Solved Firefox CPU Usage Spikes

[stevieray]

I recently installed Firefox 3.6.6, and ever since I have been getting huge CPU usage spikes -- up to nearly 50% on one core. These spikes occur about once every ten seconds. When the spike occurs, any action in my browser is delayed a second or two, resulting in annoying lags during scrolling and typing.

I already changed the browser:sessionstore:interval setting in about:config... anybody have any ideas what else the browser could be doing every ten seconds that would produce this aggravating lag? Thanks!

 

[BCXtreme]

I've got specs similar to yours, and I don't have this problem with Firefox. Hmm... Since you "recently" installed it, you don't have any addons yet, right?

 

[stevieray]

I've got specs similar to yours, and I don't have this problem with Firefox. Hmm... Since you "recently" installed it, you don't have any addons yet, right?

Oh, I have plenty of add-ons. I should have said I recently updated Firefox to the 3.6.6 version. I am hoping to avoid the disable-add-ons-one-by-one-all-night-long slog... I've been through that too many times in the past for it to be fun and informative anymore.

 

[BCXtreme]

I've got specs similar to yours, and I don't have this problem with Firefox. Hmm... Since you "recently" installed it, you don't have any addons yet, right?

Oh, I have plenty of add-ons. I should have said I recently updated Firefox to the 3.6.6 version. I am hoping to avoid the disable-add-ons-one-by-one-all-night-long slog... I've been through that too many times in the past for it to be fun and informative anymore.

Actually then I'd just ask you to post what addons you have, cause one of them could be causing the problem. It's possible we could eliminate many of them as potential causes just by looking at what they are/do.

 

[stevieray]

Extensions:

Add Block Plus
CinemaNow Plugin for Firefox
Cookie Safe
Cooliris
Java Console
MetaProducts Integration
Nightly Test Tools
pdfit
Show IP
Stylish
Tab Mix Plus (I suspect this one has a session store function but I can't find it)
View Cookies
Web Developer
X Marks

Plug Ins:

AlternaTIFF
Cinema Now Mozilla Plugin for Media Manager
Cooliris Embedded in a Tab
Google Earth
Google Update
Hulu Desktop
Java Deployment Toolkit
Java Platform
Microsoft Windows Media Player Plugin for Firefox
Mozilla Default Plugin
Nvidia 3D Vision
PDF Exchange Viewer
Real Player Version Plugin
Real Player G@ LiveConnect Plugin
Shockwave Flash
Silverlight Plugin
WinAmp Application Detector

 

[BCXtreme]

I have Adblock Plus and I don't think it does any regularly timed actions. Tab Mix Plus does have a session restore feature, when you installed it it would have prompted you to pick either its session restore, or Firefox's built-in session restore. I have never used the addon's session restore, so if you picked that one that COULD be the culprit. Cooliris is also a possibility. I'd say to try and deactivate those two, one at a time, and see if either one is causing the problem, since they seem like the most likely. If not, we'll try to find a more in-depth way to determine the cause without testing each and every addon.

 

[stevieray]

Thanks for the help BCXtreme. I kinda figured I'd be doin' the disable add-on shuffle tonight... sigh. I'll start with those two. Thanks again!

 

[stevieray]

I think the problem was caused by MeteProducts Integration plugin. After I disabled it, the clockwork spike disappeared. I'm not really sure what that add-on was trying to do every ten seconds; it doesn't seem to have any kind of session store function. It was only supposed to automatically check for updates to apps.

I'll add an update here if I find anything further.

Hmmm... this is odd. I thought MetaProducts had something to do with Software Informer, but it doesn't. I don't know why I had MetaProducts Integration plugin installed.

 

[BCXtreme]

I think the problem was caused by MeteProducts Integration plugin. After I disabled it, the clockwork spike disappeared. I'm not really sure what that add-on was trying to do every ten seconds; it doesn't seem to have any kind of session store function. It was only supposed to automatically check for updates to apps.

I'll add an update here if I find anything further.

