Solved Firefox Slow

[monster528]

Mozilla Firefox has been acting strange for a while for me and I am not too sure what to do about it. The main problem is when I go to Netflix and begin loading a TV show or movie for the first 3-5 seconds my entire computer freezes. I tend to play games on my primary monitor while watching netflix on my secondary and it can cause huge issues if a video begins to load.

Another issue I have been having is sometimes Firefox will slow down to crawl; I mean the entire browser not websites I try to load. When I try to move the window or minimize it, it may take as long as 30 seconds to a minute to respond and might go back to slowing down once it quickly catches up.

I tried clearing the cache, reinstalling Firefox, reinstalling Silverlight, and running in safe mode with all add-ons disabled and nothing worked. I also tried running netflix on Internet Explorer and it did not have any issues so im not sure what the problem is

Im using a triple monitor setup (144hz+2 60hz) with an AMD R9 290x with the latest 16.1 Crimson driver and Windows 7 64bit.

 

[MoxieMomma]

Hi:

Many Firefox problems originate in the user's profile, so reinstalling Firefox (as you tried) often does not resolve the issue.

If Mozilla Safe Mode did not resolve it, either, then the problem may be with your hardware/settings (e.g. hardware acceleration), software conflict (e.g. security applications), or another problem, rather than with a wonky extension. (Mozilla Safe Mode is a helpful diagnostic method, but it doesn't mean there isn't a problem.)

I suggest an orderly progression through the various diagnostic/troubleshooting steps in either or both of these tutorials/links - they do a better job explaining the specific steps than I can:

Firefox- Standard Diagnostic
Firefox - Fix Slowness, Crashing, Errors

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,
MM

 

[torchwood]

Hi Monster,
Not really an answer to FF, but try either Palemoon or Waterfox, both FF offshoots see if you have the same problem, hopefully not
The only other thing i can think of, are you running via a vpn/proxy

Roy

 

[monster528]

Im not going through a vpn or proxy.

I went through each step to try and fix the problem with no success. I ended up uninstalling firefox, deleting the install directory, deleting the appdata folder, running CCleaner, uninstalling a few multimedia programs/plugins, and reinstalling completely fresh.

My guess is as you said Moxie; there might be a conflict with the browser and one of my drivers or software im using.

Im going to switch to Chrome since it seems to be working fine for the time being. In time maybe an update will change something that fixes the problem but im not willing to deal with it until then.

Thank for the quick replies! Have a good day

 

[MoxieMomma]

Hi, @monster528:

What antivirus/security/firewall software are you running?
Router?
Do you have a custom hosts file?

If you don't want to troubleshoot, then it's hard to provide specific help.

BUT:
Have you tried creating a new, virgin, unmodified Firefox profile (IOW only default settings and no added extensions, no imported bookmarks, etc.)?

• Details about this are here - it will only take a few minutes and would be very helpful:
  • Creating a new Firefox profile on Windows - MozillaZine Knowledge Base
  • Profile Manager - MozillaZine Knowledge Base
• Doing so would not burn any bridges (it would be a "test" profile and you can always go back to your other profile).
• If the new, clean, vanilla profile has the same issue, then the problem likely lies with something outside Firefox (a global plug-in, a software conflict, hardware, system settings, etc.).
• If the new profile works OK & resolves the issue, then that narrows down the issue to something in your existing profile (as is quite common).
  • You can then import your bookmarks and begin to customize the new profile with extensions and settings.
• General advice: always good to backup one's profile before undertaking significant troubleshooting.
  • Instructions here: Profile backup - MozillaZine Knowledge Base

Good luck!


MM

 

[monster528]

Creating a new profile did not work. Remember I am specifically checking if Netflix locks up my computer so its very easy to check if the problem is resolved.

I am using Microsoft Security Essentials for my anti-virus, nothing else.

I am using a Netgear AC1750 C6300 Modem/Router.

No custom host files.

 

[MoxieMomma]

Thanks for the update.

If the new, clean, vanilla profile has the same issue, then the problem likely lies with something outside Firefox (a global plug-in, a software conflict, hardware, system settings, etc.).

Have you tried to disable hardware acceleration?
Do you have the most current version of Adobe Flash Player for Firefox?

Other than that, I'd suggest going back to the in-depth troubleshooting suggested in the links in my original reply.

Thanks,
MM

 

[Callender]

I wonder if it could be a cache problem? How much RAM do you have and how big is your page file?

Here is something to test - don't know if it will help.

Disable Firefox Disk Cache and force it to cache to RAM.

