Firefox regularly "pauses," occasionally hangs
Community Forums/General Help/Firefox regularly "pauses," occasionally hangs
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| My family have used Firefox since we switched from Netscape 9, and for a long time we were perfectly satisfied with it. However, about the time we updated Firefox to a 3.6 version, a strange problem popped up. Sometimes, Firefox "pauses" (it's doing it as I type right now, actually) -- for a moment (less than a second, usually), text fields don't update, pages don't scroll, and Java applets act as if the same keys held down when the "pause" starts are still being held down. Also, more rarely (and for no particular reason I've noticed), Firefox hangs -- nothing happens when I click the close, back, and other buttons, and when I click a menu or type in the URL box, the shadow of the menu or suggestion box appears, but not the menu/box itself. Are these problems related to Firefox 3.6? Is it something completely different? As I recall, the only other change we made around when the problem started was updating Java to 1.6 Update 19 and adding the same version of the Java JDK (and that was after the problem started). Thank you. EDIT: I forgot to mention that we've tried several of the suggestions on [a http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Firefox+hangs]this page[/a] -- 2000/ME compatibility mode (when I did that, it wouldn't even open), clearing the entire history (that didn't seem to help), and deleting session restore files -- and I also disabled all of the old Java Console extensions, which seemed to help Java's performance but didn't fix the main problems. |
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| Firefox has had its day. Get Chrome - its about 100x better. |
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| Go for the IRON version of Chrome if you can. I too have had it with firefox. |
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| Thank you for your input. I already know, from searching this forum for "Firefox," that a lot of us prefer Chrome/Iron/Opera to Firefox. Switching is definitely an option for when I get my own computer, but we like Firefox because it's like Netscape was, and I'd at least like to know what's causing the problem before abandoning it altogether. |
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| I think it's just bloated. The amount of RAM it takes up has just grown so much. Try disabling all of your add-ons ? |
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| Well, I actually just thought to put it into Safe Mode to see if it was an add-on problem. It seems to be working fine right now, so I'm guessing it is. Thank you! |
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| Yes, after spending a lot of time at irc.mozilla.org and in the SUMO group answering support questions, I find that most of the time it is an addon that causes the probelm. Also, Firefox's RAM useage is not very bad. I opened the same tabs in both Firefox and Chrome and found that they both take up similar ammounts of RAM, but Chrome splits it up among different processes. However, Chrome does not have 51 addons and all of my Plugins running in it, so Firefox actually does better. Also, Chrome takes up more RAM per tab then Firefox does. Firefox is the better browser from the development point of view, but people like Chrome because it's fast, but they will have lots of fun when it hangs because they have too many addons in it as well, AND the addons need to be loaded into each process, not just 1. Also, Chrome does not properly support Javascript the way Firefox does, and numerous scripts I've written for it cause it to crash, and those scripts work just find in FIrefox. |
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| Use SeaMonkey, and forget about all other browsers for once and ever. I can enlist lots of flaws in all other browsers, but I can't find anything negative in SeaMonkey. |
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| I can enlist lots of flaws in all other browsers, but I can't find anything negative in SeaMonkey. Go on then.What's wrong with: Chrome Iron IE8 Opera Safari Don't be shy - put your money where your mouth is. |
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| Chrome: doesn't have a status bar (it vanishes after page is loaded), has no bookmarks sidebar, renders tables wrong, is slow in processing javascript (try facebook's games), does not have visual HTML editor, does not have IRC. Iron: haven't tried. IE8: does not render tables correctly, is bloated like hell, is slow like hell, causes security leaks in the system, does not have visual HTML editor, does not have IRC. Opera: does not render tables correctly, hangs, does not have visual HTML editor, does not have IRC. Safari: bookmarks sidebar vanishes after you click on some item (causes additional unneeded mouseclicks), doesn't have a cancel button in menus (so all you try and do is SAVED!), does not have visual HTML editor, does not have IRC. |
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| So your biggest gripe with any browser, is that they don't have integrated IRC? That's like saying your email client doesn't tell you the weather forecast. Get an IRC client? |
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| No, I just added the 2 last points to all entries. All before them were their individual lacks. |
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| Hmmm, I never noticed the multiple processes running. It definitely is faster though, than Firefox. Tried Seamonkey too, on my old PC, seemed ok, but Iron and Seamonkey are faster than Firefox. I like the add-ons for Firefox though... |
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| SeaMonkey supports almost all extensions which Firefox supports (since it's also based on Firefox (the unbloated, unbuggy core version of it)). I will test Iron too, since from what you said it seems like a good browser too. |
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| Iron: haven't tried. It's essentially identical to Chrome, minus the auto-updater and 'phoning home to Google' portions. |
