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Question

Page loading issues with Firefox

Nov 4, 2011 11:45AM PDT

I am using the most current PC version of Firefox as my browser. I have a Toshiba A-505 Laptop running Windows 7 (FYI)

My issue is that I typically have multiple tabs open but often times when I got to load a page it will not load, it will take a long time attempting to load a page which will never happen if left alone. However if I use the stop button and reload the page then it loads, often right away but on occasion it may take repeating this process a few times to get the page to load.

Is this an issue with Firefox or my computer or just what would the suggestions be to make this or another browser (if necessary) work better.
My computer is always fully updated and tuned up and I have plenty of RAM available during these times. I just have no idea what to do to fix this or even what is causing the trouble.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Let us have a few more details
Nov 4, 2011 11:11PM PDT

You say you have plenty of RAM, but how much is that?

Typically, how many tabs do you have open and does this problem get worse with more tabs open?

What speed internet connection do you have?

When this happens, is it with 'any' web site or with selected sites? At the same time that this happens do you have tabs open with web pages that have 'active content', eg the page updates with new information regularly?

Do you have an anti-virus application that has installed a browser toolbar of some sort, eg a link scanner or similar?

What other security utilities do you use, both stand-alone applications and Firefox add-ons?

Does this happen with other browsers, eg Internet Explorer, Chrome, etc?

Mark

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Will have to get back to you
Nov 5, 2011 3:28AM PDT

When I said RAM I have 4Gigs and more than half showing available.
Internet download speeds tests at 30Mbps Upload is 6Mbps.
No active content like animations and such.
The rest I will have to try to give you an honest answer. Typically it is my ISP email, Amazon, and some sort of technical information sites. Perhaps 10 tabs at times.
No links to scanners. One browser tool bar. I try to prevent as many unnecessary programs from starting up as possible. I always keep things updated and tuned up.

I did go through the Firefox guide and made a couple adjustments and have not had time to see if those helped or not yet.

I will try other browsers with the same pages. Any suggestions on good ones? I like Firefox but am willing to change.

I will do more tests for more information to go off. I was not sure what would be relevant or if this was a Firefox issue or my computer. So that is why I put it in the newbie question section.

Will try to get the rest of your questions answered,
Thanks,
T

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Good start
Nov 5, 2011 6:07AM PDT

and thank you.

Which browsers? Since we're only testing then I would suggest IE as it should already be installed, and Google's Chrome. Here's the US site for that http://www.google.com/chrome

It is always a good idea to have another browser installed anyway, as we never know when these issues are going to affect the browser we prefer.

I wouldn't have thought that 10 tabs was over doing it. 4GB of RAM is plenty and you say your RAM usage never, (or rarely), exceeds 2GB. Internet speed is good as well.

What anti-virus do you use? And you mention a toolbar, but which one? We do find some toolbars can cause strange behaviour.

Mark

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Tried out some things, more information.
Nov 8, 2011 12:29AM PST

First to answer your questions I have Norton Security Suite running which is free with my ISP Comcast. I update that and run a quick scan every day. I have removed the Norton toolbar. I have very little there, just a couple buttons.
I also have Advanced System Care 4 which I use the utilities from. I use the RAM smart release often, run a Quick Care every couple days, same with Iobit malware. Every few weeks or if I have removed a bunch of programs etc. I will run Iobit disc defrag 2 and run an defrag with quick optimization. Of course update Windows important and optional
every day. The Iobit system status is usually an A. It says I have 95 processes running and a registry size of 92Mb.

I tried using Explorer with add ons and have had similar issues. It can happen even with only a few windows open. It is hard to say which sites will have these issues. I have had it happen with Walmart, Best Buy, Vann's and other sites that sell things. It doesn't seem to matter if they are big sites or small businesses sites. There are too many other sites I can't remember than I have had this issue with. I do have less trouble with some than others. My ISP pages, Pay Pal, FaceBook. But I don't use those pages often. The ones I recall with most consistent trouble are Walmart, JCP, various shopping sites large and small but then those are ones where I will be going from loading pages of items heavily much more than other sites too. I can't see any that it is the browser or particular sites other than perhaps a few are immune but do not have much content or page changing.

