Firefox crashes on startup

Question

Here's the deal.
From one day onto the next, out of the blue, Firefox (version 18.0.1) refuses to start up.
I get the crash reporter screen as soon as Firefox tries to start, stating that firefox has crashed.
If I click on "Details" nothing happens.
If I click on "Restart Firefox" I immidiately get the next Crash Reporter screen.
No Windows updates were installed, and no Firefox updates either from what I can tell.
I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64bit with SP1 btw...
So I tried starting firefox in "Windows Compatability mode" using Windows XP SP3.
Now Firefox starts, including all plugins, without any problems.
I can also start firefox in "Safe mode" by holding down the SHIFT key when double-clikcing on the firefox icon.
So while in safe mode, I typed about:crashes in the URL bar witch showed the following:
Submitted Crash Reports
<pre><nowiki>bp-26e20406-2344-4d8a-8573-1fdf12130130 30-1-2013 16:07
bp-78a3f537-246c-4935-b640-463a42130130 30-1-2013 12:22
bp-59fad0f4-2f6f-474f-9728-3c8222130130 30-1-2013 12:22
bp-b7a55e47-00f5-4b3a-baff-5e6502130130 30-1-2013 12:19
bp-22f0a628-9181-40b3-a6fd-29a3e2130130 30-1-2013 12:18
161bf996-c6e4-4bb3-aae1-be96d5fbaff8 29-1-2013 19:45
</nowiki></pre>
(in the mean time, I have a whole lot more :( )
So then (still in Firefox safe mode) I went into the Add-ons Manager and uninstalled all Extensions.
Then I disabled all plugins (which btw are all up to date according to Firefox itself):
Java Deployment Toolkit 7.0.110.21 10.11.2.21
Java(TM) Paltform SE 7 U11 10.11.2.21
Adobe Acrobat 11.0.1.36
Shockwave Flash 11.5.205.146
Silverlight Plug-In 5.1.10411.0
VLC Web Plugin 2.0.2.0
Wacom Tablet Plugin 2.1.0.2
Then I closed Firefox, but when trying to start Firefox again in normal mode, it crashed again.
I have also tried uninstalling Firefox completely, then running a registry cleaner to make sure everything was really gone.
Then downloading and installed Firefox 18.0.1 again.
But as soon as it started it crashed again.
I again uninstalled Firefox, ran the reg-cleaner but this time I installed Firefox version 9 (which I still had on a backup drive), but this version too, crashes on startup.
And I had the same with version 15 which I also still had on the backup drive.
But whichever version I install, they all crash at startup unless I start them in compatibility mode or safe mode.
I even uninstalling all the programs which had a plugin embeded in the browser, so there were no plugins left.
And again, uninstalled Firefox and reinstaled it. But still Firefox crashes at startup.
And finally I even updated my graphics drivers and followed this thread:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration#os=win7&browser=fx18
Since I've done everything I can think off, I'm at a loss as to what the problem could be.
So if anyone has any idea, please let me know.
I hate to switch browsers, and I don't want to run things in "compatability mode" just to have it working, because it did work before.
in the mean time, here are some more crash reports:
bp-bf8fa5b0-a0a6-48ce-80b9-645792130130 30-1-2013 18:29
bp-f18b9174-5307-41af-be74-aa9972130130 30-1-2013 18:29
bp-ed27ee58-379f-4fa1-a824-6ce352130130 30-1-2013 18:16
bp-f73252bd-c702-4907-8657-95cc02130130 30-1-2013 18:11
bp-47789933-a64c-4f06-b9fd-282002130130 30-1-2013 18:09
bp-266a8f07-21ed-4f5f-bb5a-ba2f32130130 30-1-2013 18:08
bp-6c391ece-ae68-4935-b604-51ddb2130130 30-1-2013 18:08
bp-b25c1252-34f7-4785-b5ae-a8a462130130 30-1-2013 18:06

Answer 1

Just a small update...
I tried running a portable version of Firefox which I had on my USB stick... same problem.
The same goes for my TOR Browser (which uses Firefox too), it too crashes when the embedded Firefox is started.
Both however, have always worked just fine on the same system and still work fine on any other system I have.
---edit---
Well I finished uninstalling and removing everything Firefox related on my system (also ran the reg-cleaner again).
I downloaded and reinstalled Firefox 18, but it still crashes.
I ran it in safe mode, disabled the hardware acceleration, and ran it again in normal mode...
guess what... it works again!
The weird thing is, I already tried disabling the hardware acceleration but it didn't work.
So why it works now? I haven't got a clue.
The other weird thing is... why did this problem occur in the first place... There have been no changes to my system, no updates, nothing.
Ah well, I guess I'll never know. But at least it's working again.
Thanks for the help.