Firefox crashes every time I try to create a bibliography

ecarli01
The message that comes on screen is:

"A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, or you can continue to see if the script will complete.

Script: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/citeproc.js:1652"

Can anyone help please?

Thanks

Eric
  • adamsmith
    Try continuing the script a couple of times, especially if this is a larger document.
  • ecarli01
    Thanks, I appreciate your advice.

    It's a bibliography of 374 references. I've tried this but it doesn't work. I've also tried just creating smaller bibliographies and it doesn't work. It did work once but unfortunately in the wrong citation style. I feel like giving up on zotero altogether as it's taken so long to fix.
  • fbennett
    Some information will help pin down the problem (this is not something we're seeing at all lately, so it's likely something that can be sorted out in short order once the cause is identified). Things that will be useful to know are: Which version of Zotero you have installed; what OS you're using (Mac + version, Windows + version, Linux + distro); what version of Firefox you're running (if not using Standalone); which word processor; and which style.
  • ecarli01
    Thanks, I hope you can help. I am using Windows 7, Zotero 3.0.3 for firefox and Mozilla forefox 11.0.
  • ecarli01
    Sorry, I also meant to say that I am trying to use citation Harvard Reference format 3. It has always worked fine in the past.
  • fbennett
    edited March 20, 2012
    Okay, everything seems to be in order for versions and etc. There is a possibility that this is caused by a particular item or combination of items in your document. Bugs triggered by input are getting to be pretty rare of late, but we'll start there. Try going through the Steps for Debugging Broken Documents, and see if that turns up a entry that triggers the problem.
  • ecarli01
    Sorry, where do I find that?
  • ecarli01
    I get this error message: 1756725780
  • fbennett
    Sorry, the link was bad. It should click through now.
  • ecarli01
    Thanks - but as far as I can understand it this relates to documents that are set up. My problem is that I can't even set up a bibliography in the first place. I basically just go into zotero, CTRL A on all the references that I want to include in a new bibliography, right click to create a bibliography and that's when firefox crashes.
  • fbennett
    You hadn't mentioned that, but the pointer about trying smaller and smaller sets of citations until it succeeds still applies. Are you able to generate a bibliography containing only a single item?
  • ecarli01
    Yes it does create a bibliography with one item.

    Apart from that, if I try to put in citations in my Word document, although it links with the zotero bibliograogy, it only inserts {citation} in the document.
  • fbennett
    It's late here, so I'll leave you in the hands of folks in other time zones now. What we need is to pin down the exact trigger that causes it to fail. Working inside Zotero might be the most promising debugging target for starters, since it removes one layer of complexity (the word processor plugin). If one item succeeds, try two items, then four and so forth until it fails. Then work backwards and try to pin down if there is a single item or set of conditions by which the failure is triggered.
  • dstillman
    You say:
    I've tried this but it doesn't work. I've also tried just creating smaller bibliographies and it doesn't work.
    What does "doesn't work" mean? As in, you keep getting the unresponsive script message?

    See http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/unresponsive_script_warning

    If you click Stop Script, it will absolutely break things.

    And what does "firefox crashes" mean?

This is an old discussion that has not been active in a long time. Before commenting here, you should strongly consider starting a new discussion instead. If you think the content of this discussion is still relevant, you can link to it from your new discussion.

Sign In or Register to comment.