Tech: Firefox always slow?

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 11:35 PM

Seems to have done the trick for sure. Thanks, again, guys.

(I wish, Bill. It'd be wonderful to have you folks out!)

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 10:42 PM

ads! If adblock is not running, Amaz*n will load dozens of 'helpful' links, and nothing will run until Amaz*n (pardon the cuss word) is happy.

(sure, kat... nice Western vacation ... I MISS Colorado!)

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 09:27 PM

"I coulda sworn I had AdBlock. I remember having it earlier, but when I looked it was not there."

When you get an upgraded version of Firefox, it checks to see if the plugins are compatible, then disable them - I didn't know it deleted them. You should regularly get update checks for the plugins - or fo them manually. I think I have a plugin that checks for updates to the plugins.... :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 07:20 PM

I was thinking about sending you an airline ticket, Bill.*bg* Nice little trip out West for you and Rita...a real vacation, eh?:-)

Thanks for the links. I will download that browser. The funny thing is, until Foolestroupe mentioned it, I coulda sworn I had AdBlock. I remember having it earlier, but when I looked it was not there. So...just added it with the recommended list and voilà! Took me less than four seconds to follow your link and, keep your fingers crossed, I think that is what has been happening...in the back of my mind, I kept thinking there's something keeping a page from loading quickly. I *think* ads were the culprits. Will report back after some more browsing. Thanks, guys!!

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 04:51 PM

Just for kicks, kat...you wanta try another browser? There is a liitle thing based on Mozilla, but smaller and pretty fast.
K-Meleon browser.

It's not some silly plaything, but a respected minor player. I know some folks who use it as their default browser. It could at least keep you out of IE until you get things solved.

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 02:34 PM

I dunno... *I* have 12 tabs open and 27 add-ons it checks, and the only remotely slow-ish thing is just loading the program and refreshing those tabs. Once it was loaded, Mudcat was refreshed in about 2 sec. flat.

This site http://www.refdesk.com/index.html took about 4 seconds.

I'll be right over and mess with it....*grin*...

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 02:19 PM

I tried AdAware, last night, new download, but got rid of it because it showed me stuff it said was "wrong" BUT wanted money to fix. I will get AdBlocker.

BillD, I checked the CPU processes, as you suggested, clicking on Forum Menu on Mudcat to see what it would show. The only things which showed any activity were: kpff4gui.exe at just a small percent and System Idle Pr?? at 99&, but the CPU shows only 2-5-5% as I was trying to do things.

My hard drive is almost empty. I have over 80% clear and empty.

Peter, I will check the out of date add-ons.

Thanks, fellahs!

kat

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 02:02 PM

One thing to check is Task Manager (ctrl-alt-delete) open it, then try something in Firefox and switch to Task Manager 'processes' and look to see exactly what is using CPU... it 'may' be that your firewall or AV is set to scan a bunch of stuff. If it IS Firefox itself, then you need to go thru your menus to see what you have set.
   I am just trying the 'noscript' add-on, which allows setting controls on individual pages...with many options... but it requires some twiddling and study. Plain old AdBlock might be enough.
It's hard to diagnose without sitting there, clicking options...

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: Old Vermin
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 01:55 PM

Running Firefox 3.6.8 on XP SP 3 - works fine, fingers crossed.

That said, Mudcat isn't the quickest site to load.

Your hard drive got enough empty space?

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: MikeL2
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 09:45 AM

hi

FWIW I run both EI and Firefox on XP, Vista and now as from this week Win7.

I don't use EI unless there is a problem with FF.

I don't have any problems with any of them. Nor is there any significant difference in speed of performance as far as I can see.

From a pure operating point of view I find Win7 a bit disappointing after reading all the blurbs about the vast improvements of 7 over Vista.

Some of this may well be my learning curve on 7 and maybe I will find improvements as I get more experienced in using the new OS.

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 09:24 AM

Firefox no longer supports the Java console and should have it disabled in the latest versions. Could that be your problem? Look at the page of discontinued plug-ins (via the add ons window)

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 08:32 AM

"Still it is so damn slow, it can go 2-3 minutes with nothing in the progress bar, then if I stop it and hit refresh, it may start, but get just to the very end and never quite complete the process to the site or page desired."

Do you have AdBlock installed? Some pages have a million extra bits that AdBlock can remove once you fine tune it, thus making many pages appear to load faster, cause you are not waiting for stuff/junk/potential malware that times out, but the page often won't finish loading till it all comes in.

I wouldn't recommend anybody NOT use Adblock....

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Aug 10 - 10:44 PM

Same here, art. Had it, but downloaded it again, this evening. Avast full scan just found NO Threats. My Rog uses Firefox but only Windows for virus, firewall, etc. and has never had any problems. Quick as lightening; says they do the same at work. I am wondering if I might just back outta all of the programs but them and see what happens.

katdesperate;->

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: artbrooks
Date: 13 Aug 10 - 10:03 PM

Current version is 3.6.8. Yours?

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Aug 10 - 09:46 PM

I am to the point where I hate Firefox. I have checked the processes, dumped the cache, temp fies, done the disc cleanup, defrag, etc. Right now I am on IE just out of frustration, but I will not use it as a rule. Don't like it nor trust it.

I don't have extra tabs left open, always careful about that. I don't use any add-ons but a language dictionary for spelling and a java console and a java quickstart. I am running Sunbelt firewall, free version and Avast virus protection. I have also run Spybot. Still it is so damn slow, it can go 2-3 minutes with nothing in the progress bar, then if I stop it and hit refresh, it may start, but get just to the very end and never quite complete the process to the site or page desired.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated. (I know I've been here before. That time avg was the culprit.)

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 06:14 PM

I have only one problem with it---when posting to my blog it won't format things the same way IE does (vertical)so I switch to that when I post. Don't know why that happens but, other than that, it works just fine. I believe my computer is a bit slow since both IE and FF start slowly ---which might be a problem because of Norton.

Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Jan 10 - 07:14 PM

I see I am late...but I'll comment anyway.

With the recent ability of browsers to have multiple tabs open and save sessions, you may open to one tab and forget, as WYS did, that 'stuff' may be going on in other tabs...depending on what you left open last time. I have had a browser seem slow, then heard noise, and realized that another tab had some YouTube video running.

My solution, such as it is, is to put regularly watched but heavy-on-the-resources sites on my 'personal toolbar', or in bookmarks, and not leave them open.
(and it's different in Opera as opposed to Firefox )

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Jan 10 - 05:34 PM

Solved:

<> Looked at and left alone the paging file
<> Looked at and modified the Firefox add-ons-- removing all those I'd thought I would use and wasn't using
<> Looked at and removed any programs of any type not being used

Firefox still ran very slow, so I axed axed History/Cache and lost all my cookies, including some cookies that will be hard to recover. Still slow.

So I axed the home-tab for the crazy-media-rich site I like best for hockey news-- and instantly got speed.

Rearranged my bookmarking folders and BINGO, quick Firefox.


On the office puder I'll keep those older cookies I lost on the LR puder, and just axe the hockey.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: NormanD
Date: 27 Dec 09 - 02:52 PM

I use FFox on two Macs: one OS10.6 using AVG and this 8-year-old model 10.3.9 using some other free anti-virus prog. I have no problems to speak of - can keep multiple pages open, scroll quickly, etc. The older machine has lots of occasional jumps on YouTube visuals, although the sound's OK. Mac rather than Windows shouldn't make much difference, should it?

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: olddude
Date: 27 Dec 09 - 12:59 PM

Norton is an absolute problem with me, once I got rid of that on my machines everything took off, now I only use Mcafee and I like it

Dan

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: GUEST,woodsie
Date: 27 Dec 09 - 12:56 PM

I have an old fujitsu seimens laptop running firefox with AVG (free) and firefox takes ages to start on that.

For my three other machines - Advent desktop, HP laptop & Asus netbook I bought Kapersky 2010 because of the great reviews, but found it to be fartoo intrusive and slowed everything down - since upgrading to windows 7, I have installed panda global security on all three and uninstalled IE. I am now using chrome on the asus and firefox on the others. The fastest by far is chrome/panda on the asus!

