Videos (flash) freezes several times a minute for a few seconds but audio continues fine. Normal browsing also freezes the same way.

Question

After watching more than one video (for example, on YouTube) my browser will "freeze" for several seconds. This happens about 3 or 4 times per minute while:
* watching another video, the video will freeze for several seconds, while audio keeps playing
* browsing other NON-video websites, the browser freezes for several seconds
* scrolling down a long web page the browser will freeze for several seconds; since I'm in the middle of scrolling, when it stops freezing I'm somewhere completely random on the page instead of being able to just smoothly scroll through the page
The only way I can get the freezing to stop is by closing down the entire browser (losing all of the sites I may have open for research, other videos I might have queued up to watch, etc.)
As you can well imagine, this is whole encounter is totally frustrating and annoying, and is making me want to try to find a better browser. I see that MANY, MANY other people have been having this problem, and yet I am still unable to find an actual solution. This was NOT happening before the last FireFox update.

Answer 1

Disable hardware acceleration.
Perform these steps:
*Click the orange Firefox button at the top left, then select the "Options" button, or, if there is no Firefox button at the top, go to Tools > Options.
*In the Firefox options window click the ''Advanced'' tab, then select "General".
*In the settings list, you should find the ''Use hardware acceleration when available'' checkbox. Uncheck this checkbox.
*Now, restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.
Additionally, please check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in the following Knowledge base articles:
* [[Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems]]
* [[Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL]]