Firefox 1.5 continues to work poorly

Is there any new information on why Firefox 1.5 has so many problems?

I downloaded the new version of Firefox 1.5 on December 6, 2005, but it has never worked right or even as well as the previous version. When I checked for updates, there aren’t any. I have looked for comments in the Firefox forums but frankly couldn’t figure out how to find what I wanted. I can’t believe I’m the only one with the problem, but I can’t find out what to do about it. Any help would be appreciated. Here is what Firefox does on my Windows XP Professional system (fully updated):

1. Yahoo (http://my.yahoo.com/) does not display properly. Many of the graphics on the page have been replaced by small red diamonds, or do not appear at all. Internet Explorer works fine.

2. Travelocity (http://www.travelocity.com/) does not display properly. The departure/return input boxes for date are on top of the corresponding boxes for time. Internet Explorer works fine.

3. The hotel website www.starwoods.com displays a picture and then the picture disappears. Internet Explorer works fine on this site.

4. The ABC news site http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1525190 displays some headlines on top of others (at the bottom of the page). Internet Explorer works fine on this site.

5. On the Choice Hotels site (http://www.choicehotels.com) my username/password does not work, but it DOES work when I use Internet Explorer.

6. This sports story from the San Diego Union Tribune (http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/baseball/20060121-9999-1s21wbc.html)
has no right margin when displayed by Firefox but displays normally with Internet Explorer.

7. And even on THIS website (http://www.windowsbbs.com/index.php) Firefox will not accept my password and will not log on, but Internet Explorer logs on with no problem. I thought I was typing my password wrong in Firefox, but, when Internet Explorer worked, I finally realized that Firefox was somehow corrupting the accurate password that I was typing. I’m posting this message using Internet Explorer, not Firefox.

There are lots of other examples but I just started keeping track a couple of days ago. What’s the problem here and what can I do about it? Firefox is a lot faster than Internet Explorer and that’s why I would like to keep it. But I have to keep going back too often to Explorer to see or even use many websites.

Futhermore, according to this website,
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=175007152&pgno=4
Mozilla/Firefox has some awareness of the problems but no plans to fix them. That’s no better than IBM or Microsoft !!!

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Is there any way to get Firefox to work properly?

Thanks !!

 

Welcome to the Forum, Roger at CCCC!

Roger,

I tried several of the links you gave, and didn't experience the problems you describe. However, I am using Firefox 1.5.0.1rc1, which is Release Candidate 1, and addresses some of the bugs in Firefox 1.5. If you want to give this Release Candidate a try, and I'm finding it quite stable, you can download the Version here: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/1.5.0.1rc1/

Check here for some of the fixes:
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/qa/archives/2006/01/firefox_rc1_candidate_availabl.html

 

I am running FF 1.5 regular and I have no trouble with any of the links you posted. Therefore, must be your stuff and not FF itself.....

Maybe some of your options? Have you tried FF safe mode?

 

Thanks Ramona and Bill, for your response. I'm mystified why you don't get these problems and I do. I have a pretty plain vanilla PC with nothing fancy so most things work just fine, but once again I had to go back to Internet Explorer to post this message (because Firefox would not accept my Windows BBS password).

Ramona, the link you gave is the file directory, and I confess I don't know what to do with it in order to get Release Candidate 1 installed on my machine. Can you give me some further direction? I downloaded Firefox 1.5 from the regular download site and followed the instructions to install it back in December.

Bill, I'm not sure what you mean by Firefox "safe mode ". When I search the Help file in Firefox, there is no response for "safe mode." I am familiar with Windows XP Professional Safe Mode, but I assumed that you were NOT talking about that.

Thanks for any further suggestions.

 

Roger,
there is no official release of 1.5.0.1, but I am also using it,having had minor problems with 1.5 final (actually since after their first release candidate).
I could not test all the sites which you gave, since there is some logging in involved, but have not run into any problem. As for the download try the Setup of 1-12: http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/1.5.0.1rc1/win32/en-US/

The Safe mode refers to the Start|All programs|Firefox|Firefox safe mode.
This is not well explained, and I stumbled into it, when I went to see what was in there. It will load bare bones Firefox, with no extentions, in particular. If you have no extention, do not bother with it.
Mozilla has recognize that there are problems for a small, but sizable percentage of users, and is working on it.
But, in general anything you describe can be traced back to the very first Netscape6 and Mozillas. Some websites are written with only IE in mind, and there may be some incompatibility. Did you use the perfectly good Firefox1.0.7 or Mozilla1.7.12? Only if the problem is with them, you have something to complain about. IE is a totally unfair gold standard. Think of it as a totally different currency.

 

Roger,

Click on this link, and it will start the download:
Firefox 1.5.0.1rc1

Then basically follow the same instructions for 1.5:

Uninstall 1.5 using Add/Remove
Delete the Firefox Programs folder located here:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox

REBOOT YOUR PC

Now install Firefox 1.5.0.1rc1

NOTE:
If you have installed any plugins, then copy the plugins folder before deleting Mozilla Firefox from the Program Files. Paste the plugins file into a temporary folder, and then when you have installed Version 1.5.0.1rc1, replace the newly installed plugins folder, with the one you copied.

Ask away if this isn't clear, or if you have any further questions.

 

Thanks to all who responded.

