100 % CPU usage makes Firefox unusable :-(

schapel · Post by **schapel** » September 25th, 2007, 7:47 pm

Did you see at the bottom of the page where it says "See also <a href="http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs">Firefox hangs</a>"?

If you're not good with computers, why not have someone else fix your computer? I take my car to the mechanic when it has a problem. I don't go to a message board and discuss the problem, and I don't try to fix it myself.

greenfroggy · Post by **greenfroggy** » September 25th, 2007, 10:19 pm

If you're not good with computers, why not have someone else fix your computer?

While I'm not a wizz I can follow clear instuctions and have resolved many problems on my system. IMHO it would not take a lot to show user (1) how to check if machine has bitmap hardware acceration on a video card and
(2) how to disable. Then I would know for future reference. Everything is a mystery till you understand it.

Yep followed Firefox hangs? ... several pages later decided to download "pdf download" https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/636 and I'll see what difference that makes.

VanillaMozilla · Post by **VanillaMozilla** » September 26th, 2007, 4:19 am

Good point, greenfroggy. I have added that information to the Knowledge Base. However, if you had checked the reference in the Knowledge Base (there's a clickable link), it would have taken you to this thread, where schapel gave you this information.

andy_c · Post by **andy_c** » October 4th, 2007, 11:33 am

Hi folks,

I haven't read the whole thread (25 pages!) so forgive me if this has already been mentioned. I came across this thread when I was trying to solve the Firefox excessive CPU problem, I've since cured the problem so I'm just here to let you know what worked for me.

The problem was similar to those mentioned in the thread... excessive CPU usage, PC is sluggish, Firefox is sluggish, Firefox hangs, etc. - Definitely a Firefox issue as the PC runs fine when Firefox isn't running.

I removed the Yahoo! toolbar and it seems to have fixed the problem. CPU usage is now typically 0 when Firefox is idle, even with several Firefox windows/tabs open. The PC runs well, and appears to be back to normal. I've been using Firefox for about 2 years and this is the first significant problem that has occurred.

Hope this helps!

Andy_C

schapel · Post by **schapel** » October 4th, 2007, 1:08 pm

Thanks! I've added Yahoo! Toolbar to http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions which is mentioned in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_CPU_usage

greenfroggy · Post by **greenfroggy** » October 4th, 2007, 4:19 pm

Glad to hear that worked for you andy_c however I don't have any add-ons (except the newly got pdf download") and FF still can crank up the CPU. So I'd say there is still an underlying weakness in FF.

schapel · Post by **schapel** » October 4th, 2007, 5:44 pm

greenfroggy wrote:So I'd say there is still an underlying weakness in FF.

What specifically would that weakness be? Can you demonstrate it to us? As always, if you can point out any serious performance issue I'd be more than happy to file a bug report so the problem can be fixed.

greenfroggy · Post by **greenfroggy** » October 4th, 2007, 7:09 pm

What specifically would that weakness be?

As I came to this page, I needed to start FF.
It went up to 95%CPU in the process of arriving here. It' didn't remain at that level, however sometimes it does stay high (also at 100%) for longer periods.
If I knew why, or more importantly how to fix that I would simply fix it. It's a bit like the .pdf issue...until recently I could simply view a pdf page like any other page. Then FF started to hang and now I use
.pdf download which means I have to download the page prior to viewing. Why? Beats me.

schapel · Post by **schapel** » October 5th, 2007, 4:29 am

You're not specifying a weakness in Firefox. You're giving an anecdote of Firefox on your computer giving you problems. It's like saying there's a design or manufacturing problem with Toyotas, because your car won't start in the morning. It seems to me that something is wrong on your computer. Please post your problems to the Support forum.

notlem · Post by **notlem** » October 5th, 2007, 6:57 am

schapel wrote:You're not specifying a weakness in Firefox. You're giving an anecdote of Firefox on your computer giving you problems. It's like saying there's a design or manufacturing problem with Toyotas, because your car won't start in the morning. It seems to me that something is wrong on your computer. Please post your problems to the Support forum.

