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FF Performance and Adobe Flash

  • 34 replies
  • 15 have this problem
  • 18 views
  • Last reply by Moses

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I'm having serious performance issues with Firefox. I have reset Firefox to try and address it and that didn’t help.

Pages take forever to load and the task manager indicates 50 – 75% utilization while FF struggles to load pages. This CPU action continues as long as the browser is running. The “Plugin Container for FF” in addition to “FF” itself is sucking up a lot of resources. If I kill the Plugin Container process, FF reports that Adobe Flash Plugin has crashed and certain pages load that wouldn’t load up to this point. There’s obviously something wrong in the flash. The task manager still shows a 50% CPU usage and the page loads crawl.

If I continue to kill the Plugin Container process, I can coax pages to load.

I'm running Adobe Flash version 25.0.0.171.

The plugins I'm using are:

OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc. File: 1.6 Path: C:\Users\Elaine\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\s553bxtb.default-1494947582755\gmp-gmpopenh264\1.6 Version: 1.6 State: Enabled

Primetime Content Decryption Module provided by Adobe Systems, Incorporated File: 17 Path: C:\Users\Elaine\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\s553bxtb.default-1494947582755\gmp-eme-adobe\17 Version: 17 State: Enabled Play back protected web video. MIME Type Description Suffixes

Widevine Content Decryption Module provided by Google Inc. File: 1.4.8.903 Path: C:\Users\Elaine\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\s553bxtb.default-1494947582755\gmp-widevinecdm\1.4.8.903 Version: 1.4.8.903 State: Enabled Play back protected web video. MIME Type Description Suffixes

Shockwave Flash File: NPSWF64_25_0_0_171.dll Path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash\NPSWF64_25_0_0_171.dll Version: 25.0.0.171 State: Enabled Shockwave Flash 25.0 r0


I'm running Firefox 53.0.2 64bit on Window 10, Lenovo Laptop.

This problem just started recently.

I'm having serious performance issues with Firefox. I have reset Firefox to try and address it and that didn’t help. Pages take forever to load and the task manager indicates 50 – 75% utilization while FF struggles to load pages. This CPU action continues as long as the browser is running. The “Plugin Container for FF” in addition to “FF” itself is sucking up a lot of resources. If I kill the Plugin Container process, FF reports that Adobe Flash Plugin has crashed and certain pages load that wouldn’t load up to this point. There’s obviously something wrong in the flash. The task manager still shows a 50% CPU usage and the page loads crawl. If I continue to kill the Plugin Container process, I can coax pages to load. I'm running Adobe Flash version 25.0.0.171. The plugins I'm using are: OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc. File: 1.6 Path: C:\Users\Elaine\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\s553bxtb.default-1494947582755\gmp-gmpopenh264\1.6 Version: 1.6 State: Enabled Primetime Content Decryption Module provided by Adobe Systems, Incorporated File: 17 Path: C:\Users\Elaine\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\s553bxtb.default-1494947582755\gmp-eme-adobe\17 Version: 17 State: Enabled Play back protected web video. MIME Type Description Suffixes Widevine Content Decryption Module provided by Google Inc. File: 1.4.8.903 Path: C:\Users\Elaine\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\s553bxtb.default-1494947582755\gmp-widevinecdm\1.4.8.903 Version: 1.4.8.903 State: Enabled Play back protected web video. MIME Type Description Suffixes Shockwave Flash File: NPSWF64_25_0_0_171.dll Path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash\NPSWF64_25_0_0_171.dll Version: 25.0.0.171 State: Enabled Shockwave Flash 25.0 r0 I'm running Firefox 53.0.2 64bit on Window 10, Lenovo Laptop. This problem just started recently.

All Replies (14)

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Happy112 said

Have you tried to disable Multiprocess (e10s) , like FredMcD suggested earlier  ? You can check whether you have this feature turned on as follows : • '3-bar' menu button => ' ? ' button => Troubleshooting Information • type 'about:support ' (without the commas) in the address bar and press Enter/Return In the first table on the page, check the row for 'Multiprocess Windows' and see whether the number on the left side of the fraction is greater than zero. If so, you are using e10s - otherwise it should read : 0/1 (Disabled).

It says 1/1 by default. So, no, it's not set to 0. So how do I set it to 0/1? It's not a hyperlink. I'll keep looking

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Happy112 said

Have you tried to disable Multiprocess (e10s) , like FredMcD suggested earlier  ? You can check whether you have this feature turned on as follows : • '3-bar' menu button => ' ? ' button => Troubleshooting Information • type 'about:support ' (without the commas) in the address bar and press Enter/Return In the first table on the page, check the row for 'Multiprocess Windows' and see whether the number on the left side of the fraction is greater than zero. If so, you are using e10s - otherwise it should read : 0/1 (Disabled).

It says 1/1 by default. So, no, it's not set to 0. So how do I set it to 0/1? It's not a hyperlink. I'll keep looking

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Ooops. sorry for the duplication.

Modified by WSC3

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I made the change to 0/1. CPU drops until I load a page that accesses flash. CPU is still running 50% to 100%.

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WSC3 said

I made the change to 0/1.

So, does this mean that you actually followed the steps that FredMcD gave you to disable Multiprocess (e10s) in 'aboutconfig'   ? Well, good for you   !

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FF is usiinng 19%, pluging container 16%, anti malware 6%. Total 50%. Laptop is so slow i can barely type.

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WSC3 said

CPU drops until I load a page that accesses flash. CPU is still running 50% to 100%.

Would you take a look at the article :
Firefox uses too many resources - How to fix

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Changing flash to ask to activate, means you have to click allow, when a website asks you,if you want to run the flash plugin.

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Did you try Firefox Safe Mode?

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.


Boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support to see if that has effect in case security software is causing problems.

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Hey Cor-el,

Yes, the laptop is already at the default theme. It's never used another. Yes, I've tried safe mode. I don't have any add-on's running now at all. None. (I reset FF, which removed them all.) No change.

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Wrong post.

Modified by WSC3

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WSC3 said

I cleared SB today

What do you mean by   'SB'   ?

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Wrong post. Sorry, I'm working on another problem on my computer. Apologies.

I still have excess CPU from FF, but it does seem to wane occasionally.

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Can you take a look at these articles if you haven't and check to see if you have disabled hardware acceleration in Flash.

(See this article for more information on using the Flash plugin in Firefox).  

To disable hardware acceleration in Flash Player:

  1. Go to this Adobe Flash Player Help page.
  2. Right-click on the Flash Player logo on that page.
  3. Click on Settings in the context menu. The Adobe Flash Player Settings screen will open.
  4. Click on the icon at the bottom-left of the Adobe Flash Player Settings window to open the Display panel.

    The image "fpSettings1.PNG" does not exist.
  5. Remove the check mark from Enable hardware acceleration.
  6. Click Close to close the Adobe Flash Player Settings Window.
  7. Restart Firefox.
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