Firefox crashes on starting

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FF crashes on starting/loading; it never gets to the point of displaying any browser screen.
I have uninstalled all versions of FF, including deleting prior versions, deleted all folders with the words Mozilla or Firefox in the title, run 3 different Registry cleaners to clear out old references to programs that are not installed, etc., and rebooted several times.

I downloaded the latest version from the Mozilla site (v.3.6.8) and it installed flawlessly (Standard, not Custom) but when I then tried to run it, it gave this message:

We’re Sorry
Firefox had a problem and crashed. We’ll try to restore your tabs and windows when it restarts.
To help us diagnose and fix the problem, you can send us a crash report.
(See attached image)

The crash report ID is 99ba54a7-6508-43c3-8440-e4fca2100818 nsTextBoxFrame::GetTextSize(nsPresContext*, nsIRenderingContext

I tried all the solutions I found online, but none worked. Even running FF in FFSafe mode gives the same error.
I also ran from an Admin (elevated) command screen, to see if some font files or other core Win files were corrupted, but it had no effect.
I even tried installing v3.6.2 and v3.6.3 but they give the same error message.

My system parameters:
Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 1
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
4 GB RAM
300+ GB free space on HDD

I used FF for many years without problem, until about a month ago when I started trying Chrome. I reverted to FF several times during the last month, without trouble. Yesterday, though, it suddenly quit working. I do not recall making any changes to the system just before the failures.

I hope someone can suggest another approach — while FF is no longer my sole go-to browser, it is useful to have it.

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Any new add ons recently??? Have you scanned for malware/virus activity etc.??? I know you mentioned Chrome, have you also tried IE to see if it works??? Have you had any other troubles recently with Vista???

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No new add-ons or extensions.
I scan incoming traffic constantly (AVG9, latest Comodo Firewall) and do a weekly scan with Spybot-S&D.
IE8 runs fine.
A couple of months ago I had trouble with a different application that would not run; problem was traced (after a year! of on and off work by the app’s developers) to a missing Trebuchet font file, and when that file was re-installed, the app worked fine. That is why I ran the routine, to see if any other Win/Vista files were bad.

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That is, no new add-ons or extensions in FF. I did use some in Chrome.

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When you get the message as shown in image in Post # 1 above, what happens when you choose “Restart Firefox” ?

Long shot – Have you recently started using an iPhone?

PS: As a side note – you might want to remove your email address from the pic above.

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“Restart” button acts the same as the initial startup. Same error msg.

No iPhone present, no Skype. I do use VOIP for the main phone line, using Comcast for it and as my ISP. But that arrangement is over a year old, with no problem.

Thx for reminding me about the email.

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FF crashes on starting/loading; it never gets to the point of displaying any browser screen.
I have uninstalled all versions of FF, including deleting prior versions, deleted all folders with the words Mozilla or Firefox in the title, run 3 different Registry cleaners to clear out old references to programs that are not installed, etc., and rebooted several times.

I downloaded the latest version from the Mozilla site (v.3.6.8) and it installed flawlessly (Standard, not Custom) but when I then tried to run it, it gave this message:

We’re Sorry
Firefox had a problem and crashed. We’ll try to restore your tabs and windows when it restarts.
To help us diagnose and fix the problem, you can send us a crash report.
(See attached image)

The crash report ID is 99ba54a7-6508-43c3-8440-e4fca2100818 nsTextBoxFrame::GetTextSize(nsPresContext*, nsIRenderingContext

I tried all the solutions I found online, but none worked. Even running FF in FFSafe mode gives the same error.
I also ran from an Admin (elevated) command screen, to see if some font files or other core Win files were corrupted, but it had no effect.
I even tried installing v3.6.2 and v3.6.3 but they give the same error message.

My system parameters:
Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 1
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
4 GB RAM
300+ GB free space on HDD

I used FF for many years without problem, until about a month ago when I started trying Chrome. I reverted to FF several times during the last month, without trouble. Yesterday, though, it suddenly quit working. I do not recall making any changes to the system just before the failures.

I hope someone can suggest another approach — while FF is no longer my sole go-to browser, it is useful to have it.

this error is usually cause by incompatibility issues with the service pack installed in the system, when was the lat update that you did? what update was that? i’m referring to windows updates 🙂

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