When I tried explorer this happened even with only a few tabs open. And it also would have the icon showing a page had loading even when it has completed as far as I can tell and I just top it.

That is the best answer I can give you. I have liked using FIrefox but would be willing to try another browser though Explorer does not seem to be better. I have noticed one issue that is not related to this which is ads for Fred Meyer loading on Firefox while they no longer will allow me to roll over an item in a weekly ad and have it display details. Explorer does not have that trouble. I will figure that out as it used to work. But while I like Firefox would change browsers If it mean running better. At times I can have over 20 tabs open though it does not seem to matter if it is only a low amount or more such as happened when I tried Explorer.

BTW I have wondered what happens when one has multiple tabs open vs multiple windows? For example having a separate window open for my ISP home page or direct ISP email page open as opposed to just another tab?

But that is what I have been able to gather from my investigation to answer your questions.

When I looked at Firefoxes suggestions I changed the maximum Http connections to 30 as the old version rather than 45 and cleaned out all my offline cache which was about 300Mb worth. Did not notice a difference.

Have any thoughts?

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What I see from your post above.
Nov 8, 2011 3:51AM PST

Hi again Thomas.

IOBit's ASC. You are using it quite extensively and it seems clear to me that you are quite comfortable with it, so I need to be cautious with how I say what I am about to say.

IOBit software is not anything the regular contributors in these forums recommend. That's the gentlest way I can describe how we feel about it. You are using it comprehensively as a system optimizer and in general we are wary of those utilities. With IOBit in particular it is very intrusive and will offer to 'optimize' so many things that do not need touching.

We often have to deal with problems reported by the members here who have non-working systems after using IOBIt applications.

Let me go through some of the tasks you mentioned.

1] RAM smart release. I don't know what that is, but why? The OS will release RAM as and when it is needed and with 4 GB of RAM anyway you will rarely need all of it. I have 12 GB of RAM and I have never used any more than 2 and a bit GB. If data is stored in RAM that the system is using at the moment, (eg Firefox page data), and ASC clears it, then that data has to be reloaded.

2] Quick Care. Again, I don't know what it is and what it does. Do you know what it does? If you are not absolutely sure, then why are you letting some 3rd party tool manage it? Sorry, I do not mean to question your use of your own applications, but the problem with these optimizer utilities is that they 'do things' under the hood that we don't always know what they are doing.

3] IOBit malware. Is this, or any other component of ASC running in the background all the time? If so, may be there is some conflict with Norton's background anti-virus scanner which is always on. They are attempting to scan the same data at the same time, and this slows performance down, like page loading.

4] IOBit Defrag 2. Umm. If you mean a full hard disk defrag then this is a confusing issue. Many will say regular and often defragmentation is necessary. I don't, and neither do my peers here in these forums. Defragging won't do any harm, but neither will it help. Hard disks nowadays with today's OSes do not get fragmented much, even with installing and uninstalling software, and so defragmenting is not as required as it once was thought. My own Win 7 system has never been defragged since I got it over a year ago, and my old XP system from 2002 has only been defragged once, and it still works fine.

5] Quick Optimization. Do you know what that does? Is it necessary?

6] Something I noticed. IOBit says Windows 7 has 95 processes running. All systems are different of course, but that's a lot. My Windows 7 Ultimate version has 38 processes running, for all users, at the moment. May I suggest that you take a visit to;
http://www.blackviper.com/2010/12/17/black-vipers-windows-7-service-pack-1-service-configurations/

This is BlackViper, a recommended resource, who lists in a table all the Services in a standard install of Windows 7, with details what they are, and whether they should be set to Automatic, Manual, or Disabled. It might be worth your while working down the list, (scroll down until you see the table), and checking your own Services list to compare. Read his notes above how to get to the Services list.

