You can make a backup copy of the sessionstore.js file to save the current session.

You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

• Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

There is a problem with Firefox and Adobe Air affecting the BBC iPlayer. Although I don't believe iPlayer can be used in the USA, you may find these links interesting. This has been a problem for months now and none of the BBC, Mozilla or Adobe seem to have resolved it:

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/announcements/firefox19_iplayerdesktop

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/announcements/ipd_air_contentdisappear

core-el, thanks for that tip, and the link. i found that with the link you gave me and this next link, i understood more clearly what jscher2000 was telling me to try and test... this page in particular helped me complete the action of setting up a 'second testing profile':

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_new_Firefox_profile_on_Windows

jscher2000,

I tested the flash player using the test profile as you suggested. The firefox window was a lot different looking, the menu and commands were not what i expected, as they looked at lot different.

I looked to see if any addons / extensions were activated - and none were.

I then opened the same youtube page, and ad the same high cpu usage as I experienced in my regular profile/session.

Total CPU was between 80 - 95% Firefox was using 40 - 50% of CPU Flashplugin...exe was using 15 - 20% of CPU

Video was choppy and pausing, my hard drive was whirring, and scrolling in browser was almost impossible as almost all the CPU was used - and even scrolling the window up and down with the scroll bar on the right hand side of the screen was herky-jerky.

I just started up my old profile to write this note. I have no youtube pages open, and without playing any videos (Flash) my cpu usage is:

Total CPU was between 10 - 15% Firefox is using 1 - 2% of CPU Flashplugin...exe was using 0% of CPU (is not even displayed in task manager)

Hi mnalep, I may have made a mistaken assumption when reading your earlier references to the /SYSTEM32 directory. The full path to the folder where you place mms.cfg on 32-bit windows is:

C:\windows\system32\macromed\flash

It's the same folder where you will find NPSWF32_11_8_800_94.dll

See: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4468493#TemporaryWorkaround

defraggedoff, i do have adobe air installed, i just checked in my program list and found it. I dont recall ever using it, or even what it is for. I do not have that iplayer program though 9at least nothing called iplayer in my list of installed programs that i see from control panel / programs / programs and features.

So, I don't think I am affected by that bug?

jscherr2000,

I just looked in the folder C:\windows\system32\macromed\flash and I already do have a mms.cfg file in there.

This is what is in that file already: AutoUpdateDisable=0 SilentAutoUpdateEnable=1

Would I add a 3rd line, or replace those 2 lines, with: ProtectedMode=0

jscherr2000,

I added the ProtectedMode=0 to the mms.cfg file after the 2 line commands already in it.

IT GREATLY REDUCED CPU USAGE !

Now when I watch youtube videos my CPU usage has been reduced, and I am averaging around only 25% - 50% CPU. Firefox is now using only around 15% - 23% ! This is much lower than before !

I would say that change has reduced my CPU usage substantially. The videos play better with no lag yet, I can scroll the page up and down without any herky-jerky lag, and my hard drive has stopped spinning like a helicopter in flight!

Now my only concern is, what have I actually disabled?

I have done some googling, and found this was written in a Flash Blog:

Starting with Flash Player 11.3, a protected mode was added as a new security enhancement for Firefox 4.0 and greater on Windows Vista and higher. This security enhancement is designed to limit the impact of attacks launched from malicious Flash content (SWF files). For additional details on this feature, please see Inside Flash Player Protected Mode for Firefox

  (http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1018071?tstart=0)

So, have I now opened myself up to some terrible type of attacks launched from malicious Flash content (SWF files) ?

How concerned should I be?

Will my antivirus (currently using F-secure that is an add on to my internet provider which is WOW cable.) protect from flash attacks?

One other question, I do a search on my pc for sessionstore.js, and I am searching the entire C drive, so I should find the one in my firefox profile directory (but the search does not find it):

C:\Users\admin me\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\yqyrsiy9.default-1349914983418

Would you know why? It's not a hidden directory as far as I can tell.

mnalep wrote: "i do have adobe air installed, i just checked in my program list and found it.. I dont recall ever using it, or even what it is for."

I too have Adobe AIR, which is necessary for the Pandora music client for the Windows desktop.

To summarize my problem as described so far: Sometimes, after playing a video with Firefox & Flash, my system slows to a crawl and Task Manager reports nearly 100% cpu usage even though I'm not doing anything. As I noted, quitting Firefox does not fix it; I need to re-boot.

Today I tried an experiment: instead of re-booting, I logged off from Windows and then logged back on again. The new session had the same problems as the old one: slow as a crawl with Task Manager showing 80 to 90% cpu usage when doing nothing.

I then restarted my system and it returned to normal operation.

To me, this evidence, coupled with the fact that the CPU-hogging process does not show up in Task Manager, tells me it is a system process outside the view of Task Manager.

Richpasco,

I just recalled, that there were many times when my system would not respond, and my hard drive was spinning hard, and if I killed the plugin process (either firefox's or flash's - whichever was in use at the time) that my system response would greatly improve - and that was when the plugin was reporting only using 2% -3% of CPU!

Just an idea as something to try (killing the plugin process) if you haven't tried that already?

I have listened to Pandora thru the web page - is that what installs adobe air?

mnalep:

Yes, I've tried killing the plugin process and it does not return my CPU to me. The only thing that works is rebooting.

Listening to Pandora through the web page uses the Flash plugin, not AIR. It's the stand-alone desktop application that uses AIR.

With the Pandora One Desktop App, you can play your Pandora stations right from your desktop—without opening a new browser window.

To download the Desktop App, sign into your Pandora account, then click your email address (or name) in the upper right corner.

