Resolved FF & TB Suddenly Very Slow to Load

I have a Vista Home Premium SP 2 machine on a wireless home network. The wired machine runs Windows XP SP3. After the most recent updates to TB 11.0.1 and FF 11.0, both applications have been loading very slowly with Vista but fast and normally on XP.

Also, when FF loads on Vista, the "Connecting to server..." message remains on the bottom of the screen. At times, the connection is actually made and messages downloaded. At other times the connection is not made. If the connection is made when initially booting the system, it is not successfully made on subsequent tries (either with TB having remained open or with TB having been closed and reopened) without a reboot.

TB runs with only the Compact header add-on installed. Opening IE9 on the Vista machine is very fast as FF and TB also used to be.

Finally, I uninstalled TB and reinstalled a new download but that had no effect on the conditions described.

None of this behavior occurred before the most recent updates and none of the Vista conditions are experienced on the XP machine.

Id appreciate any suggestions anyone can offer about how to resolve these issues. Thanks.

 

Hi BirdieBob, on the top left of your screen when FF is open > click on Firefox > Help. This will take you to Mozilla and if you type 'FF slow to start after update' you will find several suggestions to follow. Cheers Neil.

 

Hi Neil:

Thanks for the feedback. There are a few items in that info that I will follow-up with and try, but I normally do most of the recommended steps on a regular basis: compact folders, empty browsing history and temporary files on shutdown, run Webroot windows washer to clean other files and wash free space, as well as frequently run disk defragmenter and CHKDSK. So I'm fairly sure I don't have a disk error or problems resulting from cluttered files.

This morning on the Vista machine in question, IE opened quickly and connected to the internet. So the network and internet connection are functioning. When I opened FF it was again slow to load and when it opened, did not connect. I tried TB and had the same very slow load and lack of connection.

I then uninstalled both FF and TB, downloaded the latest versions and reinstalled. FF loaded more quickly but still slower than usual, but it did connect this time. TB loaded just as slowly as before the reinstall and did not connect. I then reopened TB in safe mode with the one add-on disabled, but the results were the same. These are the contents of the TB Error Console after that re-opening and attempt to connect:

Timestamp: 4/20/2012 9:39:57 AM
Warning: Use of getAttributeNodeNS() is deprecated. Use getAttributeNS() instead.
Source File: chrome://messenger/content/messenger.xul
Line: 0

Timestamp: 4/20/2012 9:39:57 AM
Error: Please do not load stuff in the multimessage browser directly, use the SummaryFrameManager instead.
Source File: resource:///modules/summaryFrameManager.js
Line: 119

Timestamp: 4/20/2012 9:40:07 AM
Error: An error occurred executing the cmd_getNewMessages command: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x8055000a [nsIMsgIncomingServer.getNewMessages]" nsresult: "0x8055000a (<unknown>)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://messenger/content/mailWindowOverlay.js :: GetNewMsgs :: line 2453" data: no]
Source File: chrome://global/content/globalOverlay.js
Line: 100
​

The Line 100 error looks like the issue.

To-date, I've continued to use the original FF and TB profiles. I guess there is a potential that one or both may have become corrupted. If so, I can create new profiles and copy existing content into them to eliminate that potential. I'm going to hold off doing that for now to see if anyone has other suggestions given the Error Console info above or needs additional info that I can provide.

 

Create a new profile, but do not copy/paste the entire content of the old profile. Start anew, and, then copy/paste basic stuff like bookmarks, address books. Do not copy/paste the chrome folder.

 

Westside:

I created a new TB profile and copied everything into it from the old profile other than the chrome folder, shut the computer down and rebooted. Results as follows:

• TB still very slow to load (30 - 40 seconds on average)

• On opening, successfully automatically connected to pop server and downloaded test message sent from the other machine.

• Successfully sent test message to other machine.

I then closed TB and sent another test message from the other machine. When I re-opened TB, results were as follows:

• TB attempted to check for new messages but hung up on "Connecting to server" and did not connect.

• Successfully sent message to the other machine.

So it appears that TB connects properly to the incoming server after a reboot but not after being closed & reopened without a reboot. And TB connects successfully to outgoing server with or without reboot.

With that inconsistency and the slow load, perhaps I've got a Vista issue?

 

After posting the prior message, I tested the TB performance again. I rebooted the machine, opened TB:

• TB successfully connected and download a test message.

• TB successfully sent a test message.

I closed TB but did not reboot and sent another test message from the other machine. Opened TB:

• TB did not connect and hung up on "connecting to pop server "

• File>Get New Messages also did not connect

• TB successfully sent a test message.

Finally, I rebooted, opened TB and the test message that could not be downloaded without reboot was successfully downloaded.

So I'm able to send with or without reboot. I'm only able to receive immediately following reboot -- subsequent attempts to receive without closing TB, or with closing & reopening TB, are unsuccessful.

 

I contacted Earthlink as we verified that all pertinent settings on the wireless machine were correct. A Tracer was then run on the pop connection and it identified the connection as being blocked at the router. I thought that was strange since both the wired and wireless machines connect through the router and connection issues were only experienced on the wireless machine.

I run Norton Internet Security including its firewall, so I didn't see any risk in disabling the router's firewall. After doing so, the wireless machine was able to connect normally to the pop server and download messages normally, resolving that issue.

My router and wireless adapter are Netgear, so I spoke to them about what had occurred. They were unaware of such an issue but logged an engineering support request to investigate. An engineer contacted me today saying that they had verified the issue as legitimate but something that could only occur under a very small set of concurrent conditions. Nevertheless, they are including a fix in the next update of their wireless adapter firmware. Apparently the adapter was attempting to connect to the prior server settings that had been changed, while the router had recoginzed and updated to the new server settings. The request for connection to the old settings from the adapter was blocked by the router firewall since it was different from the now current settings. So the pop server was blocked for the wireless machine but made available to the wired machine.

When these issues first began, I thought FF & TB could be the problem. so I uninstalled and reinstalled both several times. All of that had no impact but I suspect it could have left some broken/corrupted links and other remnants in the registry. So I ran Registry Booster to scan, repair and defragment the registry. After doing so, both FF & TB opened instantly as they had before, and there were no longer any problems sending or receiving messages without rebooting.

Net-net, a lot of back and forth with Earthlink and Netgear, but my issues are resolved at this point and going forward some Netgear customers may avoid running into the same issues I did. All's well that ends well!