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: GUEST,woodsie
Date: 27 Dec 09 - 12:43 PM

Don - you mention Norton - That could be the cause - I've always found it to be an intrusive piece of software - is it the common denominator (apart from firefox of course) amongst the machines?

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Dec 09 - 12:01 PM

Guest, either join or give yourself a permanent guest name or your posts might be deleted.

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 10:52 PM

Joe - be wary of geeks wrapped in clouds.

All that glitters is not neither gold nor chrome.

There is no "free lunch" especially in the world of $400 stocks.

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 07:42 AM

I have never had a problem with Firefox, except when my security went crazy and double opened all its functions, so I removed and reinstalled my security, also I went to firefox and updated it. I did have a problem with Adobe with an auto update that slowed it all down so I rebooted that too and switched off auto update, that has stopped any further trouble, I hope this helps, and Merry Christmas

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 02:33 AM

Professional forums always recommend going through the list of add-ons and eliminating any that you don't need as these can slow things down a lot sometimes. The dialogue for managing add-ons is in the Tools menu.

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Dec 09 - 10:59 PM

...and I've found Google Chrome to be much faster. A very few Websites won't work with Google Chrome, but I have more problems with 64-bit Internet Explorer.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: artbrooks
Date: 25 Dec 09 - 10:35 PM

Like others, I find that FF is fast, even more so with W7. Cleaning out your junk files (Windows Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup), as might clearing your cache (FF Tools>Options>Advanced>click Clear Now).

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Dec 09 - 10:34 PM

I do look at that but I don't always know what the heck the process "names" stand for. These E-machines come preloaded with so much stuff that I have no idea what's supposed to be there and what's not, unless Norton warns me of an intrusion.

I will say that the tower running with only AV and not much of a firewall beyond firewalls circa 2005-ish vintage-- just as slow.

~S~

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Dec 09 - 09:33 PM

Unnamed guest has stated another remedy I thought of after hitting send. It doesn't hurt to do a cleanup every so often, and the control/alt/delete brings up the Task Manager and you can look there to see what is taking up all of the energy.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Dec 09 - 08:54 PM

You already know this but:(in the winter holidays - some are under a grog)

Standard for any browser.

Use CC (Cr@p Cleaner)
Defrag

Then go back and review your settings...somewhere...perhaps...the settings for Cache Size - programs were inadvertantly changed.

You are using a PC so use:
Control
Alt
Delete

See what is working in the background.

Keep an automatic connection log (you can dump it all the time) and examine where the persistant pestilance is pointilated on a global GPS.

Many sites (and Max is playing) have an "ET Phone Home" feature.

Have you visited a "cloud site" i.e. Chrome or a spawn of Virtacore?
(remember the old "Comit Browser?)

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 25 Dec 09 - 08:15 PM

I've been using Firefox for years with XP with good results. It was slow on my Vista laptop, but that, I think, was the fault of Vista. With W7 seems much better.

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: GUEST,Cookieless JohnJ
Date: 25 Dec 09 - 08:07 PM

I use Firefox on Windows 2000, XP and Linux. No problems with speed on any of the machines.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Dec 09 - 07:24 PM

You probably have some other program in there that isn't playing nicely with it. Firefox is fast on mine, but IE was the slowpoke. I finally got rid of AVG and that helped. I don't think getting rid of IE will make a difference. Look at your security programs first. There is a new ad-on for Firefox that gets rid of a lot of the super-cookies out there, but that is a privacy matter, not speed.

SRS

Subject: Tech: Firefox always slow?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Dec 09 - 07:19 PM

Is it just me? Is it viral? Is it dumb comfig?

The problem: Firefox starts slow, stays slow, period. This is true on all machines where I have used it-- OS Windows 98 or 2000... with and without add-ons... a built-up cache.... a spiffy new, fast processor... multiple tabs.... quick-loading home page..... towers to laptops....

???

Will it get any better if I try to de-install IE?

~Susan