firefox shutting down

Hi,

It may occur because your firefox profile have a problem.

Please, delete all profiles folder

C:\Users\<Windows login/user name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile folder>

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before deleting profile you should end task firefox.

Also think it's caused by the damaged profile.
To create new empty one, use -P switch like  firefox.exe" -P (more details you can find here and here).
In this way you could able to keep your old profile data files for later using.

I agree with, Mechanic_Kharkov, don't delete your old profile, as it could have data you want to keep, like history, passwords, and bookmarks. You can just create a new one. Also, you should probably export your bookmarks from your old profile:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Exporting%20bookmarks%20to%20an%20HTML%20file

Another possible problem besides the profile is an add-on causing problems. The Safe Mode option should be in your Start Menu under the Firefox folder, or follow instructions here:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe%20Mode

If the browser doesn't crash in Safe Mode, try disabling all add-ons, and then re-enable them one-by-one until you find the troublesome one:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Troubleshooting%20plugins

started in safe mode and it still crashed. trying the new profile method after i backup a few things

backed up bookmarks
using profile manager, created a new profile (did not delete old one)
started FF with new profile
FF still shutting down/crashing at startup

Try uninstalling firefox then reinstalling it. Move your profile to somewhere safe first.

wow, this is getting more interesting. I tried to uninstall 3 ways and it is not letting me. i tried control panel and it says it may have already been uninstalledl so cannot uninstal. i tried uninstall using cc cleaner and it gave me an error 193, i tried opening helper.exe in the mozilla uninstall folder and that gave me a "helper.exe is not a valid win32 application.

next way is create new user account with administrator privileges and run firefox again on that user account.

Last way: install firefox portable version.

your can download it from here

re-searcher - if you are saying a new user account in windows, i am not sure that gets me anywhere but having to use a different user ever time i want to use firefox?

some times it's occur because windows configuration (windows user profile) make unexpected errors.
you can make new user account and transfer all documents and desktop icons and etc. to that profile, and if it's work delete your previous windows account.

OR ,try to installing Portable Version of firefox. it's useful and portable,too.
you can install it on your USB Disk or hard disk or elsewhere do you like.

i ended up just reloading FF.