What steps will reproduce the problem?
based on the question I posted in google groups http://groups.google.com/group/webdriver/browse_thread/thread/4d77212f4d2ab0a3

for fetching the table columns of each row of a html table, i was using the below code
in a function.

List<WebElement> tableRows = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("table.grid-table")).get(1).findElements(By.tagName("tr"));


Iterator<WebElement> i = tableRows.iterator(); 
while (i.hasNext()) { 
        WebElement tableRow = i.next(); 
        List<WebElement> tableColumns = 
tableRow.findElements(By.tagName("td")); //throws the exception when the function is
called for 2nd time in a row.
        .. 
        .. 
        }

modifying the same to a fully qualified solves the issue; see below.
List<WebElement> tableRows = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("table.grid-table")).get(1).findElements(By.tagName("tr"));
Iterator<WebElement> i = tableRows.iterator();
while (i.hasNext()) {
    WebElement tableRow = i.next();
    List<WebElement> tableColumns = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("table.grid-table")).get(1).findElements(By.tagName("tr")).iterator().next().findElements(By.tagName("td"));




Selenium version: 2.5.0
OS: Mac 10.6.8
Browser: firefox
Brower version: 5.0

i have tested the code for internet explorer and it worked without issues; but firefox
kept giving me the error till i modified the function as described above. I can vouch
that there is no page reload happening that causes the element to be stale in between.