Hmmm... this is odd. I thought MetaProducts had something to do with Software Informer, but it doesn't. I don't know why I had MetaProducts Integration plugin installed.

I would guess the freeze was due to the checking for updates, if that is indeed the addon responsible. And no, that should by no means be the way it functions. Someone obviously did not code that plugin properly.

So, unless you have one of MetaProducts' programs (Mass Downloader, Offline Explorer, or Inquiry), that addon was checking for updates to software you don't even have. Come to think of it, that may have caused the CPU spike; the plugin trying to look for a non-existent program.

 

[stevieray]

Darn. The spike came back. I left the browser on all day and the spike began small, but kept getting bigger until it was as annoying as before. That is going to make it harder to track down 'cause it doesn't seem to happen immediately... it seems to build over time. I'll play around until i figure it out.

 

[reddleman]

I have a similar problem to stevieray. The spike, which happens about every 5-10 seconds, slowly builds the longer Firefox is kept open. I can "solve" the problem by restarting Firefox when it gets too bad, but it always comes back.

I don't have any of the same extensions as stevieray did. We share the following plugins:

• Google Earth
• Google Update
• Java Deployment Toolkit
• Shockwave Flash
• Silverlight Plugin

Apologies for posting to an old thread, but this thread is in the top Google results. It also has "solved" in the title even though it's not. I'm sure others are coming here just like I did, so hopefully this additional information helps them.

 

[metalmania31]

I assume everything is updated with both Firefox and the plugins? Have you tried running it with add-ons disabled? You can do this in the Help menu with the option to "Restart with add-ons disabled".

 

[reddleman]

I'm disabling the plugins we shared to see if that solves it. But immediately after restarting it's always fine. It takes time for the problem to build up, so I won't know whether disabling these plugins worked for awhile.

 

[jloc]

Is 'plugin-container.exe' running?

 

[stevieray]

Hey reddleman. I've got some good news, and I've got some bad.

The good news is this spike went away a few weeks later, as mysteriously as it arrived...
The bad news is I never did figure out what was causing it.

It just suddenly appeared... and just as suddenly stopped.

 

[reddleman]

Well, so far I've avoided the regular spiking behavior seen before. CPU usage still inexplicably spikes occasionally, but Firefox is generally pretty steady around 10-15%. Also, before it was getting into a pattern where it was reliably spiking every ten seconds, and now even when it spikes, it only does so temporarily and then goes back to normal.

I've re-enabled the Shockwave Flash plugin cause it's just impossible to keep it off, but I've kept the others disabled. I read on another forum someone who had a similar problem and solved it by disabling then re-enabling Flash. So I'm not sure if it seems to be solved for me because I've disabled the plugin responsible, or if it was Flash and all it needed was disabling and re-enabling.

I suspect it also has to do with the tabs I keep open. There's a number of tabs like my email, Facebook, Tumblr and Seesmic (a Twitter client) that I keep open in the background since I'm going to be checking them periodically anyway. But they refresh themselves in the background apparently and the longer they're open the more CPU they use.

Seesmic in particular seems to hog the CPU when it's been open a long time. I found that simply reloading the Seesmic page was enough to shave 10% off my CPU usage at times. With Tumblr and Facebook, I can save even more CPU usage by keeping those tabs on pages on those sites that don't automatically refresh. Which is kind of a no-brainer when I phrase it like that.

I should also say that while figuring this out, I made pretty heavy use of a program called Process Explorer, which is basically a heavy-duty Task Manager that lets you see a lot better what's going on in a process. I won't post a link in case that's against the rules, but it definitely helped.

 

[metalmania31]

You know this where I run different browsers so that the cpu and memory are spread out and not being used solely by the one browser. I found this helps. For example I use chrome to stream video or audio radio shows and then surf the net on FF. I found this helped me out tremendously. Cause Chrome does a better job in my experience for media streams, while I still can't live without all my custom settings for FF so I surf the forums, news, etc using that instead.

 

[reddleman]

I do the same thing. Firefox always seems to stutter with streaming video no matter what the CPU usage is, but Firefox is also so much better in other areas.