Products related pages' performance very slow

[elegantfragrances]

For no apparent reason, suddenly any page that is related to products is extremely slow. If you visit the any other page (shipping, faq, etc.) then the performance is OK. Can you please help me and let me know if you have encountered similar problems?

The website address is www.elegantfragrances.com.

[Ajeh]

GZip is off ... which can really slow things down

Check the Tools ... Server Info ... does it show the load on the server?

Speak to your hosting company ... did they make any changes? Is something wrong with the server causing this heavy load?

If you turn off the footer, does this change the load time of the pages?

[elegantfragrances]

Thanks Linda. I turned GZIP on and temporarily disable the footer and it is still very very slow. I just e-mailed my hosting company to see if they're aware of any. From your experience, have you come accross anything like this, where it will suddenly slow down to this level? I'm just thinking like a devils advocate. In case if they come back and say that nothing is wrong with the SQL server or the web server.

[DrByte]

How "sudden" was the change?
Could it be that the server is doing backups at this hour ? That will slow things down somewhat while databases and files are archived for safekeeping ... whether related to your specific site's data or not.

Other common causes of data-intensive pages slowing down drastically could be that indexes on database tables are broken or busted. In case you're thinking of asking "how do I fix that" ... that's a manual process, and to investigate you'll need to understand table structures and how each table's indexes are supposed to be built. If you have an understanding of SQL, you can find the master list in the mysql_zencart.sql file in the zc_install folders.

I suspect your problem is with something that's hogging the server's resources ... or has mis-allocated server resources such that there is insufficient disk space or RAM available to the database, thus hindering it from doing what it needs to do.

Sorry, that's a lot more technical than I think you need.

Your hosting company knows your server. They're the experts who need to respond to the problem.

[clydejones]

The four images just below your Navigation menu are each 37kb and they load for each page. You should consider optimizing these.

You also have 160 validation errors which should be corrected.

[DrByte]

[COLOR=black]For no apparent reason, suddenly any page that is related to products is extremely slow.

How "sudden" was the change?

Did you recently install any updates/addons/contributions?
Did you recently make any customizations to any files, whether template-related or otherwise?

[elegantfragrances]

Thanks for the info, Gentleman. Clyde, you said that there are 160 validation errors. I was not aware of those. Can you please let me know what those errors are?

I did not upgrade or add any contributions. I just e-mailed my host and i'm waiting to hear from them. It happened about two days ago and have no clue why or how.

[clydejones]

Thanks for the info, Gentleman. Clyde, you said that there are 160 validation errors. I was not aware of those. Can you please let me know what those errors are?