Select Settings and then Install Desktop App. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.

Hi mnalep, the Flash Player plugin's Protected Mode sandboxes each piece of Flash media in a separate process with reduced system privileges. This article has a more detailed explanation: Inside Flash Player Protected Mode for Firefox. It's brilliant in theory, but doesn't seem to be fully debugged yet, and since it was released 15 months ago, many add-ons have conflicted with it (many of which have been updated).

I'm able to use Protected Mode without a problem on a Windows 7 laptop, while on a desktop PC, it had to be disabled after a set of Windows updates or I couldn't access any pages using Flash (my thread). Even where it works as designed, it has annoying bugs (like switching focus among windows). I think each user has to decide for themselves whether to use Flash without Protected Mode.

Regarding your profile folder, the AppData folder normally is hidden, so everything under it normally cannot be found in a search unless you turn on the option to search for hidden files. I prefer to turn it on globally so I can browse it as well (see Show hidden files - Microsoft Windows Help).

jscher2000, that is what i thought was the way to set hiddene file attributes off, or on. I double checked, and my global setting was to show hidden files.

I even re-clicked it on again to show hidden files/folders, and APPLIED, but it still did not find sessionstore.js in a search of the c drive.

So I began rechecking the properties of that file, and the folders chain and they all showed as not being hidden files or folders - until i got to the higher level folder called /appdata - that one had hidden as an attribute.

So I guess that control panel command is not fully working to turn off the hidden attribute for all folders and files!

I changed the /appdata and applied which took a few minutes, and hoped my sessionstore.js could now be found - but no - searching the c drive, or even that folder, DOES NOT find it!

I even did the serach on the profile on the directory that files is in under /profiles, which is /yqyrsiy9.default-1349914983418, - and it still does not find it! Would you know why?

Hi mnalep, I'm not sure what's going wrong with your search. If you open Windows Explorer to

%APPDATA%

(top level of AppData\Roaming) and in the search box to the upper right search for these and see whether you get any results

*.js
*.ini
*.txt

Anything?

For those of you interested. I downloaded Google Chrome and went to a simple game that with FF and Flash, would make my hard drive scream and nearly max out my CPU. With Chrome, the CPU problem was not apparent, but my hard drive was still racing a little. Nothing near to what it was doing with FF. I so wish I could figure this out without having to try all the techie messin around with my PC (I still don't think I've seen anyone say exactly "yes, it is now fixed!"). If I don't figure something out soon I may have to change browsers. I already had to go install version 21 because 22 distorted my screen so bad I couldn't use it. I really don't want to leave FF. I have been running FF for about 5 years and have supported them, stuck up for them, and swore I would never change. FF, please don't make me do this!!!

@jscher2000 - I'm sure you are a PC expert, but when I see the stuff you type in with the % signs, asterisks, etc, It is just too scarey. I'm sure about 99% of the people who manage to get to this page feel the same way. As I have said in earlier posts, I'm just an old lady who likes playing a few simple games and browsing. My experiences as of late have been very frustrating. Sometimes I'm just afraid the computer the IT guy recommended (when my old PC quit) will blow up in my face. About 8 months ago he said it had all the bells and whistles, so I don't think it's a matter of outdated technology.

I confess, I do have an AA technical degree from awaaaay back, but it was for communications hardware. Software is a total mystery to me and has caused a lot of hair loss (mainly from me pulling it out) along the way.

Hi faith552, I won't deny being nerdy, but most computer problems respond well to a step-by-step approach; you don't have to be a "computer whisperer" to solve most problems.

This thread is very long, so just to review, did you try these steps already? This is some standard guidance that addresses the most common issues with the Flash Player.

(1) Disable hardware graphics acceleration in Firefox and in Flash

(A) In Firefox, un-check the box here and restart:

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced > General > "Use hardware acceleration when available"

(B) In Flash, see this support article from Adobe: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues

(2) Disable protected mode (Windows Vista/7/8)

This involves editing (or sometimes creating) a tiny settings file for Flash. See this support article from Adobe under the heading "Last Resort": Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?

faith552 .... My problem WAS SOLVED - see above:

"I added the ProtectedMode=0 to the mms.cfg file after the 2 line commands already in it.

IT GREATLY REDUCED CPU USAGE ! " - I SAY IT SOLVED IT FOR ME.

Now I still have a big problem with FF crashing very often, several times a day - but I think that is because I have so many tabs open - and my memory usage is at 65 - 75% of total (of 3 GB's).

jscher2000 -

I did type %APPDATA% in the search field and it said 'no items match your search'.

I clicked to that APPDATA folder and the search finds:

• .js <=== none found

• .ini <=== two ini files (in c:\Users\admin matt\AppData\Local\Adobe\Reader 9.4\Setup Files\setup.ini)

• .txt <=== yes, about 16 files (c:\Users\admin matt\AppData\Roaming\pchc\pchctemp\configuration.txt)

I still cannot find sessionstore.js when I enter that into the search field in windows explorer?

Hi mnalep, %APPDATA% is a shortcut to a folder path. You found the folder manually, but for future reference, you can type or paste it into the Windows Explorer address bar (not the search field next to the address bar) and press Enter.

It could be that manually changing the hidden attribute on the Roaming folder left some other folders hidden. It might be easier to turn off the Windows setting to hide hidden folders and files. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hidden-files#show-hidden-files=windows-7

I've lost track of why we were looking at this... do you want to start a new thread regarding the crashes? You can include a few crash IDs. This article describes the steps for doing that: Troubleshoot Firefox crashes (closing or quitting unexpectedly). And you can start the new thread here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/que.../fix-problems (scroll down to the form).