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Firefox problems

sophia8

Master Poster
sophia8
Joined
Oct 28, 2003
Messages
2,457
I love Firefox - I've been using it for t least a couple of years. Up until about a month ago, I had no problems with it at all. Then, it started running slow, freezing, crashing - I kept getting time-out problems, pages simply not opening.
I thought it was my broadband connection - tested it, changed the settings. No luck. So then I downloaded a couple of utility programs and cleaned up my PC. Thanks to one of them, I discovered that FF was using a heck of a lot of system memory (I have 512 RAM and don't normally have such problems). So, I tried using Opera instead. And things went like a dream - no crashing, no page time-outs.
I uninstalled FF2.0, went back to FF1.5. But that produced the same problems.
So I'm now using Opera full-time, and I'm not happy bout it. OK, it's a nice browser, but it doesn't seem to have the stuff that I like about FF - no web-developers' toolbar and no spell-checking for a start.
At the moment, my OS is Win98. I'm soon going to change that, to WinXP dual-booting with Linux (WinXP is being forced on me by various program ugrades). Will Firefix run any better then? Or is the memory-hogging caused by something else entirely?
 
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Your problems are all probably due to the fact that you're using Windows '98. I mean, come on. Yeesh!

I'm an XP Pro user, myself and I can tell you, constant problems still don't stop. Dual booting Linux is a great idea.
 
Definitely time to move on from Win98!

I've had problems in the past with Firefox running slowly, freezing or crashing. It always seemed to happen after I'd installed one or more add-ons. As soon as I removed them the problems disappeared.
 
If you've been doing in-place upgrades of Firefox for a long time, your profile may be filled with obsolete stuff contributing to your problem.

Try deleting the profile folder and see what happens (note: you'll lose your settings and bookmarks, so back them up first).
 
Firefox takes a lot of memory, that's all there is to it. You can implement a fix (I can't remember exactly how) so that minimizing the window frees a lot of memory, but it will creep back up again. I am told that Firefox doesn't have this problem in Linux. Linux advocates tell me this is a problem with Windows; I see it as a problem with the Windows implementation of Firefox.
 
Yeah, it probably is Windows. I've tinkered a bit and got FF running better, but it's still slow.
B-b-but...(blub!) I've had W98 since it was a liddle babby! (blub!) It's been with me through hardware upgrades, system rebuilds - at least four new motherboards..!! Reinstall after reinstall, with no complaints, sweet as a nut every time!! (choke!!)
Now I'll have to put up with XP stamping and throwing a hissy fit and running home to tattle to big daddy Microsoft every time I add some memory or change the hard drive. S'no fair!! Waaaaahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
 
You can download a spell checker for Opera but I have to admit that web developer add-in for FF is bloody useful!
 
Often when I connect Yahoo Mail in a tab, my FF 1.5 browser slows down considerably. I don't if this is related to FF or the Yahoo site or some other thing ?

nimzo
 
nimzov said:
Often when I connect Yahoo Mail in a tab, my FF 1.5 browser slows down considerably. I don't if this is related to FF or the Yahoo site or some other thing ?

nimzo
Click to expand...
Often, if I'm getting mail from a mail alert through Y! Messenger, It will just freeze and eventually tell me that Firefox has to shut down.

I've been having a lot of trouble with Firefox as of late as well. It likes to crash. A lot. More than IE ever did. I downloaded an old version and it worked fine until it keep updating to the new version against my will. Now I get the same troubles. It's been fine for the last 2 days or so, but I'm still expecting a crash at any minute.

I hate having to write in the "what were you doing when Firefox shut down?" tab "looking at text in a fully loaded window, you jerks". or something just as stupid sounding.

I don't think it's my system. I have a gig of ram, 2.46 Ghz processor. I have a firewall, decent anti popup and anti malware software, and it's only the newest version of Firefox that keeps frustrating me.

Anyone know of a way I can download a previous version of Firefox and run it without it auto updating until I have a colicky baby of a web-browser?
 
Be nice to Windows 98! I still use it. I use it for the good games. The old ones.

As for Firefox, I've never really liked it because of that simple problem. Firefox if I remember correctly is open code, and with the newest security updates to XP, it may be having problems with them. I do agree though on dumping the entire file folder of all the firefox stuff. You will also need to use a registry cleaner to get the registry links. You can purge the files, but if the registry entries are still there, you've done didily. Also check the firefox website and see if they've released an update to repair the error. If enough error complaints come in, it usually gets fixed really fast.
 
Rat said:
Firefox takes a lot of memory, that's all there is to it. You can implement a fix (I can't remember exactly how) so that minimizing the window frees a lot of memory, but it will creep back up again. I am told that Firefox doesn't have this problem in Linux. Linux advocates tell me this is a problem with Windows; I see it as a problem with the Windows implementation of Firefox.
Click to expand...

I have that problem too. Firefox does seem to use buckets of memory.
 
treble_head said:
Anyone know of a way I can download a previous version of Firefox and run it without it auto updating until I have a colicky baby of a web-browser?
Click to expand...
In FF 1.5 I have an option to disable automatic updates.

Go to Tools -> Option -> Advanced -> Update and disable "Automatically Check for updates" or click on "Ask me what to do" when updates are found.

nimzo
 
I've used Firefox from when it was Mozilla on both Linux and Windows and have experienced very few crashes in that time. I have found virtually no difference between FF on Linux or FF on Windows (98 and XP). The only extensions I ever load is an image viewer and mouse gestures.

I have seen it crash regularly at some web sites. I think those may be related to javascipt or flash or something like that. I also suspect that it may be a response to an attempted virus or malware loading. It's possible that a certain buffer overflow might work on IE but crash FF. This would be a good thing. Having software crash at a security breach is better than allowing it.

If it happens at the same site all the time I suspect the site. If it is just randomly crashing I would suspect your OS has become unstable or your FF install has, as I have always found FF to be rock solid. (Well, except for some of the very early versions that barely worked at all.)
 
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