Firefox locks up and runs plugin-container.exe -- I don't start it and can't stop it. What does it do and can I stop it?

On some irregular intervals, plugin-container.exe suddenly starts, and takes command. Task Manager suddenly goes to 100% CPU usage and I am blocked from continuing. i.e., dead in the water for a few minutes.
Questions:
What does it do?
Why does it start?
Can I remove it?
Can I stop it?

Plugin_container.exe is an integral part of Firefox and acts like a kind of sandbox to isolate plugins which have crashed. See [[What is plugin-container]]
You mentioned in your system details that you're running Windows XP SP2. I'd recommend you install Service Pack 3 since Microsoft addressed a large number of issues in that service pack. You'll also need to have it installed to obtain current patches and Windows Silverlight which is similar to Flash. You can get SP3 from the Microsoft Windows Update site, link on your Start menu.

Similar Messages

Firefox 7.0.1 multiple plugin-container.exe's open when private data is cleared.

<blockquote>Locking duplicate thread.<br>
Please continue here: [[/questions/823728]]</blockquote>
Once again it's happening, although it's not causing me any serious problems it's a bug none the less. Occasionally when I clear my private data multiple plugin-container.exe's will open. Although this time for the most part the maximum I've seen is 4 or 5. Unlike the max of 9 that occurred with version 4. In addition I noticed that it was either with version 5 or 6 that this issue was solved. As when I cleared private data only 1 plugin-container.exe opened.

I can't believe this is still happening. For a while there with version 6.0 I think it was fixed. Now however that I've updated to 7.0.1 it's once again a regular occurrence.

Plugin-container.exe keeps coming back and slowing my machine (ver.3.6.12)

This problem occurred in earlier editions and I would have thought that it should have been solved by now.
My computer goes to 100% usage and stay there until I go into my Windows Task Manager and stop the process: plugin-container.exe . I understand this was put in to stop crashes by Flash Player??? Well , it seems that they have decided to throw the baby out with the wash water. I stop the process but it keeps coming back.
Is there some similar program like Flashplayer that works and that we can use?
What happens if we can really get rid of it permanently?
How can we really get rid of it permanently?
If you send me instructions make sure that my ten-year old can understand it.
Thanks, in advance.
Copy: [email protected]

ok I've just had to fix this myself so can confirm it works :)
open a new tab in mozilla and enter '''about:config''' in the address bar and hit enter.
It will say ''''here be dragons'''' click ''''I'll be careful I promise''''.
In the filter field enter '''dom.ipc'''
You will see a list of preference names, click on the value to toggle (change settings)
These are the settings you want.
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled ''' true'''
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npctrl.dll '''false'''
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npqtplugin.dll '''false'''
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll '''false'''
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.nptest.dll '''true'''
dom.ipc.plugins.timeoutSecs 45
Restart firefox and then check Task Manager... plugin-container has disappeared, Mozilla is fast again, your RAM is no longer being hogged... happy days :)
Enjoy

Installed 3.6.6 and found PLUGIN-CONTAINER.EXE-15EDC9DD.pf running in task manager allowing voices/music from some unknown web site to continually play even though firefox is closed. 3.6.6 is a major problem and also continually crashes! in English

After downloading 3.6.6, plugin-container.exe allows an unknown website to continually stream audio through my speakers, even after firefox is closed. I kill the process in task manager and it still relaunches itself. I found this file also running by search my computer PLUGIN-CONTAINER.EXE-15EDC9DD.pf in c:\Windows\Prefetch. When I kill that process, audio instantly stops. But it relaunches after 10 minutes or so. The process eats up lots of memory. I've had to restart firefox in safe mode several times as it crashed even before opening. 3.6.6 is majorly flawed and I'm running Windows XP. Time to downgrade to 3.6.4
== This happened ==
Every time Firefox opened
== I downloaded 3.6.6