Here's the list:
line 38 column 142 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 40 column 725 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 44 column 6 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 51 column 6 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 55 column 66 - Warning: unescaped & or unknown entity "&products_id"
line 58 column 6 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 72 column 79 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 73 column 14 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 84 column 15 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 86 column 15 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 93 column 11 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 96 column 49 - Warning: unescaped & or unknown entity "&faq_item"
line 96 column 132 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 99 column 17 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 110 column 13 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 116 column 14 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 120 column 17 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 137 column 40 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 138 column 7 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 143 column 69 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 144 column 7 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 146 column 30 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 146 column 34 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 147 column 7 - Warning: <img> element not empty or not closed
line 147 column 83 - Warning: <img> element not empty or not closed
line 147 column 151 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 151 column 36 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 173 column 13 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 174 column 81 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 175 column 2 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 176 column 54 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 176 column 58 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 176 column 82 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 176 column 103 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 176 column 62 - Warning: replacing unexpected span by </span>
line 176 column 118 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 177 column 2 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 176 column 2 - Warning: missing </span> before <div>
line 179 column 1 - Warning: inserting implicit <span>
line 179 column 1 - Warning: missing </span> before <div>
line 180 column 1 - Warning: inserting implicit <span>
line 180 column 1 - Warning: missing </span> before <div>
line 180 column 24 - Warning: inserting implicit <span>
line 180 column 24 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 194 column 13 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 195 column 85 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 196 column 2 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 197 column 54 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 197 column 58 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 197 column 92 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 197 column 62 - Warning: replacing unexpected span by </span>
line 197 column 118 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 198 column 2 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 197 column 2 - Warning: missing </span> before <div>
line 200 column 1 - Warning: inserting implicit <span>
line 200 column 1 - Warning: missing </span> before <div>
line 201 column 1 - Warning: inserting implicit <span>
line 201 column 1 - Warning: missing </span> before <div>
line 201 column 24 - Warning: inserting implicit <span>
line 201 column 24 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 214 column 13 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 215 column 71 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 216 column 2 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 217 column 54 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 217 column 58 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 217 column 82 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 217 column 108 - Warning: <br> attribute "/span" lacks value
line 217 column 104 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 217 column 108 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 217 column 118 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 218 column 2 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 217 column 2 - Warning: missing </span> before <div>
line 220 column 1 - Warning: inserting implicit <span>
line 220 column 1 - Warning: missing </span> before <div>
line 221 column 1 - Warning: inserting implicit <span>
line 221 column 1 - Warning: missing </span> before <div>
line 221 column 24 - Warning: inserting implicit <span>
line 221 column 24 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 231 column 29 - Warning: discarding unexpected </b>
line 231 column 33 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 231 column 37 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 238 column 68 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 239 column 5 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 240 column 1 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 240 column 5 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 252 column 51 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 252 column 150 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 256 column 9 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 256 column 44 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 265 column 65 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 266 column 12 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 310 column 29 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 319 column 28 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 379 column 33 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 411 column 28 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 483 column 32 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 517 column 30 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 542 column 30 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 569 column 31 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 570 column 33 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 590 column 31 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 601 column 30 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 608 column 30 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 724 column 29 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 738 column 33 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 771 column 35 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 772 column 33 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 803 column 32 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 814 column 30 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 826 column 28 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 830 column 34 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 843 column 22 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 852 column 51 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 853 column 12 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 868 column 15 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 873 column 194 - Warning: unescaped & or unknown entity "&mouseover"
line 873 column 348 - Warning: unescaped & or unknown entity "&mouseover"
line 873 column 389 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 246 column 1 - Warning: missing </div>
line 896 column 6 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 899 column 37 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 899 column 41 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 911 column 16 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 914 column 26 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 917 column 122 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 918 column 78 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 926 column 295 - Warning: <img> element not empty or not closed
line 927 column 141 - Warning: <img> element not empty or not closed
line 38 column 46 - Warning: <img> attribute "width" has invalid value "1px"
line 38 column 46 - Warning: <img> attribute "height" has invalid value "45px"
line 48 column 207 - Warning: <img> attribute "width" has invalid value "1px"
line 48 column 207 - Warning: <img> attribute "height" has invalid value "1px"
line 48 column 487 - Warning: <img> attribute "width" has invalid value "1px"
line 48 column 487 - Warning: <img> attribute "height" has invalid value "1px"
line 48 column 771 - Warning: <img> attribute "width" has invalid value "1px"
line 48 column 771 - Warning: <img> attribute "height" has invalid value "1px"
line 48 column 979 - Warning: <img> attribute "width" has invalid value "1px"
line 48 column 979 - Warning: <img> attribute "height" has invalid value "1px"
line 48 column 1258 - Warning: <img> attribute "width" has invalid value "1px"
line 48 column 1258 - Warning: <img> attribute "height" has invalid value "1px"
line 48 column 1540 - Warning: <img> attribute "width" has invalid value "1px"
line 48 column 1540 - Warning: <img> attribute "height" has invalid value "1px"
line 124 column 26 - Warning: <img> attribute "width" has invalid value "3px"
line 124 column 26 - Warning: <img> attribute "height" has invalid value "1px"
line 147 column 7 - Warning: <img> lacks "alt" attribute
line 147 column 83 - Warning: <img> lacks "alt" attribute
line 244 column 15 - Warning: <img> attribute "width" has invalid value "7px"
line 244 column 15 - Warning: <img> attribute "height" has invalid value "1px"
line 252 column 55 - Warning: <img> attribute "width" has invalid value "1px"
line 252 column 55 - Warning: <img> attribute "height" has invalid value "4px"
line 269 column 37 - Warning: <form> anchor "manufacturers" already defined
line 927 column 141 - Warning: <img> proprietary attribute "target"
line 927 column 335 - Warning: <a> escaping malformed URI reference
line 139 column 72 - Warning: trimming empty <font>
line 179 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty <span>
line 180 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty <span>
line 200 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty <span>
line 201 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty <span>
line 220 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty <span>
line 221 column 1 - Warning: trimming empty <span>

[clydejones]

Also, I'm not sure why you have 2 body declarations in your stylesheet.css

body {
margin: 0;
font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 62.5%;
color: #000000;
background-color: #e5edf5;
}

/*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*/
.navNextPrevWrapper img{margin-left:5px;}
.navNextPrevWrapper input {margin-left:5px;}
.imgLink {color:#007F9E}
body{
padding:0px;
margin:0px;
background:#C3C3C3;
text-align:center;
}

These will interfere with each other.