Since the Apple Java update of 4/6 and/or 4/12, Firefox doesn't load PDFs or download them (Safari works fine). Tried listed solns: no help. Ideas?

Question

I'm running Mac OS 10.6.8 on a Power Mac. The Apple Java updates of 4/6 and 4/12 were released to counter the Flashback trojan - I installed each. The patch implied Java should be disabled - I allowed this. Javascript was NOT disabled. I later re-enabled Java using the "Java Preferences" application in /Applications/Utilities.
I tried the instructions I could find on the FF site to correct this, but with no good results. Among the things was resetting the download folder.

Answer 1

The presence of malware on the user has been mentioned as a possible cause.
Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
All these programs have free versions.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.
*Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:<br>http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
*AdwCleaner:<br>http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/<br>http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
*SuperAntispyware:<br>http://www.superantispyware.com/
*Microsoft Safety Scanner:<br>http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
*Windows Defender:<br>http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender
*Spybot Search & Destroy:<br>http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
*Kasperky Free Security Scan:<br>http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan
You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.
*Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:<br>http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446
See also:
*"Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware