Solved Firefox very slow [not the usual cause?]

[Gideau]

Hi all

I've been on a brand new build and after a few weeks it turned out my Seasonic X660 PSU seemed to be going bad on a handful occasions (cursor freezes, sudden restarts, ...; got the GigaByte boot loops as well).

I'm sure one or all these instances had Firefox 15 opened, but I don't feel it was the cause. But IMO, one of the freezes or restarts damaged something that FF needs.

I'm back up now with my older PSU. Firefox still starts up instantly but is loading pages slower than an old phone modem, if at all [currently fresh install, no extensions]
I first followed all the regular tips, then reinstalled, the 2nd time trying to delete everything I could find from Mozilla first, but it keeps on doing it... IE 9 is fine.

I did an "sfc /scannow" and "check disk" with no problems found. Also explicitly letting it through Windows firewall. So I'm figuring Mozilla is using some part of Windows that IE doesn't need and may be damaged?

I feel lost without Firefox and ran it very fast and perfectly with 25 extensions...

Any clue? Would I have a better chance with an older version that maybe didn't use certain technology yet? (haven't asked in the Mozilla forums yet, cause I'm considering you guys smarter )

If this could be found, it might be the cause for other users too.

Thanks!

 

[UsernameIssues]

Welcome to the Seven Forums.

You might want to try Process Monitor to see just what Firefox is doing (or not doing).

See this post for some info on filtering:
http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/252949-missing-start-menu-icons-2.html#post2105453

edit: you would not want to limit the returns to those impacting only the registry... you want to see all activity by Firefox.

 

[Gideau]

Thank you x2

Here's a log from Procmon: log

I monitored while starting it up and auto-loading this page (some of it was already cached).
Then at 8:15 I'm loading another page slowly.

TIA!

Edit: just saw your edit... I only have the register activity, it seems. Will look into it again.

 

[Gideau]

Here's one starting up FF and auto-loading google.be: Procmon log [link now working]

Included all but profiling events.

 

[UsernameIssues]

sorry - someone else will need to look at it... I only have W7 32bit.



edit: btw - all of the data is captured, the buttons in the upper right just filter what you see of that total that was collected.

 

[Gideau]

Oops...

What intuitively strikes me most is a bunch of "FAST IO DISALLOWED" results...

I'm gonna try and find a much older FF version now.

Edit: v5 works well and I let it self-update and it became v12 working well.

 

[Gideau]

I installed 15 again in a seperate "full_access" folder outside the Program Files ones and it's working.

I had been guessing for a while it may have had to do with the whole "Administrator" stuff I have never researched or wanted to use. So at Windows install, I may have opted for what I thought would remove this (like I could in XP) and maybe deleted some field, not filled out a password, or something like that.

I just wish to be always in Administrator mode or whatever, just as long as I have no hassles like these... I hope there's a fix for that if I look it up? Or is that not possible?

Still doesn't explain why it worked before though.

BTW: I've just had two major cursor freezes in the previous FF installs. It always starts with one or two and then it's definite, can't even view the task manager anymore. "I hope" this is from FF itself (I think so) and my system is stable.

 

[Gideau]

Getting cursor freeze in 15 as well. Didn't use to have them *that* much before...

Nightmare scenario...

Last hope is FF 16 betas, I guess...

If not:
- any other browser that loads FF extensions?
- what browser is most extensible besides FF? Chrome?

 

[UsernameIssues]

I'm not sure what you are asking - re: administrator mode.

Do you see those "FAST IO DISALLOWED" within Process Monitor when running the Firefox install that works well for you?

You might want to run Process Monitor and stop the data capture as soon as you get cursor control back after a Firefox freeze.

 

[boohbah]

sometimes it helps to create a new profile for firefox, the old profile can be copied across ,which includes settings and extensions etc.

Creating a new Firefox profile on Windows - MozillaZine Knowledge Base

 

[UsernameIssues]

Getting cursor freeze in 15 as well. Didn't use to have them *that* much before...

Nightmare scenario...

Last hope is FF 16 betas, I guess...

If not:
- any other browser that loads FF extensions?
- what browser is most extensible besides FF? Chrome?

I don't add stuff to Firefox or any other browser - so I won't be of much help to you there.

Just for a warm feeling, you might want to do a full scan using WDO...
What is Windows Defender Offline?
...just to make sure that something is not hiding from your antivirus software.

 

[boohbah]

why dont you try starting firefox with the extesions disabled ,to see if there is still a problem .if it loads fine then you have to re enable each extension one at a time until you can find the problem extension ,if that is the case.
in the ff help tab there is the option to restart ff with add ons disabled

i had an extension work fine for a few years and then recently i experienced the same issues as yourself, i have a similar number of extensions, i managed to whittle it down to one problem add on,

it was this one...https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/converter/?src=ss

if you by chance happen to be using it start with disabling it

 

[Gideau]

Been stable for a while now w 25 extensions, but after unchecking every possible auto-update function in the FF options (except for extensions). Might be coincidence, we'll see...
Could also be after I've imported my old bookmarks, so I'll delay that for a while.

sometimes it helps to create a new profile for firefox

I believe I have (had) a special situation where none of these tips are useful, since I've reinstalled many times and it remained the same. I believed something got corrupt after the freezes, but now it turns out it may have to do with the profiles (BTW, I used to have it in XP a few times a year as well, that something seemed to bring me to another profile or something, where I had to give in some of my logins again; this smells a bit like it as well).

