Please see below for Six (6!) Possible Workarounds to this problem! #6 is the most promising so far.
[UPDATE: I have later on reported
Firefox Address Bar not functioning. That problem was resolved, and the culprit was apparently Alexa Sparky v. 1.4.4 . I am waiting on further information whether the bug with blinking close, minimize and maximize buttons is going to reoccur or not. But we know now that this is an problem independent of Alexa Sparky]
PROBLEM
When trying to use one of the Minimize, Maximize (Restore), and Close Buttons in Firefox 3.5.3, these buttons start blinking erratically and do NOT function. When I click on all three, there is quite a display of blinking, seemingly somewhat correlated. However, the Firefox is hosed and needs to be killed and restarted. Still seeking solution for this problem. Let me know in a comment if you found a solution or at least a workaround!
[UPDATE 2: Previous claim that changing Windows Personalization Properties solves the problem was not true. In fact, the buttons did stop blinking. However, when pressed they went blinking again and were not functional.]
WORKAROUND
Currently, the workaround is to kill the Firefox 3.5 process through Task Manager. Possibly you could close it through the Task Bar click on the Firefox icon and hitting F4 to close. I have not tested this yet.
WORKAROUND 2 (POSSIBLY)
[UPDATE:
This is the most promising workaround so far. I noticed TODAY 10/21/09 that when I got blinking minimize button, I also got unresponsive Firefox window frames. All three of them. I indeed counted the number of tabs and it was 40 exactly. It was possible to close one tab, and guess what, the same second, the blinking of the minimize button stopped!]
[UPDATE 2: 10/30/2009: Got the same problem today. Some of the tabs were unresponsive when I got the blinking minimize button syndrome. Some were responsive. I closed a few of those and the problem went away. Again, this is the easiest most promising workaround so far. Close some tabs.]
I found that the problem has not occurred after I reduced the number of tabs open in my Firefox Windows. This could be a workaround - reducing the number of tabs may be a good idea anyways.
I got another independent confirmation that reducing the number of tabs works by Jae
Hmm...
I haven't paid attention to the specific number of tabs open, but it
does seem to help when I clean up my tabs (meaning go from 40-ish to
15-20). I'll be sure to keep an eye on the number of tabs open next
time it happens.
So after you've restarted FF, quickly reduce the number of tabs open. I have not yet had the problem reoccur since I reduced the number of tabs.
Let me know in the comments below how many tabs and how many FF windows you had open when you saw the problem. Thanks!
WORKAROUND 3 (THANKS TO COMMENTER HANNA)
Hanna, below, found that switching to another, non-flash tab made buttons function again.
[Update: I just had the same "blinking close, maximize, and minimize button problem" today, and switching tabs showed a different tab content, but did NOT make the problem with the buttons go away. The problem disappeared by itself later, much later. So this is NOT a universal workaround.]
WORKAROUND 4 (Potential, Thanks to a TIMELY Firefox PopUp Message)
I had never before received such a pop-up from Firefox! The pop-up has appeared through my Firefox today:
These Add-ons Have been blocked:
- Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.1 [Blocked add-on]
- Windows Presentation Foundation 3.5.30729.1 [Blocked add-on]
These Add-ons have a high risk of causing stability or security problems and have been blocked. Restart is required.
There you have it. That is a potential Workaround #4 for the problem.
I checked and yes, I had .NET Framework Assistant 1.1 Extension installed in my Firefox. And yes, I had the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) Plugin installed in my Firefox. You can indeed find them in my original problem report to Firefox, below.
I write about this very peculiar possible workaround in the post titled
The Battle of Softwares: Microsoft vs Firefox.
[Update: I just had the same "blinking and non-functional Close, Restore, and Minimize
button problem" today, after disableing the above Add-ons and restarting Firefox. Disabling the above Add-ons will prevent future surprises from Microsoft in Firefox. However, it did NOT make the problem with the buttons go away. So this is probably NOT a workaround.]
WORKAROUND #5 (POSSIBLE, BASED ON A HINT FROM FIREFOX)
Disable Firefox Skype extension!
[UPDATE: Anonymous reports in the comments below that problem still persists with Skype extension disabled. See below. This workaround needs to be thrown out the window! ]
Today Firefox popup came up suggesting to disable Firefox Skype
extension 2.2.102 because it causes instabilities. Could
that be a solution? Everyone, please help: If you are reporting this blinking
close, minimize, restore buttons problems in the comments below, please include: #1) How
many tabs you had open in FF when it happened #2) Do you have Firefox
Skype Extension enabled, and what version. That would be great. I have
disabled Skype extension for Firefox today and we'll see if the problem
reocurrs.
WORKAROUND #6 (most promising so far! Thanks to an anonymous commenter, below.)
If you have more than one Firefox Window open, Close All But One! Move your tabs into one single window (just click and drag will do). Then close all windows but one. If you are having this problem and are commenting below, please let us know how many windows you had open.
WORKAROUND #7
Posted separately in a new post! See you there!
SOLUTION
There is no proper solution to this problem just yet. You'll just have to use one of the WORKAROUNDS above for now. If you have this problem and are sick of needing to kill Firefox and restart,
click on Follow with Google Friend Connect on the bottom left and I will let you know when I find the solution. Probably the SAME DAY as it becomes available! The other thing you can do is whenever you see this problem occur, disable one of your AddOns and see if anything improves. Then let me know in the comment below, which AddOn did you disable! Thanks!
REPORTING PROBLEM TO FIREFOX DEVELOPERS
Below the problem I reported today to Firefox developers: If you have a solution please let me know. Before I reported the issue, I searchd all over the internet. No solution. Googled for firefox close button not working, firefox problem, firefox minimize button not working, firefox restor button problem, firefox unresponsive, firefox frozen, firefox not working, firefox stops working. No solution.
I am planning to downgrade from Firefox 3.5 more specifically Firefox 3.5.3 down to 3.0.14.
Shortly after this problem which happened even after restarting Firefox, I was not able to get any URL to display or to navigate in Firefox to any website. In fact I am writing this using Google Chrome!
PROBLEM DESCRIPTION SUBMITTED
Here's the problem report submitted to Firefox:
http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&forumId=1&comments_parentId=471517
Sometimes The Close, The Maximize and The Minimize Buttons are Blinking
Issue
Firefox is having problems with certain web sites
Description
The Windows Vista: Close, Maximize and Minimize buttons in the
top/right of the windows frame start to blink and become disfunctional
for an extended period of time. This happens on random websites, one of
them being "Google hiring workers from home" site which is triggered in
a popunder.
URL of affected sites
http://any.com but see above
Extensions installed
several, other reports say it happens in Safe mode as well.
Firefox version
3.5.3
Operating system
Windows Vista
User Agent
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Plugins installed
[-]
- IE Tab Plug-in for Mozilla/Firefox
- LogMeIn, Inc. Remote Access Components
- npmnqmp 07076007
- QuickUpload Plugin (1.0.0.47)
- Default Plug-in
- RealJukebox Netscape Plugin
- RealPlayer(tm) LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In
- 6.0.12.69
- Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape
- BitTorrent Plugin 1
- 1.7.0059.1
- npunagi2
- np-mswmp
- Office Plugin for Netscape Navigator
- Google Update
- Shockwave Flash 10.0 r22
- Delivery Network Acceleration by BitTorrent™
- 3.0.40723.0
- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) plug-in for Mozilla browsers
- MetaStream 3 Plugin r4
- Java Plug-in 1.6.0_03 for Netscape Navigator (DLL Helper)
