Problem with sudden Firefox slowing

[Asyn]

1. I wont used Asquared, it always finds lots of stuff, but the wrong stuff.
2. I guess on damand scanning isnt needed at all.

1. If you know how to handle it, it's not a problem...
2. Wrong, imo. I would keep Mbam, as a second opinion it might be helpful in the future... (Only if you have very good layered protection, there would be maybe no need for it..! But I don't know your level of experience/knowledge...)
asyn

[SafeSurf]

I also second keeping an on-demand scanner for a "just in case" scenario and recommend MBAM.  I tried SAS and had similar experience as Tech.  But everyone uses their machine for different things, so I also have a cloud AV as a extra layer of defense; I guess I'm a bit paranoid, huh?   

[polonus]

Hi Fx-users,

You can display any web page free of any browser baggage as shown in the screen shot. To do so, you need access to a command line, In windows press windows+r and type in cmd. This starts the command prompt. Then move to the Firefox install area with these commands:

C:\cd "Program Files"

cd Firefox / or cd mozilla firefox 3 beta 3

Next, on all operating systems, just invoke Firefox with the required web page like this:

firefox -chrome url

Example: firefox -chrome www.geniushackers.com

polonus

[HPY]

Hello Alan Baxter if you are still out there,

The churning started again at that same site. logged into the same forum. This time I shut Firefox down, suspended Threatfire, and Firefox is now fine.

If this continues to be the case I shall deinstal Threatfire, which leaves me with NS, AdBlockPlus, Windows Defender and Avast.

Regards -

[HPY]

I should have made it clear in my last that Firefox slowed again (churned) but DID NOT CRASH this time - so I suspended Threatfire on restart and it still seems fine.

[Lisandro]

ThreatFire has, from time to time, issues with Firefox addons. Sometimes you need to turn it off, update the addons, close Firefox, turn it on.

[Alan Baxter]

Hello Alan Baxter if you are still out there

Still out here.  Going by what you and Tech say, it sounds like ThreatFire doesn't play nicely enough with Firefox and its extensions.  Thank you for letting me know.  I'll try and remember that if I ever run across another ThreatFire user who's having Firefox problems.

[SpeedyPC]

Hello Alan Baxter if you are still out there

Still out here.  Going by what you and Tech say, it sounds like ThreatFire doesn't play nicely enough with Firefox and its extensions.  Thank you for letting me know.  I'll try and remember that if I ever run across another ThreatFire user who's having Firefox problems.

I have no problems with Firefox v3.6.4 using Threatfire and I have 15 add-on extensions, what I would do is reinstall firefox again sometime it doesn't always installed in correctly

[HPY]

SpeedyPC
"I have no problems with Firefox v3.6.4 using Threatfire and I have 15 add-on extensions, what I would do is reinstall firefox again sometime it doesn't always installed in correctly"

The latest update of Firefox v3.6.4 seems to have cured it, although I avoid Flash updates "we have deteceted your missing" says the prompt to update. I wonder if it is genuine - "your missing" should be  "you're/you are missing" - not very professional if genuine.

[Chris Thomas]

I think I dislike this Out Of Process Plugin

If for some reason you need to disable multi-process plugins, set the pref dom.ipc.plugins.enabled to false.

I think these plugins are worth giving a try

RAMback

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5972/

SaveMemory

You can pause unused tabs and save upto 80% RAM and CPU

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/108863

[Alan Baxter]

I think I dislike this Out Of Process Plugin

What's your problem with it, Chris?  The Firefox developers and testers put all that work into it so that plugins like Flash, Silverlight, and QuickTime would be isolated from the Firefox process.  Now, if a plugin hangs or crashes, it doesn't take Firefox down with it.  The short ten second timeout used in Fx 3.6.4 did cause a problem for some Farmville players.  That has been increased to 45 seconds in Fx 3.6.6. If you don't have Fx 3.6.6 already, then get it now: Help > Check for Updates.

From http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6.4/releasenotes/

Firefox 3.6.4 provides uninterrupted browsing for Windows and Linux users when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins.

If a plugin crashes or freezes, it will not affect the rest of Firefox. You will be able to reload the page to restart the plugin and try again.

If for some reason you need to disable multi-process plugins, set the pref dom.ipc.plugins.enabled to false.

