Thanks for your input. It does sound as though it's very specific.
I run Kaspersky courtesy of Barclays Bank. I've paused it for several minutes to test the result, but of course, I'm not sure if there's anything running in the background.
There has to be a reason. No normal person would put up with this.
More tests needed. I'll chop some item via Taskmanager and see what happens. Running on 32 bit does leave me with limited memory, but it's happening on my 64bit 5 gig laptop, though I have to say, it's not as bad.
I feel I must have some basic setting wrong. Using FF 33.1 at this time.