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| I too had this problem with Firefox. I then cleared my cache, history, download history and everything else I could from my profile - and the problem went away. If everything fails, you can also create a new user profile and use it. |
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| Tomas Khan: If you liked Netscape, you would love Seamonkey. It is the same thing, just the email side has had Thunderbird code integrated and the browser side has had Firefox code integrated, same cruddy HTML editor from the mid-late 90s. The last maajor version of SeaMonkey brought up the compatibility with FireFox addons so you can use flash and ad blockers. Opera: does not render tables correctly, hangs, does not have visual HTML editor, does not have IRC. Opera has had IRC in the default install for close to a decade. |
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| I haven't noticed any of these problems with FF so far. It is getting a bit bloaty and takes an age to load, though. I have to stick with it for now as I have a few really useful plugins I don't want to live without. |
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| I much prefer chrome/iron to Firefox, and even IE8 over FF. I use Iron as my primary browser since it's simple, fast and I only have about 9 web pages I frequent on a daily basis. So all my main sites are on the startup page thumbnails with the latest snapshot. I see no bookmark sidebar or status bar as a big PLUS. Since I want my browser UI fairly minimalist. I do have the bookmarks bar with icons and no text though. I find Flash games in Iron are super fast, though that might be because I'm using the GPU accelerated version of flash. I assume chrome is the same as iron. My one gripe with iron being I have to occasionally refresh the page if flash decides to not work. Happens a couple of times every hour or so of browsing. |
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| I only have about 9 web pages I frequent on a daily basis. So all my main sites are on the startup page thumbnails with the latest snapshot. I like Iron, but that startup page is actually one of my main gripes -- it's not bad in of itself, but I find it annoying that it won't let me specify an different homepage when I open a new tab. (I have a landing page that contains all of my frequently accessed pages and some other stuff that I'd prefer to use instead) |
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| I never just open a new blank tab in Chrome. I always type my search term and press alt-enter to get a new tab, or I middle click a bookmark to get it to open in a new tab. Why would you click the new tab button? I am genuinely curious... |
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| I don't have any bookmarks showing, so pulling those up takes longer than a single new tab click. My home page is listed among the ones on the new tab, but it still adds another delay and a second click instead of just opening up the page I know I want to go anyway. All other tabbed browsers I've used in the past allowed me to specify what page to pull up on a new tab, so I'm just slightly annoyed that I can't tell Iron/Chrome to do the same. Not enough to actually use a different browser, but it is an area that I feel it wouldn't hurt to give the choice to the user. In some areas like this Chrome can be a tad too minimalistic. |
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| I keep trying Chrome, but it is sluggish on my system. It doesn't seem to like single core processors that do not have hyper-threading. I was impressed with IE8, however I always run it in Sandboxie. Why would you click the new tab button? I am guessing for the same reason I do in Opera. It is the only way to type in an address and go to the site if you do not want to lose what is in your current tabs. I am genuinely curious... |
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| No, you type in the address bar and press alt-enter and it opens in a new tab. |
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| Well, it seems to me that part of the problem was the fact that we still had the Yahoo and AVG toolbars enabled, even though we always hide them. New windows have been loading much faster since I disabled them, and the "skipping" issue is either greatly reduced or entirely gone. Thank you very much for your help. |
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| No, you type in the address bar and press alt-enter and it opens in a new tab. So you press two buttons to do the same thing you could do by clicking one button? Seems like twice the work to me? |
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| LOL Except you are typing anyway when you type in the address bar. As opposed to moving the mouse to the right spot, clicking the mouse button, then moving your hand to the keyboard and typing. Not to mention, when you do open that new tab by clicking the new tab button, you send your browser off on a wild goose chase, opening some default web page or showing you some sort of welcome page, when you know all you are going to do is type in a url or search term in the address bar anyway. |
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| I have to use both hands to reach alt and enter when I normally keep one hand on the mouse when browsing. Not that it's worth arguing about really. Whatever works for you, works for you :) |
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| Not to mention, when you do open that new tab by clicking the new tab button, you send your browser off on a wild goose chase, opening some default web page or showing you some sort of welcome page, Not on my browser. That is the first thing I disable on any browser :D |
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| I was impressed with IE8, however I always run it in Sandboxie. Sorry for a bit of derailing, but what's SandboxIE? |
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| http://www.sandboxie.com |
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