Windows 7 - Firefox Compatibility Issues

[garrycol]

I have a HP DV6 Notebook I5-2410M CPU (64bit) with 4gb of Ram.

It is running Win 7 Home Premium with all updates in.

I run Firefox 53.0.2 64 bit as my web browser.

The issue I have is that 2 or 3 times a day the computer just freezes and I have to turn it off at the switch and turn it back on. When it freezes the screen is still on, on the page being looked at, the mouse does not work, the CPU fan is running at top speed and is generating lots of heat. This only happens when I am using Firefox. No issues if not browsing using other programs and no issues using Google Chrome - that is the easy fix bit I dont like chrome.

So any suggestions to what compatibility issue Firefox is having with my system. It happens without warning with nothing special being done at the time. (oh - if I go back to a really old version of Firefox there is no issue but as a browser this is not so good). The computer is maintained regularly - defraged, CC cleaned etc and this makes no difference.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

garry

[forbirun]

Have you tried turning off GPU Rendering?
Go to "Advanced" tab and disable "Use hardware acceleration when available" option.
This is a known problem with some older laptops I have come accross and it fixed the issue!

[tristen]

I'm at a loss to offer any explanation for the problem.

Perhaps if you completely remove Firefox from the computer and re-install it?

There are some suggested fixes at and .

For more go to .

Otherwise, try running Opera or Vivaldi browsers instead and see what happens. Both are good browsers.

[Bigfella237]

FF is a huge resource hog and has been getting worse with every update. I've been getting the same thing a lot lately where FF stops responding, but it usually only lasts 10~15 seconds (sometimes longer), and a couple of times, as you describe, Windows locks up altogether requiring reset.

If I had to guess, I'd say they're developing FF on high-end PCs with heaps of cores and plenty of MHz, and then not testing enough on computers from the 'real world', not everyone has the latest and greatest systems.

Andrew

[garrycol]

Thanks for those responses - great stuff. I will work through the links and other information in due course - as a first action I have disabled the "Use hardware acceleration when available" option and so far today the laptop has not crashed - heres hoping it continues.

Help much appreciated.

Garry

[garrycol]

Now been 24 hours without a crash - looks like disabling the "Use hardware acceleration when available" option has worked.

Hope I have not spoken too soon and jinxed myself.

Thanks

Garry

[lsemmens]

I will tend to disagree with Bigfella237. I use FF exclusively on all of my machines. One has an Atom CPU, others have XP license stickers on them, Even my lappy (my newest machine), which came with Windoze 8 on it, is only a Core 2 Duo. They all work fine with minimal RAM (2Gb on one machine up to 6Gb on my server) Occasionally FF slows for no apparent reason, but has never been any real performance issues or resource issues on any of my machines. (5 computers and various phones and tablets)

[forbirun]

Nice to hear it's sorted Gary! There is a way to verify if it is the issue, Turn hardware rendering back on

[garrycol]

Still running fine but not going to tempt fate -

[standhippo]

I seriously doubt software hard locks a machine like that. My experience is there is usually a hardware problem, like a bad RAM stick.

Maybe only that much RAM gets used when you run Firefox, so maybe it only shows up then?

Something tells me the problem is not Firefox.

[Bigfella237]

Yeah I do agree but... that's kind of like saying it's not the falling piano that kills you, it's the footpath!

If FF is the only software that causes the hardware failure there must be some kind of cause:effect thing going on? Anyway, it doesn't really matter now, problem solved.

Andrew