Keystrokes delayed (using Firefox), get more RAM?

[Muse]

This has been happening alot. It's happening right now as I type. Often, the letters appear immediately, but then nothing happens for several seconds and it's driving me nuts. Get more RAM? Increase it from 3GB to 4GB? I'm running Vista Home Premium on this (from the box):

Acer Aspire 6530-6522

CPU : Mobile AMD Athlon 64X2 QL62
LCD : 16" HD Acer CineCrystal LCD
ATI Radeon (Mobility) HD 3200 onboard (shared Memory) graphics chip
RAM: 3GB DDR2
HDD : 250GB
Card Reader : 5 in 1 Card Reader
ODD : DVD - Super Multi DL
Modem/LAN : 56K, 10/100/1000 BASE T
Wireless : Acer Nplify 802.11b/g/Draft-N WLAN
Softload : Windows Vista Home Premium SP1

 

[kalrith]

How much RAM are you using? If you're not exceeding 3GB, then I don't think adding RAM is the solution. What are you running when this happens? Does it happen in all programs or just certain ones?

My gut reaction is that you have a program that's bogging down your cpu, and that's causing the delayed keystrokes. You definitely should have task manager running on the performance tab so that you can see cpu and RAM utilization when you experience delayed keystrokes. If an excessive usage of either one of those is occurring, then go to the processes tab and sort by CPU or Mem Usage to see which program is at fault.

My work computer with integrated graphics gets really bogged down when I open a lot of tabs in Firefox that have flash. Your integrated graphics chip is far superior to mine, so I doubt that's the problem, but I thought I'd mention it anyways.

 

[Muse]

How much RAM are you using? If you're not exceeding 3GB, then I don't think adding RAM is the solution. What are you running when this happens? Does it happen in all programs or just certain ones?

My gut reaction is that you have a program that's bogging down your cpu, and that's causing the delayed keystrokes. You definitely should have task manager running on the performance tab so that you can see cpu and RAM utilization when you experience delayed keystrokes. If an excessive usage of either one of those is occurring, then go to the processes tab and sort by CPU or Mem Usage to see which program is at fault.

My work computer with integrated graphics gets really bogged down when I open a lot of tabs in Firefox that have flash. Your integrated graphics chip is far superior to mine, so I doubt that's the problem, but I thought I'd mention it anyways.

Using? Well, Windows tells me 60% in resource manager, Firefox has around 750,000 used. Yes, I have a lot of windows/tabs open. 13 windows. Technically there's available RAM, but I'm wondering if more RAM will help. I heard that the laptops they're selling now typically have 4GB, well the ones that aren't low end. I'm shopping for 2GB SODIMMs right now anyway, one for my Lenovo T60 that only has 1.5GB. I figure to remove the 512MB stick and put a 2GB stick in there instead (the chipset is said to only allow 3GB to be used on that machine, so I'll leave the 1GB chip in there for a total of 3GB. I figure if I get a matched pair of 2GB DIMMs I can put them in the Acer and move its 2GB over to the Lenovo T60).

I'm typing right now in metapad in order to paste into AT's edit window. I am doing this in order to be able to see the whole amount of text since the edit window can't be maximized, but a side benefit is that I'm not getting lag with metapad. I think that Firefox is screwing me up here. Maybe boosting to 4GB will help fix that, maybe not, whatcha think? Maybe I have so many tabs open with flash that it's causing the problem. Would more RAM help? Looks like almost all the CPU being used is by Firefox too, hovering at 40-50% even when I'm doing "nothing." This latency is driving me crazy.

Other than Firefox there's not much going on with this machine. I have my email client open, but it's not doing anything. The other stuff should be quiet, AFAIK. Of course, there's my Avira Antivir Free, but it's said to be very good resource-wise.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I've seen this lately in Firefox and I have a Q6600 quad core with 4 GB RAM. My guess is it's some of the extra processing they do like spell checking that got messed up in an update.

 

[Muse]

I've seen this lately in Firefox and I have a Q6600 quad core with 4 GB RAM. My guess is it's some of the extra processing they do like spell checking that got messed up in an update.

