Scrolling problem after downloading Firefox 5

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After going from FF 3.? to 5, the scrolling is awful – jerky motion and slow, not at all smooth as it used to be, or the page keeps scrolling by itself after mouse or arrow is released. (Happens with the mouse or the keyboard arrows.) In tools, smooth scrolling is checked and I even tried an add on called “Yet Another Smooth Scrolling” and that’s no help whatsoever. This has never happened with FF before. Anyone else having this problem or know what the solution is?

Forgot to mention that I have Windows XP, Dell machine. It works fine and is used for email and basic surfing the web, nothing elaborate.

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Hi Annie,

try the following: in Firefox, (ALT) Tools > Options > Advanced > General, uncheck “use hardware acceleration when available” if it’s checked.

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Thank you! It seems to help. I’ll see as I continue if that solves the problem completely. It’s too bad that when there’s an update to some of these programs, you have to go back and check all the options since some of them appear to change from the previous version.

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Thank you! It seems to help. I’ll see as I continue if that solves the problem completely. It’s too bad that when there’s an update to some of these programs, you have to go back and check all the options since some of them appear to change from the previous version.

What are the mouse properties on the wheel tab set at ?

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We don’t have a mouse with a wheel, but thanks for the thought I have spent the last 3 days or so working on this problem, and that included trying Google Chrome. Chrome doesn’t impress me, one reason being that a good part of those couple of days was trying to find out how to import Firefox bookmarks. Finally did it, and others have had a problem with that aspect of Chrome from the beginning according to every forum I checked! Chrome does seem fast, but it has drawbacks in my opinion.

BTW, I have examined all the FF options regarding scrolling, and they are set now, including satrow’s suggestion above. I’m convinced that FF will have to fix something that changed with version 5.

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Hi anniewr, can’t remember seeing a wheelless mouse, might be time to get one, there cheap as cheese.

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I’ve been using FF 5 since it showed up, have hardware acceleration checked and it all works fine for me. I do control mouse options through windows though and that seems to handle everything except for Chrome. I appreciated your mini-rant on that topic, I have it but rarely use it. The wheel is nearly impossible to use with it, it locks and races through the page until you hit it again, then use it to scroll and repeat. And repeat. And I know the “bare” look is the rage these days but I absolutely insist on having my File Edit, etc. toolbar up there and I use it often, not just for bookmarked favorites, and there is no way at all to have that in Chrome. Which means I use Chrome almost never. Their ability to customize is just plain silly, there is barely anything useful you can customize no matter how deeply you dive into that wretched wrench. My FF bookmarks did import easily is all I can say for Chrome.

People keep fixing things that aren’t broken, not every new idea is a good one. I use Yahoo mail, I’ve been a plus subscriber there for years so have several hundred folders and thousands of emails saved permanently and they are again about to force an upgrade to a new improved version that is completely unnecessary and in my preview a step backwards. There were more features of use in the original Classic than there are now, including more than 10 fonts. And we have no choice, and they removed the ability to revert to an earlier version – all this so they can connect to social media more quickly is what it looks like, which I will never allow. Facebook is NEVER getting near my contacts list in my mail! Sigh. :^) gene

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I have been having the same problem. I am trying the advice from above. Hope it works. Will let you know shortly.

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This sounds like the memory leak problem that has been going on with FF since 4.0.1. I have written about this here, and also at Mozillazine, where the fanboys took offense at my extensive testing and my conclusion that something in FF is broken. I uninstalled everything, including folders and registry entries, and then installed FF 5 and have the same issue on three separate computers. There is a lot of chatter on forums and also sites such as PCWorld and a slew of articles are out there about this. If you think this is the issue, my suggestion is to start Task Manager, click on the processes tab scroll to the firefox.exe entry and watch both the cpu usage and the memory usage while using FF. Scrolling is not the only thing this affects; also videos render quite choppy, and even clicking on links can freeze things for what seems like an interminable amount of time.

I believe it is some combination of FF and certain add-ons and even perhaps a specific configuration of Windows. My issues are on a HP Desktop with Win 7 Home Premium, a Sony Vaio with Win 7 Home Premium, and a HP Laptop with Vista, all 64 bit os’es. Xmarks, the singularly most useful add-on I use also seems to create or at least exacerbate the problem.

I have been using Chrome in the meantime, and while there is a bit of a learning curve after having used FF almost exclusively for years, anecdotaly I can state that pages render more quickly, at this time, with very low overhead.

Hope this helps.

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I have been having the same problem. I am trying the advice from above. Hope it works. Will let you know shortly.

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The reason I suggested the ‘fix’ was purely based on the details in the OP by Annie, it wasn’t meant to be some kind of cure all for every type of problem on a computer with FX installed.

