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Startpage search engine very slow or hangs with FF 73.0.1

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

zanotti1
zanotti1
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I have been using Startpage as my default search engine for some time now. But in the past couple of weeks it takes very long to display results or even appears to hang. When this happens, the Startpage FF add-on switches to the generic Startpage format. I have raised this issue with Startpage, but they have no knowledge of such a problem. The issue seems to come and go. No malware on my Win 10 machine. I have also refresheded FF. Other search engines do not behave this way. Any ideas?

I have been using Startpage as my default search engine for some time now. But in the past couple of weeks it takes very long to display results or even appears to hang. When this happens, the Startpage FF add-on switches to the generic Startpage format. I have raised this issue with Startpage, but they have no knowledge of such a problem. The issue seems to come and go. No malware on my Win 10 machine. I have also refresheded FF. Other search engines do not behave this way. Any ideas?

Chosen solution

That was very good work. Well Done. Please flag your last post as Solved Problem as this can help others with similar problems.


We have recently seen multiple reports that Bitdefender is causing issues with tab crashes in Firefox 73.

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All Replies (3)

FredMcD
FredMcD
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Could the problem be with the add-on or the website? Check for updates.


Many site issues can be caused by corrupt cookies or cache.

Warning ! ! This will log you out of sites you're logged in to. You may also lose any settings for that website.

If there is still a problem, Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Did this help?

While you are in safe mode;

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

How to disable Hardware Acceleration {web link}

zanotti1
zanotti1 Question owner
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Hi Fred. Thanks very much for the input. It's all been done. No change. This problem has been fickle - it comes and goes. I have compared similar search terms on different search engines and the problem definitely seems to be Startpage-related.

I had a suspicion that the problem might involve my malware program, which is Bitdefender Free. I just switched it off and searched for known safe websites and terms using Startpage. The Startpage search engine was definitely faster than before. So this may be the issue. I'm going to go back to Startpage Support with this. In the meantime, I'm switching to DuckDuckGo. It's fast and even produces better results than Startpage.

Any further ideas or suggestions welcome. Many thanks again.

Modified by zanotti1

FredMcD
FredMcD
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Chosen Solution

That was very good work. Well Done. Please flag your last post as Solved Problem as this can help others with similar problems.


We have recently seen multiple reports that Bitdefender is causing issues with tab crashes in Firefox 73.