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Possible resource contention between Firefox & Norton Security?

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

chuckbaldwin
chuckbaldwin
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There seems to be a resource usage conflict between Firefox and Norton Security (and sometimes other programs). Response time is OK for a while, then suddenly goes down to the point I have to terminate Firefox with the Task Manager (Norton can't be terminated). After termination, I can wait a few seconds for the performance graphs to go to minimum, then restart Firefox and it will be OK again for a while, then the above situation will repeat. One odd thing is that even when response is OK, Task Manager shows Firefox (and plugin-container.exe) doing continuous disk I/Os, even though I'm not doing anything to cause excessive activity, like just looking at text on a page. This doesn't seem normal to me. I'm running with Windows XP 5.1 SP3.

There seems to be a resource usage conflict between Firefox and Norton Security (and sometimes other programs). Response time is OK for a while, then suddenly goes down to the point I have to terminate Firefox with the Task Manager (Norton can't be terminated). After termination, I can wait a few seconds for the performance graphs to go to minimum, then restart Firefox and it will be OK again for a while, then the above situation will repeat. One odd thing is that even when response is OK, Task Manager shows Firefox (and plugin-container.exe) doing continuous disk I/Os, even though I'm not doing anything to cause excessive activity, like just looking at text on a page. This doesn't seem normal to me. I'm running with Windows XP 5.1 SP3.

All Replies (3)

FredMcD
FredMcD
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Some added toolbar and anti-virus add-ons are known to cause Firefox issues. Disable All of them.

You are using Norton and McAfee. This may be the cause.

chuckbaldwin
chuckbaldwin Question owner
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FredMcD said

Some added toolbar and anti-virus add-ons are known to cause Firefox issues. Disable All of them.

You are using Norton and McAfee. This may be the cause.

I have 12 add-ons (none that i added myself). The only one marked "always activate" is Shockwave Flash. 3 are marked "never activate" - Java Deployment Toolkit, McAfee Security Scanner, and OpenI-I264 Video Codec by Cisco. I'm not sure why the McAfee add-on even exists, since it doesn't run under Firefox control. The rest are marked "ask to activate", and so far they have never "asked". Shockwave often becomes unable to respond, but this seems to be a symptom of the problem rather than a cause, I've tried disabling Shockwave, and it doesn't help the overall problem. The only McAfee product i have is the Security Scan Plus, which i run rarely. I just ran it with "no issues found", and it says that "Norton Security Suite is up to date and working properly."

FredMcD
FredMcD
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There have been problems between Silverlight and Norton.

In the Add-ons Manager, on the left, select Extensions. Make sure you know what each one is and what it does.

Some added toolbar and anti-virus add-ons are known to cause Firefox issues. Disable All of them.