Reducing services should reduce running processes. If you decide to try that and still have a large number of Processes running, you may need to check each process in Google for more information.

7] I see that Norton came with your ISP. I'm just checking, but is your Norton subscription still valid and up to date? I have seen where an out of date subscription can cause strange things on a system.

Sorry, but I hope tha thelps.

Mark

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Thanks
Nov 8, 2011 10:33AM PST
The reason for the Iobit is really trusting Cnets evaluation and recommendation of it. I thought it they thought it was a decent program then it must be. Sounds like you are saying that is not good enough for selecting something.

The Norton is the only thing on all the time. As far as I know. And it is updated, it automatically updates but I do a manual update and scan every day too. Everything is always updated, every program, driver etc..

I would like to learn how to a. learn how to find out what programs are running in the background and b. how to know what they are and if they are needed.
I would like to know if there is something running I don't need or want. It could be part of an installed program or part of a program I uninstalled but still has something hanging around.

The only thing I have been able to do and understand are what items to prevent from start up, to delay them or stop or remove them.

I will run that program you suggested. I mentioned the processes as I always thought that would be good to make less but not knowing which were needed and which were not I have not been able to deal with it. I also have not known how many processes should be running. It shows them but if I don't know what they are I won't touch them.

The defrag is only run on occasion. For example if I were to delete some programs or make some major changes like that. What the program says it does is to do the typical defrag but the optimization is to put most frequently used programs together on the hard drive. Deep optimization is supposed to do that in a more detailed fashion taking longer. I don't know if I have the need for even the quick optimization but know I don't need the deep one. I do usually have only about 200 fragmented files and end up with zero when I am done. I did have issues with this program making things run worse in the past, a couple years ago, but the current one seems to have no negative aspects. Of course I have a 500Gb HD and only a small portion is used. So this is not done often but maybe not necessary at all, I do not know.

I can tell you what the quick care and other things say they do, what the do or do not actually do might be different. It is the free version so not as much as the pay version, which sounds like is just as well. I have to allow it to make changes as the windows shield requiring me to give it permission to run is what leads me to believe it is not on all the time, but I am not knowledgeable enough to know.
1. Quick Malware Scan- scan and remove spyware, adware, malware
2. Registry Fix-cleanup
3. Shortcut fix- scan and repair invalid shortcuts.
4. Privacy sweep- erase surfing and history traces (I don't use this)
5. Junk file cleanup.

When I run the RAM release what I am hoping for (not that it does this) is that when I have a lot of things loaded in Firefox or programs run or other activities and am no longer using them that this would clean up RAM not being needed but used. This may be done in some other way and the RAM just reallocated because I don't know where it is releasing it from. Just being honest here.

My goal is to to keep my computer updated and clean as much as possible and I use programs like WOT to prevent accidental visiting of websites which rarely happens but does a few times a year and those are almost always sites that I do not want to visit and it is from some legit site that it stems from.

But if I have half my RAM even if all this is not being helpful or I have issues of too many processes or such then don't I still have that RAM which should be enough?

I would like to find out how to see what is running in the background and how to know if it is needed or not and how to make sure only what I want is running. Same thing with those processes. That would be nice. As for System Care 4 I am confused why it is given good ratings from Cnet if it is so bad? I thought Cnet was a trustworthy site. What am I missing?

Thanks for the help and I wish things ran like my desktop downstairs which has a quad core processor and was the same money bought at the same time as this laptop. A more for your money because it is a desktop thing a year ago and while this laptop is adequate that flies in comparison. If I can at least clean up unnecessary processes being run perhaps I can get it a bit closer at least.

I do like the new wireless router I installed and the 30Mbps download speed. That helps things quite a bit. So if I can get the computer running as lean as possible then perhaps I will have even more RAM available and that is always helpful.
If that does not help the browser issues then I will check again. It seems odd that a page could take almost forever to load but I can get it to load usually instantly just by stopping and reloading it and if not then doing so twice will almost always do the trick. If left to load on its won it may never happen.

