Firefox freezing for seconds randomly

ChrisD. · 2 Aug 2011 at 07:12

As per the title, Firefox comes up (not responding) in the toolbar for 5-10 seconds, seemingly at random intervals. It's really bizarre as it's a new build, all other browsers work fine and I've never had it before.

Any known issues with the browser and a SSD (reason for new build)? I don't really know what to check, I don't really have many add ons.

MagusUK · 2 Aug 2011 at 09:32

I get this too but the occurrences are so infrequent that it doesn't warrant 'an investigation'. It's the only browser I use so I can't say whether it happens on any other.

Again using SSD but am pretty certain I have had same issue on HDD.

If it is a 'more' frequent occurrence for you, are you running any plug-ins/add-ons? Have you tried disabling/removing them & seeing if it may be one of them causing the issue?

ChrisD. · 2 Aug 2011 at 11:43

I don't run many add ons and the ones I run worked on the previous build so I am unsure why they would cause this now. I will disable them tonight non-the-less and see if it makes a difference.

I did a bit of Googleing and it appears it might have something to do with Disk caching however this seems to be an issue with older SSDs with slower speeds. I might move the cache to a spare drive and see if that helps, will update later on.

ChrisD. · 4 Aug 2011 at 15:29

Okay, I tried moving the cache to another disk and it doesn't seemed to have worked. I have also tried disabling every add one and I reinstalled W7 last night (for a separate issue) and it's still not cured.

It must be to do with the SSD, but I've no idea what?

.Griff. · 4 Aug 2011 at 19:47

I've got an SSD and like you I have a "freezing" problem with Firefox.

What typically happens is Firefox will freeze, I can still minimize it and open other programmes but after about 30 seconds everything freezes. About a minute later it comes back to life again.

I'm not sure what it is and it doesn't happen every day.

ChrisD. · 4 Aug 2011 at 21:26

Mine's a Crucial SSD as well, but the M4. Is there a way to email the firefox devs?

jpaul · 4 Aug 2011 at 22:44

Still on ff3.6 the regular freezing I had was just after visiting new sites and
was a result of a large history file their sql db seems to be very inefficiently managed,
cure is to ensure I erase the history regularly and not carry around 2-3 months of
browsing baggage. Prior to this I had investigated whether regular auto-save of tabs
was responsible . session management but I disabled this and issue persisted
Cheers, Paul

ChrisD. · 5 Aug 2011 at 22:52

Those with the same issue, are you using Firefox Sync?

.Griff. · 8 Aug 2011 at 18:04

MilanoChris said:
Those with the same issue, are you using Firefox Sync?

I'm not no.

ChrisD. · 8 Aug 2011 at 19:03

Since moving the cache and clearing out the history I haven't had this for a while.

.Griff. · 17 Aug 2011 at 15:18

My whole system has just frozen for about 2 minutes while using Firefox.

The device, \Device\Ide\iaStor0, did not respond within the timeout period.

I know that's referring to the Intel Rapid Storage driver but I'm not sure if that was the cause of the freeze or it the error was caused by the freeze.

eddyc · 17 Aug 2011 at 17:08

Are you using the latest version? Might be worth just upgrading and seeing if that sorts it.

.Griff. · 17 Aug 2011 at 17:18

FF6 Beta and latest IRST drivers.

ChrisD. · 23 Sep 2011 at 09:03

Bump for this, it's still happening.

I'm almost certain it's something to do with Firefox Sync.

Anyone else having these issues at all since my OP?