Are you interested in providing more information on how this problem is affecting you? Discovering how to reliably reproduce the problem, either on particular SWF media or with particular hardware/add-on configuration, is the first step to a cure.

By the way, Firefox 27 is now available. No idea whether that will change this for you.

I am hesitant to upgrade as I believe my last upgrade might have at least contributed to the problem. Whenever I stream video, on Youtube or Facebook for example, my CPU usage shoots up to 100%. I have tried disabling add ons and extensions, uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox, trying an older version of SWF, resetting Firefox, running OS in safe mode, and lastly reformatting my hard drive and reinstalling my OS, which is XP professional. My computer is a bit old but I had no problem running programs utilizing SWF until about 6 weeks ago and have gone through multiple attempts to fix. I have AVG free, Malwarebytes, CC Cleaner and ZoneAlarm installed and run regular scans. No malware detected. I even added added RAM to the computer, cleaned off heat sink, fans, etc as I thought heat might be an issue. No better.

Could you try Firefox 25.0.1 on some of the same sites that give you the problem? You can use the "portable" version which installs into a single folder and doesn't interfere with your regular Firefox setup. I do think you need to exit regular Firefox before you can run portable Firefox, however.

Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition 25.0.1 at SourceForge.net

Does that run better?

Did you try to disable hardware acceleration in the Flash player?

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Troubleshooting

Yes, I tried that.

It is possible that your security software (firewall, anti-virus) blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.

Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.

See:

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Server+not+found
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Firewalls

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/fix-problems-connecting-websites-after-updating

I updated, no difference

No help adjusting firewall settings.

I believe this is a Mozilla Firefox issue and is a common problem, based upon other thread comments. I am very disappointed with Mozilla as I suspect they have loaded too much bloatware on the application, as has Adobe Flash as evidenced by all the crap (McAfee) that automatically gets installed - which I immediately uninstalled. Hopefully there will soon be an alternative to Firefox. I am open to suggestions.

jameshocutt

  Mozilla as I suspect they have loaded too much bloatware on the application, as has Adobe Flash as evidenced by all the crap (McAfee) that automatically gets installed

Flash player may well offer other bundled software when you install or upgrade it. Firefox does not bundle software with it. (Unless you are using some unofficial or modified version not the official version direct from Mozilla).

Jimall

Posted (/questions/985530) mentioning that using adblock had helped with a similar problem.
Presumably a lot of additional resources are often squandered on advertisements possibly much of that as potentially unwanted FlashPlayer content.

There are 2 custom adblock filters recommended specifically for facebook: "facebook.com###leftCol div.rfloat" ; "facebook.com##span.uiSideNavSpinner"

You have to add these manually to your adblock configuration. See Link for details. With this my cpu has decreased from 90% to 20%.

It would be nice if Firefox had this functionality built-in.

I seem to have the same problem. I was wondering if it happened to you with other browsers?

Mine seems to get worse when I try playing HD movies on youtube (anything above 360p)

My problem started around the same time as yours.

I tried disabling protected mode in adobe flash player, I heard it helped a ton with cpu problems when playing flash videos, but it didn't seem to help.

Hi Ryanjp89, did you problem start with the release of Firefox 26 (3 months ago) or with the recent release of Firefox 28?

@jscher2000

With all due respect, I'm not sure if you are a voluteer or a paid Mozilla rep but I'm afraid I've lost all faith in what you and others are posting about this issue.

I feel terrible saying that because you are very friendly and endlessly patient and I appreciate your efforts. However, in trying to fix my own issues with high CPU usage only happening with Flash, Videos etc, I have read your responses dating back to over a year ago. Many of the things you've suggested repeatedly in 2013 and now in 2014 have not worked with numerous FF users reporting this.

Again, I don't know what your position is and I appreciate your efforts. But what good is to continue to repeat the same "disable graphics hardware acceleration", "update FF", "try a new user account", "disable graphic acceleration in Flash" etc, etc when these ideas don't work? I wouldn't know that these same suggestions have been made for over a year if I hadn't seen you suggesting the for that long.

I have a high quality gaming computer that should never show the kind of CPU usage it is during videos etc. and I've spent over a year trying every suggested solution. I agree with the first poster in this string: Firefox knows there is a problem, they haven't or can't fix it.

I love Firefox but unfortunately am going to reload Chrome tonight for videos and games. I will continue using FF for all other tasks ... but it is an absolute shame that this cannot be worked out.

Again, thank you for your efforts in responding to people and I don't mean to be disrespectful but I'm wondering why the same solutions are continually repeated when I've read hundreds of comments on this problem and not a single person has reported any improvement?

Once FF fixes this issue, I'll be back. In the meantime, it's a shame to have to go to big corporate browser ...

Hi progressives72, I'm sure you have read many threads, and realize we are trying to tailor responses to particular symptoms. I agree that since you are not having display issues, hardware acceleration is not very likely to be relevant to your situation.

In your case, my question is whether you disabled the protected mode feature of the Flash player plugin? This innovation was launched in Flash 11.3 in the Summer of 2012 and caused havoc on some systems ever since. Disabling it has been helpful to many users and is my #1 recommendation for freezes (e.g., interminable hangs followed by dialogs indicating that a script is running slowly) and numerous Flash processes causing excessive system resource consumption (protected mode spawns numerous independent external processes).

The following pages provide different ways to disable this feature:

• Adobe support article under the heading "Last Resort": Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?

• Manual steps: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/968190?page=5#answer-509209

• Batch file to automate the manual steps: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/982093#answer-518078

This will keep Flash encapsulated in plugin-container.exe and may either improve your symptoms or cause plugin-container.exe to consume more resources, which was the question posed originally in this thread.

