Why Mozilla Firefox is overloading the processor and how to fix it

No one likes it when Mozilla Firefox starts using most of its system resources for its work. However, some users on the network claim that their “fox” periodically, so to speak, fully loads the computer’s processor, and it does not matter whether it has a couple of tabs open or it is completely closed.

The problem is very serious, because gluttonous Firefox can significantly slow down your computer or even temporarily disable it. Is your browser haunted by you? Then you’ve come to the right place!

Why Firefox is overloading the computer’s processor

It is impossible to say for sure why Firefox starts to load the processor: there are a whole sea of ​​potential causes, and each of the cases must be considered separately. Nevertheless, having studied this problem in detail, we came to the conclusion that the most often high load on the processor Firefox can cause for the following number of reasons:

  • Problems with the current profile. The network notes that Firefox can put a high load on the computer’s processor if there are any problems with the user profile. No, we’re not talking about a Microsoft account, but specifically about a browser profile. We get rid of the current profile and create a new one – the problem is solved.
  • Suspicious extensions are installed in the browser. Have you recently installed a bunch of “useful” extensions in Firefox? Perhaps they are just behind the increased CPU load. We remove all extensions that are suspicious in your opinion (and plugins, if any) and observe the operation of the browser.
  • Incorrectly working video card drivers. Surprisingly, video card drivers that for one reason or another started to work incorrectly can cause increased CPU load from the Firefox browser. A simple reinstallation of video drivers should fix everything!

Putting Firefox in order – taking the load off the CPU

Method # 1 Deleting the current Firefox profile and creating a new one

Most often, the problem occurs when some kind of trouble happens with the user profile in the Firefox browser. Re-creating the profile should fix everything. It is important to note that a similar procedure can be carried out with both an open browser and a closed one. We will now show you both options.

With Firefox open:

  1. Enter the value “about: profiles” into the address bar of your browser (without quotes, of course) and press Enter. You will instantly be transferred to the “About profiles” tab.
  2. You will not be able to delete the problematic profile if there is only one in Firefox, and therefore you need to first create a new one, switch to it, and only then delete the old profile. Click on the button “Create a new profile” and in the window of the wizard for creating profiles, click on “Next”.
  3. Set the desired name and location for the new profile and click on the “Finish” button.
  4. Now click on the “Set as default profile” button under the newly created profile and close all open Firefox windows.
  5. Wait a few seconds, then open your browser again and enter the “About profiles” section of the settings, as shown above.
  6. Click on the “Delete” button under your old profile, then click on the “Delete files” button in the new dialog box.
  7. Close all open browser windows and restart your PC.

Test Firefox and make sure it is no longer overloading your computer’s processor.

With Firefox closed:

  1. With this option, you can get rid of the problematic profile even if it is currently in use. Press Win + R on your keyboard to bring up the Run window.
  2. Paste the value “firefox.exe -P” (without quotes) into a blank line and press Enter to open the “Firefox – Select User Profile” window.
  3. Select the problematic profile in the list on the right and click on the “Delete …” button, then – the “Delete files” button in the new dialog box.
  4. Once you’ve got rid of your profile, click on the “Create …” button and create a fresh profile for your Firefox.
  5. Close all Firefox windows and restart your PC.

As a rule, it is the recreating of the profile that helps remove the load from the CPU. Before deleting the old profile, we advise you to make a backup of all important data, because many of them will simply be deleted along with the profile itself. It is not recommended to save user data, because this may be the whole problem.

Method # 2 Removing suspicious plugins and extensions

Have you installed a number of specific add-ons for Mozilla Firefox in the recent past? The fact is that some plugins and extensions can negatively affect the operation of not only the browser, but the user’s computer as a whole. The solution is to remove all potentially problematic addons. Yes, you installed them for a purpose, but if they cause problems for your PC, then they should, so to speak, go out.

  1. Open Firefox, whether through a shortcut on your Desktop or an executable file in your browser’s root folder.
  2. Click on the menu button (three horizontal stripes) and select “Add-ons and Themes”.
  3. Find the extension you want, click on the advanced settings button (three horizontal dots) and select “Delete”.
  4. After getting rid of all unnecessary extensions, go to the section with plugins and do the same there.
  5. Close all browser windows and restart your computer.

As you can see, the process is extremely simple – it shouldn’t take even five minutes. Open Task Manager and closely monitor Mozilla Firefox activity. If nothing has changed, then it’s time to move on to the last, least obvious method of the article.

Method # 3 Reinstalling video card drivers

This may surprise some users, but the “curves” of the graphics card driver can cause a variety of problems with many browsers, including Firefox. Sometimes the problem resolves itself after installing the latest Windows updates, but often users still have to manually reinstall the drivers. We will now show you how to do this:

  1. Call the “Run” window (Win + R on your keyboard).
  2. Copy the value “devmgmt.msc” and paste it into a blank line in the window, then press Enter. On Windows 10, you can even right-click on Start and select the appropriate item.
  3. Once in Device Manager, expand the Display Adapters section and find your graphics card.
  4. Right-click on the name of the video card and select “Remove device”, then – confirm your intentions in a new dialog box.
  5. Close Device Manager and restart your PC.
  6. Use the following links to download the latest drivers for your graphics card:
  7. Run the downloaded file as an administrator (not critical, but desirable) and follow the instructions from the driver installer wizard.
  8. Restart your PC again (unless the installer does it for you).

The note: alternatively, you can trust the device manager itself to install the latest drivers. Once you uninstall the drivers in the manager, click on Action in the window’s menu bar and select Update Hardware Configuration. The manager will scan the system for devices without drivers and will automatically install the latter. Nevertheless, we recommend doing everything manually, because the dispatcher, unfortunately, does not always find the latest drivers on the network.

If the problem really was the graphics card drivers, then Firefox should stop loading your computer’s processor. We hope that this material was useful to you.

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