Firefox slow to load

[pedum]

My 3rd attempt to post in the forums.

This morning, every time I attempted to launch FF 3.5 RC3 it would hang (freeze) and result in "not responding", so I had to end the process to close it. I then uninstalled it. If it only hangs, there is no need for it, right? Came to these forums with IE 8, and twice posted what I will hopefully be able to post below, and received two error messages from the forums itself. Something about a mySQL error.

@ Jim too

Last night I configured my AVG Anti-Virus to not check firefox.exe, but it did not help.

I have not seen any extra I/O and/or processor usage during my usage or attempted usage of FF 3.5. Even the HD activity light doesn't show any "extra" activity.

@ Littlemutt

No, I have not been using NoScript.


@ All

Since I had to remove FF 3.5, since it would only hang, I reinstalled FF 3.0.11. Guess what, it works perfectly. Of course, I no longer have any of my add-ons, since I removed them, etc. during my multiple uninstalls and installs of FF 3.5.

However, at this point I am not inclined to continue using FF 3.0.11, since apparently I won't be able to eventually upgrade to 3.5, which is what I have been trying to do. So perhaps my browser future lies with IE 8 and Google's Chrome.

[pedum]

Well, I did a few more things. For the heck of it, I cleaned, etc. my registry, and reinstalled RC3, but it still only hangs when I launch it. So have removed it again. I know others are having similar problems. Doesn't appear to be many, considering the total number of users, but nevertheless we are having problems with 3.5.

[prius04]

Sounds as if you've tried virtually everything at this point. It's a shame that 3.5 is borked on your machine. Anyway, I suggest the following, if you're willing to continue:

1. Temporarily disable your AV (if you don't feel comfortable doing that, then perhaps try adding ALL Mozilla folders to your AV's exclusion list, not just the executable).

2. There is a portable version of RC2 --> from http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/f ... table/test --< Try downloading that and see if you have any startup (or other) issues. If it doesn't work properly, then at least you could probably exclude registry issues, temp file issues, and the like.

Good luck!

[pedum]

@ prius04

I disabled my AVG Anti-Virus program. I then installed the Firefox portable 3.5 RC2. I launched it 3 times, and each time took about 1 minute 40 seconds to load. It didn't hang up though. But, I then activated my Anti-Virus program, and launched FF portable again, and as before, it took about 1 minute 40 seconds to load. So what would this tell us? Not hanging up, but still taking a long time to load.

Thank you.

[Ngamer01]

Forgive me if you've already addressed this, but do you have a lot of bookmarks including Live Bookmarks?

Sometimes I get temporarily hung up when Firefox is checking my Live Bookmarks for updates. I also notice my WinPatrol (a PC shield program) tends to slow down Firefox sometimes when Scotty (WinPatrol's mascot) is checking my computer for unauthorized changes. But the slowdowns I sometimes get aren't really that troublesome to me. I just thought mentioning all of this might help you reveal what's slowing you down when using Firefox.

EDIT - Oh yeah. Now that I remember, do note that Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc. will never match IE in initial startup time. This is because IE is embedded within Windows Explorer. So IE starts faster as parts of it are already loaded when you start Windows.

[pedum]

@ Ngamer01

Thanks for the comments, etc.

I don't have what I would say are many bookmarks, and I have no Live Bookmarks.

Regarding the slow start-up. Firefox 3.0.11 and all previous versions have all started within 5-10 seconds. IE8 starts up that quickly too. Only with Firefox 3.5 have I had the problems with slow start-ups and hangs. Taking 1.5 to 2.0 minutes is way too slow. No other program on my computer comes anywhere close to taking that long to load.

Another thing...

Wonder why, I only have problems posting to these forums when I try to use IE8. Had to load Firefox Portable (slow loading) to post this. Anyone else have that problem?

When I use IE8 to try to post to these forums I get this displayed on the forums page...