Mmm. Well, it's driving me nuts. Maybe I should move to IE for a while! :awe: Is there any way to move my open windows/tabs from my firefox to my IE? 🙂

 

[Muse]

Mmm. Well, it's driving me nuts. Maybe I should move to IE for a while! :awe: Is there any way to move my open windows/tabs from my firefox to my IE? 🙂

So, I just killed my Firefox process to see if maybe it will behave better now. It's not doing it now. I opted to not restore my previous session. I presume I can still restore it later using Tools/Session Manager. Yep, I see the option to restore the crashed session right in there. Well, I'm getting no delay right now in AT Forums edit box. Of course, I have one window open now with 2 tabs. Could still be a problem with Firefox that will go away (when they fix it) or that won't be resolved if I bump to 4GB on this machine, I suppose...

 

[DarX]

nothing wil resolve the problem. i think
better get back to IE then

i use a P4 and the mem. usage hovers around 500mb of ram
can't open anything else other than this.
I'm just running 5 tabs

 

[Muse]

Well, I just bought some more RAM on ebay, an auction for 2x 2GB SODIMMs. Got a killer deal ($60 shipped). It'll bump my XP lappy from 1.5 to 3GB and the Windows 7 one (I'll be installing Win7 on it soon enough) from 3GB to 4GB. Won't be any guessing then. Both machines will be maxed out, WTH. I can sell my 512MB and 1GB sticks for maybe $15. Could be a waste, but now I won't have to wonder if more RAM would help on these machines. :\

 

[taisingera]

It isn't enough RAM causing this. I had 8GB of RAM and it happened to me in Firefox. It seems to only happen when you initially launch FF and type in an address. I think it is either a CPU process spiking at that time or the hard drive seeking.

Very annoying though.

 

[Muse]

It isn't enough RAM causing this. I had 8GB of RAM and it happened to me in Firefox. It seems to only happen when you initially launch FF and type in an address. I think it is either a CPU process spiking at that time or the hard drive seeking.

Very annoying though.

I don't know what it is but when I have some time this coming week I'm moving to Chrome for sure (or another browser if recommended). I've had enough of this.🙄

 

[jimhsu]

Recent releases of Firefox + certain extensions + lots of tabs cause this (strange lag, intermittent freezing, etc). When I get too fed up, I switch to Chrome for a day.

 

[RalfHutter]

I recently updated my various boxes from Firefox 3.0.x to 3.6.x and since then have noticed this "freezing" right after starting them up. Happens on each different machine. I have only a few extensions installed (Adblock+, Tabmix Plus, Foxmarks and Noun buttons) and haven't yet tried temporarily disabling them to see if that's the problem. One of these days...

 

[Muse]

I recently updated my various boxes from Firefox 3.0.x to 3.6.x and since then have noticed this "freezing" right after starting them up. Happens on each different machine. I have only a few extensions installed (Adblock+, Tabmix Plus, Foxmarks and Noun buttons) and haven't yet tried temporarily disabling them to see if that's the problem. One of these days...

If you figure out anything, please post back.

 

[Pandamonium]

I had it happen on my desktop. Finally I got fed up and switched to Chrome. All I ran with FF was Adblock+ and XMarks. That's all I loaded onto Chrome and it feels noticeably faster. I'd try switching browsers before throwing money at it =P

 

[pcgeek11]

I had it happen on my desktop. Finally I got fed up and switched to Chrome. All I ran with FF was Adblock+ and XMarks. That's all I loaded onto Chrome and it feels noticeably faster. I'd try switching browsers before throwing money at it =P

Does it just happen in a browser or all the time?

It sounds crazy but my notebook was doing this and I found it was due to a dead battery. Yeah I know crazy. But I removed the battery and it works like a charm. Replaced the battery with a new one and it works great. Install the pold dead battery and it slows to a crawl when typing in any app: word Notepad, Wordpad, Browser and ...

 

[wiretap]

It happens to my Firefox quite often too.. especially on first opening it. I think it's checking for updates on the browser and plug-ins. I have an i7 920 @ 4GHz + 6GB DDR3-1866, so I know it's not the computer. I'll be migrating to another browser soon, most likely Chrome.