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Firefox activity spinner hesitates continually when loading page.

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  • Last reply by guigs

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I recently purchased an HP pc with Windows 8.1 and when I load pages in Firefox the activity spinner hesitates once per second (i.e. the spinner does not rotate smoothly). Do you have any idea as to what is causing this? My upload and download speeds to the internet through Comcast appear to be within operating specifications.

To the best of my knowledge I did not experience this issue with my XP laptop; however it has been several weeks since my XP laptop crashed (which is why I purchased the new laptop).

I also wanted to note that video clips that are being viewed/downloaded also hesitate and stutter while playing same.

I recently purchased an HP pc with Windows 8.1 and when I load pages in Firefox the activity spinner hesitates once per second (i.e. the spinner does not rotate smoothly). Do you have any idea as to what is causing this? My upload and download speeds to the internet through Comcast appear to be within operating specifications. To the best of my knowledge I did not experience this issue with my XP laptop; however it has been several weeks since my XP laptop crashed (which is why I purchased the new laptop). I also wanted to note that video clips that are being viewed/downloaded also hesitate and stutter while playing same.

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Hi dforry,

Thank you for contacting support. I understand that you have a new computer and are experiencing a never ending loading wheel and some issues with stutter. Quick fixes if your Firefox slows down If it takes a while to load, please compare the load time with another browser.

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:

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

Thank you.