This information is wrong.  That's the default value already.  If you want to disable OOPP -- which I don't recommend -- then change one or more of the following prefs to false:
Silverlight: dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npctrl.dll
QuickTime: dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npqtplugin.dll
Flash: dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll

I think these plugins are worth giving a try

RAMback

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5972/

Bad advice.  If anything, forcing Firefox to use less memory makes it run more slowly.

SaveMemory

You can pause unused tabs and save upto 80% RAM and CPU

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/108863

I use the BarTab extension instead.  But not to save memory: RAM isn't an issue.  Even with only 1GB RAM on Windows XP, I have enough RAM for running three or four separate Firefox profiles simultaneously, with plenty left over for the System Cache, a couple of World Community Grid tasks, and all the other processes running on my PC.  I use BarTab to prevent all my tabs from reloading at the same time whenever I restart Firefox.

Are you suffering from having insufficient RAM on your PC, Chris?  We may be able to help you out, but you should start a separate topic for that.

[Gargamel360]

Off-topic, but......the impetus behind going from 3.6.4 to 3.6.6 in two days was.....Farmville?
That is simply too amusing for words

[Alan Baxter]

Off-topic, but......the impetus behind going from 3.6.4 to 3.6.6 in two days was.....Farmville?
That is simply too amusing for words

Hulu too.  A small percentage of users, I think: small enough at least to be missed by a gazillion prelease testers like me.  On my slow PC, I betcha I would have found the problem while I was beta testing Fx 3.6.4.  Unfortunately, I don't use Facebook or Hulu; and NoScript blocks Flash for me already.  I never had any problems.

But yes, Farmville -- indeed too amusing for words.  
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/forums/contributors/704493#post-5671

We're pushing out 3.6.6 as a chemspill (emergency) release as soon as it gets built and QAed to address the issue with Firefox crashes on Farmville and other complex flash pages. The only thing it does is increase the default dom.ipc.plugins.timeoutSecs  to 45 rather than 10. This should address the majority of cases where we see Flash hangs/crashes that weren't there before.

[Chris Thomas]

I think I dislike this Out Of Process Plugin

What's your problem with it, Chris?  The Firefox developers and testers put all that work into it so that plugins like Flash, Silverlight, and QuickTime would be isolated from the Firefox process.  Now, if a plugin hangs or crashes, it doesn't take Firefox down with it.  The short ten second timeout used in Fx 3.6.4 did cause a problem for some Farmville players.  That has been increased to 45 seconds in Fx 3.6.6. If you don't have Fx 3.6.6 already, then get it now: Help > Check for Updates.

From http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6.4/releasenotes/

Firefox 3.6.4 provides uninterrupted browsing for Windows and Linux users when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins.

If a plugin crashes or freezes, it will not affect the rest of Firefox. You will be able to reload the page to restart the plugin and try again.

If for some reason you need to disable multi-process plugins, set the pref dom.ipc.plugins.enabled to false.

This information is wrong.  That's the default value already.  If you want to disable OOPP -- which I don't recommend -- then change one or more of the following prefs to false:
Silverlight: dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npctrl.dll
QuickTime: dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npqtplugin.dll
Flash: dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll

I think these plugins are worth giving a try

RAMback

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5972/

Bad advice.  If anything, forcing Firefox to use less memory makes it run more slowly.

SaveMemory

You can pause unused tabs and save upto 80% RAM and CPU

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/108863

I use the BarTab extension instead.  But not to save memory: RAM isn't an issue.  Even with only 1GB RAM on Windows XP, I have enough RAM for running three or four separate Firefox profiles simultaneously, with plenty left over for the System Cache, a couple of World Community Grid tasks, and all the other processes running on my PC.  I use BarTab to prevent all my tabs from reloading at the same time whenever I restart Firefox.

Are you suffering from having insufficient RAM on your PC, Chris?  We may be able to help you out, but you should start a separate topic for that.

The reason I dislike OPP is that I had never had an issue with Flash let alone crashing and even though I have a fairly decent amount of 4GB in this current PC of mine, I am memory conscious.

I was just typing those extensions not as absolutes

I was just sharing a piece of information which I myself wanted opinions from others

[DavidR]

I suggest ripping out 2GB of RAM and sell it on ebay as I see no point in having RAM if you aren't going to use it for what it is intended. If you don't use RAM then more stuff is written to hard disk and has to be constantly swapped out to memory/HDD, this is much slower than using RAM.

If you use the same analogy on hard disk size there would be no point in having a 250GB or 500GB or 1TB HDD as much of it would be unused.