Why is Firefox so SLOW?

[makaiguy]

I downloaded FF 2.0 this morning and found it VERY slow.

Turning off the automatic updates fixed it for me:

Tools - Options - Update

Uncheck the boxes.

With 2.0 just having been released, I expect the servers are probably getting hit to the point of overload. That would, indeed, slow things down considerably for a while.

I've kept mine turned off since early in the 1.5 cycle, as I prefer to be more in control of when I update. I'm on HERE enough to learn when a new release is available.

[Hitek]

On both my desktop, laptop, and my friend's desktop, Firefox has become incredibly slow after an automatic update a few weeks ago. Closing tabs now takes a few seconds, when it was instantaneous before the update. Switching tabs is also noticably slow, when that, too, used to be instantaneous. Firefox also seems to be using even MORE memory than it did before, often in the range of several hundred megabytes with just a few pages open. What gives???

It seems like every time the browser updates, the net effect of the upgrade is nothing more than a total rejection of my existing themes and extensions with an ever increasing slowing of the browser, with no noticable improvements. At this point Firefox does nothing for me that it didn't do a year ago just fine, it's just that now I can't use all of my favorite extensions and themes. What was the gain?

To finish the list since the upgrade, Firefox now:

Gives me a scripting error every time I close the browser, when it did not a month ago.
Possibly related, gives me a "Mozilla previously crashed" dialog box every time I open it.
Will sometimes pause for a very long time when opening pages in a new tab.
Will almost always pause for a very long time when closing a window or tab.

These things only started occuring immediately after the last update, but it seems as if the last several updates have each broken something. What was so wrong(neglecting reading the changelog) with Firefox before that warrented breaking/changing so many different things? I understand that there may be ways to rectify these problems by changing settings, etc., but why should this be necessary? I guess my biggest mistake was allowing Firefox to Auto Update. Whatever happened to the old "Lean and Mean" philosophy?
</soapbox>

[trolly]

Try safe mode and/or a new profile. Sometimes settings and/or extensions got corrupted leading to weird behaviour.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diag ... Firefox%29

[hitek146]

Thanks, I'll try that, but how could three different machines all exhibit slower tab switching and script errors when they didn't before the upgrade? I'll let you guys know how the profile change goes...

[VanillaMozilla]

I don't know, but it has something to do with your setup. It runs fine on my 233 MHz Pentium (W98SE) and my 600 MHz Pentium (Win XP).

[Guest]

I don't know, but it has something to do with your setup. It runs fine on my 233 MHz Pentium (W98SE) and my 600 MHz Pentium (Win XP).

Gee, thanks for the help... It's quite obvious that the release works properly for some people, otherwise it would not have been released. The profile thing was no help, and running in safe mode still produces the same results: Script errors when closing Firefox, and the browser freezing for about 3 seconds when closing a tab. Specifically, when clicking on the close tab button, the tab itself goes away immediately, while the text and graphics from the page remain visible for a few seconds. After a few seconds, the old graphics and text go away, exposing the graphics and text from the page below. Pages often freeze after loading, too(even simple pages like Google search), not responding for a few seconds after loading a page, even after it says "Done" at the bottom. None of these machines exhibited this behaviour before the upgrade, and now all three are freezing and giving scripting errors. Is there any way to troubleshoot this?

[trolly]

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diag ... Firefox%29

The installer seems to have problems when installing over a previous version. Try a clean install.

[mtalea]

Mine is slow also has always been slow

I just disabled almost all my add-ons and that really sped things up for me.

Of course at a cost of no frills.

Also Today I downloaded IE7 to try out..damn that thing is wicked fast as it has usually been,but at a cost.each time i use it I scan for spyware and I find some...I clean them out...scan again and nothing...run ff and then scan and nothing.....run IE again and then scan and more spyware gets found.

3 times I did this test and 3 times the same results...GoodBye IE
Hate to see ya go, Love to watch ya leave

[VinDSL]

Out of curiosity, what are ppl calling slow?

I was reading this thread, got bored, and decided to update some extensions instead -- which of course requires closing and opening FX.

Since it was fresh on my mind, I timed it -- 9.2 sec to bring up FX, and everything seems normal, i.e. not slow, not fast, e.g. normal...

Anyway, I'm not trolling, but what is it that 'YOU' consider slow about FX, and how much time are 'we' talking about? What's #1?

[Cheeze]

When I took the Update check off of my FF it sped right up if not more than when I was on 1.5x

I was getting Mega slow image downloads, and page loads.

[???who!?]

Mine is slow moving, scrolling, typing and everything in the page. it sort of hangs then carries on.

it is so annoying

it isn't slow loading - in fact it is much faster th IE but I may have to go back to it if this doesn't stop!

it is doing it now as I'm typing this message!
it is ever since i downloaded 2.0 when i had 1.0.6 it never happened!
(we never had 1.5)

[VinDSL]

Mine is slow moving, scrolling, typing and everything in the page. it sort of hangs then carries on...

Have you monitored your system with Windows Task Manager while this is happening?

My computer was acting screwy a couple of weeks ago. I noticed the HDs were being accessed non-stop. Turned out to be a backup utility gone wild...

Anyway, if you determine Firefox is causing the problem, I think I would rename the Fx folder and do a fresh install -- just to see if that takes care of it.

[VinDSL]

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_%28Firefox%29

The installer seems to have problems when installing over a previous version. Try a clean install.

Exactly!

[phreak999]

unreal -- i just switched to Firefox 2.0.0.6 after using IE for awile. The difference in download speed from 1.5 to v2 is huge. I was using 1.5 FF with its lightning fast downlaods of images, clips, etc. FF 2 is very slow. Ran a comparison between IE7 and FF2. IE was downloading in 5 secs and FF downloads were up around 1 min. Ran test on over 100 differnt downloads on multiple sites. I have to switch back to IE to be more productive. I just upgarded to FF 2.0.0.7 and no change. What happened? Never go on vacation.

[VanillaMozilla]

Enough. Just uninstall it with Add/Remove programs, Delete the program files -- "\program files\mozilla\firefox\" or whatever it is. Then reinstall it and create a new profile. (Don't worry, it's just for testing, and you can still keep the old one.) And don't try to start it with the same ikon. Let it create a new one.

And when you download the new one, be sure to get it from www.mozilla.org . Don't use some flake that you saw on Google.

Oh, and consider the possibility that it's being sabotaged by a "security" program. Some of those try to censor every bit of Internet traffic, and in so doing, they almost bring it to a halt. Even if it's not actively censoring, it could be just monopolizing the processor. My computer almost grinds to a halt when Norton Antivirus kicks in. I'm thinking to get rid of it.

<b>Like VinDL says, check the Task Manager to see what is using all the CPU cycles. That will likely tell you why it seems slow.</b>