After downloading 3.6.6, plugin-container.exe allows an unknown website to continually stream audio through my speakers, even after firefox is closed. I kill the process in task manager and it still relaunches itself. I found this file also running by search my computer PLUGIN-CONTAINER.EXE-15EDC9DD.pf in c:\Windows\Prefetch. When I kill that process, audio instantly stops. But it relaunches after 10 minutes or so. The process eats up lots of memory. I've had to restart firefox in safe mode several times as it crashed even before opening. 3.6.6 is majorly flawed and I'm running Windows XP. Time to downgrade to 3.6.4
== This happened ==
Every time Firefox opened
== I downloaded 3.6.6

Plugin-container.exe takes over and uses 100% of my CPU locking me out and leaving my PC non-functioning. Is this a bug, or a memory leak, in the Firefox software? Can anything be done to fix this problem?

In looking at Windows Task Manager I found that plugin-container.exe was taking over 100% of my CPU and my system was frozen. Is this a memory leak or other bug?

Thank you! I have been having problems with Adobe Flash since downloading the new 11.1 version. I will download it again and reinstall it, hopefully that will correct the problem.

Plugin-container.exe is using 90-100% CPU - even while running Firefox in safe-mode. Can I fix this?

I am using fire fox 5.0 (after using 3.6 for what seems like forever) and the plugin-container.exe has been sucking up my CPU power like a vampire. It had been doing that in 3.6 but not as much. I figured if I upgraded the problem would go away, but no, it has not. After reading some other similar posts, I ran Firefox in safe mode with no plugins running and sure enough after browsing for a bit it started running slower and used 90-100% of my CPU. Is there any way to fix this issue? Or am I doomed? Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

That's supposed to show you the problem isn't Firefox, don't know how successful that actually is. You can delete it so that it starts up again. Susggest restarting Firefox when you see it has used about an hour of CPU time as the next hour of CPU time will take shorter to get there and you will be locked out.
Also see this -- the solution on all the items seem to fix a lot of problems with the places.sqlite database.
:'''freezing at regular intervals''': http://blog.bonardo.net/2011/09/30/is-your-firefor-freezing-at-regular-intervals

I looked on my C:\ for plugin-container.exe and deleted the file as it kept slowing down my computor, however now when I load firefox it crashes, how can I re-install this plugin to disable it properly?

My computor had been overly slow which was not normal when looking at processes running in task manager I found plugin-container.exe to be using alot of memory. I looked online and found that this was an update of firefox which was not essential, I then looked on my C:\ drive for the application and deleted it hoping this would solve the problem as I could not find it when looking at my firefox plugins. However now when I open firefox it quickly crashes, how can I reinstall this? Do I need to reinstall firefox completely or is there a more simple solution? I have done the firefox plugin check and it can find no problems.

Probably the easiest way is to download Firefox again from http://www.mozilla.com and re-install it.
If you want to disable plugin-container, see the section on "Disabling crash protection" at http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-container_and_out-of-process_plugins

[Serious BUG] Youtube crashes to death; fresh Windows 7 install; firefox and plugins updated; plugin-container.exe disabled; noway

This happens to me and to two friends of mine. So it's hardly a coincidence.
I have done a fresh Windows 7 install (for other reasons) so I thought this problem (which I had since about version 8.0) would disappear. I was wrong.
Firefox and plugins are updated:
Firefox 13.0
Shockwave Flash 11.3 r300
GPU video drivers are also updated.
I came across the "plugin-container.exe solution" but it didn't solve the problem.
How to reproduce the bug.
Visit Youtube and click on some video. Minimize Firefox. Wait some seconds. Next time you restore the window Firefox crashes, you have to kill plugin-container.exe from the task manager OR you have to restart the entire browser in case you've disabled the plugin container.
The same bug should occur when having various tabs open and one of them is Youtube with a video playing. But also when Firefox has no focus and you have other windows on top of it (and a Flash video running or even paused).
Since this does happen:
-with a fresh install;
-with everything updated;
-even disabling the plugin controller;
it seems very very strange to me that this problem is STILL present since version 8.0 (or even before) and that there is so few reports of this bug around the internet.
I'm not complaining here, I'm just showing my perplexity about almost noone having this bug which is ruining my (and my friends') Firefox experience since the past years.
My purpose here is:
* to let you know about this problem;
* to know if other are experiencing it;
* hopefully to keep giving support to this thread and answer to your questions about this bug so to help this thing being fixed;

