Windows 10 1903 update causing my Firefox to hang A LOT. How can I fix this?
I just manually updated to windows 10 1903 from i think version 1803 a few days ago since for some reason it didn't show up in settings when i checked for an update. So I went to Microsoft's website to manually update. Ever since the update, only Firefox will hang. I have been using Firefox for a year now on this laptop which has 16gb ram and i7 processor, with around 600gb free storage on the hard drive out of 1 TB. Firefox always worked just fine until i did the manual windows update, now anything i do, whether scrolling, switching tabs, clicking something, will cause Firefox to lag and hang for several seconds before going on. Usually when i start up, it is just fine, then after about 5 minutes once i actually try to do anything, it starts the hanging. i notice that my computer fan sometimes will kick on almost exactly when the hanging begins as well... Google chrome works just fine, but I really don't want to switch browsers since I love Firefox and have all my bookmarks and logins on it, and I dont want to go back to a previous windows version. I have tried every single step in all the trouble shooting guides posted here, and nothing fixed it. Any help?
All Replies (5)
A common fix for this type of issue is simply reinstalling Firefox on your computer. It's not unusual for Windows to damage a Firefox file during the update process, so reinstalling will replace all Firefox files while still preserving your data.
If that doesn't help, I recommend updating/reinstalling your graphic drivers. Those can also get damaged in a Windows update or it could simply be that your graphic driver manufacturer discovered the same issue and has fixed it.
If that doesn't work, you can also try disabling hardware acceleration in Firefox. You can also try Firefox Safe Mode to test without hardware acceleration without making an permanent changes to your settings.
Hope this helps.
Hello, thank you for the quick reply. I have already tried all of those steps, reinstalled firefox, updated drivers, and nothing. still hanging a lot. I think i will just backup my bookmarks and then reset my whole computer to restore to factory settings. I think the update affected it so if i start fresh do you think that this will fix my problem?
Hello joshalander,
Before you do anything that dramatic, check out this article at gHacks: All existing issues with Windows 10 version 1903 You can maybe rule out some of the possible couses and focus on one or two which are impacting you specifically.
Hello, I have looked at that list and no issues pertain to me. Although, I see that Microsoft stated that the update wasn't meant to be available to everyone all at the same time. So maybe the fact that I downloaded the update before Microsoft determined that I was ready to update, could have affected something? I am not sure. But all other browsers I have tried (edge and chrome) worked fine with no issues. Keep in mind that Firefox has the hanging issue even when I have only one tab open not running any other processes.. It has never been this bad before.
Hi joshalander, I read up on some of the issues myself and Microsoft was initially holding the update from users with Qualcomm hardware, because of an intermittent connectivity issue, until they updated drivers. There are now more and more people complaining about experiencing the same issue and are not users of Qualcomm. An intermittent connectivity issue would certainly cause FF to hang.
Do you have FF Network Settings set to Use System Proxy Settings? That would help FF recover from a connectivity loss faster. Those settings are at the very bottom of the General page.
Also keep in mind that a loss of internet connection will impact everything else on your system simultaneously. And when everything else tries to re-establish connection FF might have to wait in line.
Follow through on Wesley Branton's suggestion to re-install Firefox. It's actually easier than it sounds. If this is a problem caused by Windows, there is no solution to it in Firefox.