Solved A big mess!

[katrinamm]

I have been trying to fix my laptop for the past 2 1/2 days, and am only making things worse.

Firstly, all was working reasonably well 3 days ago. I spent a lot of time on facebook playing farmville using Mozilla Firefox, with my dial up connection. Then I downloaded Mozilla Firefox 6, which ran very slow and as well as greatly slowing IE 9. Both browsers showed alot of white or blank pages.

I decided to uninstall Mozilla Firefox 6, then reinstall it. I uninstalled it, but was unable to download it again. So I reloaded an older version of mozilla 3.6, I had on my computer. I tried to download Firefox 6 again but keep getting a message "....... could not be saved, because the source file could not be read."

IE9 was still not working very well either.

Then I used system restore, to reset to three days ago. But firefox 6 would not work.

I have also cleaned my browsers cache, cleaned my registry, and run checkdisk.

Now I have firefox 3.6, which I can't update, runs really slow (it took about 20mins to open my hotmail), and I can't play farmville with it.

Also now IE9 also runs really slow, I can update, can't play farmville or download adobe flash player or firefox.

I thought the best way forward would be to find a way to download firefox 6 because although slow, it did eventually let me play farmville (which I'm addicted to).

Please please help me.

 

[Zomby88]

Are you using disk cleanup ? Did you defragment ?

 

[katrinamm]

Yes, tried both. Still have long download times, with lots of white/blank screens.

 

[SlasherIT]

Run sfc /scannow in an elevated command prompt (Run as Administrator).

 

[mach04]

Or restore your Windows to 3 days ago when things were going well.

 

[boohbah]

i cocked up my upgrade to ff6 also, see this thread for links and info how to use addons with ff6.
http://www.sevenforums.com/browsers-mail/181294-firefox-6-0-released.html.
if you use addons
,do a system restore to 3 days ago and then download ff5 check your addons are working , do the adons cheat using compatability checker and for double chance do the option in airbots tutorial (option three)
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...nds-add-incompatiblities-firefox-updates.html

. good luck

 

[Jacee]

You could also try flushing the DNS cache. From an elevated command, copy/paste ipconfig /flushdns and press the enter key.

 

[katrinamm]

Thanks for all the advice.

1. I ran sfc /scannow in an elevated command prompt (Run as Administrator), and there were no problems detected.

2. I did restore windows to 3 days ago, but the Mozilla Firefox was disabled, hence I reloaded the old 3.6 version I had on my hard drive.

3. I have tried unsucessfully to download firefox 6, 5.1, 5 and 3.6.2. I get the same message....."could not be saved, because the source file could not be read".

4. I also try flushed the DNS cache from an elevated command with copy/paste ipconfig /flushdns, and there was no noticeable difference.

 

[gregrocker]

Export your Firefox favorites to the desktop.

Uninstall Firefox in Control Panel.

Download Firefox to the desktop, not to another partition or drive on the computer. The error sometimes happens when installer is downloaded to an unpermissioned drive.

Rightclick Firefox .exe to Run as Admin.

Hope it helps.

 

[katrinamm]

Hi, I just exported my firefox bookmarks to the desktop. But when I tried to uninstall firefox 3.6 I got an error message that said "Firefox must be closed to proceed with the uninstall. Please close firefox to continue."

All firefox windows were closed. I also checked on task manager, but no firefox windows were open.

 

[SlasherIT]

Did you check for Firefox under processes in Task Manager?

 

[Heyyou]

Hi, I just exported my firefox bookmarks to the desktop. But when I tried to uninstall firefox 3.6 I got an error message that said "Firefox must be closed to proceed with the uninstall. Please close firefox to continue."

All firefox windows were closed. I also checked on task manager, but no firefox windows were open.

What if you tried to install v6 over the top of v3.6?

 

[gregrocker]

Let's get a clean boot.

Run msconfig>Startup, uncheck all items except AV and gadgets. All others are freeloaders on your CPU/RAM, Startup and can spy on you and cause probs. Startup Programs - Change

Restart several times to make sure none sneak back in.

Next go msconfig>Services, tick Hide all MS Services, uncheck all others running without your knowledge. Again check back after restarts to see if any sneak in, turn them off in their Program Prefs or Uninstall.

You now have a clean boot which should help performance in itself and may solve problems, plus Firefox should Uninstall.

 

[mach04]

I find Revo Uninstaller much better for removing programs than Windows program through control panel. This program also removes the registry that is left over after removing the program. Maybe this will help to force removing Firefox6.

 

[katrinamm]

OK, so I cleared firefox under processes in the Task Manager and was then able to uninstall firefox 3.6. Then I downloaded firefox 6. But it was so bad to use, really long periods of staring at a blank/white screen.

I then uninstalled it, with the intent of downloading the previous version 5, that I had no problems with. (Well I think it was 5).

I tried to download firefox 5 from filehippo.com, but near the end of the download I got an error message about something illegal, and it would not install.

As IE9 is bearly functioning as a web brower, I had no option but to re download mozilla 3.6.

No idea what to do now.

 

[mach04]

Have you tried the portable version of FF, it is ran on a USB drive.

 

[katrinamm]

"Run msconfig>Startup, uncheck all items except AV and gadgets. All others are freeloaders on your CPU/RAM, Startup and can spy on you and cause probs. Startup Programs - Change"

Right, I found the system configuration, but not sure what you mean by AV and gadgets.

The items with a tick beside them for startup are
1. Adobe Acrobat
2. Adobe Reader and Acrobat Manager
3. AVG Internet Security
4. Canon My Printer
5. CNSLMAIN.EXE (Canon)
6. iTunes
7. Java (TM) Platform SE Auto Updater 2
8. Microsoft Windows Operating System
9. MobileMe (Apple)

Which ones should I leave?

Should also mention I can play farmville on farmville.com with Firefox 3.6, but not on facebook.

 

[SlasherIT]

Hmmm, katrinamm, can you try using Google Chrome to see if this would help or not? Google Chrome - Get a fast new browser. For PC, Mac, and Linux

 

[gregrocker]

What is the file extension for the MS Windows OS listing, sidebar? Keep it for gadgets.

I would uninstall AVG and install free Microsoft Security Essentials which solves problems sometimes. AVG is recommended by no one here, MSE and Avast by most. Then leave that checked, too.

None of the others are needed unless you use the Canon for scanning and want the scan to open on the desktop.

Now complete the rest of the steps to get a clean boot.

 

[depthcharge]

I´d advise you to use a download manager. FDM or ORBIT is great.