[SOLVED] Crashes every time I try to download anything

[squarepegger]

XP Pro SP3 32 bit up to date
Palemoon 15.3.2

I started having this problem with an earlier version. First I thought it might be the Flashgot add-on, so I disabled Flashgot and restarted Palemoon. No joy.

Every single time I try to download anything, Palemoon crashes. I think it started with about ver. 15.2.1. I'm sorry to see that no one else has posted with a similar problem.

Any ideas?

[Moonchild]

If you experience application crashes, it would help greatly if you post the output from AppCrashView.
See also http://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=49

[squarepegger]

AppCrashView only works with Vista and 7. I did post that I am using XP Pro SP3 32 bit. "... this utility only works on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008, simply because the earlier versions of Windows don't save the crash information into .wer files."

Operating system: XP Pro SP3 32 bit
Browser version: Palemoon 15.3.2
32-bit or 64-bit?: 32 bit
Problem URL: any
Theme: FT DeepDark 5.4, but problem occurs with any theme
Installed add-ons: Lots! What's an easy way to get a list of my add-ons?
___________________________________________________________________________

Installed plugins:

Shockwave Flash
Java Deployment Toolkit 7.0.70.10
Shockwave for Director
Foxit Reader Plugin for Mozilla
Winamp Application Detector
Shockwave for Director
Silverlight Plug-In
IE Tab Plug-in
Windows Presentation Foundation
Microsoft® DRM
Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library
Yahoo! activeX Plug-in Bridge


I've been using Palemoon for a few years and haven't had this problem before.

[Blacklab]

Installed add-ons: Lots! What's an easy way to get a list of my add-ons?

Could just copy the Troubleshooting Information page (Help>Troubleshooting) and use a "hide" button to keep size of the post down?
Extensions from Add-ons Manager listed (but not the Plugins or Appearance lists or any Stylish scripts if you use those).
Others have just got typing.... a list of 43 recently!

[steviem1]

In order to get a convenient configurable listing of your extensions, plugins or themes, another option is to use: Extension list Dumper 1.15.2: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... st-dumper/

[Moonchild]

AppCrashView only works with Vista and 7. I did post that I am using XP Pro SP3 32 bit. "... this utility only works on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008, simply because the earlier versions of Windows don't save the crash information into .wer files."

You're absolutely right. In that case could you at least provide key information from the application crash window? Exception code, module it occurs in, etc.?

As for your list of plugins so far: You might want to disable the ones you're not actively using. This can be done on the fly.
You probably don't need the following:
Java Deployment Toolkit 7.0.70.10
Winamp Application Detector
Windows Presentation Foundation
Microsoft® DRM
Yahoo! activeX Plug-in Bridge

The latter would even be a potential risk - you really don't want to give ActiveX components the option to run inside Pale Moon. If you really need it for some odd reason, only enable it for the time needed you visit a specific site. Pale Moon is not intended to run ActiveX controls and will not have the necessary security measures in place to prevent abuse of it.

I've been using Palemoon for a few years and haven't had this problem before.

That's no guarantee that a problem may not develop - downloading hooks into a few different things at once: networking, file system, browser cache, windows dialog boxes, and any plugins/add-ons that may do something with the download manager, file handling or downloading/caching.

I would suggest you restart Pale Moon in safe mode first, and see if it still occurs in safe mode, to rule out addons/plugins.

[squarepegger]

I decided to do a binary process of elimination on my extensions (disable half of them, if the problem persists, re-enable the disabled ones and disable half of what wasn't disabled; if the problem goes away, enable half of the originally disabled extensions, etc.) and found the crashes were caused by the Free Download Manager extension, version 1.5.7.5.

When I checked the FDM page at addons.mozilla.org, here's what I found:

Free Download Manager has been blocked for your protection.

Why was it blocked?
Version 1.5.7.5 of the Free Download Manager extension is causing frequent crashes in recent versions of Firefox. Version 1.5.7.6 corrects this problem, but it is currently not available on addons.mozilla.org. We recommend all users to update to the new version once it becomes available.

Who is affected?
All Firefox users who have installed version 1.5.7.5 of the Free Download Manager extension.

What does this mean?
Users are strongly encouraged to disable the problematic add-on or plugin, but may choose to continue using it if they accept the risks described.

When Mozilla becomes aware of add-ons, plugins, or other third-party software that seriously compromises Firefox security, stability, or performance and meets certain criteria, the software may be blocked from general use. For more information, please read this support article.

Blocked on November 27, 2012.

Flashgot will launch FDM for a download with no problems, so I guess I don't need the FDM extension anyway.

I think the Yahoo! activeX Plug-in Bridge is needed by the Forecastfox extension since accuweather.com and Yahoo! Weather seem to be married or something.

Hope this post will help anyone else who might be having a similar problem and thanks to everyone who responded to my original post.

[Moonchild]

It will because this means I can add this to the Pale Moon blocklist and automatically block it.

[squarepegger]

Hopefully you'll only block version 1.5.7.5 because

Version 1.5.7.6 corrects this problem, but it is currently not available on addons.mozilla.org.

[steviem1]

@squarepegger: If you're happy running FDM using Flashgot, fine but you can get the FDM Plugin 1.5.7.6 here if you want to try it - works fine for me: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefo ... /versions/