Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with loading

Slow & Steady

ocherdraco — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:07:16 -0800

Why is my website loading slowly, and how can I fix it? My blog (linked from my profile page) seems to load incredibly slowly (sometimes taking up to a minute), even though it's not a content heavy site.

Things that may be relevant:

the blog is Wordpress v. 2.0.4

the admin page for the blog loads up just fine, with no delay

it used to be hosted at the .com version of the url, but after a brief scare in which I lost access to that url (though it was later regained) it was switched to .org, and I'm not certain that I changed absolutely everything that ought to have been

the page displays my Twitter feed, which is the main content that resides on the main page and comes from outside the site itself

Why is it loading slowly, and what can I do to fix it?

Minor but annoying Firefox problem

N2O1138 — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:08:49 -0800

I'm using Firefox 3.5 (on Leopard). Whenever I re-open FF, it remembers my tabs as it should, but there's a catch. All of them will "load" forever without actually doing anything unless I go to the location bar of each and hit enter. Hitting "Reload all tabs" doesn't work, instead it makes them all go blank. Also, until I switch to another tab and back, the URL of the first tab doesn't even appear. At first I thought the Fast Dial extension was causing this, but I disabled it and still have the problem. However, the problem seems to go away when I disable TMP and enable Tab Kit (so it seems it's TMP-related). I would simply use Tab Kit, but there are a few things in TMP that "I just can't live without."

I also just switched from TMP's session restore to the Session Restore extension to fix another minor problem (which it did), but that didn't help this one.

GlueTube, more like...

so_necessary — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:44:32 -0800

Why have YouTube videos started loading very slowly for me, and how can I fix it? For no apparent reason my computer now downloads YouTube videos very slowly. It used to be the case that they'd load at what I think of as "decent broadband speed" - maybe two or three times faster than the length of the video itself. But they now arrive at a pace which is rather slower-than-play-speed, so I can't even hit play and watch the thing normally, let alone skip ahead.

It's a bit erratic though, sometimes it's only a bit slow, sometimes it is PAINFULLY SO. I don't get any problems streaming video from other sites, even HD stuff.

I'm using Windows XP and Firefox 3, no funky add-ons. Any ideas?

My Mac is starting up so s-l-o-w-l-y

pman78 — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:25:44 -0800

My Mac PB takes about 10 minutes to start up and then another 5 to load mac mail or safari. Am I about to crash? Here's the scoop...I'm not a techie so I'll do the best I can. I have an Intel PB about 2 years old. OS 10.4.10. About a month ago I realized that my HD was almost full and began to get rid of stuff to free up space. I've emptied my trash. I now have 13 GB free; 97 GB used. When I start up my mac it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r (10-15 minutes?) to load up and get me to the desktop. And then it takes about 5 minutes more to load any program. Once it's up and going it seems to be fine with the exception of loading any web pages which seem to take about 30-45 seconds for Safari to even recognize the web address and then it's slow to load the pages. I'm pretty sure the two things (slow start up and slow loading web pages) are connected as they both started happening around the same time. I've run disk utilities, I've run Onyx, I've zapped my pram, I've backed up, I've removed most files and projects from my desktop....nothing seems to help. To my best recolection all of this trouble seemed to start when I started throwing stuff in the trash to free up space. Before that it was fine. Does this make any sense? Is my Mac about to die a painful death? Should I re install the OS? Or is it something else? Any help is very much appreciated....

Specific website images not loading on my internet connection?

exolstice — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 07:25:57 -0800

The website toysrus.ca won't load any images on my computer, it's the only site I could find that does this. Even stranger, if I access the site through a proxy, the site loads fine. I also asked friends online to check for me, and the site loads fine for them too. What is going on?

Trouble with Firefox

NorthCoastCafe — Mon, 28 May 2007 07:04:27 -0800

I love my homepage JournalistExpress.com which I have used for years. All of a sudden loading it with Firefox has become frustratingly long. 3,4,5 minutes sometimes. The help desk at JouralistExpress told me there is a known problem with Firefox and gave some suggested adjustments to settings all of which I made. No difference. Here's what they told me was the problem. There is a known Firefox issue with IPv6. IPv6 was designed in part to solve the problem IPv4 will soon be facing: the exhaustion of all possible IP addresses. Firefox implemented IPv6 support in early 2000, but that support did not receive widespread testing until recently as IPv6-capable OSs and network software/equipment became more common. One particular bug occurs when an IPv6-capable DNS servers returns an IPv4 address when Firefox expects an IPv6 address. It is possible for Firefox to recover from this confusion, but a significant delay is introduced while Firefox tries to reach the site at what is essentially the wrong IP address. I believe this is the delay you are encountering. Even though Firefox states it is waiting for Journalist Express, it is using the unexpected IPv4 IP address as an IPv6 IP address and, in essence, is looking in the wrong place. Once it recovers, it eventually uses the correct IP address.

