Ads and System Load

**vnx205** · 23rd May 2008, 12:49 PM

I have just had to enable Adblock Plus on Firefox for the AULRO site.
Even when I was running a Pentium II 166MHz with 512Mb broadband, the site performed well.
With my new(er) Pentium 4 1.7GHz, it was even better.
This morning, when new Austar scrolling, dissolving, bells and whistles, slideshow ads were added to the site, it still loaded quickly, but then CPU usage sat on 100% and everything slowed down.
I like to see the ads on this site.
I didn't want to block the ads on AULRO, but without the Austar ads, CPU usage drops to 0% and everything works at normal speed.
Anyone else have this problem?
Is there another solution?
Don't tell me to buy a faster computer. I just moved into the 21st century this week with a 7 year old machine to replace my 10 year old machine. That is about as much computing power as I can handle at the moment.

**FenianEel** · 23rd May 2008, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by vnx205

Anyone else have this problem? No, works just fine for moi.
Is there another solution? Not one you will like, as per your next sentence.
Don't tell me to buy a faster computer. Could we suggest it then?

I just moved into the 21st century this week with a 7 year old machine to replace my 10 year old machine. That's like upgrading from a 120y to a 86 Hilux

...

**vnx205** · 23rd May 2008, 01:36 PM

Originally Posted by FenianEel

Originally Posted by vnx205

Anyone else have this problem? No, works just fine for moi.
Is there another solution? Not one you will like, as per your next sentence.
Don't tell me to buy a faster computer. Could we suggest it then?
I just moved into the 21st century this week with a 7 year old machine to replace my 10 year old machine. That's like upgrading from a 120y to a 86 Hilux
...

You're right, but don't you think it's interesting that the performance with those fancy ads is significantly worse on a computer with a clock speed about 10 times as fast as the old machine?
Makes me wonder just how much those sorts of things degrade performance.
It's a bit like an 86 Hilux not pulling as well as a 120Y.

**incisor** · 23rd May 2008, 01:53 PM

the new ads use adobe flash player

the old banners were just animated gifs and jpgs.

maybe update to latest flash player may help you...

there will be a new top of page header in due course that will better integrate it all....

time will tell what works and what doesnt....

you can cut the quality to low in flash player settings to make them faster etc ...

**vnx205** · 23rd May 2008, 03:16 PM

Thanks for the suggestion.

I just did a bit more fiddling about and have discovered:

with only one AULRO page open and the ad enabled, CPU usage bounces around from 20% to 100% and performance is OK.
with two AULRO pages open, CPU usage goes up to 100% and stays there and performance suffers.
if I disable the flash plugins, CPU usage drops to 0% once the page is displayed, even with several pages open. That means of course that the flash ads don't display and I wouldn't be able to watch other video.

I am using Xubuntu and the open source flash player add-ons for Firefox that I am using don't seem to offer reducing the quality to improve the speed.

Just as an aside, in the hope of avoiding any more disparaging comments by FenianEel about my antiquated computer

; my seven year old machine with Xubuntu runs about as fast as two or three year old machines running XP (and probably as fast as one year old machines with Vista). At least it did until this problem arose.
Anyway I can work around this in a couple of ways, so it's not a big problem.

**CaverD3** · 23rd May 2008, 03:50 PM

spybot on mine throws up a message about right media being a known malicious site but no change in speed or performance.
Maybe firefox is using the resources.
Have task manager open in the background and when it happens again check which processes are using the resources.

mike 90 RR · 23rd May 2008, 04:33 PM

Dunno about you guys, but the "grave digging" up the top of the page got me worried

**incisor** · 23rd May 2008, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by CaverD3

spybot on mine throws up a message about right media being a known malicious site but no change in speed or performance.
Maybe firefox is using the resources.
Have task manager open in the background and when it happens again check which processes are using the resources.

malicious ?, it is an ad server...

sounds like spybot is a little over enthusiastic..

is a yahoo7 server...

**CaverD3** · 23rd May 2008, 06:05 PM

Yes Incisor I think spybot is being overprotective it is a tracking cookie site. But from Yahoo.

**Pedro_The_Swift** · 3rd June 2008, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by vnx205

Thanks for the suggestion.

I just did a bit more fiddling about and have discovered:

with only one AULRO page open and the ad enabled, CPU usage bounces around from 20% to 100% and performance is OK.
with two AULRO pages open, CPU usage goes up to 100% and stays there and performance suffers.
if I disable the flash plugins, CPU usage drops to 0% once the page is displayed, even with several pages open. That means of course that the flash ads don't display and I wouldn't be able to watch other video.

I am using Xubuntu and the open source flash player add-ons for Firefox that I am using don't seem to offer reducing the quality to improve the speed.

Just as an aside, in the hope of avoiding any more disparaging comments by FenianEel about my antiquated computer

; my seven year old machine with Xubuntu runs about as fast as two or three year old machines running XP (and probably as fast as one year old machines with Vista). At least it did until this problem arose.
Anyway I can work around this in a couple of ways, so it's not a big problem.

bring it on!!!

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