For now I will look to cut down processes since that is a good thing even if it does not solve this issue.
Thanks for your time!
Tom

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ASC and CNET
Nov 8, 2011 8:38PM PST

There's the problem with these utilities. CNET will often review them and offer them for download, but here in the forums we are not governed by what they suggest and we make our own evaluations, often based on user experience. It's a difficult situation and often causes questions and contradictions.

That said, this is your choice and I am not about to tell you to do otherwise if you are satisfied with the software you have.

Back to the browser problem, I see this is a laptop but your Desktop seems to have no problems. I note your mention of wireless and a router. Is there any problem with the wireless signal strength where this laptop is situated? My own laptop I use upstairs in my bedroom has a signal strength icon in the Notification Area, (where the clock is), so perhaps yours does too? It might be an indication of a poor signal. But then a speed test on the laptop might also tell more. Does this slow-down in page loading occur when the Desktop is in use, or regardless of that?

Try a quick speed test with CNET's bandwidth test at http://reviews.cnet.com/internet-speed-test/ or Google Speed test for a test site in your country if you are not in the US.

About knowing more. Checking your Services against BlackViper's list of Windows 7's list of Services is a great place to start. For your information, to get the list of Services on your system, do this;

Goto the Control Panel then open Administrative Tools. If your Control Panel displays in Category format and not Icon format, you will first need to select "System and Security" then find and open Administrative Tools.

In the new window select Services. You can resize the new window and also you will need to 'drag' the "Name" column header column and "Description" column header to the right to enlarge those columns. Drag by placing the mouse cursor on the divider between column headers, then left mouse button held down and drag the mouse.

Any service you highlight will display a description in the left hand column. Double click an entry to see its Properties window and from there you can change whether and how services starts. Follow BlackViper's guidelines for each service. It will take a while but it doesn't all have to be done at obce.

For Processes, do this;

Right click the Taskbar and select "Start Task Manager".

If you can see tabs, select the Processes tab. if you cannot see tabs then they are hidden, so mouse over the top margin just below the top of the window and click twice.

In the Processes tab you may only see a few Processes. To see them all click the "Show processes from all users" button at the bottom.

The list can be reordered if you wish by clicking column headers, two clicks to reverse the order, and a useful order is CPU Usage. The column is just called CPU. If you don't see that column goto View > Select Columns and select CPU Usage. Listing processes in CPU Usage order allows you to see what, if any, processes are taking up the majority of CPU time and is useful if you feel there are problems with the computer.

There is no easy way of finding out more about each process other than Googling each one. But again this doesn't have to be done all at once.

Mark

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Internet is not an issue
Nov 8, 2011 11:22PM PST

Thanks for all the good information to get this laptop running as well as possible. I will check with that bandwidth test but I can assure you that is not an issue.
I have just installed new R6GU cable (Belden 1694A) from separate outlets for Cable TV and Internet. I also just installed a new Linksys E2400 Dual band N router. My downstairs computer where the modem and router are now can go wireless or hook up via ethernet to the wireless router which I do for that computer and my blu ray player down there. But upstairs every laptop has full signal strength as well as the same 30Mbps download speeds. I can even run a WiFi enabled blu ray player upstairs and HD video streaming is flawless. So that is not the problem.

I will go through each of those other items you mentioned to find out what they are and how they should be set. About the software it is too bad that Cnet and users here don't seem to agree. I have installed other Cnet recommended downloads and then uninstalled them due to their not living up to expectations. That is one thing I want to make sure there are no traces left behind.
When my ISP was providing free McAffee security suite it was terrible. I did not use it at all but other software instead that worked much better, perhaps they have improved but this was a couple years ago. Comcast also offers their own security suite which I also do not like and a Comcast tech person agreed and I deleted that too.

So my internet connection has been tested both here at the house and via Comcasts control center to check on the signal and it is way above par. But I will check the bandwidth test you mentioned anyway.

For the rest it sounds like it will take a while, may not help with the browser issue, but will help with making this as fast as possible. The desktop is a better machine period, quad core processor etc. and it should run faster and better like it does.