For problems that occurred with Flash 11.2 and earlier, you might want to consider disabling graphics hardware acceleration in both Flash and Firefox.
'''Flash'''
Right-click any video in Flash Player and choose Settings.
Clear the checkbox for "Enable hardware acceleration"
'''Firefox'''
Save all work (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).
orange Firefox button ''or'' classic Tools menu > Options > Advanced
On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"
Restart Firefox.

Why does FireFox freeze and the only way to unfreeze it is to open the task manager and close the plugin-container.exe file??? It has been happening more and more often and it is getting VERY AGGRAVATING!!!!!

When Firefox does freeze (not responding appears in parentheses in the page tab) I am not able to access any of the webpages (the entire webpage is hidden behind a vaguely white transparent foreground) and more often than not any files I might be downloading are stopped before the entire file has been transferred - which means that I have to start those downloads from the beginning AGAIN. This has been happening for quite some time and I AM SICK AND TIRED OF IT HAPPENING!!
If it continues to happen for much longer I will swear off FireFox FOREVER!!!!! Either a program works or it does not work and lately Firefox has not worked worth a damn...........
The ONLY way to force Firefox to allow me to access it is for me to end the plugin-container.exe file process using Task Manager. Clearing there is a SERIOUS problem here that has not been resolved - why not???

The pluging container opens up unnecessary copies as the cookies/history are cleared, this is a known issue, it might be what you are seeing, and it is hoped to be fixed in some future release of firerox.
There are some hangs affecting some users, with symptoms being high cpu usage, occurring as bookmark changes or syncing is in progress, there is a work around for that.
Firefox hanging as you close it see:
*[[firefox hangs]]
* [[firefox is already running but is not responding]]

Firfox slowing way down or hanging and task manager has multiple sessions of "plugin-container.exe *32" running.

I'm running Win 7, Firefox 10.0.2 and all my plug-ins are up to date. I'm having issues with Firfox slowing way down or hanging, let say like when going to Youtube or site that just has a picture that uses Flash. I go to task manager and have multiple sessions of “plugin-container.exe *32" running at anywhere from 2,000k to over 300,000k (only one at the larger amount and most at 2m to 8m). I have to kill the multiple processes to get it running right again.

Hi kb11,
Have you looked at our [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-slow-or-takes-too-long-start performance troubleshooting section]? There is a lot of good information in there that should help.
Hopefully this helps!

Firefox gets slow after awhile and also hangs and sometimes i get plugin-container.exe error

Hello, it's a while that Firefox gets slow and also hangs and sometimes i get plugin-container.exe error...
I'm not sure but maybe it often happens after monitor goes to Screen Saver or after it turns off...
Error signature
AppName: plugin-container.exe AppVer:1.2.9.3951
ModVer: 5.1.2600.5512 Offset:0000100b

You can run Java in Firefox.exe instead of plugin-container.exe, but I'm not sure that actually would be better than where you are now.
(1) In a new tab, type or paste '''about:config''' in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(2) In the filter box, type or paste '''java''' and pause while the list is filtered
(3) If '''dom.ipc.plugins.java.enabled''' is true (bolded), right-click it and choose Reset (or double-click it to toggle).
If that value already is false, you might be having a problem with another common plugin such as Flash.

Ended process plugin-container.exe and now it refuses to run again

OK WELL plugin-container.exe was using 95% cpu and i basically could not do anything, so i ended the process.
i figured it would run again when i reopened firefox but as you can see this wasn't the case.
So well, now i'm trying to figure out how to get it to work again since i can't even go on youtube without it apparently haha.
I've tried restarting firefox, my computer, manually running it, and uninstalling and reinstalling firefox :/ and nothing is working.
Not sure what to do?

