Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Firefox stops working every 5 or 6 seconds for about 20 seconds

  • 8 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by kobe

more options

Whenever I open a website (Facebook, YouTube .. etc) Firefox stops working for about 20 to 35 seconds. It just get frozen and I have to wait until it works again. I like Firefox a lot, please find me a solution.

Whenever I open a website (Facebook, YouTube .. etc) Firefox stops working for about 20 to 35 seconds. It just get frozen and I have to wait until it works again. I like Firefox a lot, please find me a solution.

All Replies (8)

more options

My Firefox 21.0 is basically useless now for some reason. If I go to Facebook or another web site, it opens then does nothing. I can't scroll down, or close it again.It grays out the screen and I have to go to the Task Manager to close it. It worked fine until about two weeks ago. I've tried everything including a complete removal and reinstalling it. The fresh install did the same thing. I've used nothing but Netscape and Firefox since the 90s and am very disappointed. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit....

more options

OMG den942. That exactly the same as me. Same OS, same problem and same description. This is the first version that has this problem. Please help us or should we use an old version until your next update ?

more options

I'm using firefox. I noticed when it stopped about 10 seconds.

more options

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window or otherwise make changes.

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

You can also check advanced settings in your security software (firewall, anti-virus).

Boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.

more options

Sorry, but that didn't help. By the way, the freezing only happens when I join Facebook. I don't know a lot in Internet and Web Pages but I think Facebook requires a lo of resources or Java or I don't know. I just want to use Firefox.

more options

Hello,

Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration. Since this feature was added to Firefox, it has gradually improved, but there still are a few glitches.

You might need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).

Then perform these steps:

  • Click the orange Firefox button at the top left, then select the "Options" button, or, if there is no Firefox button at the top, go to Tools > Options.
  • In the Firefox options window click the Advanced tab, then select "General".
  • In the settings list, you should find the Use hardware acceleration when available checkbox. Uncheck this checkbox.
  • Now, restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.

Additionally, please check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in the following Knowledge base articles:

Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems

Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Thank you.

more options

OMG, I did everything. It's still the same. I still don't know why this problem is only happening with Firefox

more options

Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:

Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from http://www.mozilla.org and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (click Exit from the Firefox or File menu).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
    • Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
  4. Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

Please report back to see if this helped you!