Firefox Hanging When Scrolling Pages

Ever since I installed the Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.5 security update was automatically installed on my system, I’ve been having problems with Firefox hanging while loading pages, and also (which is a million times annoying) while moving around between tabs and when scrolling thru pages. Previously, I’d have say a dozen tabs open, and would be able to go thru them with no hanging/loading time. Now, forget it. In fact, when typing the very first paragraph above in Firefox, it hung on me 3 times. Then, after about 9-10 seconds, all my words I’ve been typing show up (because I keep on typing). So you can tell the extent it hangs. So much so, that I resorted to typing this in MS Word first, then I’ll cut/paste into this new thread window. BTW, no hanging/freezing in MS Word.

It also hangs while scrolling thru pages. Previously, this may hang if I had many pictures on a web page. Now, a basic page hangs when I’m scrolling down. By hanging, I mean the page freezes up and doesn’t move, despite me pressing the button to scroll the page down. My mouse doesn’t freeze up and the rest of my system doesn’t hang, just Firefox. Plus, it not only hangs when the page is loading, which could be typical of my system getting/loading all the info off the Internet, but also after the page is fully loaded. Another example is if I have 2 tabs open. Both pages have fully loaded and ended. When switching between tabs, it will hang. I know I have a slower system, and not much RAM (see info below), but this never happened before, even with 12+ tabs open.

I have my taskbar auto-hidden on the left of my screen. With Firefox open and when it hangs, the way I can tell it’s done being stupid is by doing the following: As soon as it hangs, I move my mouse to the left of my screen to bring up the windows taskbar. I then move my mouse away. The taskbar autohides, but leaves a gray vertical bar where it went over the Firefox window (which is typical of a program hanging/freezing). Then, after about 9 to 10 seconds, that area of the Firefox window turns back to normal, and whatever I was doing prior to the hanging (scrolling, typing, etc) occurs. E-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y annoying.

I tried another test right now: Had 2 tabs open, both fully loaded. With my mouse, I was switching between tabs back and forth as fast as I could. After 19-20 clicks (one click for each tab), it hangs. Time-wise between the hangs is about 10 seconds. So Firefox will work fine for 10 seconds, then hang for 10 seconds, then back to fine for 10 seconds, and so on. Same thing with scrolling a page.

For some reason, my IE isn’t working right now, so I can’t really test it. But everything else on my system is running fine and not hanging.

Here’s what I have for a system, which I built quite a few years back:
Intel PIII 550 MHz
384 Mb RAM
17 Gb primary drive
80 Gb secondary drive
Running Windows 2000
I have 3 Gb free space on my primary drive.

When checking the processes in Windows Task Manager, my System Idle Process is around the high 80’s and Firefox is at 00, but when it locks, Firefox goes up to the high 80’s or so. CPU usage also goes up to 100%.

I ran Spybot, Stinger, A-Squared, System Mechanic, Ad-aware 6.0, CWShredder, and defrag’ed my drive. No change. I also have Norton AV 2002 and Zone Alarm Pro, both of which never gave me problems. I know I have the Nielson NetRatings, which some consider spyware/monitoring. But I never had any issues with it. Rebooting the system didn't help either.

Below is a HJT log. I ran thru it, but really didn’t see much in the way of issues, however, I’m by no means a HJT guru.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing this?

Thank you so much for your help.

Paul
(cintoman)

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 2:46:15 AM, on 7/21/2007
Platform: Windows 2000 SP3 (WinNT 5.00.2195)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP1 (6.00.2800.1106)

Running processes:
C:\WINNT\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\services.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\virus protection\a-squared\a2service.exe
C:\WINNT\System32\svchost.exe
C:\Virus Protection\Norton AntiVirus\navapsvc.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\regsvc.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\MSTask.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\stisvc.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\ZONELABS\vsmon.exe
C:\WINNT\System32\WBEM\WinMgmt.exe
C:\WINNT\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINNT\Explorer.EXE
C:\HARDWARE\Mouse\MOUSEW~1\SYSTEM\EM_EXEC.EXE
C:\PROGRA~1\Adaptec\DirectCD\directcd.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\NETRAT~1\NetMeter\NetMeter.exe
C:\VIRUSP~1\NORTON~2\navapw32.exe
C:\WINNT\System32\atiptaxx.exe
C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_06\bin\jusched.exe
C:\Internet\FolderShare\FolderShare.exe
C:\Internet\CConnect\CConnect.exe
C:\Internet\ZoneAlarm\zapro.exe
C:\Graphics\Nikon View\NkvMon.exe
C:\Internet\Nielsen Netratings\NielsenNetratings\bin\insight.exe
C:\WINNT\System32\taskmgr.exe
C:\Internet\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
C:\Software\Microsoft Office\Office\WINWORD.EXE
C:\Virus Protection\HijackThis.exe

