Firefox freezes

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Mama wrote on 2011-02-18 20:20

I notice while I stream video, or do anything really, the 'plugin container' for firefox in processes will suddenly take up all of my CPU for a split second and cause everything to freeze momentarily, then it goes back to normal.

is there anything I can do to stop this other than switching browsers? this is really annoying.
Yoorah wrote on 2011-02-19 00:07

It sounds to me like you have a plugin (Flash?) that's causing an issue. Is your Flash up to date? Is your Java up to date? Did you install any other 3rd party plugins, and are they outdated?

Maybe uninstall Firefox, re-install, then install the plugins you need. Oh, and there's the Firefox 4 beta you can try if you're curious. You can backup/export your FF bookmarks using the bookmarks manager.

Chrome isn't a bad browser to switch to, either. I'm just used to FF, so I keep using it.
Mama wrote on 2011-02-19 01:32

yeah thanks. I had to update my Java, however it appears that the flash plugin has compatibility issues now that i've looked at the action centre. It also told me that the Firefox plugin container has crashed 7 times -_-

I don't know. I'm going to try reinstalling some things. I just had a APC_INDEX_MISMATCH bsod out of the blue. It might be an issue with my RAM then, although I have 4 gigs.
Yoorah wrote on 2011-02-19 02:00

Ahh, Flash problems. Kill it with fire! That uninstaller will remove all Flash versions from your PC. Be sure you close all programs that might be using Flash before you run it, however, or it will be unable to fully uninstall it. Then you can just install Flash as needed.

As for the BSOD and RAM, Windows Vista and 7 have a built in memory diagnostics tool. You can also try the built in System File Checker by opening a command prompt and typing sfc /scannow
Mama wrote on 2011-02-19 02:28

thanks. I'm about to do the memory thing, but I notice that flash only comes in 32-bit, and I am using x64 with win7, so thats likely why it said there was a compatibility issue. Does that mean that it's best for me to use a 32 bit firefox with my system?
Yoorah wrote on 2011-02-19 02:43

Firefox 3 is a 32bit program, and it has no issues running on your 64bit OS. So the 32bit Flash should be compatible with it. If you had a 64bit browser, however (such as Firefox 4), then you would need to install Adobe's experimental 64bit Flash preview. Otherwise, the regular 32bit Flash should be fine.
Mama wrote on 2011-02-19 03:33

thanks again. +rep

I ran the diagnostics with no problems, so I'll assume there was just a hiccup in the system and nothing to worry about.

so far I have no problems. hopefully it won't reappear once I leave it running some time (which I do often especially when watching lectures); it seems to just wrack up the memory usage which probably contributed to the index_mismatch bsod.