Thanks John, As I've said I'm not overly technical minded but what I've found is before (No idea what version) if I opened this page http://www.breakingnews.ie/ it would open in a millisecond or so but now it takes 4 to 5 seconds sometimes up to 10. Other pages are http://www.kilkennypeople.ie/ and http://ie.yahoo.com/ is my homepage. Up to 10 seconds is not a long time but I've never had this before which suggests a problem to me and that's when I started the defrag/scans etc. Chrome and IE were as fast as Firefox was before I noticed this.Hope this helps.

in this case, can you check your connection settings and try disabling ipv6 as it is described in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Firefox%20cannot%20load%20websites%2...

Just tried this madperson but it's no different really, if it's any use to you the little green wheel icon thingy spins backwards for a while and then forward but it stutters for a while.

Can someone tell me how FF plug in check says "For your safety, Firefox has disabled your outdated version of Java. Please upgrade to the latest version." so I upgraded to the latest version (where I was told the up to date version was already installed) and java check confirmed this but when I ran FF plug in check again I get the same For your safety, Firefox has disabled your outdated version of Java. Please upgrade to the latest version error. Could this have anything to do with my problem?? also I've noticed plugin-container.exe in my process list and it's using ass much memory as Firefox. Is this right as I've only one plugin enabled (shockwave flash)

the plugin website isn't very reliable when it states that firefox has disabled an outdated plugin version (because there's no way for the website to detect that) - for me it states it has disabled flash, although i don't had it even installed & mozilla has never implemented a block for flash so far.

back to your issue - flash can be a ressource hog. ie uses the activex version of flash and chrome ships with its own bundled flash plugin, so this might explain why the problem doesn't exist there (you could test with an alternative browser like opera or safari).

i'd suggest you try totally uninstalling the flash plugin with the tool provided by adobe, then redownload & install it again from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ (uncheck the offer to install the bundled security software) & disable hardware acceleration in the flash plugin too...

Flash works absolutely flawlessly on Opera, using the same plugin path that Firefox uses.

It's a problem with Firefox.

Not only is v12 slower loading, but it disconnects me from the internet at least a couple of times a day......and I had no problems with the previous version. Additionally, it would not allow me to add a new Java plug-in that I needed to connect to my stock broker. Had to go to IE...no problem there. Been with Mozilla for 7 years now, but will probably uninstall it and go back to IE. Don't have the time or patients to go through the gymnastics to make it work properly.

@mothernature - the issue of firefox loading pages slowly can have various reasons. in case you want us to help troubleshoot the issue and have a closer look into your individual case, please open a new question in the forum where you also can provide more details about your system. in case you don't want to troubleshoot and just give feedback to the developers use https://input.mozilla.org/feedback. otherwise this thread will become increasingly scattered, it's hard to keep track & give tailored solutions/troubleshooting recommendations. thank you!

@raffieltiger - does the problem also occur when you run firefox in safe mode? some programs (like mcafee) hook in global extensions into firefox that will also be present in a new firefox profile & leak quite a substantial amount of memory. it would probably be better to open a new question too, where you shortly recap the things you've already observed and tried & can provide more detailed troubleshooting information from about:support.

Thanks again for your help madperson but there's no change, maybe I'll just accept my computer and me are getting older and slower :-)

when you're looking in the windows task manager while firefox is (slowly) loading a page, is there a substantial spike in cpu usage (i.e. 100% for a few seconds) or is the harddrive activity indicator on your pc constantly blinking? and how much memory do firefox & the plugin container occupy/ how much have installed in total?

The task manager does spike (see image) and the indicator only blinks while the page iis loading. As for your last question on memory is the second pic any use??

I couldn't edit and add the pic to the above post. sorry,I got it finally.

ok, from the information you've provided memory doesn't seem to be the problem (therefore likely a different issue than raffieltiger has) - at those low rates it is in the normal range, that the plugin container is using as much RAM on a site with heavy flash usage.

the cpu-usage seems rather high, but i don't know if this would cause the problem that you've described (as long as it does not stay on 100% for a while). you can try disabling plugins that you don't need (probably the real-player stuff & vlc) in addons > plugins and use an addon like flashblock to only enable flash on demand (a similar built-in solution for firefox is in the works).

when the loading indicator spins counter-clockwise, firefox is waiting for the connection to be established, this may rather depend on external factors (firewalls blocking firefox or sandboxing components of it, network settings). i'd have another look at avast - there are other forum entries that suggest the webshield function might slow down firefox, you might want to disable it temporarily an in case this helps add firefox/the plugin-container onto its exclusion list. there's also a task on your list that indicates you're using some sort of system tuning software - those often do more harm than good. i'm not familiar with the one shown, but in case it offers some sort of network speed optimization or speed-boost for programs you can try resetting those to the system's default.

another thing to try is launching firefox in safe mode and see if the slow-downs do occur there too (likely redundant when you already have created a new profile).

Cheers madperson,The only plugin I have is shockwave flash because I cannot see the news vids etc without that. I ran FFi n safe mode and it really didn't make a difference. I un instsalled fixit utilities which was on the laptop when I got it (I presume thats what you saw) and I've installed flashblock so I'll see how it goes. To add firefox/the plugin-container onto avast's exclusion list do I just enter www.firefox etc or what?? Thanks again fo all your help.

you have to add the program-path for firefox.exe & plugin-container.exe to the "Processes to exclude" section. those are most likely:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\plugin-container.exe

Cheers, I'll let you know how it goes.

Still slow :-( I've noticed I have two versions of mircosoft.NET framework NGEN v4.0.30319 one X64 and the other X86 running in services. Anything to do with this????????

probably not. i'm running out of ideas slowly... would you say the whole browser is becoming unresponsive (for example opening menus & switching tabs lags) when the slow page loading is occurring or is it only the content of that one tab that is hanging?

I've no idea whats happened but I've done a system back up thingy to about a month ago and it seems to be better, I can now open five tabs at one time to games sites in approx 10 seconds which is great. maybe I've done too much fiddling with the system. I think I'll be content with it now and stop bothering you madperson ;-) Next job now is to find out why half my FN keys don't work. Cheers for all your help.

for the fn-keys i'd consult the support section of your manufacturer's website and search for a driver package for the hotkeys of your notebook model... ;-)

but glad you found a way to improve performance!