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A
Anonymous
January 26, 2014
Question

Flash lagging on Chrome and Firefox, but works great in Internet Explorer?

  • January 26, 2014
  • 1 reply
  • 4602 views

So I just bought a new computer. A Compaq CQ58-D55so. The first thing I noticed, after fully updating the computer, was that Flash content (mainly Youtube videos) was choppy and laggy as hell on Google Chrome (my no.1 browser of choice) - both video and sound was choppy, making the content totally unwatchable. So I went over to Firefox (second browser of choice..), and it had the exact same problem. So... I tried using Internet Explorer, and.. it worked! Flash content worked fluidly, with no lag whatsoever.

Now, I guess that I could just settle with IE, since it works, but, Chrome really is my browser of choice, and I'd rather use that than IE. So, what is the source of the problem here: why does Flash content work so well with IE, but not with Chrome or Firefox?

I have Windows 8.1, and I've downloaded every Windows Update, downloaded the latest Flash updates, and tried stuff like disabling hardware acceleration, and Pepperflash on Chrome. So.. can anybody help me out here?

Thanks.

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1 reply

C_F_McBlob
C_F_McBlob
Inspiring
January 27, 2014

Chrome (as much as you like it) is a massive resource hog. I've been "around and around" with Google support about this, but it's like trying to get a cocaine addict to admit that the stuff is bad. They swear that Chrome will run with Win 8 on an Intel 386 processor with 128Mb of RAM.  It's a lie.

Chrome opens a new and separate process for each and every tab and each and every plugin in that tab. A YouTube page with an adblocker running will open THREE processes:

1 for the page

1 for the Flash Player

1 for the adblocker

If you use styles or custom skins for Chrome, then that adds another process.

Now... open a couple tabs with news sites and ads and a forum page that requires Java. Pretty soon you're running 20 or more processes that are consuming 100% or your processor and every last Mb of RAM that your OS will let go of.

I have a Toshiba laptop with an AMD Athlon 2.3gHz dual core and 8Gb of DDR3 RAM. It's terrible with streaming content in Chrome, or IE, but of the two... Chrome is the worst. If I open four tabs with active content, it takes about a minute to ramp up the available 6.7Gb of RAM and 99% processor usage. It's a good laptop, but Chrome wreaks havoc on it. On Wi-fi, it's even worse.

Firefox seems to be the only one that works well on it. ActiveX controls bog things down so bad it goes to "Not Responding" almost as soon as IE opens.

IE doesn't have a lot of plugins, but Chrome and FF do, and they can cause conflicts. Downloaders, styles, and blockers will all affect Flash content in one way or another. Some not noticable at all, others pretty drastic.  Try opening either Chrome or FF with Add-ons disabled and enable them one at a time to see where performance goes south.

A
Anonymous
January 27, 2014

Thanks a lot for your informative reply!

I guess that the only thing I can do, for the time being, is to stick to IE (since it works great for me). I've actually grown accustomed to it, and.. I actually kinda like it! But, I'll also try to disable/enable plugins on Chrome and Firefox, to see if I can "fix it" somehow.

Thanks again!

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