System freezes after closing YouTube tab

[latisullivan]

Hello, I've been having some system freezes after closing YouTube tab. I use Firefox (updated to the latest) and it seems that from time to time the system hangs or is either slow or freezed with HDD usage. I don't know what actually causes this to be able to reproduce the thing, but it happened 2 times after I closed the YouTube tab after watching for 30 mins or 1 hour. Everything works perfectly fine, and then when I close it, the system starts hanging and the disk seems to be loading something for 1 or 2 minutes until it stops and everything goes back to normal. I tried opening KSysGuard to see what it was but it opened only the window frame and it loaded only after the loading was done so basically it was pointless. I leave the inxi command text down below just in case it's useful:

System:
  Host: Orianna Kernel: 4.14.47-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc 
  v: 8.1.0 Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.12.5 tk: Qt 5.11.0 
  Distro: Manjaro Linux 17.1.10 Hakoila 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: P8H61-M LX3 R2.0 v: Rev X.0x 
  serial: <filter> BIOS: American Megatrends v: 1107 date: 02/25/2014 
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-3220 bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Ivy Bridge rev: 9 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 26413 
  Speed: 1601 MHz min/max: 1600/3300 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1600 
  2: 1601 3: 1601 4: 1600 
Graphics:
  Card-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics 
  driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: intel 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Desktop v: 4.2 Mesa 18.0.4 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Card-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
  Card-2: Logitech HD Webcam C525 type: USB 
  driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus ID: 2:4 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.14.47-1-MANJARO 
Network:
  Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  driver: r8168 v: 8.045.08-NAPI port: e000 bus ID: 03:00.0 
  IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  HDD Total Size: 232.89 GiB used: 18.36 GiB (7.9%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD2500JS-08NCB1 
  size: 232.89 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 28.57 GiB used: 18.36 GiB (64.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6 
  ID-2: swap-1 size: 7.96 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8 C mobo: 27.8 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 
Info:
  Processes: 170 Uptime: 2h 09m Memory: 7.68 GiB used: 2.08 GiB (27.1%) 
  Init: systemd Compilers: gcc: 8.1.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.19 inxi: 3.0.10

There have been 2 updates or so in the past week, I think that's where the issues began. Also my GPU died (had an R9 270x) and I had to take it out and use Intel's graphics (which by the way it's an i3 3220 not a Xeon, clarifying that in case that matters) so I don't know if that affects something too. Thanks a lot

Edit: In case it's needed and I forgot (don't know if it shows up in the command text) I'm using Manjaro KDE, updated to the latest (last updates were yesterday).

[jonathon]

@latisullivan

the system starts hanging and the disk seems to be loading something for 1 or 2 minutes until it stops and everything goes back to normal

That sounds like the system is swapping pages back into RAM from swap.

Check your Firefox extensions and try with a different browser to narrow it down. If you're still using Flash this might also have a memory leak; check top or ps_mem over time.

[latisullivan]

Thanks Jon for the reply. I forgot to mention I have only bttv installed and uBlock origin which I deactivate on YouTube. Is there any browser specifically you recommend to test this out or are Opera or Vivaldi ok?

[c00ter]

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1208168 <--is this informative?

regards

[jonathon]

@latisullivan

bttv

This doesn't appear to be on addons.mozilla.org. What is it?

You could also try with a clean Firefox profile.

Troubleshooting Firefox

Introduction Almost 100% of the time, issues with Firefox are not issues with Firefox but issues with extensions or your configuration. This post sets out the basic steps to narrow down where the issue lies. Outline The usual steps for troubleshooting Firefox: Clear the browser cache Start in Safe Mode Start with a clean profile a) Start with fresh preferences b) Remove old security/key database files Before each of these, make sure Firefox is not running. Clear the browser cache If you c…

[cscs]

I think its betterttv .. which is in chromestore and such .. but for FF there are only random sites like softpedia and (maybe the devs??) 'nightdev' offering it..

[jonathon]

So it's potentially a random, unchecked Firefox extenstion? Definitely needs to be ruled out as a factor.

[latisullivan]

Hello everyone. Thanks a lot for the replies! - Today I watched 1+ hours of YouTube and several hours (3 or 4) of Netflix and nothing happened. Checking RAM both tabs (with video playback) were stuck on 350 to 400 MBs. So this raised the question if what I said first was true (the one that YouTube caused the problem).

@c00ter

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1208168 <–is this informative?

regards

This is quite interesting since my GPU died now I'm using my processor graphics. And being such a low end processor I think both things might be causing issues after a while? If I have issues again I will try this solution.

@jonathon BTTV is BetterTwitchTV which is a Twitch site enhancement extension. It's been out for a long time, officially on Chrome Store and Windows Store for Edge now (and maybe other browsers) however Nightdev gives it directly for download on its site. It's not officially promoted, but it's somewhat officially recognized since I think even Twitch when changed their site they did some adjustments for bttv to work again. Also, since then, the extension only works on the site and is not "active" outside of Twitch like before. Nothing happens with usage of CPU, RAM or anything else if Twitch is not open in a tab.
If disabling the hardware accel when another freeze happens doesn't solve the issue later on, I will try the solution you gave.

Summing up, I consciously tested things today and nothing happened. No freezes so far nor stuttering or anything. Will keep this updated with more information later on. I always do almost the same, so if the issue is due to video playback of some sorts, the problem will pop up again.

Edit: I forgot to mention, 2 small updates popped up today which I obviously installed. I don't know if that had anything to do for (at least for now) fixing the problem.