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Current VersionMukoCBX6 - March 13, 2010 - 10:18am
If there is a different maker of a portable FF I need to find it because this product's performance stinks to high heaven. I like the concept but not the result. This version takes 3-5 minutes to load on a Win7 machine with 4g memory, using a brand new USB stick. Then when finally loaded, clicking on a link gets a 'Not Responding' faded screen for 1-2 minutes. After the screen returns and finally get to a new page, clicking a new links gives the same result! Is there a fix or do I have no choice but to quit using this product? ( categories: )
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Welcome to PortableApps.com
I can see that you are maintaining a very cheerful, positive attitude.
Have you considered checking into the FirefoxPortable support page?
http://portableapps.com/support/firefox_portable#performance
Also, search (up in the top right corner) would yield many suggestions for speed enhancements. I'm assuming that the host machine has USB2.0 ports and that sloggy anti-virus and anti-spyware software that came pre-loaded on the machine isn't contributing to the problem? I'm also assuming that the USB stick you purchased is the top quality, fastest thing available instead of a cheap knock-off purchased through eBay?
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
More than one possible source for the problem
Have you tried other PortableApps programs? It's just possible that the problem isn't with Firefox but some other bottleneck. For example I know that AVG anti-virus severely hampers the loading time of VideoLANPortable, increasing it from something like 20 seconds to 1-2 minutes.
Perhaps some other Windows 7 users can respond to this post because I'm pretty sure there are some Windows 7 users out there using FirefoxPortable without any problems.
i use the latest ffp on win7, xp and vista ...
and it seems to be working fine for me all week. That "not responding" comment seems to come up on the computer in regards to network connections or if there are a lot of computer resources being used, not just a firefox issue. Maybe it is trying to connect to a website/homepage with the network connectivity not established yet?
Don't be an uberPr∅. They are stinky.
Not their fault
What is the concept? Running Firefox from a flash drive. Great idea. The result? Well, if your flash drive isn't a good Corsair, OCZ, or Patriot model, and it's not plugged into a USB 2.0 port, things are going to be slow. Due to faults in flash drives in general, portable applications are so much better on hard drives, where they perform in equal speeds with installed applications. Also as others have said, anti-virus applications scanning your flash drive will slow things down.
DISCLAIMER: My posts are my own and do not represent PortableApps.com in any way, shape, or form. I am just a regular guy who happens to be a fan of PortableApps.com and computers/software/gaming in general.
check stick speed
>This version takes 3-5 minutes to load on a Win7 machine with 4g memory, using a brand new USB stick. <
there are few things you should check: how fast is your stick? The factthat it is brand new has no meaning at all. New sticks are very often sold with speeds of 8 read /3 write, you can have some even older once with speed 27read/12write. This is factor 3!
Next is that first time you run FF it needs much more time since it needs to sync its anti phishing database with external sources first before it is in full operation.
So if you want operate any software from the stick, dont buy the next cheap stick in e-bay, but get one from reputable source and with some reasonable speed. You need to pay for such stick much more, probably 2-3 times more, but then you can use it.
Still there will be no way it can start as fast as from hard drive, the usb controllers inside those sticks are the main bottelneck.
>Is there a fix or do I have no choice but to quit using this product?<
this is up to you, but let the FF to download all its database, later it will be much faster. Also check that all your caching is off, otherwise it will try to write to the stick and this is not very useful.
On the other hand if you expected that any software will be loaded from the stick faster then from the hard drive , well then you better use the desktop versions of everything. By technical concept of an usb stick, same speed is simply not possible.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Thank you to those that
Thank you to those that actually offered constructive answers.
I will follow up on those.
To the others:
I came here looking for some honest assistance but get fanboy attitude because they do not like the fact I report their precious app is not working properly for me on a new win7 machine. Do not worry I will not bother to ask for any further assistance, obviously I misunderstood the purpose of this forum.
Hardware
Sorry if some of the other participants attitudes were a bit off. I think they were a bit put off (understandly) by your criticism of the product ("performance stinks to high heaven").
First, try the app locally, to say C:\PortableApps\FirefoxPortable. If it runs fine, then you can be sure it isn't the current PC.
Next, be sure your drive has no errors. You can check this in Explorer by right-clicking the drive, selecting Properties, in the window that comes up selecting the Tools tab and then clicking Check Now under Check for Errors.
If both of those check out, chances are its just your drive itself that is the issue. All drives are USB 2.0 these days and all are billed as 'high speed' but there can be a 40x (that's really 40 times) difference in performance between a slow one and a fast one. And, unfortunately, you can't necessarily tell from packaging since it just lists sustained read and write speeds (based on a single large file).
These numbers don't correlate to portable app performance and portable apps involve switching back and forth between small reads and writes very quickly. Flash drives vary a lot in terms of the flash ram used and the controller chips. Some average drives perform pretty well and some perform horribly just because of the hardware included or the way their controller is handling the reads and writes.
If it is your drive, there's not a whole lot you can do other than disabling some features so that Firefox Portable will write to the drive less:
http://portableapps.com/support/firefox_portable#performance
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!