Computer momentarily hitching/freezing while using web browser and Discord

[Red_Machine]

Computer is a recently built Ryzen 9 5900X, 32GB RAM, Asus ROG STRIX X570-F Gaming, 1TB WD_Black SN850 NVME SSD, my old GeForce 1070, and my old EVGA Supernova 750 G2 PSU. Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro mouse, Vortex Race3 keyboard, Firefox browser, Windows 11 Pro 21H2.

I first noticed it while scrolling through my tumblr dash, and thought it might be related to that as it seemed to go away when I closed the tumblr tab (and it was always the most CPU intensive tab in my browser), but I noticed it was still doing it after a while on sites like Twitter and Reddit (on Reddit it most often manifests as typing lag) and also on Discord.

I logged into my tumblr account via Edge (it was the only other browser on my computer), and it doesn't hitch when scrolling my dash for a decent amount of time. But I can't be 100% on this, as I haven't thoroughly tested it.
I've had task manager open while replicating the issue, and I'm not getting spikes in CPU or GPU usage when the hitches occur. I thought it might be a hardware acceleration issue, as in the past I remember Firefox having some issues with it that required me to disable it for a few weeks/months until they patched the issue, but disabling it seems to have no effect.

This was not happening when I first built the computer. This has been occuring for less than two months, from what I recall.

 

[P4-630]

This has been occuring for less than two months, from what I recall.

Maybe try a different display driver.

 

[Red_Machine]

There was a driver update a few days ago, so I don't think it's that. But if that's the consensus, I guess I can just try it.

 

[P4-630]

There was a driver update a few days ago, so I don't think it's that. But if that's the consensus, I guess I can just try it.

You could try a display driver from 3 months back.

 

[Red_Machine]

Can confirm it still does it with the GPU driver I originally installed on the computer when I built it.

 

[Red_Machine]

So it's been well over a month since I lasted posted about this. I switched to SeaMonkey for a few days, and there were no issues with lag, but it just didn't play nice with some of the sites I regularly use so I decided to go back to Firefox and try again. I tried disabling some extensions, but that didn't seem to have any effect. In the end, I went for a full reset of Firefox, and it deleted my profile wiping the slate clean. It was fine for a couple of weeks, buttery smooth like it always used to be, but then it started doing it again, a little at first and now it's quite bad. I thought the upgrade to 22H2 might alleviate the issue, but it hasn't. Seems to be an issue with Firefox itself (but I'm not 100% sure as I didn't use SeaMonkey for more than a few days and give it time to bloat), so has anyone ever come across this? I really don't want to give up on my favourite browser, especially when a few months ago this was fine.

 

[Red_Machine]

The week after my last post, I decided to try using Edge for a while as my daily driver to see if there were any issues. Everything was fine for several days of use, so I looked around for a browser to make a more permanent switch to, settling on Waterfox. Almost exactly a week later, it started doing the same thing as Firefox. I'm pretty stumped at the moment, is this an issue with the Firefox codebase I'm having an issue with? Is there some sort of bug that I'm coming afoul of? I've read some posts in various places online of people having similar issues to me, but nobody's reported any solutions.

I'm planning on trying a longer trial of something Chromium-based to see if it develops the same problems as well. If it does, I'll think about formatting and reinstalling Windows, and if it doesn't I'll honestly not know what the problem is and may just give up and make the switch to a Chromium-based browser permanently.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Win-11 well I don't use it much but it would be nice to see if the issue repeats on win-10

Also which antivirus app do you use defender/ microsoft security or third party if so which one I have read you used mcafee ?

Cookie/ site sludge does build up

I wipe all after closing


.

 

[Red_Machine]

Currently using TrendMicro Antivirus+. Tried uninsialling it and just using basic Windows Defender, but the issue remained.

Why should I have to clear my history/cache every time I close the browser? I never had to before, this is a recent development as I said. Can confirm that wiping it all does fix the issue temporarily, but it shouldn't be happening in the first place. It's sometimes as little as a week after a refresh that it starts doing it again.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Just like Lex said about janky shit websites insisting on chrome you get the same cookie sludge from them as well

But it's good it does help the issue so at least os and security... is ruled out now it's just which shit website is crapping out FF and I suppose every browser you use.

So have you used ublock origin to block some of the sludge ?

Does just using in-private browsing help ?

 

[Red_Machine]

It's not just individual websites, it's every website. I initially thought it was just Tumblr, because that was a scroll-heavy site and that's the easiest way to notice the issue, but it's on everything.

I use both uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger. I have some other extensions, less than 20, but most of them are those are highly rated and even disabling all extensions doesn't fix the issue. So I don't think it's extension-related.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
If mouse scrolling dies does you arrow keys also show lagging... ?

 

[Red_Machine]

It's not just scrolling, though. Changing tabs, right-clicking, clicking on links. Doesn't happen outside the browser, the Discord issue was just a coincidence and not related. It's just a generally laggy experience, like changing tabs would take a few seconds instead of instantly like it was supposed to.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Did you clean install 11 or still on upgrade install
I usually dread clean installing personally and sure haven't clean installed 11.
Might list your 20 addons used :/

 

[Red_Machine]

This was a clean install on a new build computer. Virgin SSD, no other OS had been installed on it before.

Here's my add-ons. But like I said, issue is still present with them disabled, so it can't be anything to do with them.

 

[ThrashZone]

Currently using TrendMicro Antivirus+. Tried uninsialling it and just using basic Windows Defender, but the issue remained.

Why should I have to clear my history/cache every time I close the browser? I never had to before, this is a recent development as I said. Can confirm that wiping it all does fix the issue temporarily, but it shouldn't be happening in the first place. It's sometimes as little as a week after a refresh that it starts doing it again.

Hi,
Exactly how long does it take for the bugs to return ?

week never mind

 

[Red_Machine]

I answered that question in my first reply to you. Can take as little as a week, sometimes it's two or three weeks. It varies.

 

[ThrashZone]

I answered that question in my first reply to you. Can take as little as a week, sometimes it's two or three weeks. It varies.

Hi,
Yep my bad

Have you just tried only checking site settings to be delete on exit or does it take checking everything before things get better :/

 

[Red_Machine]

I didn't bother trying out each individual box, because there's too many and it takes a while for me to determine if the issue will return. Can't see why a browser remembering site settings would cause an issue browser-wide, never has in the past.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I'd try just checking the two data boxes and see what happens.

You aren't redirecting browser history and stuff to another disk are you ?
Page file on system managed ?

 

[Red_Machine]

I have Waterfox installed at the moment, and the only two options available to clear are "Cookies & site data" and "Cached web content". I think all this would serve to do is what I did before and would result in the browser working fine for a week or two and then the lag returning.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Switch back to firefox and test it a little more with just the two data fields deleted on exit.

 

[Red_Machine]

I don't have Firefox installed right now, I'd have to use it for a couple of weeks before I could do this testing.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yep with an issue that takes at least a week to surface it's definitely a slow process to bad waterfox limits options.

 

[Red_Machine]

I reinstalled Firefox and will report back when it starts lagging again.