Firefox + video ad = 190% CPU utilization

L

lithe951

Registered
You read that right. I can always tell if my home page suddenly has an ad with video running (like the new Mac ads) because the fan will suddenly max out and when I take a look at the CPU, Firefox is going to 190%! My only option is to force-quit Firefox, restart and hope the same ad doesn't come up again. BTW this happened in 1.5.0.7 and I'm running 2.0 now with the same problem.

I don't know if this is related, but it also has a Quicktime issue, crashes the browser every time a QT video, a-la Apple Trailers, is loaded. I have yet to be able to see movie trailers.

I wasn't sure of the best forum for this, but I'm running a MacBook Pro with 10.4.8 and this seemed like the place to ask.

Right now writing this on macosx.com Firefox is cruising with < 1%. When I go to my home page, cnn.com, I'm taking a chance I'll have to restart it. Any ideas?

...and please no "Use Safari" responses. It isn't compatible with some things I do every day and Firefox is, so I have to use it.

Mark
 
What kind of ad is this? Is it Flash? If so, you can stop it from running automatically with Flashblock. When you want to see the Flash video, you can click the button in the middle of the box.
 
Well, do the sites work on Safari, or is the issue isolated to Firefox? Not that you have to use Safari, but if it doesn't work there either, it could be a bad plugin.
You could also try using Firefox on a new account / deleting the pref files to see if a setting you enabled caused something.
 
Honestly not sure if it's flash or not, have not looked that close. Go to cnn.com and surf up any page. If the Mac ad comes up, Firefox goes nuts. I can't say if it's isolated just to Firefox because my Safari won't load any page and has a POSIX error...lucky me. However it does not happen in Firefox in Windows XP (I run Parallels) or Internet Explorer.

I've cleared all preferences, removed and reinstalled Firefox completely, upgraded to 2.0, and still the same problem.
 
I don't know. Something else is wrong with Safari I haven't been able to fix - open it and any page results in a POSIX error. I suppose I could download another browser, but I actually prefer Firefox for just about everything.

I typically keep my home page open in a tab and then work in others. As soon as the fan ramps up I know what happened.
 
Have you tried Opera 9 yet??? Everybody has thier preferance but I am Web Developer and I think Opera is less buggy when it comes to Flash or Web Video. I have been testing Firefox 2.0 the last week since it came out and I am not impressed!
 
Are you using a proxy to connect to the internet? Check your Network settings to see if you have any proxies checked. If you do, try turning them off to see if they are the cause of the problem.

Are you using Netbarrier or Nortons Firewall?
 
lithe951 said:
Honestly not sure if it's flash or not, have not looked that close. Go to cnn.com and surf up any page. If the Mac ad comes up, Firefox goes nuts.
Click to expand...
I went there and tried CNN Money - Horrible Halloween...
That page has a flash ad on the right side. All I get is a box with a "f" symbol in the middle because I use the Flashblock extension. Firefox did not go nuts on that page. I also use the Adblock Plus extension to block ads.
 
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