Firefox 3.6.15 & Google Image Search

Hi again guys. A couple days ago this began. I switched back to version 3.6.15 after I tried the beta version. Okay, so any search that I do in google images is extremely slow.

I made a short video. There is no sound, I have no microphone currently. It shows me scrolling on an image search, the periods where the screen is standing still, I am still turning my mouse wheel, I never stop. One second it scrolls down, then it freezes, some thumbnails don't show up. Just strange stuff.

Here is the video ->
I took screenshots of the add-ons I have in FF. I have not installed any new ones in about 2 weeks.





Any ideas why it's so slow for me?

Error Magnet, good to see you again. My suggestion is to review your massive collection of add on's, and extensions that you have added to Firefox. I've found, through personal experience, and through various forum postings, is to keep your add on's to what you need.

What you don't need all of the time, you can disable, and enable as you need to do so.

Running CCleaner may help too, to rid your system of the accumulated junk files that's laying around. And don't forget to defrag. Auslogics Disc Defrag is a good freeware for this. Both CCleaner & Auslogics Disc Defrag can be found at:

http://www.filehippo.com

Also, a full system virus scan may help, too. An excellent free online scanner is ESET, it can be found at:

http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner

It's best to run this through IE, as it'll allow you to select more options for a more precise scan and cleanup process.

Best of Luck,
Cat

Hello catilley! I do lots of treatment of my PC. I run CCleaner, Avast Free, Advanced System Care Pro, Perfect Disk 11, Hijackthis & Spybot. I usually only have 1 or 2, maybe 3 malware things once a week. I will try that eset thing in IE. I will tell you if it helps.

Some of the software that you're running is great. I run Perfect Disk 11 myself. Perhaps the best paid defrag tool on the market. It does what the free ones cant do.

Avast Free, it's OK for web browsing (see the specs on their home site), but as far as banking, making transactions, etc, no. They offer a 3 user Pro pack for $29.99, which includes full protection. They also have a 3 star rating with AV Comparatives, meaning it's among the best in the industry. Had I not found the 3 Pack of ESET NOD32 AV 4 for $29.99 (thanks to the link that yodap provided), I would have chosen Avast Pro or Ad-Aware Pro. Both can be had for $29.99, but Ad-Aware is only a single user pack.

Advanced System Care (Pro or Free) concerns me. It (the free version) wiped out an XP install a couple of years ago. It's "cleaning" is too aggressive for my comfort level. That money would be better spent on a paid AV (see above). CCleaner does a good job of cleaning the junk files from your computer, plus it has a SAFE registry cleaner. It reminds you to backup the registry to your docs, as always, you should do so.

HijackThis, I have it, but haven't actually had to use it, and hope that I don't need to.

Spybot, I've ran it for a limited time, I had problems with the Tea Timer function on it. Other than that, I didn't run it enough to really say how good (or bad) it is, so I'll leave it at that.

If by chance you do keep Avast Free (I really recommend the paid version for it's extra security, I believe that a single user license is $19.99/year, if you don't need the 3 pack), you need to run that ESET Online Scanner weekly. Most of us do make purchases on the internet, it's more convenient to shop the net, rather than drive around, plus you can hunt for the best deal, while saving a ton in gas (which alone can pay for the pro version of Avast). And keep in mind, that "free" AV's leave out critical components that we need to stay safe at all times.

By running ESET weekly, you'll at least know that you have a fairly clean computer, but remember, it's not "realtime protection". I also feel that's a step that you should take, ASAP, to be sure that you don't have any viruses or other bad code that Avast Free may have missed.

I think that the bases have been covered, but I still feel that you need to disable some of the addons that you don't use daily. The more that the browser has to load at startup, the slower it will be. For example, when I start IE9 RC, it offers to disable addons to gain startup speed. And I only have 5 addons.

Hopefully, my post is of some help to you, it looks like you're doing some good things. I hope that you get your images running fast again. If you need further assistance, post back. There's usually help around somewhere, and I'll keep an eye out for you, too.

