When I type into any area of Firefox the letters appear with a delay of 10 seconds to 1 minute
I have tried completely removing Firefox, all its settings, profiles, uninstalling and clearing out everything, reinstalling Firefox 30 with no plugins, no bookmarks, nothing. I have tried running in Safe mode, but the problem persists, and it is specific to Firefox.
When I type anything into a box in Firefox - search box, url box, a box on a web site*, anywhere, unpredictably the letters just stop appearing on the screen, then appear one by one with a several second delay between each. It makes Firefox unusable and I have been forced back to using IE, which I loathe.
- it just happened while I was typing that. It suddenly stopped in the middle of the word 'Firefox'; then the remaining letters up to the asterisk appeared one by one, with a delay of between three and twenty seconds each - I counted. I have had to finish this by preparing it in Notepad and copying and pasting, because it keeps stopping.
My computer is up to date; all drivers are up to date; my virus checker (Zonealarm Extreme Security) is up to date. A virus scan finds no infection.
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601 System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard System Model HP Pavilion g6 Notebook PC System Type x64-based PC Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2330M CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2200 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s) BIOS Version/Date Insyde F.66, 24/01/2013 SMBIOS Version 2.7 Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514" Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB Total Physical Memory 3.95 GB Available Physical Memory 1.21 GB Total Virtual Memory 7.90 GB Available Virtual Memory 4.66 GB Page File Space 3.95 GB Page File C:\pagefile.sys
All Replies (20)
When you pasted, was there a delay? Or just with the keyboard?
Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} While you are in safe mode; Press the <Alt> or <F10> key to bring up the tool bar. Followed by;
Windows; Tools > Options Linux; Edit > Preferences Mac; application name > Preferences
Then Advanced > General. Look for and turn off Use Hardware Acceleration.
Poke around safe web sites and see if there is still a problem. Then restart.
What is the Firefox memory usage when this happens?
You can check for problems with the sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak files in the Firefox profile folder that store session data.
- Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Multiple_profile_files_created
Deleting sessionstore.js will cause App Tabs and Tab Groups and open and closed (undo) tabs to get lost and you will have to recreate them (make a note or bookmark them if possible).
The delay only occurs when I type. The pause seems to be less when the character is a space, and sometimes a series of two or three characters will appear together.
I tried what you suggested but the problems persists in safe mode with hardware acceleration turned off
You can create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problem.
See "Creating a profile":
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues
If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over the problem
Thank you for your suggestion. I don't know what to look for in the sessionstore.js file which would help me identify the problem.
CPU Usage is mnimal ~ 1-3% and memory usage is ~ 2.3GB of 4GB with no discernible spike or sudden change when the problem occurs
A new profile was one of the first things I tried. It made no change. As I said, I went as far as to completely remove all Mozilla and Firefox files and folders before a fresh install, but the problem persists
You can boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.
I have booted Windows in Safe mode and it appears that the issue does not occur in this mode, so it must presumably be related to one of the drivers normally loaded by Windows. But how can I identify which one it is that is causing the problem?
So now I have discovered that there was, in fact, an update for the Intel graphics, which Microsoft Update was not offering. I thought that *must* do the trick and installed it, but no, I still have the same thing happening. I assume this rules out the graphics driver as the source of the issue.
I have spent days trying to sort this out. I think I am going to have to ditch Firefox.
It could be the work of one of your add-ons, or even add / mal-ware. Look thru your add-ons list and make sure you know what each one is there for. Also, check the programs that are on your computer
Windows: Start > Control Panel > Uninstall Programs.
Go thru the list. If you find something that you don't know what it is, use a web search.
Modified by James
The fresh, new installation after uninstalling Firefox AND removing all Firefox and Mozilla files and folders had no extensions, and all plugins are set to 'Ask to Activate'.
I don't add programs without good reason and reasonable confidence. The only things (control panel>programs and features, sorted by date) installed during the period when this problem started are:
Adobe Flash Player 4 plugin Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2007 (English) Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (x86) - 11.0.51106 Sea Tools for Windows Seagate Drive Settings Installer ZoneAlarm Extreme Security Adobe Reader Z (10.1.10) MUI OpenOffice 4.1.0 GIMP 2.8.10 Kobo Microsoft Silverlight Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.1
As I said before, ZoneAlarm Extreme Security full scan after update found no virus infection.
Modified by PatrickOK
Four days on and nobody has any suggestions? Is there some way to file a bug report? I assume there is some conflict introduced with around Firefox 28. Who do I tell?
In your message above, you said you have Adobe Flash Player 4 plugin
But your System Details shows;
Installed Plug-ins
Shockwave Flash 14.0 r0 Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape 10.1.10
As far as Adobe programs.
Where did you see Adobe Flash Player 4 plugin?
"Adobe Flash Player 14 Plugin" is listed as an installed program in the Windows Control Panel>Programs and Features.
Firefox Add-ons Manger lists "Shockwave Flash 14.0.0.125".
Should I uninstall Adobe Flash Player?
Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test.
I tried that - see above. The problem does not occur in Windows Safe mode.
Well, having spent the last week using IE instead of Firefox with just an occasional try, today I seem to be able to use Firefox again with no problem. I have no idea what has changed. The version of Firefox is still 30.0, and there doesn't seem to have been a Windows update.
I was installing a new Open Office English dictionary, but Firefox started working normally before the installation had been completed, so I can't pin it down definitively to that, but that is my suspicion. It is possible that the OpenOffice extension manager had uninstalled the old one before installing the new one.
I would very much like to know if there is any way that this could be the explanation.
What a relief. I hope it remains working as normal. I haven't marked this thread as 'solved yet, but I will come back and do so once I have been using Firefox without problems for a few days.
Office English is not listed in your system details, so hard to tell.
Office English doesn't have any 'notifiable' connection to Firefox; it doesn't appear as an extension. But that installation was the only thing I changed around the time that Firefox fixed itself, so I thought maybe there is someone out there who might either be interested to know or be able to make the connection somehow.
Nope. The problem is back, so still unresolved.
Back to IE.