Firefox won't start

Hello everyone, I'm new here but not a noobie so I hope I'm posting in the correct forum. I couldn't decide between this one and Windows XP. Anyway, here goes.

My brother has an HP Pavilion 2.66Ghz with 1 gig ram running Win XP Home Edition (with SP3 and Windows Live OneCare) and IE 8 and is trying to run Firefox 3.5.3 also. Firefox will not start up. It starts to and immediately quits. He has tried everything both he and I can think of except reformatting and reinstalling everything. (my last ditch effort, but he doesn't want to yet) Is this a common problem with a known solution ? Searched Google and here and nothing specific came up.

All responses will be much appreciated.

 

got a question in a similar vein. last night firefox was working fine when i clicked on the shortcut this morning i got nothing i tried to run it several ways and it would still not load. i also tried to do a reinstall directly over the old copy still noting finally i tried an uninstall and reinstall same story. so any suggestions or help would be apreaciated.

 

I guess I forgot to mention that we had tried that. After FF had updated to 3.5.3 it wouldn't start. So we DL'd FF from the websight and reinstalled. It still would not start. So we uninstalled by Add/Remove programs, DL'd FF again and installed again, and then reinstalled on top of that.

Every other program seems to open and run fine... Just Firefox is acting strange.

 

Downloaded and tried to install FF 3.5.3 today over FF 3.5.2 but it kept telling me to "close Firefox" before trying to install. I had already closed it, still same message so I thought maybe they mean Firefox preloader so I closed that. Same message window. Gave up on 3.5.3 for now.
Budo

 

If one attempt of reinstalling does not accomplish anything, then try to create a new profile .
I have not heard of the above problems, but who knows? Everyone seems to use a different way to upgrade. I, always, try the incremental update from Help|Check for Updates.

 

After 2 more attempts I was able to completly download the update and it installed successfully. The only thing I did differently was shut down AdAware before download. Don't know if that had anything to do with it or not but the update seems to work as it should.
Budo

 

I have heard of AdAware problems. That's why I avoid it.

 

i dont have ad ware on my system and the screwy thing is firefox was working for my girl friend before she went to bed but when i got home from work it wouldnt start up
im still trying to figure out whats wrong on my 4th or 5th reinstall and ive even tried an older version

 

. Does the older version work?
If not, it may be profile problem.

 

oddly enough after over 2 days of uninstalling reinstaling and trying various other things ff started working again so im totaly clueless as to why.

 

Is the new version which is working? i.e.3.5.3. Just curious.

 

yes it was