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Hard drive light blinking.. stops responding for a couple of minutes

  • 8 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by pharmerbill

pharmerbill
pharmerbill

Happening almost everytime I connect to internet after I haven't used my computer for a while...after a couple of minutes hard drive light starts blinking continuously and hard drive starts making noise like in use...and firefox stops responding..ie click on something and nothing happens for a couple of minutes..not the same site every time..I went to task manager and took a screen shot...looks like fire fox is opened twice..Also sometimes I close a site and go back to my desk top and click on an icon for another site and a box pops up saying that firefox is already running...

Happening almost everytime I connect to internet after I haven't used my computer for a while...after a couple of minutes hard drive light starts blinking continuously and hard drive starts making noise like in use...and firefox stops responding..ie click on something and nothing happens for a couple of minutes..not the same site every time..I went to task manager and took a screen shot...looks like fire fox is opened twice..Also sometimes I close a site and go back to my desk top and click on an icon for another site and a box pops up saying that firefox is already running...
Attached screenshots

Modified by pharmerbill

Chosen solution

Hi, Adblock Plus has been causing 'not responding' recently, so try disabling it - Add-ons Manager (Ctrl+Shift+A) > Extensions. An alternative is https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin

The multiple processes you are seeing running is normal, but from v55, you can try reducing the number of multiprocesses by going to Options (General tab) - Performance, then deselect 'Use recommended performance settings' and change to a lower number. See - Firefox's performance settings, and Startup, home page, tabs, and download settings.

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All Replies (8)

FredMcD
FredMcD

On many computers, the hard drive stores permanent and temporary data. So on some systems, the drive goes on/off all the time. If you have a memory card or thumb drive, look up Ready Boost. <Windows>

More than one process is normal for the current Firefox. http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/22/multi-process-firefox/

Multi-process Firefox is codenamed "e10s". https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/multiprocess


Try to disable multi-process tabs in Firefox. You can disable multi-process tabs in Firefox by setting the related prefs to false on the about:config page.

browser.tabs.remote.autostart = false browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 = false

http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/22/multi-process-firefox/

Type about:config<enter> in the address bar. If a warning screen comes up, press the Be Careful button. At the top of the screen is a search bar.

Modified by FredMcD

pharmerbill
pharmerbill Question owner

I don't understand what multi-process tabs are, nor do I feel confident in disabling them....I tried a refresh and will see if that will help..Thanks for replying so quickly.. I only have 2 Gb/Mb of RAM and also have Adblock Plus installed if that is significant..I also have a thumb drive installed to take advantage of Ready Boost. you said to type about:config<enter> in the address bar did you mean search bar??

Modified by pharmerbill

Scribe
Scribe

Chosen Solution

Hi, Adblock Plus has been causing 'not responding' recently, so try disabling it - Add-ons Manager (Ctrl+Shift+A) > Extensions. An alternative is https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin

The multiple processes you are seeing running is normal, but from v55, you can try reducing the number of multiprocesses by going to Options (General tab) - Performance, then deselect 'Use recommended performance settings' and change to a lower number. See - Firefox's performance settings, and Startup, home page, tabs, and download settings.

Modified by Scribe

pharmerbill
pharmerbill Question owner

This appears a lot when I close fire fox and go back to desk top and then click on another web site icon

pharmerbill
pharmerbill Question owner

I disabled Ad Block plus and installed ublock...went to multiprocesses and it was already set to 1.....I'll see how using ublock helps with the "hang-ups"

Scribe
Scribe

OK it doesn't seem to be a multiprocess issue. Using the Task Manager, try closing ALL the processes as shown in "Firefox is already running but is not responding" error - How to fix

FredMcD
FredMcD

How to crash Firefox (All Systems); Instructions here; https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/How_to_report_a_hung_Firefox

This link has a program that can crash Firefox.

pharmerbill
pharmerbill Question owner

Scribe said

Hi, Adblock Plus has been causing 'not responding' recently, so try disabling it - Add-ons Manager (Ctrl+Shift+A) > Extensions. An alternative is https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin The multiple processes you are seeing running is normal, but from v55, you can try reducing the number of multiprocesses by going to Options (General tab) - Performance, then deselect 'Use recommended performance settings' and change to a lower number. See - Firefox's performance settings, and Startup, home page, tabs, and download settings.

Disabling adblock plus appears to have solved the problem...started using ublock