Now that I was sent by Microsoft to your download update site to get the latest version 4.0.1, Firefox crashes (becomes non-responsive) before opening any site page I try. When will you fix this problem?

Question

For two weeks I have tried to use your automatic download of the latest version 4.0.1. It would sit there telling me it is trying to connect to the download computer for hours, several times overnight. Then, it became non-responsive and error messages were sent to Microsoft who directed me to your download site. After downloading your latest version several times, the new page would open. After selecting a bookmarked site, it would open (sometimes only partially) but when I tried to scroll down, it would freeze up and become non-responsive, again prompting error messages to Microsoft. They must be getting a kick out of this. I'm running a Gateway 7200S desktop with Microsoft XP and Intel single range Pentium 4 processor. I have been using your Mozilla Firefox as my default browser for several years with much satisfaction. Unfortunately, whatever upgrades were made have rendered it useless for me.

Answer 1

I have had a similar problem with my system. I just recently (within a week of this post) built a brand new desktop. I installed Windows 7 64-bit Home and had a clean install, no problems. Using IE downloaded an anti-virus program, and then, because it was the latest version, downloaded and installed Firefox 4.0. As I began to search the internet for other programs to install after about maybe 10-15 minutes my computer crashes. Blank screen (yet monitor was still receiving a signal from computer) and completely frozen (couldn't even change the caps and num lock on keyboard). I thought I perhaps forgot to reboot after an update so I did a manual reboot and it started up fine.
When ever I got on the internet (still using firefox) it would crash after anywhere between 5-15 minutes. Since I've had good experience with FF in the past I thought it must be either the drivers or a hardware problem. So in-between crashes I updated all the drivers. Still had the same problem. Took the computer to a friend who knows more about computers than I do, made sure all the drivers were updated, same problem. We thought that it might be a hardware problem (bad video card, chipset, overheating issues, etc.), but after my friend played around with my computer for a day he found that when he didn't start FF at all it worked fine, even after watching a movie, or going through a playlist on Youtube.
At the time of this posting I'm going to try to uninstall FF 4.0 and download and install FF 3.6.16 which is currently on my laptop and works like a dream. Hopefully that will do the trick, because I love using FF and would hate to have to switch to another browser. Hopefully Mozilla will work out the kinks with FF 4 so I can continue to use it.
I apologize for the lengthy post. Any feedback would be appreciated, but is not necessary. I will try and post back after I try FF 3.16.6.