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Today, (12-11-13) after a Firefox Update to v26. Firefox started using %50 of my Processor Power. And the Browser Window took 5 to 10 minutes to load, after Opening up Firefox. I thought I was in for a long and painful, search and fix process. But, it ended up not being all that bad for me. I'm running Firefox on Fedora 14 Linux. I Opened up my backup Web Browser, Chrome. And did a search for, "firefox update using up processor". The pages that came up, helped me get to the bottom of my problem and now Firefox is back to running like it should. Below is some info from the page I started with and the rest is in the links below. I'm not writing out, the exact steps that I took. Since everyone has their Web Browser Setup a little bit differently. What I did first was disable hardware acceleration. See the Screenshot below...

See the Check Box by the Moise Cursor, above....

But, initially, after doing this. Nothing Changed. Then I Forced Closed Firefox. And re-opened it with this command from the web site. Here's how to do this from the Web Site...

How to start Firefox in Safe Mode

At the top of the Firefox window, click the Help menu and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.... Firefox will start up with the Firefox Safe Mode dialog.

Note: You can also start Firefox in Safe Mode by quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode
You may need to specify the Firefox installation path (e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)

Immediately, I saw something unexpected. Firefox opened with the Update Menu and asked it I wanted to install the list of my Firefox Addon's. But, I had already done this. So, I immediately figured, something was wrong or off... I looked under the Help Menu, to see what version I was running now. And to my surprise, it was Firefox 3.4! Then it hit me... I am running the current version of Firefox, as a Manual Installation. Fedora 14 stopped with Firefox 3.4 or so. And I just un-packed one of the newer Firefox Versions to my home/user Dir and have been running it from there, for several years now. I set Firefox to Auto Update it's self (Thunderbird too). And things usually work just fine. So, the "firefox -safe-mode" Command. When run in the Terminal. Opens up the System Default version of Firefox. So, I was wondering. How I was going to get Firefox to run well enough, for me to get back into "Firefox Safe Mode". Without having to wait 10 minutes for it to finish Loading. I saw no other Choice. So, I opened up Firefox, using the Icon that I have placed on my Gnome Panel. And low and behold! Firefox was now running perfectly and with all of my Addon's still installed and enabled. Cool! I'm not sure how this happened. But, I am back up and running in Firefox 26. Here's the info and Links that I used...

P.S. Thunderbird also Updated Today. And while I was writing this e-mail, to Post this on my Blog. Thunderbird, started hanging up and using too much Processing Power. When I try to Spell Check my Work in Thunderbird. This happens, from time to time, in Thunderbird. So, I'm hoping that it will be ok, after a Reboot. I have already Force Closed Thunderbird twice and the problem still persists... Ok, I rebooted my System and Thunderbird is back to normal:)

Don

Firefox uses too many CPU resources - How to fix

At times, Firefox may require significant CPU resources in order to download, process, and display web content. If you are experiencing periods of sustained high CPU usage while using Firefox, this article presents some options for you to review.

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the "brain" of the computer. When the CPU is being heavily used, the overall performance of the computer can be impacted.
Depending on your operating system, you can review and monitor CPU usage through specific tools.

Note: If you send performance data, Mozilla will gather data including the CPU usage for your Firefox, which will help making Firefox better for future versions.