Firefox 3.5 Final Opens Very Slowly

[dalef]

After upgrading from Firefox 3.0.11 to Firefox 3.5 (final), Firefox is taking extremely long to open. It takes Firefox between 1 minute, 45 seconds and 1 minute, 50 seconds to open after a reboot of the computer. As Firefox is opening there is intense hard drive activity.

I have attempted the following to rectify this problem:

1. I started Firefox in its Safe Mode to disable all extensions and add-ons.

2. I created a new Firefox profile.

3. I started Windows XP in Safe Mode with Networking.

4. I uninstalled Firefox 3.5, redownloaded Firefox 3.5 from mozilla.com, restarted the computer, and reinstalled Firefox 3.5

Unfortunately, after trying all of the above, the problem of Firefox taking close to 2 minutes to open remains.

However, it should be noted that closing Firefox, waiting a minute or so, and then restarting Firefox allows Firefox to open in only a few seconds. This problem only manifests itself after opening Firefox for the first time after a system reboot.

Once Firefox 3.5 is open, it runs normally. Web pages load very quickly.

Some of my system's specs are as follows:

Windows XP SP3
1.5 GB of RAM
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
300 GB hard drive with over 87 GB free
NVIDIA GeForce 6600



Is anyone else experiencing this problem? If you have any suggestions on how I can solve this issue, please let me know.

Thanks.

[corpen4]

Same thing here.
Win XP SP3 1GB RAM

[gordyboy]

same here xp sp3 2gb ram

[LoudNoise]

As a test, try a new profile. Don't add anything to it yet. Make certain you restart your to see if the first delay is still around.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows

[dalef]

As a test, try a new profile. Don't add anything to it yet. Make certain you restart your to see if the first delay is still around.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows

Before I wrote my first post about this issue, I did create a new profile. However, for further testing, I did as you suggested and again created a new Firefox profile.

After creating the new profile, I allowed Firefox to load. After Firefox opened, I exited the program and restarted the computer. After the restart, I opened Firefox again. It still took 1 minute, 45 seconds for it to open with the new profile. Please note that I did not import or change any settings in the new profile.

According to corpen4's and gordyboy's posts, they are also running Windows XP SP3. If you are running Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, please post if you are having the same delay in opening Firefox 3.5. Also, if you are running Windows XP SP3, please let me know if you have this same problem or not.

Thanks.

[eliuri]

Same problem here.

Takes long time to load after reboot even in Safe Mode.

Slow loading was a problem in Firefox 3.0 as well, but in Safe Mode it did load quickly.

With Firefox 3.5 , I have this even with add-ons disabled.

================
Windows XP Professional Edition SP3
Firefox 3.5
Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite 7.0.483.000

[Stifu]

Short answer: run CCleaner.

Long answer:

I have downloaded Process Monitor
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 96645.aspx
and found that portable Firefox 3.5 RC3 reads a lot of files from
c:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\
c:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Local Settings\Temp\
c:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Recent\

I have removed all my files in the above folder
and I made a bat script to start the portable firefox 3.5
-------------------------------------------------------
set tmp=R:\temp
set temp=R:\temp
"R:\FirefoxPortableTest\FirefoxPortable.exe"
-------------------------------------------------------
now it takes 1 second to start. yay!
Also, my "non-portable" firefox 3.5 also starts much quickly (about a few seconds) after cleanup. I think the cause is just the same.

but why does Fx 3.5 read files from those folders while Fx 3.0 doesn't ?

[James]

While Firefox should not normally use the Temporary Internet Files as it is the Plugins like WMP that does. Close Firefox and try clearing the Temporary Internet Files and then start Firefox again.

[segalsegal]

I am seeeing the same problem, only worse, on one Vista computer.

I did a clean install of FF 3.5 on a desktop Vista computer, and it worked fine. I did a clean install of FF 3.5 on a Vista tablet PC and it takes many minutes to start, sometimes over 5 minutes. The problem showed up immediately after installation: it asked if I wanted to start FF, and asked if I want to import anything, and Process Explorer shows firefox.exe with a Working Set of 30 MB, but the browser didn't open for over 5 minutes.

I disabled NOD32 antivirus before installing. I fully uninstalled the previous FF beforehand and deleted the Mozilla Firefox folder before installing FF 3.5.

Once FF 3.5 starts, it seems to work normally and opens new windows quickly.

The XP folders that others have listed don't exist in Vista - I'm not sure what to try to test if that workaround works.

[segalsegal]

I downloaded Process Monitor and see about a hundred thousand processes per minute (I don't know if that is normal). I see both firefox.exe and ekm.exe (from NOD32) accessing many files in c:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5, but when I try to navigate to such a folder I get to c:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\ and don't see Temporary Internet Files. Disabling NOD32 stops the ekm.exe calls. Firefox started started after ~15 minutes after being launched. about 4 inutes after turning off NOD32 (I don't know if that is related).

[segalsegal]

I gave up and went back to FF 3.0.11. Everything work fine again.

I think I will avoid FF 3.5 because it is not very workable with Tablet PCs since the crucial Gesso add-on doesn't work. It will be part of Firefox itself in 3.6, so I will try again then to see if the very slow opening problem is fixed.

[Stifu]

The XP folders that others have listed don't exist in Vista - I'm not sure what to try to test if that workaround works.

It's "Users" rather than "Documents and Settings", and then you can F3 your way in if needed. Or just don't bother and run CCleaner.

And if you went back to Firefox 3.0 with the same Firefox profile, then you might have some nasty surprises later on.

[Guest]

Just to add to this thread...

I also have a slow start-up using a fresh install of Vista and FF 3.5. No temp files, no cache, no bookmarks, no updates, no home page (blank), etc. When looking at the task manager you can see FF taking 14-16% CPU during its slow start-up.

[3Zh1Q68]

If the problem is FF 3.5 choking on material in the IE cache, our use of clean installs of FF after uninstalling previous versions and deleting the Program Files folder may be missing the source of the problem in the IE cache.

So I deleted the IE cache from within IE and found that the process took about 15 minutes, suggesting that either there was a lot there or some problem accessing it. But even if the cache were 10% as big, as it would be with some browsing, 10% of a delay of many minutes is not so great. But if this were the only problem one would expect than more people would have noticed it.

For now I am sticking with FF 3.0.11 since 3.5 has a tablet-specific problem that makes it such that I'd rather wait for 3.6. But others should check if it helps to clear the Temporary Internet Files from within IE (Tools | Internet Options | General | Browsing history | Delete | Delete files). BTW, as far as doing this from outside IE, you have to change View Options even to get into c:\Users\[Username]\AppData\ and I don't know how to enable further permissions from c:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\ to see the c:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 folder.

[segalsegal]

For continuity, the previous post was by me, and I've registered to avoid that problem in the future (and avoid the captchas).