What error codes are generated when it crashes? Sometimes reinstalling a problem program will resolve issues.

here is the link to the thunderbird forums you can check there for similar problems and check for assistance.
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=39

Here is a link that might be useful: forum

I have tried for over an hour and a half tonight and have never gotten my mail to load. I have been to the Thunderbird forums and have gotten nowhere. I am so frustrated that I don't know what to do. I don't get any error messages, it just completely stops responding at all, and I have to open Task Manager and stop the program, then start all over again with the same results. In fact, I checked the box to receive any answers from here by e-mail, and have received none of them. If I uninstall it and reinstall it, what happens to my e-mail addresses and other folders? I use it at work, have a version 2---, and have no problems. Is there a way to get an older version? I started having problems when I accepted a prompt to install a newer version.

Lets try something

Boot the computer to safe mode and just see if Thunderbird will open then. It's always possible an Anti Virus program is causing issue.

Safe Mode Instructions:

Restart your computer.

When the machine first starts again it will generally list some equipment that is installed in your machine, amount of memory, hard drives installed etc. At this point you should gently tap the F8 key repeatedly until you are presented with a Windows Advanced Options menu.

Select the option for Safe Mode using the arrow keys.
Then press enter on your keyboard to boot into Safe Mode.

Do whatever tasks(Try to open Thunderbird) you require and when you are done reboot to boot back into normal mode.

Let us know what that does..

It's been working fine and normal until this afternoon, then the problems started again. It completely froze up when downloading the 3rd message. So I tried the safe mode approach. First of all, I live in a rural area not served by any broadband, so I have to use an aircard to get any kind of speed. In safe mode, the aircard wouldn't start. But I went to Thunderbird anyway and it just sat there. So I rebooted again into normal mode and went to Thunderbird. When it works OK, the screen has the little Thunderbird symbol when it's downloading my mail (the fox in the bird). When it's not doing right, there's nothing but some text there. There's also the message that it's building a summary file for the inbox, and the little wheel above is just spinning and spinning. While this was happening, I got out my ironing board, filled it with water, let it heat up, ironed 3 shirts, drained and put the iron and ironing board away and it still hadn't finished. But when it did, I then had to prompt it to get my mail and had to wait forever for all of it to download, although everything was just text except for two with a few pictures. I might mention also that when it's not working properly, this little green box appears in the tray on the bottom right, which, when I click on it, gives CPU usage. Sometimes two of the little green boxes appear. I have now spent over two hours just trying to get my e-mail, all the while my aircard is racking up minutes. I think I just want to either go to Outlook (which I've never used) or an earlier verision of Thunderbird. I just don't want to lose my address books and folders. Help!!!

At first I thought it could have been your Anti Virus scanning the email thus holding up the show. That's why I suggested safe mode. So we need to back up your address book, let me see what I can find. There is a site called older version .com they might have an older version of thunderbird. Lets see what others say too.

How to Backup Thunderbird Address Book

Here is a link that might be useful: Backup Thunderbird Address Book

Old version of Thunderbird.

Here is a link that might be useful: oldapps

Thank you!! Of course, this time everything worked perfectly, and your last two messages actually came through on the e-mail, whereas none of the others have. I'm going to ditch this version and hope it solves my problems.

Leslie77, any progress?

I looked up this thread on a search of "Thunderbird slow". I'm running 2.0.0.24 - an older version that has been on my system for many days (weeks, months??) and just today it became unresponsive, no crash, just slow. I have a large and growing set of folders and wonder if that might be a problem source.

I have done a "compact folders"... have you? While I still have some mysterious problem, a compact would be a good bit of advice if you haven't done so recently.

For some mysterious reason, it just started acting normally. It wasn't anything I did, didn't compact any folders or anything else. Just out of the blue it quit being slow and went back to behaving the way it should have. Maybe just posting and complaining had something to do with it!! Can't explain it any other way. It's all a big mystery. But for that bit of time, it would just hardly respond at all.

It's always possible some up-date program was running at the time.

Yes, but this wasn't just one day. This lasted for about 3 weeks, every time I used it. So I can't believe that would be an explanation.

Well, thank G-d for small miracles. My Thunderbird, and old version, seems to be running better too, coincidence? Likely not.

But, and I'll next make a brief post on this subject, in checking on why TB was running slow (responding to shutdown even) I started running all my anti-spy and virus program scans... that turned up the usual suspects in the spy category, but doubt that had anything to do with the improvement, then I ran "RegCure" and WHACK/WHAM/STUCK IN SCAN. I'll make a post on RegCure next.