Firstly, I'm aware the subject sounds weird. Suits my personality.

Here's the background:
Owned linux laptop (running UBUNTU) for 1.5 yrs. Love it. No problems... until:

1. I changed my password, via System - Admin - User & Groups - Properties. (I just typed 2 characters on the end of the old User Password and the Confirmation password and OK'd it all.
2. Shut down laptop. Upon restarting it (only minutes later), neither the new pw or the old one worked.
3. Googled for help on another machine. Booted linux laptop up in recovery mode and used the passwd <?> command to reset pw (back to the original one!).
4. Shut down. Started laptop up again... forever more firefox runs like a dog. Normally (90% of the time) it times out before reaching a page, though it is trying to transfer the data.

Let's be clear about this. It was fine. The very next time I used firefox - minutes after the password debarcle, it was cac, and has remained cac ever since.

I've been whizzing around on firefox for over a year without any issues. There have been no changes to the router. My microsoft laptop has no issue with the internet so it cant be router or telco related. Though I did reset the router (power and phone line) just to be sure. It didn't help.

I clear the private data (Tools menu) in firefox regularly (daily-ish). That is the only housekeeping I do on this machine. (It only gets used for mail, internet and the odd simple OpenOffice document). There is stacks of space left (70 Gig). I'm not sure how to check memory.

Googled for help and tried some command to purge temp files. That didn't help.

Any suggestions? I love my linux laptop, but currently I'm having to resort back to my windows one.

Please accompany any suggestions with instructions or links to instructions. I'm not a techie, though I can muddle by with instructions.

signed
MeganF

any suggestions ...yes you sound like you are the only user of this lappie?

1) use your filemanager to show hidden files.

delete /home/name/.mozilla.......then retest your existing firefox

2) If that fails to speed up good news.....firefox is now 3.5.5

download the latest....do not attempt to open current one and run update check.

put the tarball under your /home/name

Use your package manager to delete existing firefox

open a terminal and run this command to unpack new one

this means you have a folder called /home/yourname/firefox

2) create a shortcut on desktop to /home/name/firefox/firefox

I do not know how to do that with your distro sorry

but we can cheat if you do not know how....by creating a symlink

then running firefox....from a terminal or pressing ALT (and) F2 keys brings up run box and type firefox

the you can see if that fixes your problem

To Aus9
Thank you for your reply. Small bump in the road...

I tried deleting .mozilla. No luck with that one I'm afraid.

Had to download the linux tar.bz2 file for 3.5.5 using my windows lappie, cos, well, I plan to retire in 30 years, so I couldn' t use Linux one in this state.

Have successfully put the file in /home/username folder. (Gold star for newbie).

I'm champing at the bit to give the rest of your instructions a go, but have hit a bit of a roadblock:
I'm IN packet manager. There are about a million firefox files. HOW do I "use packet manager to delete existing firefox"? Is it just a case of mark/bound and hit delete? I suspect not.

Meganf

I have no idea as I do not use ubuntu

try apt?

assuming you see nothing being deleted other than a million firefox stuff press y for yes otherwise post what software EXTRAS are being deleted and press N for no and wait for others to assist