Adverts crippling Internet Explorer - Firefox any better?

This morning I went to Gametrailers.com and tried to watch the new Resident Evil 5 developer walkthrough, only to find that even without the video playing my CPU load was at 100% on my Desktop PC (AMD Athlon XP 2400+, 768mb RAM, ATi 9800XT). The video framerate was reduced, but still watchable. Which is ridiculas considering watching the video in High Definition only loads the CPU about 70% (which I did instead). There are flash adverts (the Nokia ones) on the page which I'm sure are causing the slowdown, as there are less on the page with the HD video.

So I tried my parents' PC, with a Pentium 4 @ 3Ghz with 'Hyper-Threading'. Task Manager didn't show 100% load (probably because of Hyper-Threading acting as 2 logical processors), but it faired even worse than my AMD 2400+ : It became unresponsive and bogged down.

Only my dual core laptop (signature) could play the video properly in Standard Definition (the adds using one core). Is there a way I can help reduce CPU load from flash animations (beta version of Flash Player 10 with GPU acceleration maybe)? Is Firefox any better for flash?
Thanks.

BTW, RE5 looks great, the video's definately worth watching.

 

I use Firefox with AdBlock Plus and FlashBlock. AdBlock Plus keeps must of the adverts out while FlashBlock lets you choose whether you want to run any Flash content.

John

 

+1
I use the Easylist + EasyElement filters. Works excellent.
Add the NoScript add-on and you can decide completely what's loaded and what not.

 

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll definately have to get one of those flash-block programs. Are there any similar filters that work with IE7? Is IE7Pro 2.3 any good?

 

I'm a Firefox aficionado and I try to avoid IE as if it were the plague.
There are however add-ons available it seems, check here, here and here.
Mind you though, MS deems even Microsoft Defender as an add-on. Go figure...
Cheers.

 

I agree 100% on avoiding IE. Firefox is a much quicker and safer program to use for all you Internet-accessing needs. And the amazing thing about it is, it's customizable! You can add things like a weather gadget, mail notifier, Bookmarked tabs, all sorts of neat little trinkets.

But yes, one of the main reasons why it Bogs down like that is IE is a big memory hog, not to mention all the pop-ups and the running adds. You will Thank yourself greatly by switching over to Firefox.

 

I thought that FireFox used more memory than Internet Explorer. At one time, wasn't there memory leaks that caused it to use hundreds of megabytes of memory? Regardless, it isn't a lack of memory slowing the PC as no more than 50-60% was in use. At the moment, IE7 is using only 64mb RAM.

Anyway, I used to use FireFox with my old PC that was still running Windows 98SE. It would crash occasionally when using FireFox though; I think it was exhausting the available memory (256mb RAM). Since then, I've used IE7 as it is good enough for me and I prefer to avoid installing extra programs when I don't need them.

 

firefox is great, it doesn't use more memory than IE and it's faster. Safer too since you get less spyware. and Adblock makes it perfect.

 

IE sucks, but this sounds like a fixable problem. Try uninstalling Flash, deleting all traces with CCleaner, and reinstalling. Also you could clear IE's cache.

I've had Flash crash all of the major browsers: IE, Firefox. Safari, and Opera.

 

That may help my parents' PC as it is quite old now and it's a Gateway PC that came with a load of software pre-loaded.

But it's not the case for my other computers. My PC (AMD 2400+) I built myself and I just got a new motherboard for it earlier this week (rubbish G-Luxon capacitors went bad). So I done a fresh XP install (I tried a repair installation, but it messed up Windows Updates). I keep my laptop very clean as well (after getting rid of the pre-loaded stuff I didn't want). I'm looking forward to Flash Player 10 (with GPU acceleration) and hopefully IE8 will be better too.

 

Also I use Filterset G AdBlock updater to auto update the filter list for AdBlock Plus

 

Really??? Not what has been WIDELY reported elsewhere even on these forums.

Here is just one example: http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/firefox-3-is-still-a-memory-hog/

Gary

 

Well Gary, that's some unfortunate FF3 user.
300+MB usage is outrageous.
Even on a 512 MB XP box I haven't seen it cripling the system using 130 MB with more than 10 tabs open.
Reactions to the blog post you linked to also mention 100-150 MB usage on average btw.
FF3 isn't the leanest browser ever, that's for sure but on my notebook the usage is never a problem. Not in XP nor in Linux.

