Sucks CPU cycles; Runs Hot - philads_dotmac

There's got to be a problem with your system/installation. Firefox 3.01 and 3.03 run flawlessly on my G5. It idles at 2-8% with Firefox running and multiple windows open.

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Saturday, September 27 2008 @ 09:48 AM PDT

Sucks CPU cycles; Runs Hot - tom2323--2008

Man does it ever pin the CPU to the wall. I reported it as a bug, but got a reply that I was mistaken...something else was wrong with my system. Nope. Even 2.0.0.17 is a cpu hog, FF 3 is unusable!

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Monday, October 06 2008 @ 04:20 AM PDT

Sucks CPU cycles; Runs Hot - sevensirens

You're right - it does run extremely hot on PPC. I've read dozens of reports confirming this and it's disappointing to hear that the Firefox devs aren't taking this seriously. One guy even suspects that it overheated and then killed his laptop battery.

I personally can confirm the CPU/heat issue: I've got a Powerbook G4 using Tiger that would go from cool to overheated in less than 6 minutes whenever Firefox 3.xx was running. It would get so hot, I couldn't even keep it on my lap and you could literally watch the battery drain before your eyes. I uninstalled FF3 and went back to version 2. Problem solved.

The Firefox Developers seriously need to do more testing on Mac computers and stop blowing people off when they tell you there are problems.

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Thursday, October 16 2008 @ 04:58 AM PDT

Sucks CPU cycles; Runs Hot - EndlessFx

I tried FF3 but had to remove it and go back to FF2 (and I am a FF diehard fan). I was hoping that updates had vastly improved it. Sorry to see these comments here.

Note that Macworld, in the November 2008 issue, gave it a four-star, raving rating. That is why I was revisiting and hoping!

Actually, I am having so many problems with the recent Apple updates that presently it won't matter which one I use!

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Thursday, October 16 2008 @ 08:09 AM PDT

Sucks CPU cycles; Runs Hot - drc

I haven't lost a battery, but I have had two aftermarket G4 power adapters fail in the month or so that I was using FF3 on my Tiger-equipped PowerBook G4.

As reported here and elsewhere, when FF3 is running on a PPC machine, the CPU pegs and the PB runs very hot. When at home, I generally use my PB plugged into power, so not only did it get hot (too hot to use on my lap), but the power adapter also got hot, since it was feeding maximum current into the PowerBook.

It may be entirely coincidence, but both of my aftermarket 65W G4-compatible power adapters gave up the ghost in the last month. I suspect they were stressed by overheating and successive heat/cool cycles. Did Firefox catalyse the failures? Who knows.

So don't leave FF3 running on a laptop with the laptop sitting on a couch or a cushion, or the name of the application may acquire an entirely different significance.

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Saturday, October 18 2008 @ 08:07 AM PDT