Random crashes

[Pallid Planetoid]

Since 21 crashes in 9 days starting out this month, I did not have any crashes at all for 13 straight days until today where I've had 4 crashes in 4 hours. All crashes (total of 25 overall) are with a Fault Module of: Mozjs.dll.

What I'm wondering is, if this would be characteristic of Mozjs.dll caused failures in as much as it has to do with JS and possibly in regards specifically to the "JS garbage collector", however it's been reported that this issue occurs as a consequence of leaving a page "idle" for a few minutes in regards to "Issue #2172 (UXP)".

So here's the rub, in my case (at least for the most recent 4 today), at the time of the crashes - I was actively using the browser (and what is noteworthy as well - only using 2-4 tabs for the most part and most importantly using pages that I had been using for the last 13 days w/out any crashes occurring whatsoever during that time). I'm only reporting this in the event this information might help and/or support crashes that involve JS in some manner (not necessarily specific to leaving a tab idle for a time). I have to say, it was nice to have a crash free hiatus for an entire consecutive 13 day period of time!! (especially considering the frequency of crashes on either side of that 13 day stretch of good luck!...). And, I might add during the 13 day crash free period of times (up until today) I had at times a very large number of tabs in use (including sites that have had issues in this regard in the past) as well, not just the very few tabs in use for the 4 crashes that have just occurred today so far...).

[Pallid Planetoid]

Considering that I'd gone nearly 2 weeks crash free - and now (one more crash occurred since the post above) I've had an significant number of crashes all occurring in just a few hours today (around 5 hours to be exact) makes me wonder if in this case clearing Cached Web Content might help (otherwise, why so long trouble free (13 days to be exact) to then have so many crashes today).

In regards to this - while it might help for some crash situations (not sure actually) - what I'm also wondering, assuming it might help, would it help specifically for crashes that involve the "mosjs.dll" fault module?

I've been using double-digit tabs for a time now (since clearing Web Content cache) and the browser appears to be very snappy response wise (more so than before) - so I'm hoping for the best.

[Moonchild]

The crash in question occurs with a specific combination of circumstances during a garbage collection run that is infrequent. You may possibly be able to work around it by disabling so-called "compacting" (yes they went all out with the trash analogy ) by setting javascript.options.mem.gc_compacting to false in about:config. No guarantees though as it's a subtle but important error in the code that really messes up the inner workings of GC over time.

[Pallid Planetoid]

Thanks for the tip - I'll keep this in mind for sure (to try if the high rate of crashes return).

But in this case it would certainly appear that the clearing of "Cached Web Content" has helped immensely.

I've gone from 5 crashes in a period of less than 7 hours yesterday (3 of those crashes in less than 45 minutes) to no more crashes at all since clearing "Cached Web Content" yesterday afternoon.

high frequency of PM crashes stopped after clearing cache.png

If crashes return then I'll certainly try the pref setting, however I've been crash free now for around 8-10 hours of usage (see below for details)

I have to say, it's pretty compelling that I go from (former) crash problems in the first few days of this month to 13 days of no crashes at all to a high frequency of crashes yesterday in a matter of a few hours up until I cleared the "Cached Web Content" after which Pale Moon is totally crash free while using Pale Moon "no-holds-barred" ever since with double-digit tabs in use accessing virtually every one of the websites I was previously using during the rash of crashes that occurred yesterday.

What I'm wondering is if, in this case, clearing the "Cached Web Content" helped with the "Mozjs.dll" related crashes as a result of possibly clearing out an issue with cached JS.

[Moonchild]

What I'm wondering is if, in this case, clearing the "Cached Web Content" helped with the "Mozjs.dll" related crashes as a result of possibly clearing out an issue with cached JS.

Very unlikely. The crashes are simply timing-sensitive.

[Pallid Planetoid]

Ok, I concede - although did go 23 hours (of heavy browser usage when used) after clearing "Cached Web Content" before another crash has occurred with the same "Mozjs.dll" default module just now (after a rash of multiple crashes in just a few hours yesterday prior to clearing the cache).

Browser was obviously "IDLE" as I wasn't even aware the browser was open (as I was doing other things) - so fits very well into the category of the leaving a page "idle" for a few minutes "Issue #2172 (UXP)" situation. (It's perhaps worth noting that I found after restarting Pale Moon, that there was only one tab used, which was the start.me start-page, FWIW.)

So I've now, as of 2:23 PM, set the "javascript.options.mem.gc_compacting" pref to "false" to see if this helps.

[Pallid Planetoid]

OK, it will have been a full week, as of 2:23 this afternoon PST (~6½ hours from now), without any "Mozjs.dll" fault module error crashes as of setting the "javascript.options.mem.gc_compacting" pref to "false" - so it definitely appears that we can conclude this pref change helps to resolve this specific type of Pale Moon crash.

[Moonchild]

so it definitely appears that we can conclude this pref change helps to resolve this specific type of Pale Moon crash.

Only this particular one that is specifically limited to compacting GCs.
Thanks for confirming though. don't forget to flip the pref again once 32.4.0 comes out as it will have addressed this issue.

[number101]

Addendum: Got the breakpoint popup again. This time, when I closed the popup, it killed both PM and Brave simultaneously. Maybe one of them is getting stepped on by the other? Anyhow, looking forward to the next release.

[jackrv]

I have had that, breakpoint, happen a couple of times while playing Everquest. It locked up EQ but not Palemoon. It happened after I set the setting javascript.options.mem.gc_compacting to false.

[Pallid Planetoid]

.... don't forget to flip the pref again once 32.4.0 comes out as it will have addressed this issue.

Done! (i.e. javascript.options.mem.gc_compacting pref flipped back to default "true")

[number101]

Current version is more stable, but still a few random crashes. Most recently, overnight, with the popup

palemoon.exe - Application Error
The exception Breakpoint (0x80000003) occurred in the application at location

A breakpoint has been reached.
0x00007FF98130EDFE.
Click on OK to terminate the program

On restarting, it remembered the tabs, but silently crashed about 1/2 hour later.

[Pallid Planetoid]

Was a "fault module" provided (I think the "crash" focus for the new updates are in general regarding the "Mozjs.dll" fault module).

[number101]

No fault module provided. The error msg was exactly as I quoted.
Crashed several times today. But I hear there's a generic WebM security vulnerability out there, and that would be more important for the team to work on.

[Sessh]

I had a crash overnight here with no error message. Previous session was able to be restored. Ran FEBE and that worked fine, so it wasn't that. Hadn't had a crash in I want to say two months or so. Will report if it happens again hopefully with more information.

[Moonchild]

I'm going to lock this thread, since what it was opened for (frequent and repeatable idle crashes) has been solved, and it'd be better to just keep specific threads for individual crashes separated so we can have a look and address it in a better way than a single pool of dissociated replies.

Thanks for your cooperation.