Even though I am not using extensions, I tried Firefox Safe Mode on the Start/All Programs/Firefox menu anyway (I had not noticed that option before.) But sure enough, there was no change in the behavior of Firefox on my machine after trying 3 of my 7 examples that I gave, so I quit and assumed that Firefox Safe Mode makes no difference in this situation.

Then I downloaded Firefox 1.5.0.1rc1 and carefully removed the previous version, deleted the program folder, rebooted and installed the RC1 version. In fact I did it twice. But there was no change in the behavior of Firefox. All the display errors that I listed before are still there. And once again I had to return to Internet Explorer to post this message.

However, it’s obvious that there is a preference file still in use from the previous version of Firefox because the new version of Firefox still comes up going to my.yahoo, which is where it is supposed to go. Is it possible that this preference file has been corrupted and that’s causing the problem? And if so, should I delete it, and if so how? (I don’t know what its name is....)

Thanks again for any further thoughts.

 

Roger,

Do you have JavaScript enabled?

To enable JavaScript click on Tools | Options | Content
Enable both JavaScript, and Java

This site: http://www.starwoods.com/ when I click on the link takes me here:
http://www.maruon.com. Is this correct?

The only thing that all these sites seem to have in common is JavaScript code, and that is why I asked JavaScript is enabled.

Your Profiles folder is located here:
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles

NOTE: These files are hidden by default.
To see hidden files:
1. On the Tools menu in Windows Explorer, click Folder Options
2. Click the View tab
3. Under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders
4. Disable "Hide File Extensions for Known Files. "
5. Click OK.

To search for files in the Application Data folder, go to Start | Search.
Under More Advanced Options select Search system folders, Search
Hidden Files and folders, and Search subfolders.

Yes, your Preferences will be the same as you didn't delete your Profiles folder. If you want to create a new Profile, then do this:

First: rename the existing salted folder, i.e., the folder that is similar to this:
abc320lf.profilename
Start the filename with an upper case X
E.G., Xabc320lf.profilename

Next:
Click on Start | Programs | Mozilla Firefox | Profile Manager
Click on: Create Profile
Give the Profile a unique name, and don't use "Default User "

Now open Firefox and see if the pages can be viewed correctly.

 

It would be interesting to know if a new profile would fix the problem. Nine times out of ten profiles are at fault, while people ( including me) go after the programs.
By the way, 1.5.0.1 has been well behaved (except for bring up the Mozilla Quality Feedback, on closing, short time ago), with the the same profile used by 1.5. However, I had to create a profile, especially, for 1.5. I discarded the original download file, but the profile was created on Dec.6, not too long after I had, first, installed 1.5. I did not encounter any problem with 1.5, since then, except for the known memory leak.
In other words, 1.5.0.1 seems ok, and whatever problems were encountered by some 10% of the users, occurred after 1.5rc1, and were probably corrected by the creation of a new profile. But, who knows?

 

Thanks Ramona and Westside for your suggestions, although I didn’t understand all of Ramona’s comments.

First of all, both Java and Javascript are enabled.

I agree that the www.starwoods.com website is acting strangely. I don’t know why and will avoid using it to test from now on.

Here’s what I did:

First I tried Firefox Safe Mode again and checked all three boxes to reset user options. That didn’t have any effect. The errors still occurred.

I tried to find the file Ramona mentioned "abc3201lf.profilename" but I couldn’t find any file that had a filename like that. I looked in Documents and Settings\roger\Application Data\Mozilla but didn’t find any file with "lfâ€, "profilenameâ€, or "roger" in the file name. I didn’t know what other pattern to look for. (roger is my username).

So I deleted the entire folder Roger\Applicaton Data\Mozilla\Firefox. I thought that didn’t help either, but now I’m not sure. The only test that I did was to try this website: http://www.windowsbbs.com/index.php and it still wouldn’t accept my username/password, so I assumed that the other tests wouldn’t work either but didn’t try them (see below for more details).

Next, I deleted the entire folder Documents and Settings/roger/Application Data/Mozilla.
This helped the situation in the following ways:

http://www.travelocity.com/ now loads properly.

The ABC news site http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1525190 now loads properly.

The Choice Hotels site (http://www.choicehotels.com ) now accepts my username/password correctly.

This sports story from the San Diego Union Tribune (http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/baseball/20060121-9999-1s21wbc.html)
now displays properly.

I haven’t yet tried my.yahoo because I have to set that up again to make it work.

The only thing that for sure does NOT work is this website: http://www.windowsbbs.com/index.php
It still doesn’t accept my username/password, although it works fine, as usual, with Internet Explorer. So once, again, I had to go to Internet Explorer to post this message. I’m out of time for now, so I will work on this more later in the day.

Thanks again for your suggestions and comments, I now believe that the "profiles" or something in the Application Data\Mozilla folder was causing the problem. I will continue to work at the remaining problems (yahoo and windowsbbs) to resolve them.

Thanks again, and any other comments would be appreciated.

 

One additional note:

After importing user data from Internet Explorer, now everything works. Both Yahoo and Windowsbbs now come up in Firefox.

Thanks for your help !! and it seems clear to me now that the User Profile was the problem (or maybe something else in the Profile folder).

 

All I can say is Wow!!! Most likely you could have avoided all that work by creating a new profile, and, the having some of the settings available for importing (you can delete all files also when you are done). So, it seems to me that you by-passed the profile manager in deleting the profile.
Anyway, what works works.