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firefox is slow at all times

  • 16 replies
  • 385 have this problem
  • 18 views
  • Last reply by shelleyowens

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Firefox is extremely slow for the past couple of weeks. I can't even open my banking site. I can't scroll or type without painful delays. I keep seeing the color wheel spinning and then after several seconds, it seems whatever is happening is finished and things return to normal for a few more seconds and then I get the same thing. Everything is fine on Safari.

This happened

Every time Firefox opened

== I think it started when I updated to 3.6.3

Firefox is extremely slow for the past couple of weeks. I can't even open my banking site. I can't scroll or type without painful delays. I keep seeing the color wheel spinning and then after several seconds, it seems whatever is happening is finished and things return to normal for a few more seconds and then I get the same thing. Everything is fine on Safari. == This happened == Every time Firefox opened == I think it started when I updated to 3.6.3

Chosen solution

Do you use any add-ons? If so I suggest disabling them and see if that fixes the problem. You then can re-activate them individually to find the one, which caused the problem.

If that doesn't help, it often helps to recreate your profile (check out the knowledge base for more information on how to do this).

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All Replies (16)

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Chosen Solution

Do you use any add-ons? If so I suggest disabling them and see if that fixes the problem. You then can re-activate them individually to find the one, which caused the problem.

If that doesn't help, it often helps to recreate your profile (check out the knowledge base for more information on how to do this).

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In the past I had removed ALL add-ons and still have problems with spinning balls and pages not loading and numerous time where the "page can't be found" and I have to try again. I do not have any of these issues with Safari so it IS about Firefox. I get so sick and tired and waiting for pages to load and even waiting while it takes so long just to quit Firefox. I'm about ready to quit using it altogether and to to Safari all the time.

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I have (2) macs, one running 10.5.x and one running 10.6. The problem has been going on for about 5 months now. And it started before I started using any kind of add-ons. The behavior is that I can be typing (like right now) and after about 50 or 60 characters, I get the color spinning wheel for about 3 seconds, then all of then I can start typing again. Or I can go grab the blue scroll bar and I get the 3-4 second spinning wheel and then it lets me scroll. The only think i have found that fixes it is to make a new profile. I have done this 3 times now and the problem goes away for about a week, but it keeps coming back. I really hope someone can figure out what is going one and how to fix it.

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The spinning ball shows up about once every minute and last, i.e., delays action, for about five seconds at each occurrence.

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P.S. It does NOT happen in Safari.

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TO: All RE: Spinning Ball Solution

I've a number of add-ons with my Firefox. I disabled ALL of them except 1-Click YouTube Downloader 1.5.

I am, at present, no longer experiencing the spinning ball delay.

I have not taken the time to isolate which add-on(s) were contributing to the problem, at this point. Got too much other stuff to do. However, here are the names of the add-ons I disabled.

  • CodeBurner for Firebug 1.5.2
  • CoolPreviews 3.1.0625
  • Download YouTube Videos as MP4 and FLV 1.0.8
  • DrupalForFirebug 0.0.7
  • Firebug 1.5.4
  • Firefinder for Firebug 1.01
  • Greasemonkey 0.8.20100408.6
  • Adobe Contributor Toolbar 6.0

Additionally, I'll admit I uninstalled one add-on, but I cannot recall the name of it. And it might have been the offender, as I didn't recognize it's name and could not recall installing it in the first place. So I uninstalled it. I regret no knowing it's name.

Regards,

Chuck

Modified by cbpelto@pcisys.net

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I'm running Mac OS 10.6.4. The problem showed up right after I upgraded to Firefox 3.6.12 a few days ago. I have NONE of the add-ons listed by cbpelto. I'd update my profile, but consider it useless given datasound's experience.

Mozilla: Please fix this soon. I dread having to use Sarari!

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I have to agree! I am having the extreme slowness in every aspect of navigation and typing into text boxes after updating to 3.6.12. However I am still running XP SP3. Thanks. BTW, MS IE7 seems to be fine so I am attributing this issue to Firefox not my Fios connection which show 'excellent' connectivity.

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I have the same problem! Intel I5, 4 gb ram, 2.27 Ghz, Windows 7, 64-bit. New version of FF is painfully slow, can't download some pages. Tried disabling add-ons, running antivirus and antimalware, went into about:config, etc., but problem remains the same. Thanks to FF for many years of bliss, but now tired of snail pace. Switching to Google Chrome. Bye-bye.

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Here is a checklist - print it out, as you might need it later on:

1. Run your antivirus and if installed your ad/malware software to delete virus and/or other shit.

2. Be sure than you don't have any extra menubars installed in Firefox except the FF originals (sometimes so called free software you download add extra bars in your browser and besides very little use of it your FF will run extra slow....) If so UNINSTALL them.

3. Disable ALL addons in your Addon-manager. Restart FF.

4. Did this helped, then you know some of your add-ons interfer. and then you can enabled them one by one. Start with the oldest installed and work yourself forward until you find the addon-problem. Restart after each install to make sure it work.

5. Sometimes it's not enough to just disable a addon, then you have to uninstall it first. Start with newest installed addon and work yourself backwards until you find the problem. Restart after each install to make sure it work.