Wow, do you work for Microsoft? Sounds like many replies I received from MS over the years. I have the same trouble with FF and all my other programs including IE run fine. It is a FF problem and there is another posting that covers this problem "firefox keeps on stopping and going" so it's not just one guy and one computer. I've been hassling with this problem over the last 3 updates of FF. (And yes I've cut off all addons, scanned for virus, and spyware. and ran FF naked in safe mode and it still ate up the CPU.) Yes maybe it's a rare problem, and might have to do with some odd un-thought of interaction with some software or hardware but it is a FF problem. It just may never become widespread enough to be solved. The problem does show up to be worse when I type things like this message.

schapel · Post by **schapel** » October 5th, 2007, 7:10 am

Why the hostility? I'm simply asking what the problem with Firefox is, and get no response. There may indeed be a problem with Firefox, but isn't is odd that out of over 100 million Firefox users, no one can seem to indicate what the problem is, or how to reproduce it, or give any other specific details of the problem whatsoever, besides just giving the symptom they are experiencing? I do notice many people in this thread that have tracked down their problem to specific buggy extensions, problems with specific video drivers, Windows prefetch files, and other specific problems. Hmmm...

I know many people experience the symptom of Firefox using lots of CPU or hanging. I'm sure there are some bugs in Firefox that cause those symptoms. On the other hand, continually saying that you have the symptom when you use Firefox isn't productive. It does not help track down the problem or help get it solved. What specifically is the problem you think Firefox has? Do you have a way of reliably reproducing it on other computers running Firefox?

VanillaMozilla · Post by **VanillaMozilla** » October 5th, 2007, 7:46 am

notlem wrote:Wow, do you work for Microsoft? Sounds like many replies I received from MS over the years.

This is not a helpful comment. Schapel and I have both filed bug reports that no one else can duplicate. We know how to find and file bug reports, and you don't have to lecture us on it.

If anyone thinks they have a bug with Firefox and they want to get it fixed, someone who is working on Firefox code has to be able to figure out what the problem is. The report must be very specific, very clear, and simple. They need to report: I do X and I find Y. I have Q, R, S, and T installed. And then they have to answer questions -- ALL the questions, and answer them correctly.

What do you want us to do -- file a bug report that says
"Greenfroggy observes 95% CPU use. Sometimes he reads Adobe PDF files. Please fix it."?
Because that's all we've got to go on. You tell me what to say.

If you just want to fix your own problem, there's something you need to know. When you are running Firefox, you are not just running Firefox. You are also running a lot of unverified, highly complex code on all kinds of Web sites. If you can post a Web site address that causes a problem, by all means do so. You may also be running plugins, as greenfroggy is -- and those plugins are doing whatever they are doing, allocating memory, using CPU time -- and billing that time and memory to Firefox. You may also be running extensions, which were written by who-knows-who and were not tested as the browser is. These can also allocate memory and chew up CPU time and send the bill to Firefox. Even worse, we are beginning to realize to what extent Internet security software can intercept traffic and mangle and delay it.

We can fix almost anything that's wrong with your Firefox configuration in a minute. But if you still have a problem, someone has to look at all the other garbage that's on your computer. And to do that, you either have to do take some responsibility or you have to take it to someone. We're just Firefox users, but we'll try to help if you work with us.

notlem · Post by **notlem** » October 6th, 2007, 12:28 pm

I been having the same over CPU usage by FF. I unloaded FF 2 whatever latest and reloaded an older version FF 1.5.0.12. Other than loss of some addon funtion, it now works like a charm, no hangs, fast typing of this message etc... So, as for me and what ever other "garbage" I have on my computer this version works.

Post by **trolly** » October 6th, 2007, 12:46 pm

You know that you will not get any security updates for that version?

schapel · Post by **schapel** » October 6th, 2007, 1:02 pm

notlem wrote:I been having the same over CPU usage by FF. I unloaded FF 2 whatever latest and reloaded an older version FF 1.5.0.12. Other than loss of some addon funtion, it now works like a charm, no hangs, fast typing of this message etc... So, as for me and what ever other "garbage" I have on my computer this version works.

That's very good news. The best thing is that because you were able to find an old version that works and you know a newer one doesn't, you can find the <a href="http://wiki.mozilla.org/MozillaQualityAssurance:Triage#How_to_Help_with_Regressions_--_Finding_Regression_Windows">regression window</a> of the problem. That would help narrow down what the problem is to one day's checkins. That would be some extremely specific information about what the problem is. Provide that information, and there's a very good chance the problem can be fixed.

Because Firefox 1.5 and Firefox 2 are both based on Gecko 1.8, you'll want to use 1.8 branch builds, which means builds in directories that end with -mozilla1.8/ in the <a href="http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/">archived nightly builds</a>. You could also try to find the regression window on the trunk, but you might have to try more builds, and there will likely be more checkins during the regression window you find.

100 % CPU usage makes Firefox unusable :-(

My fix for excessive CPU usage