Amie, I was going to make some suggestions in response to what seems to be a plea for help, but when I looked back at your most recent questions, i became discouraged because of responses like this:

2/24/14 8:31 AM: "I give up. This forum used to be helpful, but now it's just a bunch of people spewing the same old links and bullshit over and over. Going to Chrome. At least it works."

12/13/13 8:05 AM: "Thanks, but I'll just use the portable version, which actually works. I get a little tired of trying to make FF work properly sometimes. For some reason, portable works fine no matter what add-ons I use, so I'm glad there is that option."

Would we be wasting our time yet again if we offer suggestions?

jscher2000 said

Amie, I was going to make some suggestions in response to what seems to be a plea for help, but when I looked back at your most recent questions, i became discouraged because of responses like this: 2/24/14 8:31 AM: "I give up. This forum used to be helpful, but now it's just a bunch of people spewing the same old links and bullshit over and over. Going to Chrome. At least it works." 12/13/13 8:05 AM: "Thanks, but I'll just use the portable version, which actually works. I get a little tired of trying to make FF work properly sometimes. For some reason, portable works fine no matter what add-ons I use, so I'm glad there is that option." Would we be wasting our time yet again if we offer suggestions?

I have been frustrated for so long, but a friend wrote and suggested that she had been having a lot of problems with the portable version too, so she switched back to desktop and updated all the add-ons they listed as incompatible, and it started working well again. So I did that, and HALLELUIAH! IT WORKED! I am so happy now, and I hope it stays this way. If it doesn't, I've always got Iron as a backup.

I still have to use Iron for FB, though. No matter what I do (and I've done everything everyone suggested), I can't get FB to work with FF. G+ works perfectly, as do Twitter, Pinterest and Reddit, but FB just won't work. It completely freezes up my FF and I have to close it down to get the browser back. Plus, it seems to leave some kind of residual BS on the browser that keeps it from working well after that. So I'll use Iron for FB. I was using Opera, but FB messed that up too. I really hate FB, and wouldn't use it if I didn't have to, but it's necessary for my work.

I knew it could not last. It's right back to doing what it did before, and it may have something to do with bookmarks. It pulled in bookmarks from an old profile that was lingering somewhere on my computer. At first, I could not get it to import the newer bookmark backup, so I started in safe mode, deleted all the bookmarks and then it imported them. As soon as they were in there and I rebooted back into normal mode, it started doing the same old stuff -- halting, choppy scrolling, sloooooow download times for pages (especially gmail).

Can bookmarks cause this? If so, how do I fix it?

What was the procedure you followed to trigger the discovery/import/restore of old bookmarks? If Firefox reached out and found something on its own, perhaps it was your Windows Favorites folder. If you compare, can you see any resemblance?

It's hard to think of how regular bookmarks could cause a problem, but Firefox does support saving RSS feeds in your bookmarks, which it calls Live Bookmarks, and according to this article, those reload every hour: Live Bookmarks - Subscribe to a web page for news and updates.

It seems more likely that if Safe Mode works smoothly and regular mode is a mess, that it's one of these problems:

• incompatibility with your graphics card/chipset drivers, the standard workaround is to disable hardware acceleration under Options > Advanced > General mini-tab > uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available" (takes effect the next time you exit and start Firefox up again); see also Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL

• problematic extension, the trick being to figure out which one/ones

Hardware acceleration is already disabled.

I have most of my add-ons disabled, except the ones I absolutely need.

It wasn't safe mode working and regular mode not, because it was working in regular mode for a very short time before I did the bookmarks. I don't use RSS and don't have live bookmarks and don't use IE, so no favorites there.

Again, what I did was to try to import bookmarks, but it wouldn't, so I went into safe mode, deleted all the old bookmarks and then imported the newest version, which worked.

I don't have time to go through this over and over again. I love FF, but Iron it is, because this is just too aggravating, and something I've been going through for years. Loyalty is one thing, being an idiot is another. I'm done trying to make it work. I just can't do this anymore, which is what I've heard from every friend I know who has switched. They said they got got worn out from trying to get FF to work properly.

Like I said, I'll use it when I need the add-ons that Iron doesn't have, but this is my last attempt to make this work like it should.

Thanks for trying to help, but you didn't give me any advice I haven't already heard and taken, so if that's all there is, it must be unfixable.

I don't want to waste your time, since it seems you would not want to go down this route, but I'll put this out there: if this problem does not occur in Safe Mode ever, but does occur with extensions enabled eventually, I can't help thinking there is a problem with one of your extensions or their interaction with one another.

If you haven't done this recently, it's quick and doesn't change your settings, so I suggest doing it at some point:

Clean Reinstall

We use this name, but it's not about removing your settings, it's about making sure the program files are clean (no inconsistent, corrupted, or alien code files). As described below, this process does not disturb your existing settings. Do NOT uninstall Firefox, that's not needed.

(A) Download a fresh installer for Firefox 40.0.2 from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/ to a convenient location. (Scroll down to your preferred language.)

(B) Exit out of Firefox (if applicable).

(C) Rename the program folder, either:

(64-bit Windows folder names)

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox

to

C:\Program Files (x86)\OldFirefox

(32-bit Windows folder names)

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox

to

C:\Program Files\OldFirefox

(D) Run the installer you downloaded in (A). It should automatically connect to your existing settings.

This sometimes curious mysterious problems that have no rational explanation.

Note: Some plugins may exist only in that OldFirefox folder. If something essential is missing, look in these folders:

• \OldFirefox\Plugins
• \OldFirefox\browser\plugins