 

I love my firefox. I use it for both my pc and mac.

 

i can 2nd this, with minefield flawless so far on the mac.

cheers ...

 

I just installed AdBlock Plus into FF3 on my 350MHz Pentium II box and it makes the browser faster. Thank you!

-J.B.

 

Meh, still with Opera Can't beat the speed

 

Remember guys. Websites need to make money from advertising. If they dont make money they will not exist. If you block a websites advertisements then you are just costing it money in bandwidth without giving anything back by viewing an advertisement. If everyone blocks all advertisements then most websites will not exist anymore.

 

Most people who use Adblock Plus would never click on an ad.

 

Accidental clicks still count as ad revenue.

 

I run NoScript in addition to those. There are some warnings about running both NoScript and FlashBlock simultaneously, but in my experience NoScript kicks in first, then if permission is granted, FlashBlock then kicks in.

Also, there are caveats regarding runing FilterSet.G with AdBlockPlus. I do not run FilterSet.G; instead, I run EasyList (USA).

 

I was dubious about firefox but since testing it i would never look back, much quicker browsing, and i find it easier to use.

Not sure this helps but thought i'd add my little bit!!!!

 

I can agree with you on the whole part about advertisers needing people to click on their ads but:

1. I never click on advertisements
2. a single flash banner or object on a web page brings my Pentium II to a crawl, which makes me rather not want to use the internet at all than use it with flash based advertisements. Both ways, the advertisers still lose.

And if you are asking why I am using a Pentium II 350MHz PC instead of my laptop, it it because my laptop is dead for the third time in 6 months and my Athlon X2 system has a flaky motherboard.

@ John Ratsey: +1 Rep for the AdBlock Plus addon
-J.B.

 

I've been using FireFox 3.0 + AdBlockPlus + NoScript for a while now and they work great.

AdBlockPlus blocks the ads and NoScript blocks all scripts except those that I allow.

As a matter of fact right now on NBR ABP is activated and NoScript is blocking offermatica.com.

 

It is against NBR rules to block its advertisements. You should turn those programs off.

 

To the OP. Over the past 3 days i have had the EXACT SAME PROBLEM right down to the site and the advert itself. My laptop (in my sig) is more than enough to handle it.

So far ALL my laptop was slowed down now for 3 days and i dont know why. Even my fps in Call of duty 4 has decreased dramitcally. Just general browising is slow and watching vids is a bad expereince. If i watch a vid on gametrailers.com that does not have the Nokia advert then it will play fine in Firefox but if I play a vid witht he Nokia advert then even in Firefox it will slow down totally.

Has the OP found a cure for this? I updated my graphics card drivers and have scanned my laptop with Skybot search and destroy to get rid of any spybots but it has made no affect

Pls someone tell me what to do.

 

Manzi, first of all, did you mean Spybot Search&Destroy instead of the ominous sounding Skybot?
There is one thing I don't understand, you write that your notebook has been slow for 3 days, during browsing and gameplay but it works when watching a vid on gametrailers.com?
Have you run a decent AV program and other AS programs?

 

I mean Spybot search and destroy. The video will play when the Nokia advert is not on the site but it will still be jerky unlike how it used to be before, which was very smooth. If the Nokia advert is on the site then it will be very jerky. Overall my laptop is slower and more jerky.

i have installed some HP printer programs onto my laptop as i got a new HP printer and thats it. I have unistalled Adobe Flash Player and have used CCleaner to get rid of any leftovers and then reinstalled flash player but my laptop is still slow and jerky generally.

 

You might want to download, install, and run (full scan) the free version of SuperAntiSpyWare.

 

Firefox 3 has much more efficient memory management. I've just looked in Task Manager - FF3 is using 210MB - then counted the number of open tabs in FF - 47.

John

 

Ive done this and my system is still quite laggy like before...

 

Run MSCONFIG, go to the STARTUP tab, screen print it and post the results here.

 

How can I convert a printscreen into a jpeg to post up here?

 

It is quite easy if you are running Vista; just use the SnippingTool and save it as a JPG. You might have to turn on thw Windows Optional Feature for Tablet PC Components to get the SnippingTool.

If you are on XP or Vista, you can use the keyboard PRINT SCREEN and then open PAINT and PASTE into it. Save it as a JPG. You can also crop in PAINT.

There's a few dozen other ways, but those two are built-in.

You might also want to look at TASKMGR to see what is scheduled.