With Firefox open, System slows to a crawl.

[ScottyK]

Been trying to troubleshoot this for a while and getting nowhere.

I have a 8GB RAM, quad core system running 12.10 64 bit. Video is GeForce GT 630, so it's plenty fast.

The system runs great, until I open up Firefox. Then within minutes, the computer slows to a crawl. There is a lag on all mouse scrolls. Opening something on the Klaunch takes 5-10 seconds before it finally opens the menu. A newsreader that runs under wine is slow like molasses, it takes quite a while to scroll through messages and close out the program.

Once I close out firefox, the system is snappy fast again.

KDE is 4.10.1
Nvidia drivers are version 304.51
Firefox version is 19.0.2 (the version that comes from the ubuntu repos)

I only have 5 tabs open on Firefox at any one time. I have the same add-on's as I do on my notebook, but that runs a whole lot smoother, and the hardware is 5-6 years old.

Ideas? Ever since KDE 4.10 came out I've installed nothing out of the ordinary. Firefox ran fine for a while after the 4.10 upgrade also.

I have zero desire to run Google Chrome. Firefox is my favorite browser, but willing to get rekonq a try. Wondering if I picked up a bad version of Firefox, but the Notebook is also running 19.0.2 from the ubuntu repos

[Snowhog]

The 'standard' approach would be to disable all the add-ons, close Firefox and then relaunch it. Does it behave correctly? Then start enabling one add-on at a time and test until you find the one that (maybe) causing the problem.

[ronw]

EDIT: Snowhog's post reminded me of safe mode. In a terminal: $ firefox -safe-mode

I'd first check that you are letting Firefox manage the disk cache. Preferences > Advanced > Cached Web Content.

The next thing I would try is creating a new profile, then start Firefox using that. If that takes care of it, then you can modify the new profile or begin the process of elimination on your current profile.

There my be more surgical ways to troubleshoot this using about:memory and friends, but I've only ever glanced at those.

[ScottyK]

I'm letting Firefox managed the disk cache. It was at 350 MB, cleared it out.

Running Firefox in safe mode makes a notable boost in speed, but still lagging slightly.

going to create a new profile and see if that does it.

[SteveRiley]

What does top show when Firefox is running?

[ScottyK]

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
26163 scott 20 0 1247m 365m 43m S 30.8 4.6 0:38.34 firefox

That's from a recently reopened firefox.

The CPU usage is strange...

Desktop - CPU usage is 30.8%
Notebook - CPU usage is 1.6%

[SteveRiley]

That's a lot. Googling for "ubuntu firefox high cpu" shows a lot of reports, but no conclusive solution.

[ScottyK]

It's the user profile. I created a new profile, and now top is reporting that firefox is only using 1.6% CPU.

switching back to my other profile, the CPU usage shoots back to 36-51%

So by using the new profile, that should solve it.

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I'll set up the new profile the way I like it and see if I get any more CPU problems.

[jlittle]

I'll just add that despite 8 GB, your system is behaving like mine did when I had only 1 GB, and I opened too many firefox tabs in google groups. It'd be interesting to start system monitor showing the memory use graph and watch it while firefox runs. During your "minutes" I'd expect it to rise gradually till your system is stressed.

Regards, John Little

[ScottyK]

It's not the clean user profile, it must be one of the add on's.

I set up a new profile, and added only four add on's

ForecastFox
Xmarks
Lastpass
Ad Block Plus.

One of those is causing the cpu to hover around 9-23% CPU usage, and again it crawls.

going to disable them one by one and hopefully find the problem.