Firefox 3: Fix for Slow or Choppy Scrolling

Many Firefox 3 for Windows users are complaining that when they scroll on web pages it can be very slow and choppy. There is a way to fix this problem though.

1. Close Firefox 3 and navigate to the chrome folder. The location may vary. Mine was located at:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\randomvalue\chrome

2. Right click the file userContent-example.css and select Rename.

3. Take out the -example to give the file a name of userContent.css.

4. Open userContent.css in Notepad.

5. Copy and paste the following code at the end of the file:

/* Smooth Scrolling: Disable Fixed Background Images */
body {
background-attachment: scroll !important;
}

6. Save and close Notepad.

Now give Firefox 3 a shot. Hopefully the scrolling is quicker and smoother.

Source: Fix Firefox 3 Choppy Scrolling Via UserContent.css

9 Comments so far »

by trnZ, on October 5 2008 @ 4:46 am

Thanks it worked
by dynovideo, on November 27 2008 @ 11:41 pm

this worked for me.

go to control panel. click display.

click the appearance tab.

click the effects button.

unclick the box that says “Use the following transition effects for menus and tooltips:”

make sure all the other boxes are checked, and the drop-down menu for “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:” says “Standard”.

seems when you disable the transition effects, the problem with choppy scrolling is corrected.

hope this helps.
cheers!
by Fred, on June 4 2009 @ 2:49 am

Worked like a charm – THANXX!!!
by NeoGeo, on September 18 2009 @ 11:01 am

Thanks! Worked great.
by Troy, on October 6 2009 @ 4:07 pm

The userContent fix worked perfect; Thank you!

Out of curiosity I also tried “dynovideo’s” solution but it had no effect on my XP system.
by Daniel, on November 10 2009 @ 5:19 am

Yep. Works just like you said.

Thanks!
by al, on December 20 2009 @ 10:29 am

So the new profile method didn’t change anything for me… BUT i found that after I uncheck ‘check spelling as I type’ in the ‘advanced’ tab of the options, that FF runs much faster now, yay!

Auto-spell check was slowing me down too much!
by Firefox vs fixed backgrounds | Midnight Light, on January 4 2010 @ 1:34 pm

[...] cycles while scrolling the page. People have already proposed multiple solutions, even one which involves modifying Firefox’s Chrome files (…) but my preferred one was simply [...]
by Sean Thomas, on February 28 2010 @ 9:55 pm

None of these work at all… Please tell me of a way to fix the scrolling problem in Firefox… I did EVERYTHING you all said, it does seem faster, BUT the scrolling problem STILL exists