My Firefox Pauses While Scrolling
If you have a newer computer, you shouldn't have to worry much about performance. Browsing performance, however, is a little different. No matter how fast your PC is, interference can slow down your online experience. This interference might come in the form of low resources, incompatible add-ons, a full cache or the graphics card.
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Low Resources
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Multitasking involves using many applications at one time. You might have multiple tabs open in your browser, or a word processor waiting in the background. If your computer has plenty of memory, it is easy to alt-tab back and forth between applications. Vista and Windows 7 run best with at least 2 GB of memory installed. If your PC has less, you'll experience sluggish behavior. Firefox will take longer to open, scroll and load Web pages. Also, the longer you use Firefox, the more memory it uses. Shut it down every now and then, or restart the computer to clear the RAM.
Add-ons
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Add-ons are extensions that provide additional functionality to the browser. These include toolbars, themes and utilities. Every time Firefox is updated, compatibility with many add-ons are broken. Some add-ons are simply designed poorly, causing frequent slowdowns and crashes. Go to "Tools," then "Add-ons," and click the gear icon. Place a check by "Update Add-ons Automatically." Isolate the problem by disabling each extension one at a time. They are located on the "Add-ons" screen under "Extensions."
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Browsing History
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Firefox collects browsing history from the websites you visit. The Web cache is a collection of temporary Internet files that are stored on the drive. These are stored to reduce the time it takes to load a Web page. Since the files are already on the drive, it is not necessary to re-download them each time you visit the page. Once the cache becomes large, it has the opposite effect due to the large amount of data your computer must dig through. This causes Firefox to hesitate while browsing the web. Clear the cache monthly, or every two weeks if you're a heavy user.
Hardware Acceleration
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Hardware acceleration makes page-draws faster by utilizing the graphics card whenever possible, instead of the Central Processing Unit. Firefox version 4 and above has acceleration enabled by default. Your graphics card drivers control this function, so if they are outdated or corrupted, Firefox will perform slowly. This is especially true if you've recently uninstalled your drivers without reinstalling them. Type "Device Manager" in the Start menu and press "Enter." Expand "Display Adapters," then right-click the graphics adapter. Click "Update Driver Software," then choose "Search Automatically for Updated Driver Software."
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