Cat

With every new release of Firefox 3.6+ (currently at 3.6.15) I have noticed that more and more extensions are being flagged as incompatible, which is sad. As the coding is "improved", there will be an increase in extension issues, which is a bittersweet consequence of strengthening security and introducing new or improved features.

I counted 45 Firefox add-ons! That alone will contribute to a significant slowdown in your browsing, not to mention consume a lot of memory. Check your processes section under Windows Task Manager to see exactly how much. The slowdown in Google images is most likely being caused by one or more conflicts with add-ons, so I would try disabling one at a time to see if you can pinpoint the culprit. The hesitation and periodic freezing is often a result of incompatibility with one or more extensions, especially when you have as many as you do.

I am also a longtime Firefox user, but I use only 11 add-ons and I thought that was a lot! Do you really need 45 add-ons? You should start getting rid of the ones that you rarely use, or at the very least, disable them and notate any changes.

I also noticed that you have multiple Java console entries, which can be deleted by selecting "Run as administrator" to launch Firefox, which renders java console's uninstall button clickable and no longer greyed out. Then, just uninstall the older Java add-on (6.0.22) and only keep the most recent one (6.0.23), as that is all you need. Speaking of java, the current version is now 6.0.24, so you should upgrade your java, then delete both of the older console entries.

If you can streamline your add-ons, it should help to resolve the problems that you're experiencing.

Also, be sure to look over your plugins section to see if there are any that can either be disabled or deleted altogether. Ask if you need help.

Also, I'd like to mention, if you either can't or don't want to pay for an AV, Comodo has an AV that you can use that will protect you better while shopping, banking, etc. I run it on a couple of VM's, and it's very effective for a free AV.

They also have a free firewall, but unless you've had problems with the Windows one, you can leave that alone. I was using it, but it was very worrisome, and I removed it with Revo Uninstaller and turned the Windows Firewall back on.

Comodo AV can be found at:

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.c...-download.html

All three options will be listed, the Firewall, the AV, & Comodo Internet Security (which simply includes both the Firewall & AV together as a pack). Make sure that you choose the proper download for your system (either 32 or 64 bit Windows XP SP2/Vista/Win 7). Either bit version works with all 3 OS's.

And work on those addons.

Cat

Thank you guys. I will try your recommendations. Thank you for taking the time to explain everything.

Okay, update time.

The eset scan came back with nothing found. As my avast did.
I removed a CRAP LOAD (That's a technical term us Ukrainians use) of add-ons for FireFox.

The image search has gotten better, still not the same as it was before, but it doesn't lag as much.

I am considering getting that avast pro, it's just I don't have an income source as of now. So I need to compare some things.

You may want to consider Comodo AV then. It's at the link that I provided above. For a free AV, it does a good job, much better than any of the other free ones on the market. It protects you while you browse, shop, whatever.

Still, a monthly scan with ESET won't hurt.

Good to see things are improving. You may still need to narrow down a few more addons. Remember, you can disable addons without removing them entirely.

Cat

Which add-ons have you kept? I may be able to help you to determine which ones may still be contributing to the Google images slowdown, although I'm starting to think that you could also have a lot of processes running in the background, which can cause Firefox to slowdown. Not to mention that FF 3.6 is still somewhat of a memory hog after it has been opened and running for a while. I will periodically close Firefox and clear all of the temp files after it has been running for quite a while, which from trial and error has proven to help improve performance. Hopefully, FF4 will reduce the memory usage issues.

To check your system processes, right-click anywhere on your taskbar, then click on "Start Task Manager". Once the GUI opens, click on the "Processes" tab and take a close look at exactly what is running. How many processes are running? The number is in the lower left corner of the GUI. That should give you a better idea as to what system memory is being used for. Also notate "CPU Usage", which is listed as a percentage.

Other freeware programs to try that are good for scanning your system for malware and spyware are ..

SUPERAntiSpyware 4.49.1000

Malwarebytes 1.50.1