I admit I don't understand it. I find no forum on Firefox's site that addresses this problem. Before I abandon JournalistExpress I wonder if anyone can point me to a help source where I might fix the problem. TIA !

Like a disaffected grad student, for some reason my firefox won't finish

rileyray3000 — Fri, 25 May 2007 09:12:38 -0800

I like to think I'm a reasonably smart guy. But after a dozen google searches and innumerable hours spent on tech boards I'm stumped. The last few images on every web page I go to will NOT load. What gives? Like I said, usually I'll follow whatever instruction I'm given online and it clears stuff up. But for this one, no one really seems to have a clear answer

-I have a 2 month old superfast inspiron e1405 with a 4mb cache and all the ram I could fit in it
-I have vista
-I have firefox
-I have mcCafee
-I've uninstalled every firefox add-on but tabmixplus, foxmarks, download statusbar, IEtab, foxytunes and talkback. It's still happening.
-The problem happens whether I'm on crappy coffee shop wireless or on my superfast LAN at work
-If I right click on any picture it appears instantly
-IN possibly related news, it takes up to 15 minutes for my google reader to finish loading.
-pages seem to load pretty quickly initially and then just stall out, sometimes indefinitely, in the latter portion of loading

So what gives? Any ideas people?

Possible structural failure due to a hoarder's heap?

Kevin S — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 18:56:43 -0800

I am concerned about the possibility of structural failure due to a hoarder's heap. My 80+ year old mother has a woman friend in her 60's who lives with her much of the time, occupying a spare bedroom. The friend is a "compulsive hoarder"; i.e., a person who is constitutionally unable to discard anything - newspapers, boxes, magazines, old clothes etc. Her room looks like a dumpster (fortunately there is no organic matter and no odor). The debris "mass" occupies about 75% of the 15' x 13' room and on average is about 4 feet deep but in places approaches 6 feet. There is not even a goat path to get from the door to the bed; she crawls over the pile to get there.

There is a vague "plan" to get her stuff out of the room. But in the meantime I have numerous safety concerns (fire hazard, dust, mites, emergency egress), some of which are likely code violations.

I am wondering specifically about floor loading and the possibility of structural damage/failure. The heap is an undifferentiated mass, so I really don't know what the average density is (e.g., if it is 10% paper or 75% paper). So assuming (in the extreme case) that it is mostly newspaper/magazines, is there a possibility of structural failure? It is a 1950's frame house. The room is supported by wooden joists that run the 15 feet between the foundation wall and the beam running down the center of the house. Each joist is about 1" x 8 " with 45 deg X's cris-crossed between the joists. Sitting on the joists is the plywood subfloor, with hardwood above. Looking up from the basement, there is no obvious sign of damage.

Any advice or suggested analytical approach would be appreciated.

I know, I know, get a Mac...

Heminator — Tue, 23 May 2006 07:38:18 -0800

Computer Won't Boot -- needless to say [MI]: I apologize up front if this question is a bit redundant w/r/t other AskMeFi questions I saw, but I'm greatly in need of advice/reassurance.

My Win XP PC worked fine as of last evening; it was shut down properly. This morning my Fiance tried to turn it on I was in the bathroom, I came out and saw a Blue Disc repair screen checking the disk for errors (This is not the first time this has happened; at the time I was concerned though not especially worried). I walked out of the room and came back. It wasn't loading. I saw that my Fiance had turned on my computer without unplugging my iPod and this halted the OS from loading.

I unplugged the iPod and it started to load. It got as far as the win logo screen with the progress bar-- then the screen went black and my monitor flashed an "INPUT MODE NOT SUPPORTED" message I had never seen before. It starts the booting process over at this point and will do so indefinitely unless I turn it off/uplug.

I tried starting in safe mode, debugging mode and last known good configuration. XP still won't load.

What can I do? My computer was buit for me and I do not have the installation XP discs, assuming that's the problem... Will Geek Squad have the necessary repair discs if I shell out a hundred bucks for them to show up at my apartment?

For bonus points, if I burn a linux live CD will that allow me to plug-in an an external hard drive via USB and rescue my files that way? (I have around 100 GB of stuff to recover).

Thanks in advance...