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.probetalk.com/
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Window Title = Microsoft Internet Explorer
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings,ProxyServer = http=127.0.0.1:8010
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Software\Adobe\Reader\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_06\bin\ssv.dll
O2 - BHO: CheckIt 86 Extension Class - {82DF1118-9B92-45d8-B78F-1737A69A06E1} - C:\Internet\CheckIt 86\CheckIt86.dll
O2 - BHO: NAV Helper - {BDF3E430-B101-42AD-A544-FADC6B084872} - C:\Virus Protection\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O3 - Toolbar: &Radio - {8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467} - C:\WINNT\System32\msdxm.ocx
O3 - Toolbar: Norton AntiVirus - {42CDD1BF-3FFB-4238-8AD1-7859DF00B1D6} - C:\Virus Protection\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Tweak UI] RUNDLL32.EXE TWEAKUI.CPL,TweakMeUp
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [EM_EXEC] C:\HARDWARE\Mouse\MOUSEW~1\SYSTEM\EM_EXEC.EXE
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Adaptec DirectCD] C:\PROGRA~1\Adaptec\DirectCD\directcd.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NetMeter] C:\PROGRA~1\NETRAT~1\NetMeter\NetMeter.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SSC_UserPrompt] C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Security Center\UsrPrmpt.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NeroFilterCheck] C:\WINNT\system32\NeroCheck.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NAV Agent] C:\VIRUSP~1\NORTON~2\navapw32.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ATIPTA] atiptaxx.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_06\bin\jusched.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [FolderShare] "C:\Internet\FolderShare\FolderShare.exe" /background
O4 - Startup: Nielsen NetRatings.lnk = C:\Internet\Nielsen Netratings\NielsenNetratings\bin\insight.exe
O4 - Global Startup: CorrectConnect.lnk = C:\Internet\CConnect\CConnect.exe
O4 - Global Startup: ZoneAlarm Pro.lnk = C:\Internet\ZoneAlarm\zapro.exe
O4 - Global Startup: NkvMon.exe.lnk = C:\Graphics\Nikon View\NkvMon.exe
O9 - Extra button: AIM - {AC9E2541-2814-11d5-BC6D-00B0D0A1DE45} - C:\Internet\AIM\aim.exe
O15 - Trusted Zone: http://cgi.ebay.com
O15 - Trusted Zone: http://search.ebay.com
O15 - Trusted Zone: http://signin.ebay.com
O15 - Trusted Zone: http://www.ebay.com
O16 - DPF: {26CBF141-7D0F-46E1-AA06-718958B6E4D2} - http://download.ebay.com/turbo_lister/US/install.cab
O16 - DPF: {4C39376E-FA9D-4349-BACC-D305C1750EF3} (EPUImageControl Class) - http://tools.ebayimg.com/eps/wl/activex/EPUWALControl_v1-0-3-24.cab
O16 - DPF: {E855A2D4-987E-4F3B-A51C-64D10A7E2479} (EPSImageControl Class) - http://tools.ebayimg.com/eps/activex/EPSControl_v1-0-3-0.cab
O23 - Service: a-squared Free Service (a2free) - Emsi Software GmbH - C:\virus protection\a-squared\a2service.exe
O23 - Service: Adobe LM Service - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe Systems Shared\Service\Adobelmsvc.exe
O23 - Service: Ati HotKey Poller - Unknown owner - C:\WINNT\System32\Ati2evxx.exe
O23 - Service: Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service (dmadmin) - VERITAS Software Corp. - C:\WINNT\System32\dmadmin.exe
O23 - Service: Google Updater Service (gusvc) - Google - C:\Program Files\Google\Common\Google Updater\GoogleUpdaterService.exe
O23 - Service: Norton AntiVirus Auto Protect Service (navapsvc) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Virus Protection\Norton AntiVirus\navapsvc.exe
O23 - Service: Pml Driver HPZ12 - HP - C:\WINNT\System32\HPZipm12.exe
O23 - Service: Prevx Agent (PREVXAgent) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Prevx2\PXAgent.exe" -f (file missing)
O23 - Service: ScriptBlocking Service (SBService) - Symantec Corporation - C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\SYMANT~1\SCRIPT~1\SBServ.exe
O23 - Service: SymWMI Service (SymWSC) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Security Center\SymWSC.exe
O23 - Service: TrueVector Internet Monitor (vsmon) - Zone Labs Inc. - C:\WINNT\system32\ZONELABS\vsmon.exe