FIREFOX and other browsers very unstable

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kravmaga69

n00b
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Oct 5, 2016
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Ive already posted elsewhere about possible hardware defects but havent had any relevant advice how to fix this issue

Firefox will crash often sometimes several times a minute

it almost always happens watching videos on either youtube or primewire.ag

ive tried stress testing the cpu , motherboard , ram and gpu using phoronix sysbench but being a newbie at ubuntu stresstesting i was unable to cause a crash using that software

any ideas how to proceed to figure out if this is a software/ubuntu/firefox problem or perhaps further hardware stesstesting to deem it a hardware problem. and if it is a hardware problem , if its cpu or mobo or ram or gpu?

opera and qupzilla also crash watching youtube and primewire so does that mean its hardware or dodgy code on those sites?
 
Something weird going on with your hardware and OS 'cause I've been using Firefox (portable) for the better part of a decade now and I just don't have crashes on mine. It's been the same "install," in the same folder, upgraded over time with each new ESR build (currently at 45.4.0), and according to the Health Report the last "crash" was in August of 2013 and I couldn't say what the hell that might have been because I have no recollection of it happening.

If you're having so many issues with a browser when using it to watch videos online then there's definitely something related to the video drivers and potential hardware acceleration that's involved. I'm guessing because you mentioned Ubuntu and the Phoronix benchmarks that you're on Ubuntu and I can't even begin to tell you where to start with respect to troubleshooting on that platform. I can tell you that the Flash plugin basically isn't getting new updates (it does get updated but only for security patches on the Linux platform and not for new features or even to fix bugs it already has which are years old and will never be fixed).

Have you tried Chrome on Linux yet - that uses the Pepper Flash plugin that does receive updates for bugs/performance - it might be your only option if the other browsers you're trying out keep causing problems.
 
Tiberian said:
Something weird going on with your hardware and OS 'cause I've been using Firefox (portable) for the better part of a decade now and I just don't have crashes on mine. It's been the same "install," in the same folder, upgraded over time with each new ESR build (currently at 45.4.0), and according to the Health Report the last "crash" was in August of 2013 and I couldn't say what the hell that might have been because I have no recollection of it happening.

If you're having so many issues with a browser when using it to watch videos online then there's definitely something related to the video drivers and potential hardware acceleration that's involved. I'm guessing because you mentioned Ubuntu and the Phoronix benchmarks that you're on Ubuntu and I can't even begin to tell you where to start with respect to troubleshooting on that platform. I can tell you that the Flash plugin basically isn't getting new updates (it does get updated but only for security patches on the Linux platform and not for new features or even to fix bugs it already has which are years old and will never be fixed).

Have you tried Chrome on Linux yet - that uses the Pepper Flash plugin that does receive updates for bugs/performance - it might be your only option if the other browsers you're trying out keep causing problems.
Click to expand...
Firefox Portable is possibly the best piece of software ever written.
 
What video card? I had crashing issues when watching videos in FF for months. I have an AMD card.

Disable hadware acceleration via browser settings
make sure drivers are current
 
DrLobotomy said:
Firefox Portable is possibly the best piece of software ever written.
Click to expand...

It's just Firefox... nothing special. ;)

The same portable app environment works for hundreds of other apps as well.
 
Tiberian said:
It's just Firefox... nothing special. ;)

The same portable app environment works for hundreds of other apps as well.
Click to expand...
Then you don't hate mouth breathers who can not stop clicking shit in a browser then it gets hijacked and infucted like I do. Firefox portable solves the problem enough to get them off my back. Hence its worth.
 
I'm not familiar enough with Ubuntu to know if you would ordinarily be using Flash with Firefox and qupzilla, so I have to ask if you are using Flash. If you remove Flash from the browser you are using, Youtube will go to HTML5 instead of Flash. I hadn't heard of primewire.ag before but a quick Google seems to tell me it hosts Flash video, and it might not work without the Flash player.

If the issues you are having are with Flash video, you will want to try turning off Flash's hardware acceleration. This is separate from a browser's hardware acceleration setting.

There are test videos of HTML5 and non-HTML5 videos on this page. It would be useful to know if you crash when viewing HTML5 video.
 
im also using an radeon 6870 amd card

ok i disabled hardware acceleration the normal one, no idea where to find this flash accelerator
also clicked on using proprietary drivers for this amd card, probly not yet updated
 
it already crashed firefox again.
on my laptop i watched several hours of primewire with zero crashes so i know its computer specific, probly hardware as to which piece of hardware i dont know
 
Sounds like heat issue maybe. Blow out laptop with a compressor. Grab a Hirens disk and check the hardware out
 
Also check log files. They are very helpful for finding clues to issues.
 
