Mozilla firefox hangs 8-10 minutes for the first time after then it works fine

Question

My friend is facing this issue for last few days. He is not much technocrat so I am posting on behalf of him.

Whenever he starts laptop and after then starts Firefox (regularly updated to latest version), it hangs for 8-10 minutes and cooling fan noise increases noticeably. Also processor usage shows 80-90% during when it hangs. This happens for the first time only when he launches firefox after that he does not face any issue even after hours of browsing.

Specs:

OS : Windows 7, 64 bits

Ram: 4 GB

Processor : Intel Core i3, 2.26 GHz

P.S. :

• He has habit of closing firefox when multiple tabs are open and saves them before closing firefox.

• Temporary files deletion using CCLeaner, Virus scan is already done.

• Windows 7 is genuine and regularly updated.

• Problem occurs even he starts firefox after 10 mins he starts Windows. Same problem he had with IE.

  Is it because of some add on compatibility issue? Or bug in Firefox? Or too many startup processes? Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer 1

If starting Firefox with the command line firefox.exe -safe-mode results in proper behavior, then it is probably an Add-ons issue.

If starting Firefox in a different profile (use firefox.exe -ProfileManager to create one) results is proper behavior, it is likely a corrupt profile. You may need to create a new one, but it can be helpful to first use SQLite to try to repair and compact the files.

As always make a backup of the profile before attempting repairs.

I use this batch script to compact my files. Both the .bat and sqlite3.exe go in the profile directory along with the .sqlite files.

pause
@FOR %%G IN (*.sqlite) DO ( sqlite3 %%G "VACUUM" )
pause

Answer 2

Many "Firefox" problems are caused by incompatible themes, extensions, or programming errors in plugins. As a quick diagnostic, you may wish to switch to the default theme or, if the problem appeared after installing a new extension or after upgrading Firefox, use the add-ons manager (accessible from the Tools menu) to update or disable your extensions, before going through the diagnostic steps below. Starting with Firefox 3, the add-ons manager can also be used to disable plugins.

• Exit Firefox completely and reboot the computer.

• (If you can open Firefox and use the menus) clear the cache: "Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Network / Cache (Firefox 2) or Network / Offline Storage (Firefox 3 and above) -> Clear Now" and clear any other private data you don't wish to save such as cookies and download history; if the problem isn't resolved, then:

• Close Firefox (if open) using "File -> Exit" and make sure it is not running in the background (on some systems, you may need to wait
  awhile for the Firefox process to terminate). Optionally make a
  profile backup to safeguard your data and settings and then:

• Customization and preference issues: Start Firefox in Safe Mode. The "Firefox Safe Mode" window will appear, containing some
  troubleshooting options. Check the boxes, "Reset toolbars and
  controls" (this will remove any toolbar customizations) and "Reset
  all user preferences to Firefox defaults" (this will remove any
  user-set preferences and restores the default theme). Next, press the button, "Make Changes and Restart". . Note: Instead of using Safe
  Mode, advanced users can rename the localstore.rdf and prefs.js files so that their customizations and settings can be easily restored. If the problem is not resolved, close Firefox and then,

• Extension and theme issues (and hardware acceleration in Firefox 4 and above): Check the list of problematic extensions, to see if your problem is listed; if not, start Firefox in Safe Mode and, when the
  "Firefox Safe Mode" window appears, press the button, "Continue in
  Safe Mode". If the problem persists in Safe Mode, continue with the
  next numbered step. If the problem goes away in Safe Mode: (Firefox 4 and above) Turn off hardware acceleration ("Tools -> Options ->
  Advanced / General -> Use hardware acceleration when available")
  Update or uninstall the added theme or select the default theme in
  "Tools -> Add-ons -> Themes". Update, disable, or uninstall your
  added extensions via "Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions" (see Extension issues below).

• Profile issues: Create a new Firefox profile (You can later use the Firefox Profile Manager to return to your original profile). If the
  problem goes away in the new profile, you can either selectively copy your important profile data to the new profile and reinstall your
  added extensions and themes or you can try to fix the original
  profile.

• Plugin issues: You can disable your plugins to see if the issue is plugin-related. See Plugin issues below for details. In Firefox 3.0
  and above, use the Add-ons manager ("Tools -> Add-ons -> Plugins") to disable each plugin. If the problem persists:

• Clean reinstall: Download a new Firefox installer from Mozilla.org and then close Firefox completely, delete the Firefox installation
  directory and reinstall Firefox. If this does not help, you may need to uninstall Firefox completely before reinstalling it.

Hope this helps.