Buffer Overrun Detected?????

[oggsfrog]

Could anyone tell me in technophobe-speak what on earth this means?

I keep getting it and it crashes Firefox so I have to restart it.

The complete message I'm getting is;

Buffer Overrun Detected.
Program:C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
A buffer overrun has been detected which has corrupted the programs internal state. The program cannot safely continue execution and must now be terminated.

I've tried looking it up in wikipedia but am none the wiser .

Can any geeky nerd highly skilled computer whizz please help?

Pretty please

Sometimes this is a sign of a virus or trojan. I'd run a scan with whatever anti-virus program you have. I'd also get Spybot and run that as it looks for different things.

If that doesn't help Firefox uses all sorts of extras and plugins and one of them might be the problem.

You can selectively disable plugins while Firefox is running. If you suspect a certain plugin, disable it and see if that cures it.

Open the Add-ons Window by clicking the Tools menu and selecting Add-ons.
In the Add-ons window, select the Plugins panel.

Select a plugin in the list and then click its Disable button. Repeat this step for each plugin in the list. You do not need to restart Firefox for the changes to take effect.

Test the browser. If it doesn't crash then go back to the Add-ons window and re-enable plugins one-by-one with the Enable button until you find which one causes it to crash.

It means that Firefox has crashed.

Are you on the latest version of Firefox (3.0.3)? If not, update it.

Is it repeatable? In other words, does it always happen when you do something in particular (go to a certain site for instance)?

I regularly run Avast antivirus, Spybot and Adaware and they haven't detected anything.

The buffer overrun only ever occurs on one site (Ravelry).

The only Add-ons I have added are Adblock Plus and Firefox Companion for Ebay, although when I looked it was also listing two that I haven't added - SDI Progressive Decoder 5.1.6 Image Decoders and Slipstream SP Integrator 6.0.30 (I presume that they are ones that are always there anyway?)

Will try disabling them all in turn when I get bacjk from the school run. Thanks

I'm on Firefox version 2.0.0.17.

I can't download a newer version as I am on crappy dial-up with a slower than slow connection speed of 19.2kbps (we live in the middle of nowhere, a long long way away from the telephone exchange and can't get any faster than this ).

I only managed to get this version of Firefox by getting my brother to put it on a disc and send it to me. I've never been able to download stuff and can't even watch youtube etc.

Am I well out of date? Would the latest version stop this happening?

Yes, you are very much out of date - that version is 2 years old now.

You will probably find FF3 on a magazine cover disk in your local newsagent.

You aren't on Windows 98 too are you?

Oops, I am talking rubbish. That is the latest version of FF2, only a couple of weeks old. It should be stable.

But the FF site says:

Firefox 2.0.0.x will be maintained with security and stability updates until mid-December, 2008. All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to Firefox 3.

So you will need to do something about it soon.

As MrVibrating says try updating firefox itself first if you don't have the newest.

It sounds like you're safe from trojans etc already.

The plugins could still be a problem, but to be honest I expected dozens of plugins all conflicting - some people download everything available.

Strange that it only does it on Ravelry. I took a look and it doesn't look like the sort of site that would cause problems. No flash, no adverts etc and doesn't seem like a hang out for hackers

I wonder if firefox saves a log of details of errors. You need a firefox expert really.

X-posted there so ignore about the updating.

Any ideas how I'd find a Firefox expert?

MrVibrating I'm on Windows XL. What magazine would you recommend for a non-gaming technophobe?

So basically there's nothing I can do above running my antivirus more frequently?

As I have been buying it on and off since the first issue, I would have to say Personal Computer World. Computer Shopper or PC Advisor are not too gamesy or geeky either. Basically anything with Firefox 3.0.3 on the cover disk.

Or get someone to download it and cut it to a disk and send it to you in the post.