring to Allchars. I'm confident that Allchars is
implicated in the occasional keyboard problems I encounter, as
terminating Allchars and re-starting it often fixes the problem.

But then my Windows 7 developed an annoying 3-4 minute pause just after
I've entered my password after a reboot, so now I'm trying to fix the
keyboard problems without booting!
This problem persists for a few days, then goes away again for a week or
two. I have no idea what causes it, but someone suggested a network
share which has become inaccessible. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be
missing any of these.

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message
<mailman.2329.143018230...@lists.mozilla.org>,

In order to implement your suggestion, I was typing about:config into
the URL box, and the sudden closing was back: as soon as I typed the f,
Firefox closed. Did it about five times. I eventually typed about:config
in Notepad, copied it, and pasted it into Firefox - which was fine.
Since Ctrl-W was working for me (to just close the current tab) anyway,
I suspected I already had that parameter set to false, and this did
indeed turn out to be the case.

I'm just going to try _typing_ about:config again ... open new tab;
type; yes, I've just typed the f, and, as I suspected, Firefox has _not_
closed. Just finished (i. e. typed the ig), and all was well. As it
usually is: when I get this occasional sudden (and repeatable) closure,
when my typing into some box gets to a certain character, and I get
round it by pasting what I want into that box rather than typing it,
then if I try again to type it, the problem has gone.

Weird. Fortunately, it doesn't happen that often!

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

....Every morning is the dawn of a new error...

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

(I haven't yet, but I suspect Chris would like us to take this to
general, as it has wandered off Firefox. Unless someone knows
otherwise!)

In message
<mailman.2360.143021449...@lists.mozilla.org>,

Swifty <steve....@gmail.com> writes:
>On 27/04/2015 23:38, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
>> I use AllChars
>
>As do I, I was referring to Allchars. I'm confident that Allchars is
>implicated in the occasional keyboard problems I encounter, as
>terminating Allchars and re-starting it often fixes the problem.

It was around the time I installed AllChars that I started getting
_very_ odd keyboard behaviour, in lots of software, not just Firefox.
(About the oddest one I had recently was the top row - where the numbers
are - was stuck shifted, so I got !"£$%^& etc. - but the letters
weren't, i. e. were coming out lower case - _including_ when I tried the
on-screen keyboard, which I think exonerates any hardware!) But AllChars
itself does seem to work! And the keyboard odd behaviours come and go: I
haven't quite identified what sets them off, though I've found avoiding
touching the left Ctrl key seems to reduce the frequency. (Once the odd
behaviour has started, it's very difficult to stop it - a reboot does,
and _sometimes_ pressing both shift keys together does ...)

>
>But then my Windows 7 developed an annoying 3-4 minute pause just after
>I've entered my password after a reboot, so now I'm trying to fix the
>keyboard problems without booting!

This XP takes ages to do a restart, so I don't like doing it either.

>This problem persists for a few days, then goes away again for a week
>or two. I have no idea what causes it, but someone suggested a network
>share which has become inaccessible. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be
>missing any of these.

And I don't have any (-:.

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf