Something is driving CPU Usage up to 100%

[Richard Fangnail]

I have XP and something has been crashing my Firefox. I've tried
everything I can think of, I even ran it with no antivirus. Something
is STILL driving CPU Usage up to 100% for no apparent reason, cuasing
FF to crash. Any idea what it might be??

The FF Crash Reports usually say Exception Violation which means
something wrote to the memory where it shouldn't have.

I have no firewall either. I tried reinstalling FF and Flash too.

 

[Craig Coope]

I have XP and something has been crashing my Firefox. I've tried
everything I can think of, I even ran it with no antivirus. Something
is STILL driving CPU Usage up to 100% for no apparent reason, cuasing
FF to crash. Any idea what it might be??

The FF Crash Reports usually say Exception Violation which means
something wrote to the memory where it shouldn't have.

I have no firewall either. I tried reinstalling FF and Flash too.

Ctrl Alt Del and have a look to see what is using the CPU in the
Process tab. Usually System Idle Process will be using most if your
system is idle. Do this when Firefox is running and when it's not.

 

[Richard Fangnail]

Ctrl Alt Del and have a look to see what is using the CPU in the
Process tab. Usually System Idle Process will be using most if your
system is idle. Do this when Firefox is running and when it's not.

I've done this and it usually looks normal. It's too bad you can't
"record" and see later what drove it up so high.
I even tried the Event Manager but it had nothing.

 

[Craig Coope]

I've done this and it usually looks normal. It's too bad you can't
"record" and see later what drove it up so high.
I even tried the Event Manager but it had nothing.

If it's only happening with FF then I'd uninstall and reinstall.

 

[Craig Coope]

If it's only happening with FF then I'd uninstall and reinstall.

Sorry....just seen that you've already done that

 

[Craig Coope]

I've done this and it usually looks normal. It's too bad you can't
"record" and see later what drove it up so high.
I even tried the Event Manager but it had nothing.

Do you have any 3rd party addons to FF? It could be something badly
written that has a memory leak.

 

[nass]

I have XP and something has been crashing my Firefox. I've tried
everything I can think of, I even ran it with no antivirus. Something
is STILL driving CPU Usage up to 100% for no apparent reason, cuasing
FF to crash. Any idea what it might be??

The FF Crash Reports usually say Exception Violation which means
something wrote to the memory where it shouldn't have.

I have no firewall either. I tried reinstalling FF and Flash too.

Did you tried to run IE?
Do you have the latest FF updates?

Run a thorough scan by doing the following steps:

Click start >> Control Panel >> Double Click Network and Internet
Connections >> Double click Internet Options, on the IE Properties window
you will see these Options:
General | Security | Privacy | Content | Connections | Programs
| Advanced .

Click on General Tab (1st Tab on the left) and you will see a Button called
[ Clear History ..] click on it to clear your History caches, then click on
[Delete Files..] to delete Internet Files created over the time, click on [
Delete Cookies...] to delete your cookies left by visiting websites.

= Then try to Disable the Add-Ons on your Browser somehow installed on your
browser, On how to disable the Add-ons follow this:
Click on Programs Tab and then click the Manage Add-Ons Button there Disable
the None/Not Verified Plug-ins/Add-ons ( you need to Renable them one-by-one
later and see which is the culprit .
How to manage Add-Ons:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883256

Then click on Advanced tab and scroll down to under the Browsing Option:
[&] Browsing
[ ] Enable Third-Party browser extensions (Req Rest) uncheck this box.

Scan for malware from here:
SuperAntispyware - Free
http://www.superantispyware.com/superantispywarefreevspro.html
http://www.malwarebytes.org/rr-update/rr-free-setup.exe

Run a scan from here on-line:
http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
Download Avast Cleaner (offline scanner) from here:
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-virus-cleaner.html
Comodo BOClean : Anti-Malware Version 4.27
http://www.comodo.com/boclean/boclean.html

 

[Richard Fangnail]

Do you have any 3rd party addons to FF? It could be something badly
written that has a memory leak.

I just discovered two Microsoft DRM plugins and disabled them. could
those be causing FF crashes?
ALso how can I totally remove them instead of just disabling them in
FF?
I also disabled Genuine Advantage and some other plugins I never
wanted.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was Thursday, July 09, 2009 2:09:04 PM, and on a whim,
Richard Fangnail pounded out on the keyboard:

I have XP and something has been crashing my Firefox. I've tried
everything I can think of, I even ran it with no antivirus. Something
is STILL driving CPU Usage up to 100% for no apparent reason, cuasing
FF to crash. Any idea what it might be??

The FF Crash Reports usually say Exception Violation which means
something wrote to the memory where it shouldn't have.

I have no firewall either. I tried reinstalling FF and Flash too.

Hi again Richard,

Start FF in Safe Mode (look in Firefox folder in All Programs. Is the
problem still there?

Try the suggestions here:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_CPU_usage

Uninstalling and reinstalling rarely fixes anything, as the problem most
likely is related to the profile and installed extensions/add-ons. You
could create a new profile and start over.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_new_Firefox_profile_on_Windows
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox


Terry R.

 

[MowGreen]

From the sound of the add-ons it appears that you have IETab installed
to access Windows Update via FF, is that correct ?

Suggest you first open FF in Safe Mode via the Start Menu [ Mozilla
Firefox (Safe Mode) ] to see if an add-on is causing the issue. In SM
all add-ons are disabled. This has nothing to do with Windows XP Safe
Mode, it just opens FF with no add-ons.

Do you have a bunch of sites that provide RSS feeds, Richard ?
I found that FF would freeze when first opening if there is 10 or more
RSS feeds bookmarked. Since the FF 'community' didn't believe me, I
deleted the RSS feeds and the issue went away. They still don't believe
me <w>

MowGreen
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
================

 

[Richard Fangnail]

 From the sound of the add-ons it appears that you have IETab installed
to access Windows Update via FF, is that correct ?

Suggest you first open FF in Safe Mode via the Start Menu [ Mozilla
Firefox (Safe Mode) ] to see if an add-on is causing the issue. In SM
all add-ons are disabled. This has nothing to do with Windows XP Safe
Mode, it just opens FF with no add-ons.

Do you have a bunch of sites that provide RSS feeds, Richard ?
I found that FF would freeze when first opening if there is 10 or more
RSS feeds bookmarked. Since the FF 'community' didn't believe me, I
deleted the RSS feeds and the issue went away. They still don't believe
me <w>

MowGreen

No RSS - I discovered a bunch of plugins like Microsoft DRM, Java
Platform, QuickTime and RealPlayer.
I don't know why those were there, so I disabled them. They have no
uninstall button.