Firefox slow to load

[SoftWrightSys]

It's got to be something about your specific configuration. Are you running 32-bit or 64-bit Vista? Are you running .NET? (I've heard of some flakiness with running Firefox and .NET simultaneously, though I haven't observed it myself on any of the platforms I've tried it on). And anything from Adobe seems to increase the flakiness quotient of any machine it's installed on. Etc. Though, again, I haven't seen this particular behavior even on machines fully loaded with things like Acrobat, Flash, .NET, etc - including even that minimalistic Vista Ultimate machine mentioned earlier.

I wouldn't necessarily discount yet the possibility of hardware problems. Sometimes hardware problems don't manifest themselves very obviously until you upgrade to a new version of some software product that happens to trip over whatever weakness there is in the hardware. Have you tried running any hardware diagnostics - for example memtest86 (either at http://www.memtest86.com or http://www.memtest.org) or any of the CPU diagnostic programs?

I'd also be tempted to try a completely clean install - a new install of Vista on that specific box and on a new disk (or at least a new partition) and a new install of Firefox. I realize that can be a bit of a problem if you don't have lots of spare parts lying around and/or lots of test boxes, but it may be revealing (in either direction).

[pedum]

@ Harlequinn99

I uninstalled FF 3.5 RC2 as you stated. I then deleted the program files\Mozilla Firefox folder, and reinstalled FF 3.5 RC2 and created a new profile, disabled all 16 plug-ins, and then started it again. Before and after disabling the plug-ins it still took 1.5 to 2.0 minutes to load.

@ SoftWrightSys

I am running the 32-bit of Windows Vista Home Premium SP2.

Nope, I haven't tried any hardware diagnostics.

I only have this one PC.

[SoftWrightSys]

16 plug-ins - yikes, that's a lot, it might well be any one of them, or some interaction between two or more of them. I'm not sure I'd trust "disabling" them, I'd rather remove them all completely. Have you verified that they're all supposed to work with FF 3.5? - not all of the add-ons for 3.0 will work on 3.5.

The usual way to try to trouble-shoot things like this is to get a minimal installation that works, and then add things until it fails. You can also try to start with a failing system and remove add-ons or other software until it works. but that can be problematic - the removal process doesn't always remove everything.

[pedum]

Using the stuff below, and now Firefox 3.5 RC2 loaded in about 6-8 seconds one time, then froze the times after the 1st.

I did a Google search for "firefox 3.5 slow", and came across this link, which is a Mozilla support thread I believe.

http://is.gd/1cFbO

I used Vista's Disk Cleanup to clean up Temporary Files.

Will let you all know how things go.

[pedum]

@ SoftWrightSys

I created a new profile, with no add-ons nor plug-ins, and still had the same problem. BTW, how would I delete the plug-ins? I can enable and disable them from the Tools >> Add-Ons menu, but see nothing for deleting them.

[pedum]

Well, I even installed FF 3.5 RC3, and still have the same problems. Perhaps my years of using FF are coming to an end.

[Harlequin99]

@ Harlequin99

What specifically, would fall under the category of "Globally Installed Plugins"?

If I create a new profile and look under the plugins tab of the addons dialog I see plugins for flash, picasa, MS office 2003, Silverlight, Windows Live Photo Gallery amongst others.

I used the phrase 'globally installed' just mean they show up enabled even in a brand new profile, and I fairly sure they are still enabled even in safe mode. I thought by manually disabling these in a new profile you could at least eliminate them as a source of your problems.

[pedum]

Well, as I mentioned above, at one point I disabled all 16 of the plug-ins and the problem did not go away.

Also, as I said above... I have never had any problem in the past upgrading to a newer FF, until 3.5.

FF 3.5 is the only program on my computer I am having a problem(s) with.

[pedum]

This is the latest thing I did. I completely uninstalled FF 3.5 RC3. Did not save anything, except I exported my bookmarks before deleting it. Did not save any profiles, configurations, settings, etc. Saved nothing.

I then reinstalled FF 3.5 RC3, and then imported my bookmarks.

Get this though... when I check my Tools >> Add-Ons there are none except for the recommended ones available for me to install. But 2 extensions are there... AVG SafeSearch 8.5, and Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.1. Also, all 16 plug-ins I had before are there. How on Earth are the 2 extensions and 16 plug-ins there from my clean install, with no Firefox directory remaining from my uninstall?

The bottom line is this.... it still takes 1.5 to 2.0+ minutes to load. Don't know what else to do.

[Stifu]

How on Earth are the 2 extensions and 16 plug-ins there from my clean install, with no Firefox directory remaining from my uninstall?

Could be in Document and Settings? There is a check box to completely erase your profile when uninstalling Firefox, I think, I take it you checked it?

I had a similar problem on another computer, 2 extensions haunting me even in a new profile (Session Manager and some Video downloader), and at least one of them slowed down Firefox 3.5 startup dramatically. Just disabled them, and the problem was fixed.

[SoftWrightSys]

Could be in Document and Settings? There is a check box to completely erase your profile when uninstalling Firefox, I think, I take it you checked it?

IIRC, depending on how Vista was installed on that computer, the per-user files might also be in \Winnt\Profiles or \Users. Warning: The structure of this directory tree is a little different under Vista. It's not too hard to browse through it however.

[Stifu]

From my experience, Users = Document and Settings.

[Jim too]

This is the latest thing I did. I completely uninstalled FF 3.5 RC3. Did not save anything, except I exported my bookmarks before deleting it. Did not save any profiles, configurations, settings, etc. Saved nothing.

I then reinstalled FF 3.5 RC3, and then imported my bookmarks.

Get this though... when I check my Tools >> Add-Ons there are none except for the recommended ones available for me to install. But 2 extensions are there... AVG SafeSearch 8.5, and Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.1. Also, all 16 plug-ins I had before are there. How on Earth are the 2 extensions and 16 plug-ins there from my clean install, with no Firefox directory remaining from my uninstall?

The bottom line is this.... it still takes 1.5 to 2.0+ minutes to load. Don't know what else to do.

The .NET Assistant is in the windows folder with a registry entry (created by .net) telling Firefox where to find. Firefox finds 3rd party plugins in the folders where those plugins are installed. Not everything that FIrefox uses is a the Firefox folder structure. I am wondering whether a file Firefox is accessing is tripping the anti-virus software into a more in depth analysis of the file which is eating all the time.

(war story) I had a system long ago that would lock up for 2-3 minutes during boot. It turned out that the antivirus software took that long to determine that a 200KB file wasn't infected. Happened on the first reboot after an automatic signature update which is why I took awhile to associate the problem with a file scan. Once I excluded the file from virus scanning the lock up went away.(/war story)

Can you see if there is lots of I/O and/or processor being used during the 2-3 minute Firefox start-up period?

[a;skdjfajf;ak]

AVG Safe-search has been a known problem with Firefox, remove it and see what happens.

Do you use NoScript ? See this post:
http://hackademix.net/2009/06/24/net-cl ... mporarily/

[pedum]

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