Previously in the post, Fix Firefox Crash with Yahoo Mail, I covered a very simple way to eliminate a very frequently occurring crash problem due to a conflict between ad blocking addons and a module installed by Yahoo! Instant Messenger.

That fix significantly reduced the crashes that I encountered. However, I was still getting occasional crashes under the same circumstances with Yahoo! Mail. But, I’ve tracked that down and, so far, seem to have alleviated all the crashes.

I’ve been using two different ad blocking addons for Firefox, AdBlock and AdBlock Plus, though not on the same operating system. On the computer that was still having a crashing problem, which was running Windows XP, I had AdBlock installed. Switching to AdBlock Plus made the difference.

So, should you just switch to AdBlock Plus and not use the previous fix? Not so fast. The previous fix works even if you don’t use any ad blocking add-on. So, start with it first.

Have other helpful fixes for Firefox or improvements to this fix? Post it in the comments.

For a while, my Firefox 2 on Windows XP would crash almost every time I logged out of Yahoo! Mail. Sometimes it would even happen if I just switched from Yahoo! Mail to another tab or closed the tab. The problem appears to be caused by a plugin installed by Yahoo! Instant Messenger (YIM) conflicting with ad blocking, and possibly other, browser addons.

Here’s how to fix it:

1. Go to C:Program FilesYahoo!Shared
2. Rename the file npYState.dll to npYState.dll.disabled, or move it to another folder. I created a folder called Disabled and put it in there.
3. Restart Firefox

All fixed!

See also: Fix Firefox Crash Part 2