View Full Version : Loss of editing controls in Firefox
Quite suddenly today, I have lost access to editing controls in the LFP vBulletin interface. This happened only in Firefox (I'm using v3.5 on this older XP laptop)--everything still works fine in Internet Explorer.
None of the mouse-over commands are present. For example, the little down arrow next to Search is gone, as is the functionality it provides. The MS Office-style formatting controls in the editing window are all there, but clicking on them does nothing. The control-key combinations that invoke those formatting commands (e.g. cntrl-I for italic) has reverted back to the Firefox effect.
Finally, the LFPF logo in the upper left has been replaced by a plain-text link "Large Format Photography Forum", and not the graphical logo.
This happened this afternoon quite suddenly, during a period of very spotty Internet access using a 3G modem in a fringe area.
I have reinstalled Firefox, thinking it got corrupted somehow, but that had no effect. Of course, I rebooted thinking I'd corrupted run code in memory somehow. Again, no effect.
I went to the vBulletin forum to see if there was any discussion of these symptoms, but all the controls in that forum (which presumably shares its code with this one) still work as expected.
Anybody got any ideas?
Rick "another mystery fault" Denney
that is certainly odd.
The only thing I can think of is that some web sites detect a "limited bandwidth" client and decide to dumb down their response. I'm not sure that this is what you are experiencing but, it sounds familiar. I still connect to the internet with a dial-up connection over a 56k modem from time to time and I see this a lot.
You might try to clear you cookies and all of the cache (tools->clear recent history, and check all of the check boxes). Then close firefox and try again...
Why have you not upgraded to the latest version of firefox?
Sounds like your security settings got changed.
Are you running NoScript? It will do that if you tell it to block a site (or don't tell it the site's OK).
I'm running 3.6.19 on an iBook Pro with nary a problem. I don't have any windoze machines connected to the internet anymore.
- Leigh
I'm running 3.6.18 on all my PCs and laptop without drama. I was only offered the upgrade yesterday so perhaps seek it out. Do not run V.4...many add-ons are incompatible with this version but fine with the V.3s
The upgrade install may resolve obvious glitches.
Rick
With a poor connection the pages don't always fully load, effectively they timeout with most of the content and no graphics.
Firefox is now on V6 which is very much more stable and faster (still Beta thoiugh), I had no issues weith V4 and all my plugins.
Ian
... I had no issues weith V4 and all my plugins.
FireFTP doesn't work with v4. I use it a lot, maintaining three websites.
- Leigh
Leigh. I use FireFTP all the time it works in V6 and I used to use it with V4 as well but there was a short spell before it was compatible.
One great thing about FireFTP is you can run it in multiple tab or windows, quite usefull for faster uploading.
Ian
Ian, the issues are with the add-ons not plug-ins. Probably just a case of third party offerings being tardy which I do not tolerate. Given time, they will catch up with the changes no doubt.
Gem Singer
7-Aug-2011, 06:04
I have been experiencing the same problem as Rick Denny.
Re-installed Firefox, but that doesn't seem to solve the problem.
Re-installed Safari, and recovered the use of the little arrow that takes me to the last reply and allows me to reply directly to my PM's. However, it does not allow me to post pictures on the forum.
Don't know what caused the change or how to correct it. The web is a mysterious place to us non-geeks.
Ian, the issues are with the add-ons not plug-ins. Probably just a case of third party offerings being tardy which I do not tolerate. Given time, they will catch up with the changes no doubt.
Actually the issues are Firefox develops memory problems and this leads to problems like this, it slows down and then when you get a bad connection it stumbles, it tends to pull some files from cache. I found the later versions of V3 the worst for this.
It's worth trying to restart with the add ons disabled, which should be on the help menu, but I think I had to edit the Config file for V3.6 to overcome a couple of problems.
Ian
Actually the issues are Firefox develops memory problems and this leads to problems like this, it slows down ...