Make sure that your firewall doesn't block the plugin-container precess.
See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-container_and_out-of-process_plugins

Plugin-container.exe. I realise this has been raised before but there never seems to have been any firm reply from Firefox as to how to rectify the problem, as I have just had 94% use of my CPU by this and my use is so slow it is impossible. Emjayel

plugin-container.exe is a disaster and looking at previous forums it has been so for at least a year without any resolution. As I said before at one stage this was using 94% of my CPU and my system was reduced to a snails pace.
Surely Firefox should give some useful alternative.
Emjayel

Try going to http://www.mozilla.org/plugincheck and see if your plugins are out of date.

I have two things attached to my firefox browser which I cannot get rid of. Plugin-container.exe and a tool bar called MywebSearch. How do I get rid of these things?

The tool bar called MyWebSearch has replaced the Mozilla Firefox start page which is Google. I want to remove it. The Plugin-container.exe is something that I do not know about.
Thank you.
Bernard Moses

plugin-container.exe is an integral part of Firefox, for details on it and how to disable it if you do not want it see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-container_and_out-of-process_plugins
You can normally uninstall MyWebSearch from the Windows control panel.
# Close Firefox and any other browsers
# In the Windows taskbar, from the "Start" menu select "Control Panel"
# Select "Add/Remove Programs"
# In the list of installed programs select "My Web Search Bar"
# Click "Change/Remove" and you should be asked to uninstall it
If the home page is still wrong, use the procedure in this link to change it - https://support.mozilla.com/kb/How+to+set+the+home+page

Can I disable plugin-container.exe in 20.0.1 and still stream video?

When I try to stream TV shows with Firefox, I receive high Firefox disc usage warnings from my Norton antivirus. I believe this is due to the gigantic plugin-container.exe that Firefox apparently runs the Flash player inside of. When I look at it in Taskmaster plugin-container has been using 150 k + after just a few minutes and continues to go higher the longer I watch. If I continue to watch without doing anything, eventually the video begins to stutter and then stops while the sound keeps playing. My system slows down to the point where it takes 5 min to stop the player after clicking the control, and a half hour for my system to process the commands to shut down Firefox and restart.
I've been able to work around this by putting the AV into extended Silent Mode to save CPU and by closing the browser after each and every episode, then reopening it again. Obviously this isn't an optimal solution.
I tried shutting down plugin-container using the Taskmaster but this also killed my video. When I closed the window and restarted the video, the plug-in-container came back. In this current version of Flash 20.0.1 is there a way to disable it forever that will also allow me to stream video? IE8 didn't play nice with web pages but Firefox isn't playing nice with video streaming. Is there a fix that doesn't involve a new PC?
Hard drive currently has 298 Gig free
5/10/2013, 18:06:35
Machine name: TIGERFLOWER
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.130307-0422)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Dimension XPSGEN5
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A02
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.20GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 460MB used, 3476MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions. We know the problem isn't with Flash because I was running it without huge background files or lock-up up while using IE8.
Installing an older version of Flash isn't an option because newer versions resolve some of the memory usage and flickering problem that older Flash versions caused on the new Hulu site. Some sites also require the newest patch and return an error message if an older version is detected.
I'm not sure what protected Flash mode does or doesn't do and hate to mess around with Flash when we already know it's been running without issues on my system using the other browser.
What I DO know is that the problem only started occurring when I made the switch from IE8 to Firefox. This weekend I had it happen again when I only had Firefox open and the Norton AV running out of Silent Mode in the background. Only the Flash thumbnails on the Hulu home page were active, not the Flash player and I started to get slowdown and lose mouse control.
I posted the issue over on the Norton forum also but don't expect a workaround. I think disabling that huge plugin-container file might help. By the time I've watched one video both Firefox and plug-in container are up around 200k each, much,much, much larger than anything else running on my system.
So is disabling plugin-containter still viable? Firefox crashing is never going to happen, if plug-in container freezes up my system first. Continually closing and reopening Firefox as a workaround doesn't seem to be way it was intended to perform.

Firefox locks up and runs plugin-container.exe -- I don't start it and can't stop it. What does it do and can I stop it?

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