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.

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

Firefox does not use all available resources.

more options

DISCLAIMER: I found many articles about this issue, but none of them solved this problem.


DESCRIPTION: I have a problem with Firefox on my backup PCs that makes it freeze/slow down everytime i try to • play more gifs at once • play HTML5/Flash video on high quality/bitrate or loading more post on facebook. • Simmilar action that require system resources.

I believe that firefox won't use all available system resources. This issue always occur on "load" and system resources are always around 30-50% of use based on Windows 10 task manager (near usual load on my backup PC without running services/programs s it still uses only around 10% of resources).

NOTE: This issue is notable mostly on my backup PC with limited performance, but i found simmilar issues on main PC. The difference is that on main PC it uses enough resources to run without notable performance drop.

This problem is on firefox only (tested on chrome and edge).

END-USER OPINION: I believe that there is problem in firefox settings that prevents it to use all system resources.

TRIED SOLUTIONS: • Reinstall flash = Without effect • Tries Firefox stable build = Without effect. • Disable/Enable hardware acceleration = Without effect.

• Reinstall Firefox using iobit uninstaller to remove all registry and perform clean installation of firefox. > Without effect.

• Installing different firefox versions. > Without effect.

• Running firefox without extensions. > Without effect with ads and white stuff that prints stuff into my retina.

• Messing up with about:config. > Mostly more harm then good done and even then when i try to change one at a time and verify its effect on system i cant seem to find anything that could affect firefox performance to solve this problem.

• Forcing videos to use HTML5 instead of flash and conversely. > It won't play HTML5 on youtube and flash is lagging on higger bitrate. I believe that it won't play HTML5 due my youtube settings HTML5 worked fine on other sources.


Thanks for help! - DK

DxDiag: https://pastebin.com/Aa35SQJR

DISCLAIMER: I found many articles about this issue, but none of them solved this problem. DESCRIPTION: I have a problem with Firefox on my backup PCs that makes it freeze/slow down everytime i try to • play more gifs at once • play HTML5/Flash video on high quality/bitrate or loading more post on facebook. • Simmilar action that require system resources. I believe that firefox won't use all available system resources. This issue always occur on "load" and system resources are always around 30-50% of use based on Windows 10 task manager (near usual load on my backup PC without running services/programs s it still uses only around 10% of resources). NOTE: This issue is notable mostly on my backup PC with limited performance, but i found simmilar issues on main PC. The difference is that on main PC it uses enough resources to run without notable performance drop. This problem is on firefox only (tested on chrome and edge). END-USER OPINION: I believe that there is problem in firefox settings that prevents it to use all system resources. TRIED SOLUTIONS: • Reinstall flash = Without effect • Tries Firefox stable build = Without effect. • Disable/Enable hardware acceleration = Without effect. • Reinstall Firefox using iobit uninstaller to remove all registry and perform clean installation of firefox. > Without effect. • Installing different firefox versions. > Without effect. • Running firefox without extensions. > Without effect with ads and white stuff that prints stuff into my retina. • Messing up with about:config. > Mostly more harm then good done and even then when i try to change one at a time and verify its effect on system i cant seem to find anything that could affect firefox performance to solve this problem. • Forcing videos to use HTML5 instead of flash and conversely. > It won't play HTML5 on youtube and flash is lagging on higger bitrate. I believe that it won't play HTML5 due my youtube settings HTML5 worked fine on other sources. Thanks for help! - DK DxDiag: https://pastebin.com/Aa35SQJR

Modified by David M. Košecký

All Replies (11)

more options

So do you have a screen shot of the actual error message?

more options

What's your backup computer system and Firefox version?

more options

WestEnd said

So do you have a screen shot of the actual error message?

There is none error message it just slow down/freeze based on workload without use of system resources.

FredMcD said

What's your backup computer system and Firefox version?

It's in original post (view question details) with dxdiag

   Windows 10
   Firefox 60.0

Modified by David M. Košecký

more options

I called for more help.

more options

FredMcD said

I called for more help.

Any news?

more options

I called again.

more options

None knows none cares.. -_-

Reported in Bugzilla.mozilla.org.

Modified by David M. Košecký

more options

David M. Košecký said

WestEnd said
So do you have a screen shot of the actual error message?

There is none error message it just slow down/freeze based on workload without use of system resources.

FredMcD said

What's your backup computer system and Firefox version?

It's in original post (view question details) with dxdiag

   Windows 10
   Firefox 60.0

One thing is clear FF release public is 58.0.2 using beta isn't advised so install the Public release to insure the problem is not related to beta problems.

more options

WestEnd said

David M. Košecký said
WestEnd said
So do you have a screen shot of the actual error message?

There is none error message it just slow down/freeze based on workload without use of system resources.

FredMcD said

What's your backup computer system and Firefox version?

It's in original post (view question details) with dxdiag

   Windows 10
   Firefox 60.0

One thing is clear FF release public is 58.0.2 using beta isn't advised so install the Public release to insure the problem is not related to beta problems.

Already tested it in Firefox 58.X before i wrote this question. Seems like same problem to me (tested now just to make sure).

I believe that its a problem with firefox optimization for YouTube 60fps/high bitrate videos.

more options

You can try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

Close and restart Firefox after modifying the setting to make the change effective.

You can check if there is an update for your graphics display driver and check for hardware acceleration related issues.

Modified by cor-el

more options

cor-el said

You can try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox. Close and restart Firefox after modifying the setting to make the change effective. You can check if there is an update for your graphics display driver and check for hardware acceleration related issues.

Tried, no effect except that firefox seems slower (loading takes longer) on CPU. :/

Modified by David M. Košecký