Slugglish Firefox after latest update

[Azagoth]

Everything used to be smooth as abutter, but Firefox applied an update now things are terrible.

• Scrolling on sites is jerky as hell.
  Typing out comments is so so slow that I can type the full comment and then sit back and wait for Firefox to 'type it out'.
  Switching tabs can take seconds, whereas before it was instant.
  Google Images takes forever to scroll through, before it was smooth as anything
  If I hover my cursor over say the back button, it takes 5s for it to recognise the cursor is there and that I've clicked it.
  Same with closing tabs. It takes seconds for the 'x' to register being clicked.

I've tried safe mode, a new blank profile, resetting Firefox, cleaning out cookies and the cache but it's still the same - sluggish as hell. It's at the point where Firefox is basically unusable as a web browser. I know it's not the computer as Chrome works just fine and this is my fast gaming system.

[therube]

> Firefox applied an update

What update was that?


Check (Windows) Task Manager & see if you might not have a rogue, hung firefox.exe process laying about?
If not, then is (your running) firefox.exe eating a high number of CPU?

[malliz]

Anti Virus / Security software?

[Azagoth]

> Firefox applied an update

What update was that?


Check (Windows) Task Manager & see if you might not have a rogue, hung firefox.exe process laying about?
If not, then is (your running) firefox.exe eating a high number of CPU?

Don't know what update it was. It auto-applied when I fired Firefox up. As for Task manager, there's only one instance of Firefox running. That's acting weird though, just sitting here with this one tab open the CPU usage for that single Firefox instance is constantly fluctuating between 5% and 33% and it's using 500MB of RAM.

[DanRaisch]

Anti Virus / Security software?

[Azagoth]

Don't have any AV or security software installed or running, so it's not that.

[Alfred Neuman]

Don't have any AV or security software installed or running, so it's not that.

Maybe THAT is why you are suddenly running slow. You got a virus. LOL

[therube]

(One does not need A/V to surf safely, or for any reason, necessarily.)

[DanRaisch]

(One does not need A/V to surf safely, or for any reason, necessarily.)

You'll find many folks that would disagree with that statement, a majority of them previous victims of malware.

[Alfred Neuman]

(One does not need A/V to surf safely, or for any reason, necessarily.)

That's a statement of authority from one who doesn't know how to find out which version of Firefox they are running.

[kramer182]

Hey I am having the same problems i have version 54.0.1 and it is almost unusable every website takes close to a minute to load and always lags on the tls handshake...is that something new? its really frustrating... i have run virus and malware scans and reset firefox and nothing helps...any recommendations?

[DanRaisch]

Security software?

[kramer182]

Security software?

Windows Defender......I dont think its a virus chrome and edge work completely fine.

[DanRaisch]

I dont think its a virus chrome and edge work completely fine.

Perhaps, perhaps not. A virus will often impact the default browser on the system. So, depending on which of the three browsers is default, one might be effected while the other two would not be.

But I was not suggesting a virus was involved. Security programs can cause performance problems if they are not properly permitting the application to access the Internet. See this article to make sure that Defender is set to allow Firefox to do so -- https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 2fdd716a2f

[cosmotopper]

Everything used to be smooth as abutter, but Firefox applied an update now things are terrible.

• Scrolling on sites is jerky as hell.
  Typing out comments is so so slow that I can type the full comment and then sit back and wait for Firefox to 'type it out'.
  Switching tabs can take seconds, whereas before it was instant.
  Google Images takes forever to scroll through, before it was smooth as anything
  If I hover my cursor over say the back button, it takes 5s for it to recognise the cursor is there and that I've clicked it.
  Same with closing tabs. It takes seconds for the 'x' to register being clicked.

I've tried safe mode, a new blank profile, resetting Firefox, cleaning out cookies and the cache but it's still the same - sluggish as hell. It's at the point where Firefox is basically unusable as a web browser. I know it's not the computer as Chrome works just fine and this is my fast gaming system.

I've been observing (and living with) this phenomenon for at least a year. The only reason I still use Firefox (or any Mozilla product for that matter), is a variety of third-party add-ons which I find useful. I just spent about 20 minutes posting a message to a website, only to see Firefox disappear, leaving their "We're embarrassed..." crash message. Another factor which may be impacting its performance is the exponentially increasing problem of background processes by advertisers and invasive data trackers, which hobble the browser's ability to perform its primary functions. Although Mozilla bills itself as a 'non-profit', the owners of Mozilla are constantly seeking out new ways to monetize Firefox and Thunderbird for their personal gain, at the expense of end-users. In short (IMHO), Mozilla has become almost as bad as Microsoft ever was in this regard. I'm actively considering alternatives.