Firefox fake update

[Mozzer]

This morning when I was browsing away in Firefox I noticed the little green update icon in the top right corner. First I thought "Hey hey, Firefox 1.0.8 here we come!" So I clicked the icon and it said "searching for updates" and it got 3/4 of the way through the progress bar and stopped.

After waiting a few minutes I cancelled and tried again. At this point I noticed the icon had turned blue. Again it got stuck at 3/4. I went and checked the website but it still said 1.0.7.

After a few hours being away from the computer I came back to it and tried again. This time it got all the way through the progress bar only to tell me there were no updates available. The blue icon disappeared. What happened there then? :confused:

[Comrade Smith]

I on't know, computers can be crazy, as long as it works now I guess

[Eccles]

The update could have been for one of the extensions. I've found that this can be a very flakey, sometimes you get an update but if you don't d/l it straight away it dissappears. Or I'll get an update at work but nothing at home, even if I manaualy tell it to check. I guess it's just buggy.

Firefox 1.5 is supposed to have an improved update mechanism.

[Mozzer]

Ok, now it's gone truly crazy. I opened it up this morning and it looks like this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v161/MOzzer/firefoxdead.png

So here I am on IE. Arrgh!

It might be hard to tell on the scaled down pic but:
1. There are no extensions/toolbars
2. None of the menus work
3. It has pretended to load Techy Bollocks but obviously with no visible result
4. When I try to close it warns me that I have multiple tabs open. When I press CTRL + tab it switches between them as normal.
5. The little checking for updates icon won't go away.
6. That, and the minimise/exit buttons are the only things that work!

What the hell is going on? Somebody please help! I'm on IE dammit! I have to open a whole new browser just to have another page at the same time! I have to remember all my passwords! Help! :(

EDIT: More information.

7. Re-installing didn't help.
8. Re-booting didn't help.
9. If I click on Gmail Notifier I can login with the normal dialogue box.
10. If I click on the drop-down arrow next to the address box I get a weird scrolly thing in a weird place:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v161/MOzzer/firefoxdead2.png

11. Yesterday (after the orginal problem) I noticed that on the WS forums none of the image titles were coming up (you know, when you hover your mouse over an avatar, that kind of thing).
12. It was also yesterday (before the problem) that I copied my profile from an old Windows installation so I could keep my extensions, bookmarks etc. But that can't be the problem... right?

EDIT NUMBER 2:
I've been on the Firefox support centre and looked at the standard diagnostics. I run it in safe mode (which disables all extensions and themes) and it works. By the process of elimination I must have a dodgy extension (as I have no extra themes). So I'll see what I can find out.

EDIT NUMBER 3:
Firesomething was the culprit. But it worked on my old installation... :confused:

[Tony Blair]

For others out there, you can solve these sort of problems by opening firefox(safe mode). Yes really it has its own safe mode. Go to start bar>programs>Mozilla Firefox>Firefox (safe mode)

[Mozzer]

Or you could do it the silly way like I did...

Start > Run > firefox.exe -safe-mode