6. Create a new (extra) profile. Make sure to exit FF first. Hit the "Windows Start" key (you find it between the Ctrl and Alt keys) + hit "R" key. Then you see a dialogbox, write "firefox.exe -p" (without the quotationmarks ). Click on Create to add a new profile, rename it as you wish (do not delete your old profile, so you can switch back if this don't work). Restart with the new profile. Did this worked then your old profile is probably corrupt - which means that you have to delete the old profile = repeat the process, until you find the box where you can delete the profile. Then, reinstall your addons..... Try to keep them as FEW as possible. Start with install the most important addon for you, and continue down on the "important-list". Restart after each install to make sure it work.

7. If the new profile didn't helped you, then finally uninstall FF. This means that you also have to check the box where you delete all personal data, etc = you will delete your profiles = all your personal options, bookmarks, addons... all.... (you will see that when you run then uninstall of FF)

Before you do that, you can copy the old profile to a new map - outside of the Mozilla map ofcourse - (to extract your bookmarks later on, for instans) by follow this lane: c:\user\[username]\Appdata\Roaming\Mozillla\Firefox\Profiles\....

Make sure there is no remaining maps or files related to Firefox or Mozilla. If you have a registry-cleaner software (there are serveral good sw out there, I like this one who is a universal clean sw, also containing the registry search tool http://www.yamicsoft.com/ the sw is called Windows 7 Manager) you can run that program to remove also the registry posts. Search for "firefox" and "mozilla". Restart your computer. Your computer should now be totally clean from all old trace of Firefox.

Finally, install latest version of Firefox at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ or latest version beta version at ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central/ ,and work yourself forward with the installation of your addons, etc.

8. Now, you should have fixed the problems you had before. If not, you are in serious trouble.... ;)

If you belongs to those people who think that your loading time of the FF is slow, you could check out my solutions here: https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/762446 - perhaps it help you.

For those who like to tweak, or understand more how FF works I can recommend the excellent FF guide http://www.tweakguides.com/Firefox_1.html

Here is the links to latest FF: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

And here is the link to latest beta version: ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/

If you use the beta versions of FF 4.0, make sure install the addon from Mozilla https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/15003/ to make sure that your addons will work under FF 4.0

Sorry if you find my English terrible, nevermind I'm from Sweden :)

Good luck, and take care!

Write to me if you didn't succeed, and explain your problem as detailed as possible - I will do what I can to help you - aaa_dp_aaa@hotmail.com

Modified by SuperPutte

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I agree with the original poster about this issue, except that it was not 3.6.3.. I waited until 3.6.7 to download 3.6 .. it IS 3.6 itself that is the issue!

i NEVER EVER had this issue on 3.5 and as a matter of fact have 3.5.17 on my netbook with a SLOWER wifi connection than this machine (high speed DSL) and it loads faster pages in Firefox.

    • It is a 3.6 issue.** It is likely not an addon issue (i have removed or have nearly all but a bare minimum disabled). It is not a malware issue. It is THIS BUILD 3.6.

[I HAD a serious malware issue, cleaned, fixed, repaired and throughout it all, Firefox performance did not change. It did not get worse or better. The slow down began with the upgrade to 3.6. I have seriously thought about going back to 3.5.17 but I don't know how that would work. I cannot lose any of my bookmarks, passwords, etc.]

The end of December I added Avast! I have recently removed all traces of Symantec/Norton security suite and am using Avast for firewall too (latest 6.0 internet security). Firefox has remained unchanged. Slow.. pages don't load.. takes 1 min or longer for me to begin to see the page loading bar moving about 75% of the time.

I would like to know what is different in 3.6 and 3.5 under the covers? I know they added unnecessary "Frills" like themes (which if you use will make FF slow and consume many more resources than if you don't use). But what else was changed. Firefox 3.6 has been and remains pure H3LL for me!

I work on my websites on this computer and have my domain email online. I am on the internet continually, and since I upgraded to 3.6 in the end or middle of Nov 2010, it has been brutal.

Wish that Firefox/Mozilla would pay a bit more attention to this thread!

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On a Mac running 10.5.8 I tried to create a new profile in the Terminal. It crashed! No can do.

Now what?

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Try changing the about:config settings.

Here's a summary of most of the config settings:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_:_FAQ ... ig_Entries

Here's a useful Youtube tutorial on how to change some of the settings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGYggczgyo8

and another website that describes some useful tricks:

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10thin ... -hacks/719

Geeky stuff, but my Firefox 4.01 did speed up. Turning on the pipelining feature makes a big difference.

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4.01 runs a lot faster for me now

Modified by vrmgi

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I did 4 things and ff started running super fast, faster than I ever remember it running ever. I'm not sure which action was responsible or how or why, but this is what I remember doing/happening between when it was running excruciatingly slowly, and when it started running super fast.

1)I typed in About: config. This took me to a page with all these true/false choices. The item I was looking for wasn't there (disable ipv6), so I changed nothing. 2) I opened google chrome and use it for awhile (it ran fast, but wouldn't print the post office labels). 3) I synchronized my Xmarks 4) I entered "firefox.exe -p" into the Windows "run" command line. The Firefox profile box did not open, so I thought that was a bust.

But after doing these things, it runs fast.

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