Firefox hangs at random times, even with all plugins disabled.

Question

I get a white screen with the Windows circle that indicates Firefox is busy. On the bottome left, it says "waiting for XXX," where XXX is a hostname, usually some kind of ads server. Then it says Firefox stopped responding.

Answer 1

First, try to reset Firefox. [[Reset Firefox – easily fix most problems]]. This simple step will eliminate many Firefox problems with only one click.
After this, Update to Firefox 14. [[Update Firefox to the latest version]]
A few other basic trouble shooting things you can try is this:
Run all Windows Updates, install all needed service packs, etc.
Update your graphics driver (Firefox uses your graphics card for some rendering, and an out of date graphics card driver can cause problems. [[Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL]]
Update all your plugins (Flash, Java, etc.): [http://www.mozilla.org/plugincheck/ http://www.mozilla.org/plugincheck/].
Download and Install MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, run a full Scan. [http://www.malwarebytes.org/ http://www.malwarebytes.org/]. This helps check that there are no viruses on your computer causing issues. You can uninstall this program after you clean off any infections.