This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Hierdie gesprek is in die argief. Vra asseblief 'n nuwe vraag as jy hulp nodig het.

Windows 10: Alt-tabbing sometimes causes Firefox to freeze momentarily

  • 2 antwoorde
  • 0 hierdie probleem
  • 1 view
  • Laaste antwoord deur Arcotash

Arcotash
Arcotash
more options

As far as I can tell, this has something to do with Firefox aggressively offloading stuff from memory to storage. When I alt-tab at times, Firefox completely freezes. Every Firefox window hangs on a single image and I am unable to interact with anything for a few seconds. During these seconds, I can see the memory % in the Windows Task Manager slowly climbing until Firefox unfreezes itself, so it seems to be loading stuff back into memory. For example, it'll climb from 55% to 70%, taking its sweet sweet time. I also see some disk usage with 'System' during this time.

This behavior occurs even when I'm active on the browser and at 50% memory. It seems to occur more often once I hit the 60% memory mark.

I'm almost certain that this is a Firefox-specific issue, because I can interact with any other program during this period. It is only Firefox that stops dead in its track.

Is there a way to make this behavior less aggressive? I'd rather not have my alt-tabs freeze every few minutes.

As far as I can tell, this has something to do with Firefox aggressively offloading stuff from memory to storage. When I alt-tab at times, Firefox completely freezes. Every Firefox window hangs on a single image and I am unable to interact with anything for a few seconds. During these seconds, I can see the memory % in the Windows Task Manager slowly climbing until Firefox unfreezes itself, so it seems to be loading stuff back into memory. For example, it'll climb from 55% to 70%, taking its sweet sweet time. I also see some disk usage with 'System' during this time. This behavior occurs even when I'm active on the browser and at 50% memory. It seems to occur more often once I hit the 60% memory mark. I'm almost certain that this is a Firefox-specific issue, because I can interact with any other program during this period. It is only Firefox that stops dead in its track. Is there a way to make this behavior less aggressive? I'd rather not have my alt-tabs freeze every few minutes.

Gekose oplossing

I've narrowed the problem down to my integrated GPU. Turning hardware acceleration off fixes the problem of freezing, but now I lose the benefits of my GPU. Regardless, it's better than having it freeze all the time. It's not an ideal solution, but I suppose it supposes the title of this post.

Lees dié antwoord in konteks 👍 0

All Replies (2)

Arcotash
Arcotash Vraag-eienaar
more options

And I forgot to mention that this occurs on a laptop (Acer Swift X SFX14-41G), and it's unlikely to be an addon problem (Dark Reader, uBlock Origin, Youtube Enhancer, & LocalCDN). I've had this problem for a while, and it's occurred even while on a (relatively) fresh windows 10 install.

Given that I don't see this problem elsewhere on the forum, perhaps it's related to my hardware?

Another thingy is that I often use Firefox as a PDF reader or to browse online textbooks, and I use OneNote to take notes. This means that my focused window is almost always OneNote, even though I'm interacting with Firefox using the scrollwheel.

Gewysig op deur Arcotash

Arcotash
Arcotash Vraag-eienaar
more options

Gekose oplossing

I've narrowed the problem down to my integrated GPU. Turning hardware acceleration off fixes the problem of freezing, but now I lose the benefits of my GPU. Regardless, it's better than having it freeze all the time. It's not an ideal solution, but I suppose it supposes the title of this post.

Gewysig op deur Arcotash