Firefox slow in loading pages since release of 36.0.1
Since v36.0.1 page load times have increased from 2 to 7 seconds. See attached Firefox health report. A number of Firefox support forums suggest Norton Internet Security is the likely cause. I have tried the following: removing all Mozilla folders from Sonar, AutoProtect etc; changing the Firefox firewall option from 'auto' to 'allow'; updating Norton Insight rating for Firefox. None have had any effect on page load times. There is also a discrepency between how Firefox reports update history and that reported by other progams. Firefox suggests v35.0.1 was installed on 26 Feb; Norton suggests it was v36 that was installed on that date. The Norton scenario is supported by a backup taken on 1 March showing v36 installed. Norton and Firefox agree that v36.0.1 was installed on 5 March; this is when the page load times increased.
The above problem happened on a 64bit Win7 desktop. Apart from automatic updates from Firefox, MS and Norton nothing else changed on the desktop.
I also have a 32bit Win7 laptop having a similar configuration to the desktop and running Firefox v36.0.1 and Norton Internet Security. The page load times have remained constant at 3 seconds despite upgrading from 35.0.1 to 36.0.1.
Any suggestions on what I should try next will be gratefully received.
All Replies (5)
Is there any effect when you boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test.
Many thanks for your prompt and helpful reply. Starting in Safe Mode brought the page load times back to 2 seconds or less. Firefox also seemed to start faster.
Does this provide any clues as to the root cause?
Rgds,
Steve d
If it works better in Windows Safe mode then the likely cause is a problem with other software that is started. That could be a problem with your Norton software or with other software.
See:
- [/questions/1048938] Firefox takes two minutes plus to load, apparant clash with Norton Internet Security
I disabled Norton antivirus and firewall; Firefox seems to start and load pages faster. However, when I reinstated them, the improvment in page load times seemed to remain. The results from the Health Report are difficult to interpret so will give it another try tomorrow when the helath report has clicked over to another day and the graph may be clearer. Thanks again for your help.
I ran for 15 minutes this morning with Norton AntiVirus and SmartFirewall disabled. The attached health report shows that it made no difference to page load times. This suggests Norton is not the problem so I compared extensions/addins between this desktop PC and my laptop - the laptop runs 36.0.1 and Norton and pages load normally. The desktop has the following plugins in addition to those on the laptop: Foxit, Canon, Java, Picasa and VLC (VLC is disabled). Is it worth removing them ? There is no 'remove' button against any of these plugins so I would have to do it manually; what is the safest way to do this?
