Firefox freezing on my new rig

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bdon22

n00b
Joined
May 8, 2008
Messages
24
I'm a bit pissed off that my new computer acts up when I surf using Firefox. I get frequent freeze ups when loading multiple tabs. I'm hoping this is more of a software problem than a hardware issue.

Here are my specs:
Intel Q6600 Quadcore
EVGA 750i FTW Motherboard
4GB OCZ XTC Platinum
500GB Seagate SATA
Dual EVGA 8800GT's
Corsair HX620W PSU

Any help is appreciated.
 
While the hardware info is wonderful (you neglected to mention if you're overclocking any of it, however, that could be very relevant), you also neglected to mention precisely what's happening and instead just said "my new computer acts up."

That ain't quite enough to go on, so... a little more info if you please, and be as descriptive as you feel necessary.
 
My bad. Everything is running at stock clocks.

Basically my Firefox randomly freezes up and stops responding for 3-5 seconds occasionally when loading up links.

When I open up more and more links in several tabs the duration of the freezes can be as high as 20+ seconds. This shouldn't be happening with the type of hardware I have...

Sometimes if I open Firefox my entire explorer.exe will stop responding for up to a minute until Firefox fully loads.

This is starting to get really annoying.. anyone know what's up?
 
Drop a hijackthis .log so we can see whats running at your system, maybe its some virus or spyware :eek:
 
Another assumption since you're not providing this info either: is this Firefox 2.0.0.14, the latest of the 2.x branch, or Firefox 3 something or...

Is this issue only with Firefox, and not IE (whichever one you have installed because you neglected to tell us what OS you're running as well).

It's the little details that matter most. ;)
 
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.8.1.14) Gecko/20080404 Firefox/2.0.0.14

Haven't tested IE yet since all my favs are in Firefox. I'm going to give Firefox 3 a shot though.

Not sure how to get a hijackthis.log
 
Still no idea what OS you're using aside from some version of Windows. :D

I would guess you've done something as simple as rebooted and tried this several times, cleaned out caches (Firefox uses RAM for a cache, not hard drive space), so... all I can suggest is load up Task Manager first, change to the Processes tab, and add some columns and subtract others so it looks somewhat like this:

taskmanagerkk0.png


and then load Firefox, whichever version you want and watch the items on the Processes list change. Once Firefox is fully loaded and whatever homepage you have (if you have one) is loaded as well, the items on Task Manager should level off and then stop changing, especially the Handles and Page Faults. If either of those columns continues to change even after you just let Firefox sit there, then there's a problem someplace that you can work towards resolving.

ps
Add/Remove columns from Task Manager - View - Select Columns.
 
Windows XP

Firefox 3 beta wouldn't work for me...

My firefox seems to have a lot of page faults and it keeps going up. What do I do next?

firefoxne4.jpg


Edit: Now it's up to 2,000,000 page faults and 393 handles and rising.
 
I know you're gonna hate me saying this but... which version of XP meaning Home or Pro, and which service pack? :) This is like pulling teeth, man...

If you're not actively using Firefox at any given moment, and not loading anything (meaning the browser is effectively idle, or should be) and that Page Faults count keeps rising, congrats, you're a victim of the infamous Firefox memory bug/glitch/leak/whatever you wanna call it. As for a fix, there really isn't one, unfortunately. Firefox 3 beta 4 was the first version that effectively "fixed" that issue that's been plaguing Firefox since it was created years ago.

Can you say specifically what issues you're having or just had with the Firefox 3 attempt?

And it sure looks like you have an awful lot of stuff running on that machine, perhaps trying to trim it down a bit might be a worthwhile goal at some point.
 
Windows XP Professional SP 2

When I installed Firefox 3 beta 5 it was searching endlessly for compatibility with my current add-ons so I closed it. Then whenever I tried to load it up nothing would happen.

Specific issues I'm having with my current version of Firefox is it feels like it's using up all the memory in my computer (if that makes any sense). It's just causing things to slow down like I'm running on an old PC without enough RAM.
 
Ok, here's my one final piece of advice, take it or leave it:

Stop using Firefox.

Sad, but true at this point. The memory issues (which is what you're experiencing) either happen or they don't, it's different for each and every machine and configuration. Unfortunately, it looks like you just happen to have that specific random unknown combination of the OS, the software you have installed, and Firefox all not working together and causing you a lot more grief than just using some other browser till Firefox 3 is finalized and ready to roll.

You can use what's called the Nightly Tester Tools (Google for it) and those tools will force almost every Firefox 2 addon/extension to work with Firefox 3, but some will still not work. I really can't say what's causing the issue(s) you're having, so the advice above stands: stop using Firefox because there is no single quick fix for the problems it's causing you.

Reading through the Firefox/Mozilla forums might turn up something useful, but I've done that in the past myself and there's never been a single quick fix for it. It's a case of "it either works for you without issues or it's nothing but trouble," unfortunately. Page Faults are just an indicator that Firefox is needing memory for "something," but the Handles rising like that without stopping are absolutely indicative of bad coding.

There is a chance - a small one but a chance regardless - that one of your addons/extensions for Firefox is doing it. I remember someone offering up the advice to disable the Java VM inside Firefox and then see what happens. I do recall that working for me one time in the past but after a lot of research and hassles I found out there was a glitch in an extension I was using, so I contacted the author, made him aware of it, and he issued a patch which resolved it. But that was over a year ago, for an extension I don't even use anymore...

Try disabling ALL your extensions and running Firefox 2.0.0.14 for a while without any of them enabled. See what happens... then try enabling them one at a time, all the while keeping Task Manager going so you can see when things start to spiral out of control. Trial and error might find the culprit.

Good luck, either way...
 
I uninstalled Firefox 2 and did a clean install of Firefox 3. So far all seems good! Thanks for all the help.
 
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