DrLobotomy said:
Sounds like heat issue maybe. Blow out laptop with a compressor. Grab a Hirens disk and check the hardware out
Click to expand...

the laptop works fine, its the desktop that crashes all the time and ive already cleaned and blew it out and sealed up cracks and added more fans to the desktop
 
Ive tried stress testing the cpu , motherboard , ram and gpu using phoronix sysbench

I don't know the mentioned software but a lot of benchmarks and multi stress software is pretty bad at actually stressing the components.

I would go with the decade proven software like

Ram: memtest86
CPU: Prime95 or Linpack
HDD: Manufacturers bootable test software


I have sadly nothing to suggest on software issue diagnostics :(
 
kravmaga69 said:
im also using an radeon 6870 amd card

ok i disabled hardware acceleration the normal one, no idea where to find this flash accelerator
also clicked on using proprietary drivers for this amd card, probly not yet updated
Click to expand...

  1. Go to this Adobe Flash Player Help page.
  2. Right-click on the Flash Player logo on that page. (They are talking about the red square with the white "F" on it. It's just a large icon, not a video. Right-click on it.)
  3. Click on Settings in the context menu. The Adobe Flash Player Settings screen will open.
  4. Click on the icon at the bottom-left of the Adobe Flash Player Settings window to open the Display panel.

    fpSettings1.png

  5. Remove the check mark from Enable hardware acceleration.
  6. Click Close to close the Adobe Flash Player Settings Window.
  7. Restart Firefox.
 
I cant uncheck this flash box in ubuntu

i tried boinc on ubuntu but it doesnt seem to work but you are probly right seperate tests dedicated to a certain task are probly best
 
Open Firefox, go to Options - Advanced - General - uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available" and then see what happens. That should be there even on the Linux version of Firefox, close and restart the browser, proceed from there (hopefully).
 
If attempting to diagnose crashing issue, disable or uninstall all plugins and extensions. You need to rule out the simplest stuff first.
 
i tried unchecking use hardware acceleration but it crashed with an hour.
Also switched from generic video ubuntu drivers to proprietary drivers at the same time but it still crashed

also tried eliminating all extensions months ago and it didnt help either

running out of ideas here?
 
Tiberian said:
Use Windows? :D
Click to expand...
no offense, but using windows is about as smart as using meth made by methed out meth head, lol
windows itself not only costs alot of money every few years but most of the software thats any good also costs money nevermind the security problems and costs for the security software and pain in the azz factor of reinstalling windows and every bit of other software every 6 to 12 months cuz it bogs down and or caught mutliple viruses, nevermind you need to continually update hardware to run ever increasing memory and cpu speeds needed to run bloated windows os. i probly saved a $1000 over last 5 yrs on not buying any software and not spending 5 hrs every 6 months reinstalling everything

no i switched to ubuntu 5 plus years ago and still running same system, not one virus and all free software
if i were a gamer i would still have windows but i quit gaming when i got divorced, lol

so far it looks like a bad stick of memory as it failed memtest86 twice now at about the 90 minute mark with 16 and 137 errors. the other stick lasted over ten hours.
but i also burned up my monster powerbar same day as these metests so not sure if i was getting unclean power or if memtest was using alot of current for 10 hours plus and damaged the powerbar?
 
Last edited:
kravmaga69 said:
no offense, but using windows is about as smart as using meth made by methed out meth head, lol
Click to expand...

You have much to learn, young Padawan, much to learn. ;)

Not sure what to tell you about the RAM issues - RAM is either bad or good, there's no real middle ground to work with, but perhaps you just have some power issues in general with not so clean output or simply not enough, can't hurt to check that as well.
 
i have zero crashes in last 2.5 days and i normally would have at least 1/2 dozen in that time sometimes that many in an hour
so its looking like i dont need any new parts as my system seems to be working just fine on single stick of 4 gb ram
 
What Firewall you using? I tried out ZoneAlarm firewall a while back and it was a clusterfuck of browser crashes.
 
On ElementaryOS (based on Ubuntu) I had many crashes with the bundled browser (Midori) so started using Chromium and never had an issue since. Try that browser.
 
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