Firefox crashing repeatedly, usually when opening a webpage

Question

For a few weeks now I've had problems with Firefox crashing on me. I did have version 6, I believe, but I downgraded to version 3 in the hopes that it would be more stable. I am still having the problem in 3 (I did try going back to 6 briefly, but the crashing happened again almost immediately). I've tried troubleshooting it myself, but I just don't know what is causing the crashes. I've updated all of my plugins. For me, the crashes happen most when I am going to a new webpage, either in the same or in a new tab. It seems that midway through the page loading, it triggers the crash. This happens in a diverse range of webpages, from Twitter to a Wordpress blog to the main page of Google. It usually will crash a few times in a row (I try to restore the session) and then stabilize again, but then will crash again a few hours later. The only thing to have changed recently that may be causing it is some firewall settings on my computer (I'm using Firefox on a work computer). If you could help me, I would really appreciate it.

Answer 1

Try to set the Flash plug to click-to-play by setting the permissions for Flash to "Ask To Activate" in "Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Plugins".
That way you can activate the Flash plugin when you need it via the Lego block icon on the location bar.
You can check for problems with current Shockwave Flash plugin versions and try this:
*check for updates for your graphics drive drivers<br>https://support.mozilla.org/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration
*disable protected mode in the Flash plugin (Flash 11.3+ on Windows Vista and later)
*disable hardware acceleration in the Flash plugin
See also:
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Troubleshooting