Mozilla Firefox becoming fat and slow??? Or is it just my PC??

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If you haven't been backing up your hard drive on a regular basis it might take more than a few hours. Yes, you must reinstall your programs and download and install updates. reboot your compter and wait 15 minutes without using it then Right click on your taskbar and select Task Manager and tell me the number in the lower left hand corner. It should say Processes: and then a number. Then click on the Preformance Tab and let me know the amount of your memory that you are using. There is a gauge in the middle of the page that will tell you that. Then maybe I can make some suggestions.
 
msmpeng.exe is probably the Microsoft Windows Defender program, and if you already have other antispy/antivirus programs is fairly useless.  There are a lot of complaints about that process being a resource hog, so if you end the process in precess explerer and things speed up then you can tell if these is an effect.

Also google msmpeng.exe to see that a lot of people have problems with it.

Mike
 
As I stated earlier, running multiple AV programs can and will slow a system down.  If you're running both AVG and Defender, get rid of one or the other and I suspect you'll see a noticeable speed improvement.  I would keep AVG and shut down Defender.  Mike's suggestion is a quick and easy test, but will not completely remove Defender.  To do that, you will have to uninstall it.
 
Another thought - it has been a few years since I had DirecWay/Hughesnet, but they used to have a program to set the proxy settings.  I think in their newer modems (DW7000 and above, maybe also in the 6000) the proxy setting isn't needed, but does anyone know for sure?  Without the proxy set you would get extremely slow loads with a web browser since it was not taking advantage of what DW/Hughesnet used to refer to as their TCP accelleration mechanism.
 
In the 6000, 7000 and 7000s, there is nothing set on the computer, it's all done in the modem.  If the web accelerator isn't running, it's painful, to say the least :)  Of course, secure (HTTPS) sites are slow as they can't be proxied.  If there were a problem with the web accelerator, it would have shown up on the modem status page, and Jane already checked that.

A good place to check HughesNet (or any other connection) speeds is http://www.testmy.net/ as the Datastorm users have somewhat standardized on that site to ensure comparable test results.
 
Ned,

I've uninstalled Defender, so MsMpEng went away, too.  I had Googled it before but not followed up well enough on it.  Thanks for the tip, Mike/Sherrie.

I ran FF in safe mode and it really speeded up.  Although testmy.net (which I've been using all along) still asks me if I am using dialup the pages load noticeably much faster. That's a start!

I did check the acceleration utility in the 7000 control center and re-downloaded it.  It said I already have it, but only mentioned Explorer, not FF.

Seilerbird, I'll reboot per your instructions and be back soon with an answer.
 
About all these accelerators do is slow things down for everyone else. They work by finding any and every link on a site and pre-fetching (aka downloading) every page they can find "in case" you might want to view them. If you decide to click one of those links, the page loads almost instantaneously. The ones you don't care to look at were wasted downloads that merely used up bandwidth that degraded someone else's forum experience.
[edit]Added link.[/edit]
 
Tom is correct. You don't get something for nothing. You speed up one thing and slow down another.
 
Tom,

That is an interesting and probably true thought on accelerators.

Seilerbird, here are the stats from Task Manager:

40 processes using 0% of CPU to start, then 42 processes using 2% of CPU after a few mins.  The CPU usage would kick up to 21% occasionally after that, but that's it.

I also checked memory used during this time, and the top 5 are:

avgsrvs 18k (AvgFree)
vsmon 18k (Zone Alarm, I think.  I only have the basic free firewall up right now.)
svchost 21k (I think thats a basic Windows gotta have?)
explorer 25k (I'm surprised it is using this much when the browser is not active??)
system 62k (whatever that is...basic Windows thing?)

Ned, FF in Safe Mode really does make a difference.

TIA (again)

 
What I need to know is how much of your memory is being used. The problems you describe could possibly caused by not having sufficient memory installed. If you have a gig of memory but you are using 1.5 gigs of memory then the extra .5 gig would be written to your hard drive and dramatically slowing your computer down. On the Preformance Tab there should be a section showing your Total Memory, Free Memory and the amount of memory currently being used. Make sure you have more than enough memory to handle it.
 
You don't need, nor want, any software from the DW7000 software site.  No special accelerator is needed with that modem.  HughesNet uses their own accelerators to mitigate much of the latency on the satellite connection and any other software will only get in the way and even slow down web browsing by interfering with the HughesNet proxies.

40 processes is about normal, I have 76, but I'm not normal :)  Don't worry too much about memory used unless it's well in excess of your installed memory.  All the processes you listed are fine.  A screen shot of the Performance tab of the task manager will tell us a lot about your memory usage.

If FF runs well in safe mode, then start disabling extensions one at a time to isolate the one(s) that are slowing you down.
 
I followed up on the "Firefox in Safe Mode" idea and went to the Mozilla Knowledge Base.  Poked around there and tried a few things, like uninstalling or disabling a couple of pesky toolbars that I haven't used anyway.  I didn't really have extentions to speak of, just a theme.

I installed MozBackup to preserve my personal settings, then put FF back to all the defaults, then restored my settings but not the theme (it wasn't a fancy one.)

FF is really putting along now.  I did the speed tests at testmy.net.  I gained a star! <g>  However, it said I was only operating at 19% of my hosts download but 84% of the upload.  The visual difference in speed is VERY noticeable, though.

I'd be happy to give a screenshot here but  :-[ I don't know how.  Help?

I'm also going to reinstall my plain white theme and see if it changes anything.
 
Oops...I did have extensions.  They are all disabled now.  There was a list of known extensions (like the yahoo toolbar) that caused problems.  I also went back to my "white" theme and it didn't make any difference.

I would still like to know how to give you a screenshot.
 
There are several ways. Look under Programs>Accessories> and see if somewhere there is a program calling Snipping Tool. I don't know if it came with XP or not. It does come with Vista and 7 but you have XP. If it does read the help thing with it and snip away. Otherwise press the PrintScreen button. It is usually located on the upper right hand corner of your keyboard usually called PrtScn or something like that. Then open Paint or some other Image Editing program like Photoshop, open a new document the size of your screen and then click on it and push the paste button on the menu or Control-V. Then save it as a jpg.
 
You should run the speed tests 3 or 4 times each time you test to get an average.  It's not unusual for HughesNet speeds to vary quite a bit over time.

PrintScreen will take a snapshot of the entire desktop, if you want to just capture one window, click on that window to give it focus and press Alt-PrintScreen and just that window will be copied to the clipboard.  Then follow Tom's procedure to save it as a jpg.  If you have IrfanView, it works very well for saving screen prints and has it's own screen capture function that makes it much easier.

Snipping Tool is new with Vista and is not in XP.
 
I just installed Chrome and it's like greased lightning compared to Firefox.
 
OK,  here is the Task Manager screenprint.  I have FF and my mail program up right now.
 

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Your memory is fine, you aren't using half of what you have. I am glad you found the problem.

BruceinFL - I am glad you like Chrome. I have been using IE since version 2.1 in 1995 and I never thought I would find a browser to replace it, but Chrome is wonderful.
 
seilerbird said:
BruceinFL - I am glad you like Chrome. I have been using IE since version 2.1 in 1995 and I never thought I would find a browser to replace it, but Chrome is wonderful.
Click to expand...

Only thing abot Chrome is I can't get it to import my Firefox bookmarks. It will only let me do IE bookmarks.
 
I didn't know about that since I never use Firefox and I never import bookmarks. I only have about a dozen sites that I visit regularly so remaking them isn't that big a deal.
 
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