I'm not sure what you are asking - re: administrator mode.

My ideal is to have as few profiles as possible [1] and never having to deal with profile and run as Administrator hassles. I believe it is related that some programs (like PowerPro) prefer to be installed in a seperate "full access" folder, so none of this stuff can interfere. It turns out I needed to do this for FF this time as well [that's what I wanna circumvent], so I figure I made a bad decision somewhere when installing Win 7.

In an XP install, I just skipped this Admin password option, I would never get any hassle. In W7, I am and I'm unfamiliar with it. I'd prefer to read up on other stuff, so haven't gotten to it. Just wondering if my ideal "no hassles" mode is possible? [= let me be Admin or one profile all the time, w/o folder restrictions for safety purposes etc.]

Do you see those "FAST IO DISALLOWED" within Process Monitor when running the Firefox install that works well for you?

Yes, I still do...

You might want to run Process Monitor and stop the data capture as soon as you get cursor control back after a Firefox freeze.

Thx, I will. Might just give me time to save the log.

Just for a warm feeling, you might want to do a full scan using WDO...

I don't share the feeling, but I will scan if I get another freeze. I've no AV yet, but was gonna pick Avast. Although I browse *a lot*, I never seem to get any viruses detected, so thinking of leaving it as long as I use legal software. I do use TinyWall as an extra, often Peerblock and sometimes SAS. For less safe browsing, I also plan to use SandboxIE more in the future.

>30 mins w/o freeze. Starting to get hopeful again. I still have to optimize some BIOS settings too, you never know...

Thx again.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Since you are running without any anti-virus software in place, it would be interesting to find out the results of a full scan with an offline scanner such as WDO.

About your admin setup: yes, it is possible to add only one user profile to the profiles that the OS makes/uses. And to have that added user be an admin with no password. The default security settings within W7 protect certain folders. There might be a way around that, I've not looked into it since I like that layer of security.

 

[Slartybart]

Hi Gideau,

About a week ago, I experienced a simlilar slow down.

I was investigating an 'issue' with FF 15 on a different thread.

• I tried creating a new profile
• I re-installed FF
  • intersting side effect was that two FF 15 showed in Program & Features
  • uninstalled 'older' FF - both FF were gone (not really surprised)
  • re-re-installed FF including maintenance service this time

that's when i noticed the slow down - painfully slow

I checked all the other easy things (WU, memory, disk, sfc....) and everything reported Ok. So I began to think FF was the culprit.

I backed up my data in case there was a pending disk failure. Two days later, my machine completely bricked.

I cannot run the OEM recovery disks - an I/O error occurs. I tried the clean install using my COA and windows 7 ISO, but it took 6 hours to load windows.

So is it FF? The rest of my saga points to hardware failures.

I'm trying to figure out if UEFI is causing the I/O errors - there is a tutorial on UEFI. HP stores it's UEFI on the HP_TOOLS partition - so the two processes (seven forums tut and HP) are different.

Anyway.... back up you data NOW. I'll post back if I get anywhere on my machine. At this point I'm probably going to have to RMA it back to HP.

The good news is that I was forced to resurrect my previous machine. I thought it had bit the bullet, but was able to give it new life.

 

[Gideau]

Haven't had a freeze whole day!
My intuition is "pure luck" or rather my changes in Options > Advanced. Like I said, I mainly checked off everything to do with updates and also the spelling check and hardware acceleration (which may be a main contender, I guess, though I could never clearly relate it to a Flash problem here).

Since you are running without any anti-virus software in place, it would be interesting to find out the results of a full scan with an offline scanner such as WDO.

I'm pretty confident, but if that is harmless I don't mind doing it.

Hi Gideau,
About a week ago, I experienced a simlilar slow down.

They are fun aren't they?
I've had pretty traumatic weeks myself. First a 5 y old startup disk crashed unrecoverably (luckily not my most important one) and then the freezes and PSU problem on the new one that took some serious research, trials and guesswork. I feel like I've lost 3 months of my life and still a lot of work transitioning from XP to Win 7.
OTOH, I was very surprised that sfc scannow and disk check gave a faultless result. Guess I'm on my way now. Just a bit weary to import bookmarks, as a previous crash happened soon after that last time.

I may get back to you with the scanning results And as soon as 3TB disks are back in stock, I'll triple backup everything. From SSD to raid 1 and from there to external. Been so stupid all these years!

 

[Slartybart]

The stars must have been out of alignment or something. Sounds as though you're well on your way - that's great. I'll post anything I decide to do that solves my issue. Who knows it might help someone else.

Haven't had a freeze whole day! ......

Hi Gideau,
About a week ago, I experienced a simlilar slow down.

They are fun aren't they? ......

 

[Layback Bear]

In post #13 Giduau (25 extensions). Is that a mis-print? The reason I ask is because I have 3 extensions in Firefox.

 

[Gideau]

In post #13 Giduau (25 extensions). Is that a mis-print?

No, that's exactly right. They all seem to behave and I don't think I got the earlier occasional freezes from them (had the same problems on a clean slate).

I'm testing a few new ones also, so can't be sure if it will hold. But I don't seem to remember ever having clear clashes between them. I do try to read and respect it when they tell it up front of course.

Still going great. Logging off now. If it comes back within the week, I'll let you know.

upd: 6 days later: still working perfectly stable all day long!!