The ultimate solution is to eliminate the need for the Flash plugin, and that is under way, but since it probably still needs a lot of work, I don't know when it will be ready to become the default player. http://mozilla.github.io/shumway/

Hi progressives72,

Nearly everyone answering on this forum is an unpaid volunteer.
(Generally everyone unless they have an [Administrator] badge )

It is very difficult to give good but general advice. Even when that is done it needs to be remembered that problems blamed on plugincontainer may involve different plugins, or versions of plugins and use on varied hardware and differing OS s .

FlashPlayer is frequently a problem, and FlashPlayer support for Firefox by Adobe varies or is no longer provided on some OS s .

Everyone with problems

Please scroll and read the information in this thread including any linked articles.

If you are unable to find a solution I suggest you start your own thread by asking a question.

1. Use this special link (It cuts out a couple of steps, and contributors will recognise it as being related to this thread)
2. Try to follow the prompts to include full troubleshooting information.
   There is a green button to automate that.

@jscher2000

Thank you again for your reply and work on these forums.

However, disabling the plugin did not work. I was able to locate the file and enter the "ProtectedMode=0" code but there was no change. Part of my frustration last night was in reading these forums for about 6 hours and trying each suggestion without result. I thought I should try again and went through each suggestion on your three links which quite a process. Everything from resetting FF, starting in safe mode, unchecking hardware acceleration in all locations, removing plugins and extensions, removing and re-installing the Flash Player, testing my security programs (even switching as I have two licenses) ... well everything I could find in every sub-link but still, that plugin-container is using 80-90% CPU for even the simplest games that used to run with unoticed usage.

I guess I've realized tonight that I'm unable to fix this problem ... if it is fixable. And that was the general point of my comment -- I'm wondering if is because I've never seen anyone say they've gotten results other than a few suggesting their own scripts which I don't want to run. They may be fine but I don't want to take the chance.

There is some very conflicting advice as well regarding things like Adblock: some people suggest using it too reduce CPU resources ... and other responses to this problem have suggested removing it. Same with NoScript and another I can't recall at the moment.

So I'm going to leave it for now after endlessly trying to fix it. I love FF though and we donate because we believe in it so strongly. I hope they can work this out because I literally don't have time to keep trying all these things (the above functions took a long time as I'm not all that computer savvy). I don't think we should have to either which is part of the point. I was glad to read that they are working on a default player though.

Thanks very much for that info and your efforts to help people with this ... I've seen you commenting since 2013 on it (perhaps before I don't know!). Please know people do appreciate what you are doing.

RE "Nearly everyone answering on this forum is an unpaid volunteer. (Generally everyone unless they have an [Administrator] badge )".

Thanks for the info on IDing who is voluteering and who isn't. Again, I greatly appreciate what people are doing ... but am simply pointing out that every single option that has been suggested hasn't worked and so I wonder if it's better to tell people this than have them jump through hoops which I've been doing for a long time on this issue. If I still have the problem when all my plugins have been removed, one at time for testing, as well as trying everything else, I don't see any solution.

So in the meantime, I will continue using FF for everything other than games and videos and hope they can fix so I can do everything on my preferred browser rather than switching back and forth.

Thanks for your reply.

Possibly the particular game is very processor intensive. Perhaps it is best for you just to do as you say and use an alternative browser for gaming and streaming Flash Content.
Others in similar situations and with similar symptoms may however find solutions because for instance they have different hardware or a different software environment.

If I understand you correctly you are having 80-90% cpu usage when using Firefox for a game.

• Presumably you have a much lower CPU usage when you use a different browser.
• Is that a single core processor ?
• Is that the total available CPU you are comparing as 100% (Or is it 90% out of 4 cores and results are calculated on a 400% total)

You also mention videos being a problem. Some videos may be less processor intensive than gaming. Of course we have no idea of the capabilities of your system or the resolution of your screen or the videos you are playing. Are you attempting to stream videos that your system may struggle with if instead of streaming they were played from the local disk.
Again how does it compare with another browser do you only get the problem in Firefox.

As you say it may be a problem with no real solution in Firefox and with your particular hardware and Operating System. If instead of just following other threads and general solutions ask your own question and maybe you will find out whether there is a solution or workaround that helps you.

Yes I've downloaded Opera to try it ... if not that I'll have to use one of the other big two for gaming.

But no it isn't a particular game -- it's complex games from sites like EA or the simplest games like Scrabble on Pogo which I play with my grandmother with open phone lines and meeting on the site -- it barely even used to register on my CPU usage. I have a gaming computer that's a year old and spent the money to avoid any kind of memory problems when online -- having CPU issues with FF and Adobe was never even a consideration as a potential problem -- it clearly lies within FF and Adobe and what bothers me is why not be honest rather than leading users down the garden path.

Thank you for taking the time to request information about my system but as I've said, I've answered them before, I've tried every suggested solution and nothing has worked on an $7000 computer. I hesitated as I typed my first comment the other night because it was critical and I love FF and what it stands for. However, yet again, the recommended solutions have been tried over and over and my point is, I have yet to see a single person report that any of them have worked -- you said some are but in the hundreds of comments I've read, I've never seen one say the problem has been solved. I guess I may have missed something but I know I've read every possible thread I can on this subject.

I spent 6 hours last night trying every suggestion from the 3 links provided by Jscher above ... as well as every suggestion in all the sublinks within those. I think it's interesting that FF is working on their own flash player ... but I haven't seen that mentioned very often. Which means that voluteers like you and regular users like me are basically spinning our wheels looking for a fix that doesn't exist.

Thanks again John and at this point I'm going to opt out of the thread. I'll continue using FF for everything else other than games and videos and will be back when they resolve this.