Sometimes the download history becomes more voluminous than Firefox can handle, at least on older systems. However, before clearing it (info: Delete browsing, search and download history on Firefox), you may want to consider some other issues.

Could you try disabling Firefox's hardware graphics acceleration? Due to some recent driver updates, many users are experiencing strange performance and stability issues linked to this feature.

You usually need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).

orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Options > Advanced

On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"

If you restart Firefox, is the issue resolved or at least improved?

Download history: As the download history grows, files may take longer to download and Firefox may appear to hang when downloading. In the Firefox menu, go to "Tools -> Downloads" and click "Clean Up" (Firefox 2) or "Clear List" (Firefox 3 and above) to clear the Download History.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs

i still have problems with websites freezing and my download history is not big only three or five it didn't used to freeze like this even when my download history was full i used to have over 15 downloads in my list and it worked fine

Is the download list the only problem area?

In addition to using Firefox's UI to clear the list, you can physically remove the file and Firefox will build a new one. Perhaps this will cure it.

(1) Open your active Firefox settings folder (AKA Firefox profile folder) using:

Help > Troubleshooting information > Show Folder button

(2) Switch back to Firefox and exit completely

(3) Pause for Firefox to finish file updates, then rename downloads.sqlite to something else, like downloads.old

(4) Restart Firefox and test again

Hope that helps.

no i have a problem with websites freezing as well the tabs freeze

It's strongly recommended to disable all plug-ins and test again. If there was no crash, start enable a plug-in and test Firefox again for crashes. do this until you find the problem.

Else, can you write down some of this web pages URL here?

Hi la321, could you describe the steps you have tried so far? For example:

• Renaming downloads.sqlite
• Disabling hardware acceleration
• Disabling nonessential add-ons (orange Firefox button or classic tools menu > Add-ons, both Extensions and Plugins categories)
• Suggestions in this article: Firefox hangs or is not responding - How to fix

i removed an addon for now i'm not having the problem with the tabs freezing

The tabs are still freezing some of the sites i visit are www.justin.tv and www.animeultima.tv

Hi la321, justin.tv uses Flash; I can't load the other site.

What was the add-on you disabled earlier?

(1) I assume you already disabled Firefox's hardware acceleration as described in the earlier post https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/936406#answer-365937

(2) Some steps you can take to reduce problems with Flash media include:

(A) Turn off the Flash player's hardware acceleration setting using the steps in this article: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues

(B) Disable the Flash player's protected mode feature. In the following article, scroll down to the "Last Resort" section: Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?

Notice any improvement?

I've noticed it does it more on websites with videos when playing videos they freeze a bit

or if there is a website with a lot of words it freezes

it does it on all websites now when firefox is open for a while

Hi la321, could you indicate which of the various suggestions in this thread you have tried so far? Otherwise, it's hard to add anything new. Those suggestions include:

• Renaming the downloads.sqlite database

• Disabling Firefox's hardware acceleration (see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/que.../936406#answer-365937)

• Disabling nonessential add-ons (orange Firefox button or classic tools menu > Add-ons, both Extensions and Plugins categories)

• Suggestions in this article: Firefox hangs or is not responding - How to fix

• Disabling the Flash player's hardware acceleration setting (see http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/k.../video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues)

• Disabling the Flash player's protected mode feature (see "Last Resort" section of http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1018071#TemporaryWorkaround)

i've tried all of those suggestions disabling acceleration i removed some addons the reset feature