CPU spike in TenFourFox 31.0
Folks,
I've got a PowerMac G5 quad core with 10 GB of RAM on OSX 10.5.8. I've been using TenFourFox for some time on all three of my G5's (2 iMac 17" and the PowerMac), but version 31.0 has been problematic. It becomes unusable very shortly after launch, slowing down almost to a grinding halt.
Using 'top', I am noticing that the TenFourFox process will consume 100% of one of the 4 CPUs I have within minutes of starting up. I have NOT verified that this happens regardless which page I navigate to - I first thought that it was related to usage of Google services as they are JavaScript intense. This does not seem to be the case, as I have avoided Google services and still observe the problem. For instance, filling out forms on dice.com will bring it down within a few minutes.
Anyway, looking through some of the other problems (mouse scroll, etc.) I wonder if the performance issues are related. It would seem we've got something of an infinite loop somewhere.
I upgraded to 31.0 from 24.6. I am about to back down to 24.7. I am using Safari to write this, as entering text is very slow on 10.4x 31.0.
Thanks,
Dan K
Keyboard shortcuts
Generic
| ? | Show this help |
|---|---|
| ESC | Blurs the current field |
Comment Form
| r | Focus the comment reply box |
|---|---|
| ^ + ↩ | Submit the comment |
You can use Command ⌘ instead of Control ^ on Mac
Support Staff 1 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 01 Aug, 2014 08:08 PM
I use a quad with less RAM, usually in Reduced performance, and I haven't encountered anything like this. A bad add-on or a misconfigured setting would be the first things I'd think about. I'd also strongly consider a profile reset.
2 Posted by Chris Fox on 02 Aug, 2014 07:07 PM
I've been having issues with the update to 31.0 as well. I'm on an iBook G4 (1.2 Ghz, 1.25 GB RAM, 10.4.11) and am getting the pinwheel cursor often. Last night things were locking up so bad I reinstalled the TenFourFox executable and deleted my profile. Will see how starting with a "clean slate" works, but so far I'm tempted to go back to the previous version.
3 Posted by Daniel Kosack on 03 Aug, 2014 02:05 AM
Folks,
I have disabled the "Sync" of my profile and all appears well again. Sync
would be very nice to have, but it is not a show-stopper.
4 Posted by drg on 03 Aug, 2014 03:47 AM
I had the same happening on my G4 PowerBook, namely, shortly after launch, TenFourFox 31.0 slowed down to a crawl. I've since downgraded back to version 24.6. So, since an upgrade will carry on with the settings and plugins of a previous version, whatever the cause is is with the newer browser, not one's preferences or plugins or whatever that were handled fine with the previous version.
Support Staff 5 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 03 Aug, 2014 05:31 AM
General complaints of "slowness" aren't helpful to me -- they can come from any number of problems, and contrary to popular belief, I actually do use the browser. (I'm typing in it.) I appreciate Daniel narrowing it down to what seemed to be the problem for him. I'd really appreciate the rest of you doing the same if you think there's an actual problem to be fixed.
drg, you may think that the blame clearly lies with 31, but a setting that "worked fine" in the previous version doesn't mean it's configured in a way that was acceptable there either even if it happened to be functional.
You're welcome to use 24.7.0, but there will be no further updates to it. If the browser is unacceptably slow, you may wish to consider other options. Otherwise, please give me something I can work with.
6 Posted by Chris Fox on 03 Aug, 2014 06:59 AM
Well it's a bit hard to really describe what's causing it, since TenFourFox doesn't tell us why it's happening. But there is a brief delay between launching the browser and having it hang up. That would somewhat coincide with it being a Mozilla Sync issue. I tried running a permissions check in Disk First Aid (which found a few things) and a general disk check (which also found a some "small issues" as it called them -- I actually had to boot into Single User Mode and run fsck to fix it. But the issue is still there. It was causing things to hang to the point menus became unresponsive and the screen itself had frozen I thought.
I was able to use it last night after clearing my profile (didn't mess with sync then as I had spent so much time futzing with Disk First Aid and reinstalling). So maybe there is something to this being a sync issue.
Funny enough. Sync has become a major concern for me. See, I use Pale Moon on my desktop, and previous to this Firefox 31 nonsense I was able to sync between Pale Moon on my desktop and TenFourFox on my laptop, since they both used the Mozilla Sync (1.1) system. Since I've cleared my profile on TenFourFox I've lost the "grandfathering" with the old system and now have to use the new Mozilla 1.5 Sync system. And the current Pale Moon now interfaces with a completely separate 1.1 Sync system the author is running himself (only usable on Pale Moon). So I can't sync my desktop and laptop anymore automatically, which was one of my favorite things when I discovered TenFourFox (was running Firefox 3.6.something before).
I can downgrade both and restore the old sync account I guess but Mozilla's gonna take those 1.1 servers offline at some point.
7 Posted by drg on 03 Aug, 2014 01:26 PM
Firefox Sync is not a suspect for me, Chris Fox, since I've never synced.
But you're right, Cameron Kaiser, I haven't given you much info to work with; and the reason being why I've hesitated until now to report it, since I have no idea where the problem might lie. It could very well be a plugin that isn't totally comfortable with version 31.0, albeit compatible nonetheless.
The only detail I can give is of a prominent time-delay reaction that was well described by Daniel Kosack, whether it was clicking the menu bar, or toolbar, or quitting the browser.
Anyway, I'm okay with this current older version for now.
Thanks.
Support Staff 8 Posted by Chris (chtrusch... on 03 Aug, 2014 02:52 PM
Drg, you could do a little test in 31. Go to Tools>Add-ons and choose Extensions in the sidebar. Disable all extensions temporarily and re-start the browser. See if the problem is still there. It's easy and a matter of a minute to check this.
9 Posted by Chris Fox on 04 Aug, 2014 02:47 AM
I turned off Sync last night, relaunched, and tried things out for the night.
The hanging issue that made the browser completely freeze up for a minute or two at a time seems to be gone, but I did still get the pinwheel cursor occasionally. Even with no extensions running. I only had two extensions installed to begin with, which I reduced to only one running (Adblock Plus, because other wise using the web would drive me batty). Things were steady but a bit slower throughout the evening.
Will test more tonight.
Support Staff 10 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 04 Aug, 2014 02:52 AM
Chris Fox and Daniel, do any of the suggestions from https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/998104 make a difference? Even though I'm sure you don't have as many bookmarks as the user does in this thread, switching to manual sync or reducing the frequency may be helpful, and if it does help you, I may consider making that the default.
Also, about:sync-log may show some useful information. Please don't post the entire log, just relevant portions (unless Chris or I ask).
11 Posted by drk on 04 Aug, 2014 03:20 PM
G5 Mac tower with 2.5 dual processor and 3g memory...
Frequent spinning beach ball in TFF 31.0 and associated finding of "TenFourFox unresponsive" on Activity Monitor application. Processors (either) frequently up to 100% for reasons I can't explain. Have "NoScript" activated now, but blocking scripts doesn't seem to improve situation. Backed off to 24.6 and problem resolves. Kind of disappointing because I truly love this browser. I'll keep trying listed suggestions in hopes that 31.0 will once again become usable. For the record, entering this note has taken almost "forever," due to the intermittent but frequent cranking up of processor to 100% (with the associated spinning beach ball)... NB, I don't use Sync...
Thank you for all your efforts... drk
Support Staff 12 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 04 Aug, 2014 08:48 PM
drk -- and future commenters --, please see comment 6. If this isn't Sync, and you're not sure what it is, I'd prefer that you post when you have a better idea. I can't take shots in the dark with a project this large and posts of "general slowness" don't lead me to a solution. Obviously they're not materially affecting the testing audience, or something so allegedly pervasive and severe would have shown up earlier, so without additional details I won't be able to assist, let alone figure out why.
13 Posted by drg on 05 Aug, 2014 08:31 AM
As requested, I (reluctantly) reinstalled v. 31.0. I was planning to deactivate add-ons, and if that wouldn't work I'd remove most of my bookmarks from the Bookmarks toolbar. However, one thing I did do after the upgrade was repair permissions. There were numerous lines about "internet plugins/javacocoa.bundle".
Well, anyway, to my surprise, I so far haven't felt the need to deactivate my add-ons nor bookmarks -- things seem to be "normal". But I haven't yet retraced all of my browsing activity types, so the issue may yet resurface. If so, of course, I'll keep you appraised.
Thanks.
p.s.: I just noticed that one of my add-ons has been deactivated. I'll test it on later tonight (DoNotTrackMe).
14 Posted by Steve Linneroot... on 06 Aug, 2014 07:45 PM
Besides 31 freezing on numerous occasions it also refuses to acknowledge the command to quit tenfourfox and must be forced quit each time I use it. As a result each new session opens with a page asking if one wants to restore the session. This did not occur in any of the previous builds.
I am running 31 ESR 7450 on:
Machine Name: eMac
Machine Model: PowerMac4,4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.6.4f1
Support Staff 15 Posted by Chris (chtrusch... on 06 Aug, 2014 08:01 PM
Steve, please try it without extensions (see comment 9), or if this doesn't help, try resetting your user profile (Help>Troubleshooting Information>Reset TenFourFox).
16 Posted by linncrusier on 07 Aug, 2014 02:41 PM
Thanks!
Steve Linnerooth
17 Posted by drk on 08 Aug, 2014 12:44 AM
Dear Cameron...
Joyous...
Please reference my 8/4/14 entry.
First I disabled all add-ons (extensions). TFF 31 once again worked like a charm (and no slowness at all). Waited a day - no problem. Decided to add back add-ons one at a time. Reactivated QTE first and immediately developed previous difficulties. Disabled it and TFF was fine again. Added back WOT, Ad-Block Plus. No problem. Had my TFF back again. Of course, I couldn't leave it at that, so I actually deleted the disabled QTE and reinstalled. Now everything is working fine. Don't know if that helps or not, but for me all is well again...
Thanks for your guidance!!!
drk
Support Staff 18 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 08 Aug, 2014 06:09 AM
Yes, the old version of the QTE will cause hangups -- we advise updating to the most current version in the release notes. But I'm glad that fixed the problem for you.
19 Posted by PowerBook User on 12 Aug, 2014 09:33 AM
Hi
I'm using the latest QTE, and the only other add-on i use is "JSoff" to disable javascript. So, usually, I'm using TFF without javascript, enabling it for occasional use.
With this configuration, TFF 31 never crashes nor needs force quit, but still uses 95% CPU when in foreground, taking the Powerbook 1.66's fans to the highest speeds and noise... So I'm back to version 24.7.0.
20 Posted by PowerBook User on 20 Aug, 2014 03:42 AM
Back to TFF 31, updated QTE to version 120..
Everything works fine.
Regards
21 Posted by Vagabnd on 07 Oct, 2014 11:20 PM
Ok, I know I am late to this thread. But after enabling Sync this is when TFF became unusable. It just hangs and I have to force quit. It doesn't show up as red when force quitting though.