Firefox 18 slow and laggy UI and scrolling

[grigor1651]

Hi
After the last update I have a strange problem with Firefox 18 on Windows 8 x64. Interface and scrolling is very slow and laggy. It looks like FPS drops in browser. Animations and is not smooth. Previous version works fine. I've tried run Firefox in safe mode, with new profile, hwa enabled and disabled, reinstall browser, but its doesnt help. I have up to date driver for my Radeon 5650. Please help and sorry about my english.
Thanks

[dfoulkes]

What's your Firewall/AV products... sometimes they don't update their DB's correctly with Firefox updates...

And, you say a new profile... did you test with it before making any changes to it... at all?

[grigor1651]

I use build-in Windows Defender(MSE) and Windows Firewall. About profile, I tested it without any changes. I tried portable version of Firefox 18, but it's lag too.

[dfoulkes]

Hmmm... I don't use MSE nor have Win8 so, I'm not going to be much of a help for your... from what you posted, it looks like you've tried all the basics... the ones I would have suggested.

What kind of cpu activity (use) are you seeing with the Task Mgr when you have Firefox running?

Please help and sorry about my english.
Thanks

And... no problem with your english... it's very good!

[lwman]

I had the same problem and concluded that Firefox 18 is broken. I now use 19 beta and it's performance is much better and seems to be more stable. 18 would crash if I used HWA. 19 works with HWA.

[grigor1651]

CPU usage is low. I've tried 19 beta, but performance is poor too. It's strange because 17 works perfectly. I suppose it's hardware problem...

[dfoulkes]

Almost sounds like MSE has Firefox version 16 locked in there and won't give it up to the new versions... it has happened befor ... and not only with MSE.

Others have closed Firefox and gone into their Firewalls/AV products and found where Firefox in listed in there and deleted that info... once that was done and they started Firefox back up... all was well because those products re-learned about the current version.... might give it some thought and a try?
Maybe more info here..... maybe?
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firewalls

[bumpa]

its not caused by MSE or windows or hardware
I am running Lubuntu linux 12.10 distro and FF18 has start times at least double the last version, very annoying...just using Chromium for now, when I need the quickness

[DanRaisch]

bumpa, perhaps it's not caused by MSE or Windows or hardware in your case but let's allow the OP to reach such conclusions for their own system. They ARE running Windows and MSE and may have significantly different hardware than you do.

[dfoulkes]

its not caused by MSE or windows or hardware
I am running Lubuntu linux 12.10 distro and FF18 has start times at least double the last version, very annoying...just using Chromium for now, when I need the quickness

I've read very, very few posts around here that relate to this kind of slowness that the OP is having... and most issues have been bad extensions... AND the OP's posts don't even discuss start times ... so, at this point my assumption is that the OP's start times are fine... sounds like you have an unrelated issue.... and have tried starting Firefox in safe-mode yet?

[grigor1651]

I turned off firewall and MSE, but is not help. Firefox is not listed in Windows Firewall.

[x917]

I can vouch for this problem existing on Vista Ultimate x64. The very first thing I noticed after upgrading to version 18 was how laggy the scrolling is on some pages, where I can literally see the scrollbar lag behind the mouse cursor. In my experience, the page doesn't even have to be one that you'd expect to lag, like a content-rich page; it could be a simple forum.

I'm just running Avast! here, and it makes no difference whether or not it's enabled. H/W Accelerated browsing and smooth-scrolling are also turned off, as always. No CPU spikes during laggy scrolling, either.

[MarkRH]

No issues here with FF18 in Windows 7 Pro 64bit. I am running Microsoft Security Essentials but not Defender (I think MSE does what Defender does and doesn't want it running at the same time). My Firefox is not listed in Windows Firewall, it's never asked permission to allow it. I am using an NVidia 550Ti though. Using a Windows Classic theme. My start times are very quick.

Since I don't have Windows 8 with a Radeon 5650, my experience really doesn't help the OP.

[dfoulkes]

I can vouch for this problem existing on Vista Ultimate x64. The very first thing I noticed after upgrading to version 18 was how laggy the scrolling is on some pages, where I can literally see the scrollbar lag behind the mouse cursor. In my experience, the page doesn't even have to be one that you'd expect to lag, like a content-rich page; it could be a simple forum.

I'm just running Avast! here, and it makes no difference whether or not it's enabled. H/W Accelerated browsing and smooth-scrolling are also turned off, as always. No CPU spikes during laggy scrolling, either.

Did you try safe-mode... or, a new/un-altered profile to see what happens?

[dfoulkes]

I turned off firewall and MSE, but is not help. Firefox is not listed in Windows Firewall.

If you haven't done it already ... you may want to start researching this problem in Google search... it all sounds weird ... and as far as I can tell, you pretty much covered all the basic-bases.

Is your PC an original Win8 OS or was it an upgrade from a prior OS?
And, did it orginally come with some free/installed AV software that you may have uninstalled?

Have you run MalwareBytes in your system? ... just to double check.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/

I'm posting a couple of links here... the first one may not cover you Win8 OS but it has a lot of info...the second link is specific to Win8...
Microsoft Security Essentials - Installation Checklist and Frequently Asked Questions - Experts Community Wiki - Site Root - Windows Experts Community
Windows Defender on Windows 8 - Introduction and Frequently Asked Questions - Experts Community Wiki - Site Root - Windows Experts Community

Beyond that... I'm at a loss here.