Try setting these highlighted items to false using about:config

​

 

[jamis]

Also, how are you connected to the internet? WiFi, cable modem, link speed throughout your network? I once had a similar problem with Amazon Prime (and occaisionaly Netflix) and it was due to a DNS issue with the ISP's supplied Modem/Router. They couldn't make it work right (ARRIS junk) and I went back to a basic cable modem with an external router. The new router and it's firmware do a far better job of parceling out linkages to the communicating devices in our home. What does Task Manager show when your computer slows down? Is it FF or some other service? Just cruious.

 

[monster528]

Thanks for the update.

If the new, clean, vanilla profile has the same issue, then the problem likely lies with something outside Firefox (a global plug-in, a software conflict, hardware, system settings, etc.).

Have you tried to disable hardware acceleration?
Do you have the most current version of Adobe Flash Player for Firefox?

Other than that, I'd suggest going back to the in-depth troubleshooting suggested in the links in my original reply.

Thanks,
MM

Yes I have tried to disable hardware acceleration. Firefox says Adobe Flash Player is up to date, as well as the other 2 or 3 miscellaneous plugins/addons came with Firefox.

I wonder if it could be a cache problem? How much RAM do you have and how big is your page file?

Here is something to test - don't know if it will help.

Disable Firefox Disk Cache and force it to cache to RAM.

Try setting these highlighted items to false using about:config

View attachment 379985​

Set all of those to false but it did not make any difference. Posted a picture of my task manager when loading a netflix video on the bottom of this post. 16GB of RAM. You can see my cpu usage tanks when the lock-up happens.

Also, how are you connected to the internet? WiFi, cable modem, link speed throughout your network? I once had a similar problem with Amazon Prime (and occaisionaly Netflix) and it was due to a DNS issue with the ISP's supplied Modem/Router. They couldn't make it work right (ARRIS junk) and I went back to a basic cable modem with an external router. The new router and it's firmware do a far better job of parceling out linkages to the communicating devices in our home. What does Task Manager show when your computer slows down? Is it FF or some other service? Just cruious.

I am using my own modem/router combo it is the Netgear AC1750 C6300. I am connected through WiFi using a Linksys AE2500 N600 Dual-Band Wireless-N USB Adapter. Task manager picture posted on bottom. This issue is only happening with firefox. I switched the chrome and the issue has not come up. Internet Explorer is working perfectly fine as well

 

[FerchogtX]

I would try to backup your profile and reset firefox using about:support, that should fix your problems, I do it from time to time and does wonders.

If that doesn't work, I can suggest 3 settings, that are experimental, but may speedup the browser.

layers.offmainthreadcomposition.testing.enabled (set it to true)
browser.tabs.remote.autostart (set it to true)
dom.ipc.processcount (set it to 2 or 4, safe setting is 2, but loking at your CPU chart, 4 might be better for you)

This will enable Electrolysis, that handles the RAM in a more efficent way, also speeds up the browser. This are settings that come from Nightly builds, if you experiment problems with your extensions or crashes, reset back to defaults.

Hope this helps

 

[monster528]

I would try to backup your profile and reset firefox using about:support, that should fix your problems, I do it from time to time and does wonders.

If that doesn't work, I can suggest 3 settings, that are experimental, but may speedup the browser.

layers.offmainthreadcomposition.testing.enabled (set it to true)
browser.tabs.remote.autostart (set it to true)
dom.ipc.processcount (set it to 2 or 4, safe setting is 2, but loking at your CPU chart, 4 might be better for you)

This will enable Electrolysis, that handles the RAM in a more efficent way, also speeds up the browser. This are settings that come from Nightly builds, if you experiment problems with your extensions or crashes, reset back to defaults.

Hope this helps

This did not work either unfortunately. But thanks for taking the time! Ill continue to try anything people suggest.

 

[Firestorm31]

i see in the subject title that it was solved.

what was the solution?

 

[FerchogtX]

I see you try Netflix... which uses HTML5 entirely.

Along with those settings I posted earlier, you can also try:
- layers.async-pan-zoom.enabled: (set this to true)
- media.hardware-video-decoding.failed (if this is set to true, change it to false, do it everytime you update FF)

The last one disables or enables hardware acceleration for decoding H264 videos, which is the standard FF uses, even for places like openload or Youtube. Some VGAs are blacklisted (like in Chrome), so setting the ...decoding.failed to false re-enables hardware accelerations, which smoothens video playback, and should do it for Netflix as well.

If this still doesn't work, try updating your graphics card drivers to something more recent (any 2012 or above drivers may do it for FF and Hardware Acceleration).

Hope this helps.