If you have a modern PC, especially 64-bit Windows, multi-core CPU, with a recent graphics chip/card, then you have other issues; part of which may indeed lie with Firefox but may well be exacerbated by many other factors, not excluding the plethora of default Windows Services and the tardiness of Windows’ garbage-collection RAM cleaning routine.

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Thanks for all the input. FF is still acting strange re the scrolling, but maybe it’s not quite as bad as it was at first (after FF 5). In the meantime, until Mozilla fixes something, we’ve been using Chrome. Yes, it takes a little getting used to, and I prefer FF because of some of the features it has. We’ll keep using both for the time being, and at least I know it’s not just my computer if it’s a widespread problem!

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I am having the same problem with Firefox 5 (also so slow loading pages) and have tried all the alleged fixes I found with no improvement. Its on a Dell laptop with Vista. I’m thinking about going back to 3.6 when scrolling and site loading and addons worked fine. Also will try firefox 6 first to see if it makes a difference. Any thoughts on this post welcomed.

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Let us know how you do with FF 6. I have been using both Chrome and FF, and saw the update for FF 6, which I’ll download after reading the CNET favorable review. Don’t like to jump into updates till there’s some feedback.

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Mine seems to be working better after cutting off some add-ons. I’m now trying to decide if I want to download FF6.

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Let us know how you do with FF 6. I have been using both Chrome and FF, and saw the update for FF 6, which I’ll download after reading the CNET favorable review. Don’t like to jump into updates till there’s some feedback.

As of the moment I’m running FF9.0a1 64Bit with no problems whatsoever. IIRC, withFF6 the memory problem has been fixed. As for addons being broken, on another thread which eludes me sorry to say, there is a workaround addon from Mozilla, Add-on Compatibility Reporter, which allows all addons that I have (22) to function. I have run FF8 64Bit also with no problems, moving to FF9 about a week ago.

As for memory consumption, the consistently main memory hog is one of the many, in this case, svchost,exe SYSTEM gobbling 164,373K right now while FF9 is second at 114,475K. However as soon as I finish this post and close this second FF9 running, FF9 will yield back to about 14,000K. And I have been checking this for the past few days and this is about the averages I’ve seen. Just some info I thought I’d pass on FWIW. FF9 is fast and very stable for me.

Harry

Win7Pro64BitSP1/16GigsRAM/AMD PhenomII X4 965 – 340Ghz

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I give up!! Tried all suggested fixes for Ff 5 and FF 6 for scrolling, not responding. cutting off and restarting. Nothing works. What frustration FF has caused. Prior to these new versions ( which are awful), FF was my all time favorite browser. Started using IE9 yesterday, which I have not used for yearsand am so relieved. What a difference in it’s immediate responsiveness. Until someone tells me FF is fixed, I will not use it.

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I give up!! Tried all suggested fixes for Ff 5 and FF 6 for scrolling, not responding. cutting off and restarting. Nothing works.

Did you try creating a new profile? That will work around problem settings and add-ons, or profile corruption.

First, I recommend backing up your Firefox settings in case something goes wrong. See Backing up your information. (You can copy your entire Firefox profile folder somewhere outside of the Mozilla folder.)

About creating a new (blank) profile: Managing profiles.

About moving key settings like bookmarks from your damaged profile to the new profile: Recovering important data from an old profile.

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I give up!! Tried all suggested fixes for Ff 5 and FF 6 for scrolling, not responding. cutting off and restarting. Nothing works. What frustration FF has caused. Prior to these new versions ( which are awful), FF was my all time favorite browser. Started using IE9 yesterday, which I have not used for yearsand am so relieved. What a difference in it’s immediate responsiveness. Until someone tells me FF is fixed, I will not use it.

I have found that FF has improved since I wrote the first question. However, we now use Chrome primarily, and have FF open to use for certain websites, because I trust the security of FF. I would encourage you to try Chrome instead of IE, even though IE has its stalwart fans. :rolleyes: Chrome seems to work very well and is fast, scrolling is fine. Good luck!

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THIS is only in response to anniewr! I understand in your first post that you are running XP.I have to ask if you have SP3 installed?Then the other suggestion I can only think of.Only for your situation!Would be to check to see if there is an update for your video card @ the Manufacturing site,for your machine.The best of luck.

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THIS is only in response to anniewr! I understand in your first post that you are running XP.I have to ask if you have SP3 installed?Then the other suggestion I can only think of.Only for your situation!Would be to check to see if there is an update for your video card @ the Manufacturing site,for your machine.The best of luck.

Oh yes, I have SP3 and all the latest updates. I can check on the video card idea however. If I run Belarc maybe it will tell me the video card manufacturer. Not sure how else to find that info. Thanks for the suggestions!

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Okay jscher2000, I will follow your advice and create a new profile. Will let you know if that improves the problems. Thank you.

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