General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysql4 ]

Data too long for column 'poster_ua' at row 1 [1406]

An SQL error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact the Board Administrator if this problem persists.


Thanks.

[Harald.L]

The user agent of your browser is appended to each post. Perhaps your IE8 agent is too long because of many .NET framework appendices, check here: http://www.microsystools.com/services/http-user-agent/ what your IE8 agent is. My IE8 shows:

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR 3.5.21022; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)

There are two ways to fix this: 1. you can uninstall unneeded .NET framework versions (wasn't meant serious) or 2. the forum database has to change the maximum length for the user agent field or otherwise to simply clip it if too long

[Stifu]

I had a similar problem on another computer (...) and the problem was fixed.

Never mind, the problem is still there.

On a side note, there are 2 Windows sessions / users on the computer it's happening on. Only one of the two suffers from the very long startup time, the other one is fine.

[Jim too]

Does getting rid of the .net extension change the start-up time?

[prius04]

...There are two ways to fix this: 1. you can uninstall unneeded .NET framework versions (wasn't meant serious) or 2. the forum database has to change the maximum length for the user agent field or otherwise to simply clip it if too long...

Zero knowledge on this so --> Is it a common practice for boards append user agents to posts? I can understand why it would be of interest on this particular board but not so much on a board the subject of which is something other than software or otherwise computer-related. Regardless, My IE8 is pretty doggone close to yours yet I'm not getting any kind of an error message (at least not one that's apparent).

[prius04]

Does getting rid of the .net extension change the start-up time?

But would the portable version contain the .NET extension? BTW, the portable version of RC3 is now available:

http://portableapps.com/news/2009-06-26 ... e_3.5_rc_3

EDIT: Gotta be some sort of scanning (or a facsimile thereof) going on with these >1 minute start-up times. If ANY version of ANY browser I was using, installed or portable, took much longer than ~15 seconds to start, I would immediately begin looking for a replacement. Not one version of Fx I have tried has taken longer than ~10 seconds to load for a cold start and ~4 seconds for a warm start and my hardware is far from current (processor & video card are at least 4 years old). OTOH, I've run some security software that were just horribly incompatible with a few of my installed programs, so much so that I had to remove them entirely; exclusion lists didn't work.

[a;skdjfajf;ak]

Firefox does not 'contain' any version of .NET, its on your PC, Firefox only picks up the fact its there and adds it to your list of plugins. I don't know anything about the portable version, but I don't think portable uses any plugins.

Did you download and install the SP1 update for the .NET plugin ? Once its installed you can just open Tools->Addons->Plugins and 'uninstall' the .NET plugin from Firefox. Prior to the update to the >NET plugin for Firefox it took a registry hack to remove, now its not needed.

I have run with and without the .NET plugin and never noted any slowdown during startup that was out of the what appears 'norm' for my system.

Why don't you take a few minutes and just remove AVG and all its components and see what happens. I'm not sure that 'disabling' as you stated above really turns off the AV, as many cannot just be stopped these days as a self-protect against malware doing the same thing, turning it off.

[prius04]

...Why don't you take a few minutes and just remove AVG and all its components and see what happens...

Yes, an excellent suggestion.....that and any other security software that might be installed. That portable version just should not be taking 1.5-2 minutes to load.

[Harald.L]

Zero knowledge on this so --> Is it a common practice for boards append user agents to posts?

No, this is the only one I know. Here it makes sense because many people post issues but can't tell you correctly (or simply forget to mention) which build they use. Assuming they post with the browser that has the problem you immediately see it below the post. And as this should usually be a mozilla browser they didn't think of ridiculous long user agents of other browsers.

[Stifu]

I uninstalled my antivirus (wanted to switch anyway, from Sophos to Avast!), rebooted, and the problem was still there. So it has to be something else.

Edit: I stumbled on this: http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_fo ... &forumId=1
I ran Ccleaner and cleaned up all the temp trash, I'll see if it works next time I reboot...