CPU Lockup when loading folder of bookmarks in Firefox
- by Gary M. Mugford
I am running Firefox 3.6 on WinXPSP3 on a duo Core machine with 4G of memory. I am also running Avast! free anti-virus and ZoneAlarm free firewall, both latest versions.
Within the last month, my service provider basically forced me to upgrade to a Docsis 3.0 compliant modem (offered me a deal I couldn't turn down). At that point, I also upgraded to FF3.6. Basically, I am not unhappy with many aspects of this switchover, EXCEPT, when I now load a folder of bookmarks (anywhere from 10 to 38) I get nothing like the load times I experienced a couple of months back. It's taking minutes rather than seconds. And the first bookmark in one of the folders, GMail, rarely loads before timing out.
I have used the old trick of powering off the cable modem before my day's work. This used to fix 'load-lag' in the old days. I have switched from my ISP's DNS server to Google, OpenDNS and back. And nothing seems to work currently. It's not my DNS cache. That's been flushed and secondary computers also have the same issue when loading folders.
I have watched the CPU usage and loading the folder will send VSMon (ZoneAlarm) usage over 40 percent, AVastSvc (Avast!) over 30 and Firefox will then push the needle to 100. There's a brief burst by SVCHost when the others falter in devouring cycles. Then everything subsides to single digits once the last tab is loaded. The only other nominal nastiness is VSMon ALWAYS hitting 50 percent when ANY program starts downloading content from the internet. If I shutdown ZoneAlarm (and VSMon with it), the same slow loading takes place, but this time System is running 50% plus, again driving the usage to 100 per cent. I have my doubts FF3.6 vs FF3.5 is an issue, since the other computers are still running 3.5 and suffer the same issue. Those computers are on, but inactive, most of the time, being backups.
Obviously, when the CPU hits 100, I can't do much of anything in FireFox OR in other programs. Video play through WMPC or VLC is extremely choppy, although it doesn't seem to affect the audio.
Any ideas what I can try next?
Thanks, GM