This is a classic windoze memory leak problem that has nothing to do with Firefox.
When you allocate memory under windoze, it generates a 16-byte mezzanine header that has the owning process and the size of the block and ???.
When you release the memory, that mezzanine header is not released, but remains in memory. This creates two problems:
1) These accumulate over time, in large numbers for programs that rely heavily on dynamic memory allocation;
2) The headers present in RAM prevent efficient memory consolidation and allocation.
This is a well-known problem that μ$oft chooses to ignore.
- Leigh
Tom Westbrook
7-Aug-2011, 14:36
I couldn't reproduce the problems you're finding with Firefox 3.6.19, but I'm on Win7. You might have disabled JavaScript (under Content in Options). If that's not it, you can disable Add-ons & Plugins somewhere in the plugins manager. Might also be helpful to shut down Firefox, then move your whole Profile directory (Google to find disk path on XP) to a safe place & start up with a plain vanilla config to see if it's in your settings or not.
I couldn't reproduce the problems you're finding with Firefox 3.6.19, but I'm on Win7. You might have disabled JavaScript (under Content in Options). If that's not it, you can disable Add-ons & Plugins somewhere in the plugins manager. Might also be helpful to shut down Firefox, then move your whole Profile directory (Google to find disk path on XP) to a safe place & start up with a plain vanilla config to see if it's in your settings or not.
I thought also that I'd accidently disabled javascript, but I checked and everything was enabled.
I think I will upgrade Firefox on that machine as a next step. It needs it in any case. Clearly, something got corrupted in a configuration file, but what bugs me about that theory is that those same controls worked on other vbulletin forums, including vbulletin's own forum.
I'm on a different machine now and all is well, but I need to check back on that laptop and work the problem more.
Thanks for all the replies--it gives me something to explore.
Rick "reasonably sure now that this is a Firefox problem, not a Windows or LFPF problem" Denney
rdenney
12-Aug-2011, 10:47
An upgrade to version 5.0.1 of Firefox has resolved my issues. I can only assume that something in a configuration file had gotten corrupted in way that required completely rewriting the file.
Rick "back to normal on this computer" Denney
Gem Singer
12-Aug-2011, 11:05
Rick, Where did you find the upgrade?
I just reloaded the latest version of Firefox, and the problem still exists.
rdenney
12-Aug-2011, 11:33
Rick, Where did you find the upgrade?
I just reloaded the latest version of Firefox, and the problem still exists.
I just downloaded it off the Mozilla website. I wish I could help--but this was a sort-of spray-and-pray approach, hoping that I would overwrite whatever file had gotten messed up with something new.
Rick "who might dig around for files in the program directory that show a modification date later than when the problem appeared, in hopes of finding a configuration file that got corrupted" Denney
Gem Singer
12-Aug-2011, 13:02
Thanks Rick.
I removed all traces of previous Firefox downloads and performed a new download from the Monzilla website (the latest version of Firefox).
I followed the instructions on the Monzilla website to the letter. The new donload of Firefox works just fine. However, I still am unable to edit, download pictures, or reply directly to PM's on this forum.
It's not caused by my settings.
Having a similar problem with Safari.
The mystery continues.
rdenney
12-Aug-2011, 17:07
Thanks Rick.
I removed all traces of previous Firefox downloads and performed a new download from the Monzilla website (the latest version of Firefox).
I followed the instructions on the Monzilla website to the letter. The new donload of Firefox works just fine. However, I still am unable to edit, download pictures, or reply directly to PM's on this forum.
It's not caused by my settings.
Having a similar problem with Safari.
The mystery continues.
The editing features use Microsoft editing tools, which suggests to me the use of Microsoft ActiveX application tools on the server, or something similar. I don't know how those are transferred to a client computer, but they may use an IP socket/port or some such that is being trapped by your firewall or virus protection software (or by the same on your ISP). I have this feeling that there is a possibility in there somewhere.
Rick "guessing out of ignorance" Denney
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