I have not tried Chrome yet so perhaps I will give that a try as well. I would note that while I have not kept good track of this some sites never have any issues and some always do, but too many of them have this issue. I can stop and reload the page to make it come up every time but think I should not have to do so.

Lots of work ahead but thanks for the advice, we will see how things run when set up to optimum conditions.
T

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As Mark already noted ...
Nov 9, 2011 4:42AM PST

Advanced System Care is best not used at all. If you simply have to have lots of utilities a MUCH BETTER set can be obtained by getting Avanquest's SystemSuite which can still be a source of problems is used improperly. Registry cleaners tend to cause more problems than they cure. RAM "optimizers" are completely unnecessary and at best they do nothing but at worst they can cause problems with applications.

I also note that you are making use of the Norton security suite provided by your ISP. That suite is pretty much the same as Norton 360 and Norton 360 gets many good reviews. On the user end however Norton 360 tends to be problematic and causes many problems. You are better off using the native firewall provided by your Operating System and one of the free (or paid) AV and anti malware offerings such as Avast or AVG or Avira for Anti-Virus and MalwareBytes or Super Anti-Spyware for anti malware scanning.

You previously mentioned problems on Amazon, Walmart, JCP and in the same breath said "No active content like animations and such." All three of those specific sites actually have some rather busy active content. Amazon for instance has their "Your Recent History" that normally loads and updates near the bottom of the pages. A few of the other sites you mentioned are similar but ALL have one thing in common, lots of images. Sometimes a firewall has settings that interfere with images.

Since you are using FireFox you are probably using some of the various extensions and plug-ins and it is entirely possible that these are causing problems. Try DISABLING most of them (you can always enable them again later if you want them).

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Tried some things
Nov 17, 2011 6:14AM PST

Well first Amazon was one I was not having trouble with. What I meant about content was no animations. I really can't establish any pattern of those sites that give me trouble and those that do not. Sometimes I will have a page load and have the loading circle keep spinning seemingly forever unless I were to stop it. I have removed all toolbars and extensions and buttons and such things. No difference.

I am going to try Chrome to see if there is any difference.

I have both run the program for processes mentioned above and came up with the same amount after letting it adjust the settings as it wished. I also noticed that in Glary Utilites that there is a similar process manager that tells what is running and then when selected will tell what that process does and if it is needed etc.. I have deleted everything that I did not need leaving almost only various windows components. The only thing I questioned were some thing that said they were the same window component and wondering if I needed several of what appears to be the same thing or if they were just updates and the older ones could be deleted. Not knowing I left them all alone. Downstairs on my desktop am seeing about the same 80 plus processes with almost none being aftermarket programs.

I did notice that after deleting ASC4 my RAM use has gone up. I have Glary Utilities on my desktop and have run its RAM manager but it does not seem to do the same thing. Typically I would have a release of about 300MB of RAM when using the "smart" setting, using the "deep" setting seemed to remove RAM that was being properly used and was not a positive thing to do.

I am wondering what the thoughts on the Glary is? Of course again a Cnet recommendation but don't know about members here. I do like that but my RAM use is not higher. Plus I no longer have the desktop gadget that says what condition the computer is in which includes the RAM and CPU usage on the desktop to easily see what is going on.

Downstairs with my quad processor computer that is quicker after trying to clean things up as much as possible I know see that it is using more than half of its RAM when really doing nothing. The most RAM aside from the OS does seem to be any browser I use which has traditionally been Firefox though I am trying out Explorer and Chrome to see if they have any faster functions or work better as sometimes I do have many tabs open, perhaps up to 30 on rare occasion. I do wonder if there is a difference between opening up tabs vs new windows and how that affects memory? I could do either, tabs are more convenient but I really do not know the rule on this question.

I have very small amounts of my hard drives in use and only when I am running an anti virus or other sort of program does the CPU usage get high.

