# Firefox/Irritating Spinning Beach ball/Many tabs?



## BarrettB (Nov 28, 2010)

Maybe this is because I have like 15 tabs open at the same time (I've been researching things, not wanting to loose the sites, not needing them long enough to bookmark), but that's crappy if my MacBook Pro (latest 4g ram, 2.4GHz processor, 15inch, Mac OS X, Version 10.6.5 -- Newest version of Firefox, too.) can't handle it.

Or is there some other issue that has caused this? I'm mainly seeing this happen when I open her up from sleep.
Anyway to fix this easily or am I SOL? 

Also, a side question: Would it be smart to get protection on my Windows partition and can it affect the computer as a whole? I need the two so I can use my Adobe suite on Windows.


----------



## TheShooter93 (Jul 10, 2008)

What do you mean by a "spinning beach ball?" Perhaps you can attach a screenshot in your next post.

And yes, it would be a good idea to get an antivirus program on your Windows partition, though I'm not sure if it can affect the computer as a whole. Though my guess would be yes.


----------



## BarrettB (Nov 28, 2010)

Oh, haha, the colorful rainbow cursor that pops up and spins, telling me that my baby is having issues. I don't think a screenshot is necessary, but tell me if that doesn't help.

Any suggestions as to what free antivirus?


----------



## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

By chance do any of the web pages on those tabs have Flash content?

Flash content is notorious for causing a momentary spinning beach ball and with 14 tabs...
You could try something like ClickToFlash which won't load flash content until you ask.

Also, another common cause of the spinning beach ball is when hard drives are starting up after sleeping.
Check you Energy Saving system preferences and as a test maybe increase the sleep time on HD.


----------



## TheShooter93 (Jul 10, 2008)

> Any suggestions as to what free antivirus?


Microsoft Security Essentials
Avast
AVG

Those three are some of the most popular as well as my favorite free antiviruses.

I use Microsoft Security Essentials on my machine.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



> I don't think a screenshot is necessary, but tell me if that doesn't help.


Well, it definitely would have helped me, but it seems _Headrush_ has an idea of what you're talking about. If he's correct in saying it's flash-related, 14 tabs open would be the likely cause of flash having issues.


----------



## Farmgirl22 (Jun 12, 2006)

BarrettB said:


> Maybe this is because I have like 15 tabs open at the same time (I've been researching things, not wanting to loose the sites, not needing them long enough to bookmark), but that's crappy if my MacBook Pro (latest 4g ram, 2.4GHz processor, 15inch, Mac OS X, Version 10.6.5 -- Newest version of Firefox, too.) can't handle it.
> 
> Or is there some other issue that has caused this? I'm mainly seeing this happen when I open her up from sleep.
> Anyway to fix this easily or am I SOL?
> ...


The spinning beach ball is the equivalent of the little "hourglass" cursor that is typical on Windows machines.  It means the computer is thinking.

Hmmm. What other programs are you running? With those specs you should be fine if your just running FF, but I tend to not realize (or just plain forget) to close programs like Preview and whatnot which will contribute to a slow computer. Try putting parallels to "pause" while you are using FF, if that's the program you are using to access the windows partition, that should help immensely.

If you frequently research and want to keep sites open for little bits of information, you might try the clipmarks add-on for Firefox, or you could download Flock (a mozilla-based browser) and utilize the web clipboard where you just drag and drop the address bar into the box that shows up on the left side of the screen. That way you can keep track of them without having all those tabs open, but they open with a click of the mouse.

Yes, you should treat your windows partition just like you would treat a Windows machine. I don't know if it would affect your Mac side (doubtful), but it would cause enough of a headache if it got out of hand that it is worth it to take the preventative measures.


----------

