Firefox Problem? Taking up all CPU usage

[barnum42]

I've had a few problems lately when I have either multiple tabs open in Firefox or separate windows relating to different forum topics and find that Firefox decides to grind to a halt. Looking at system resourses it's listed as taking up 98% of the CPU. The only way out is to CTRL ALT DELETE and close Firefox.

This has happened to me on more than one PC, but always when on the forums. I first thought it may have been due to having too many tabs open, but it just happend with only two tabs open, I clicked on a link to a photo in a forum album, the photo opeoend in a new window and then Firefox locked up.

Any ideas?

 

[wannab@dis]

It appears to be the new Christmas banner with the snow falling. For some reason, Firefox is not handling the flash movie very well and is using up a lot of cpu. Steve is working on adding a new theme without the Christmas banner to help with the problem.

Try out IE and see if you have the same problems.

 

[barnum42]

It first happened before the Xmas banner. Though it has happened more since it was introduced.

 

[ogryn]

To quote Steve

I havnt been able to test the new banners on Firefox, just IE6, and all seems well on my test machines (Intel 2Ghz and upwards). It does use close on 100% CPU, but this is fairly typical for Flash, although it shouldnt lock out the machine, as the Flash CPU usage isnt a high priority on XP, so it should be fairly easily overidden by other processes on the machine.

I would suspect that the Flash plugin for Firefox isnt all that well established yet, perhaps new versions will be more efficient and will help the problem.

I will setup a style when I get a moment with none of the Christmas effects for anyone having problems.

 

[barnum42]

It's just pulled another weird one on me Firefox is pulling 95-98% of CPU, I have three tabs open and can move between them at ease - I'm writing this reply whilst the system is in this state, BUT I can't move the firefox window!

 

[GaryT977]

This site has started crashing Firefox on my eMac whenever I tried to respond in a thread, so I switched to Camino, which is also from Mozilla, and it seems to work better.

 

[barnum42]

It siezed up again when I tried to close an "add repution" window (as the window said I had to spread more points before giving them to that member)

 

[GaryT977]

Well, Camino crashed too. I guess it's back to slow, old IE.

 

[ogryn]

I got the FlashBlock extension for Firefox and the problem cleared up (90% of the time). Basically it blocks all flash animations until you click on them, then they play as normal.

Not ideal, but it works :wave:

 

[xfkirsten]

Hmmm... that's weird... Firefox seems to handle it just fine for me.

 

[ogryn]

maybe people can post their specifications to see who gets this and who doesn't:

Firefox 1.0
Flash 7.0.19
Windows XP Pro
Athlon XP 2500+
512MB 333DDR Ram

= strugles

 

[pisco]

At home I have loads of problems (since the new flash was added) using:

Firefox 1.0
XP Pro
1.4 GHz Pentium 4
512mb RAM
Flash 7,0,1,9...

At work it runs no problem using:

Firefox 1.0
XP Pro
3.20GHz HT Pentium 4
1.00 GB RAM
Flash 7,0,1,9...

So it seems like if you throw enough horsepower at it flash runs just fine in Firefox. Now if I just had the money to upgrage my home system...

 

[xfkirsten]

FireFox 1.0PR
XP
1.6 GHz Pentium M
512 mb RAM
Flash 7,0,19,0

Runs just fine

 

[barnum42]

Firefox 1.0
Windows XP SP2
1.4Gig Athlon
750MB RAM
Shockwave Flash 7.0 r19

Edited to include Flash version after Og's "how to" post.

 

[ogryn]

^^^
type

about:plugins

into the address bar

 

[Figment1986]

It has to do with the CPU usage.... their is not enough on some comuters.. i know my old computer thats been upgraded many times barely can run any flash aniamtions... (I have Firefox 1.0 on it.... and end up having to adblock the banner.... takes me 15 min, but after that it runs fast.... though i dont have mych ram.... it is under a hundred sadely... which is main reason why... Darn compaqs... HP doesn't make the ram for it last time i checked anymore.... Persario 2286.... please correct me if i am wrong....)

 

[wannab@dis]

Home -- runs ok, but is slower than normal

Firefox 1.0
Windows XP
P4 2.66Ghz
512MB Ram
Flash 7.0 r19


Work -- runs fine

Firefox 1.0
Windows XP
P4 2.6Ghz HT
1GB Ram
Flash 7.0 r19

 

[barnum42]

I don't know how long it has been there, but Steve has just told me about a style setting in the bottom left of the window of "Blue Daylight - Dialup (no Flash). I'm on that now and things are looking stable.

 

[Irrawaddy Erik]

Yea I noticed it earlier today and it is working beautifully. Thanks Steve! :sohappy: