Plugin-container and Flashplugin are both generating a million reads and writes an hour... even when Firefox is minimized and running no audio/video; how can I
I am running FF 18.0.2 on a Win7 system with an i7 CPU and 8GB RAM. My Flash plugin is newly-updated. I've used Firefox on this machine its entire life (3 years).
Since 3 or 4 (?) versions ago, I've been getting massive activity on my hard drive with Firefox. When I check with Win Task Manager, I see the plugin-container.exe *32 and the FlashPlayerPlugin_11_5_502_149.exe *32 processes are generating millions of I/O reads and writes, even while Firefox is idle (minimized, running no audio or video). On this latest version, 18.0.2, the drive activity stalls out YouTube videos repeatedly, even though I can see they're buffered ahead. The playing video will stop, audio will continue to end of buffer, and then EVERYTHING stops (Firefox not responding) for 30 seconds or so. It will then pickup again and play until it repeats the same pattern in a minute or so.
Example: I closed and restarted Firefox 2 days ago. Earlier today I checked Windows Task Manager and found the two processes EACH generated about 161 million reads and 141 million writes since then! My wife's laptop is showing nothing like a hundredth of that.
The constant drive activity is slowing down all programs outside of Firefox too, as you might imagine. The PC is acting like it's a dedicated machine for Flash.
All Replies (9)
update your flash to 11.6 (released today)
I updated and got the same results: the two processes are generating a million I/O reads and Writes, each, per hour.
Would this respond to uninstall/reinstall?
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The reset was one of the first things I tried to fix the issue. It didn't work.
Try updating to Flash 11.6. You may want to fully uninstall, restart your PC, then re-install 11.6. You may also want to give Adobe's uninstaller for Flash a shot, http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-windows.html.
Also try defragmenting your Hard Drive, updating Windows, updating your graphics driver, etc.
Try to clear the Flash local storage and settings.
- Windows Control Panel > Flash Player > Storage: Local Storage Settings
- Remove a specific domain: Local Storage Settings by site
- Remove all domains: Delete All and Delete Data
Flash Website Storage Settings panel:
Global Storage Settings Panel:
I am on Flash 11.6. I reviewed local storage. No site used more than 15K out of 100K allowed; still, I flushed all storage. I reviewed global storage; all seemed OK to me. No improvement in I/O activity; if anything, it may be faster... but I'm using my browser more at present. I will try the previous commentator's uninstall/reinstall of Flash, and probably give Firefox another reset... but it will have to wait until I have sufficient time in my work schedule.
OK, I attempted a FF restart. After running 10 minutes with the process (viewed by Windows Task Manager) showing no activity, I interrupted it. Upon attempting to restart FF, I got a message that PROFILE COULD NOT BE LOADED.
I then completely uninstalled FF, downloaded the installer for the latest version, and installed. Still PROFILE COULD NOT BE LOADED.
EDIT: I found articles on the Profile Manager and followed the instructions. I am now up in my new installation. Once I get my Flash and other plug-ins loaded, I'll report on whether my problem is resolved.
Modified by Cairngorm
Current status: - Hard drive is defragged. - Video driver is updated. - I always keep Windows up-to-date - Firefox is a new installation - Latest Flash plug-in is installed
With 6 tabs but FF minimized and not processing audio or video, both plugin-container and Flash-plugin generated 116,000 reads and 116,000 writes, each, in 40 minutes. This is roughly 1/6 the rate of before... but it still feels excessive.
What should I be expecting? What do you experience?