I still find that there is no pattern that allows me to use a large well organized web site or a small one and have that lead to whether there are issues with pages loading or not or the loading icon keeping running after the page loads. However in almost any occasion I can stop and reload the page and get it to load quickly that way. It just seems that should not be necessary.

If there is anything I have left out or that seems I could be doing better feel free to make suggestions. I have tried to do every suggestion that has been made.

Also I have traditionally kept my browsing history for very long periods of time because I find that at some later point I wish I knew what site I had previously found. I am not starting to bookmark these pages instead so that I hope to erase the huge history I have built up. Just thought I would mention that in case having a huge browsing history could be affecting something.

Thanks.

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Meant NOW instead of NOT
Nov 17, 2011 6:25AM PST
I could not edit previous post but when I said that my RAM use is "not" higher, I meant that it is "now" higher after doing those things including removing ASC4. Just to clarify.

I am really trying to lean this laptop out. I do have many programs on the desktop downstairs but they are not running unless manually activated. I have tried to prevent as many programs from starting up as possible. Almost none that are not either windows and I do allow Norton to start. Everything else is at least delayed if not stopped all together.

I wish I had a bit more money as there are some quad core computers on sale now that would be even nicer for about half of what I paid for this a year ago. Have to allocate my spending though and just got done building a home theater. But if things keep going as they have laptops will continue to get much faster and cheaper at the same time. I need a new phone so am going to buy one but for the same money there is a new laptop as mentioned above for 399. If I could buy both that would be nice, but right now does not appear so. I have not been able to use the desktop for about a year since buying it due to that area being messed up but now that I have that available I am finding things like downloads taking much less time than this laptop. Plus I like all the extra connections on the desktop. But do need a phone so will be getting a Droid Bionic which may help a bit having a third sort of computing device.

I just don't know what to do about this browser issue though, I have really done everything suggested and without success.
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Glary's
Nov 19, 2011 7:54PM PST

Sorry for the delay in responding.

About Glary Utilities. It is so unfortunate that CNET Corporate keeps promoting these 'optimizers' and 'registry cleaners' and such. I can understand that they are a revenue based organisation and so revenue is the lifeline of this web site. I also recognise that many users use ASC and Glary's amongst others without problems.

The problem is we perhaps see a skewed situation in these forums. On the whole all we see are problems after the use of these applications and users who are seeking help to solve the problems. That tells us, right or wrong, that these optimisers are troublesome.

I see you are/were using both Advanced System Care and Glary's. We cringe when we see one, and double cringe when we see two or more. Our own experience is that as users use one optimiser to change System settings and improve performance, then the other optimiser thinks differently and tells you to change them back, or change other settings. Conflict!

Often such conflict can cause damage deep within the OS and that problem is not always one that can be easily solved.

That said, if your difficulty is confined only to Firefox, (I can't recall if the same happens with IE), I am willing to bet that the use of these optimisers are not the problem in this case.

I'm not sure why uninstalling ASC should increase your RAM usage. That's a strange effect. But perhaps if you could re-order the Processes in the Task Manager to list them in CPU Usage order, (smallest use at the top, largest at the bottom), you might see the processes that are using up all the CPU. On its own RAM usage is not a problem as it is there to be used, eg if you have 4GB of RAM and only 2GB ever gets used, then that is 2GB not-utilised. But "CPU Usage" is a key notifier of possible problems. (Don't forget to click the option at the bottom of the Processes list to 'show processes for all users').

I am beginning to think that this is your laptop itself, in conjunction with 30 tabs.

What Processor does this laptop have, eg single core, dual core, and what speed in Ghz? Laptops typically have slower processors than Desktops because of heat problems and so with 30 tabs open all the time, those cores may be running full capacity all the time. The Task Manager > Performance tab will show CPU Usage for all cores and threads.

May be 30 tabs is a lot! it would be a good test to see how IE and Chrome perform with all those tabs.

One more thing. Is your Norton's license up to date? We have noticed in these forums strange effects when Norton's license has expired and not been renewed.

Mark