Firefox using a lot of memory

[W9AFB]

As of late, my internet browser, firefox, has been using a lot of my memory and slowing down the computer. Even as I type this, its using about 83,000k of virtual memory and between 50-80% of the CPU. Every 30 seconds or so, it makes my CPU jump to 100% so the computer really bogs down.

This is the latest version. It makes watching video clips such as on youtube impossible. Should I reinstall firefox or could there be another problem?

[KC7UP]

I wonder if you have some other program causing this problem. I use FF also latest version and have no problem with memory usage. Check for virius's etc. By the way how much memory do you have?
Curt

[KD0AUO]

Wait, 83M of VIRTUAL memory? As I sit here mine is using 96M of physical ram. Are you saying most of the physical memory you have is used and it has cached 83M to the hard drive? If that's the case you probably don't have enough ram or, if you do, you have other problems besides firefox.

83MB for firefox isn't unusual, it's kind of a pig. It shouldn't be eating that much CPU though.

I vote virus, trojan or outdated computer.

Just for reference:
Virtual Memory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_memory)

[KI4GST]

Why is every one having problems with firefox I wonder I have never had a problem with it. As for the memory I just checked and mine is using 49,500K I would think if your in the high 80,000's and up on firefox you got a problem. Either to many plug ins or a bad plug in.

[W4INF]

Do any of you do a lot of downloads? Disable the download tracker in the Options setting, it may be partially responsible.

[W8GTF]

Something I do, because I usually have alot of tabs open and don't restart my computer for weeks at a time. Go into Task Manager and kill firefoxe.exe. Then relaunch the program. It will come up with a thing asking you to restore your old session or start a new one. I start a new one and usually Firefox takes less memory than it had originally been using.

My Firefox has been known to go as high as 200 megs. I just kill the process and restart the application. I've also done some tweeks to the memory usage to make it a bit better than stock also.

Also, the other thing that hasn't been mentioned is what toolbars/extensions are you running? Alot of them can eat up ram & CPU really quick.

[AC0H]

How much installed RAM have you got?
No way FF is using enough to make Windows start swapping to the hard drive unless you've got something else running you don't know about.

Open up Taskmanager and click the processes tab. Check for WINWORD.EXE, EXCEL.EXE, OUTLOOK.EXE. The entire Office suite is notorious for not stopping the processes after you think you've closed the program.

Double check for spyware and virii.

[KC2PCF]

Did you install the Ham Radio Toolbar (http://www.n0hr.com/Ham_Radio_Toolbar.htm) by NØHR??
Since I have installed it IE has slowed down and is using more memory. If I leave IE open too long my right click menu quits working all together.. Looks like it might have to come out.

Bill

[W9AFB]

The computer is 4 years old, but I the only programs I have running really are just a messenger program, microsoft office stuff, and the internet. The tool bar only has AIM, and gmail notifier on it. I virus and spam scan every day so nothing is there that I know of. When the computer sits idle, the CPU is only running about 10%. I restart the computer every few days as well. There is also about 520,000k of memory available.

I am upgrading computers soon, but this one still works fine except for the chopping of video and occasional slow load. Thanks for the responses. I just wanted to see if it was a firefox issue, but it just looks like it might be an old computer.

[LASSAR]

I must agree with you.

Firefox does seem to be a memory and CPU hog.

The same thing happens to me at times.

I hope when Firefox 3 comes out ; that they will have improved on this.


==============================================
Randall L Glass
RadioTelephone Tutor : Get Your FCC GROL License
Randy's Ebook and Software Shop
http://stores.ebay.com/Randys-Ebook-and-Software-Shop?refid=store
==============================================

[VE3SRE]

If you're looking for a fast web browser to run on your Windows box you can try K-Meleon (http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/). It's very fast, lightweight, free and open source...the way Firefox used to be.

You don't have all of the community built "extensions" for K-Meleon that you would have with Mozilla Firefox. But if all you want to do is surf the web ....and do it as quickly as you can then try the K-Meleon web browser.

73

[9W6ZZZ]

THANK FOR THIS INFO. CAUSE I HAVE BEEN USING FIREFOX SINCE IT WAS INTRODUCED I SOMETIMES HAVE NOTICED THIS PROBLEM AND SINCE I READ THIS FORUM I THINK IT DID SLOW A BIT MY COMPUTER.

BY THE WAY IS THEY ANY OTHER WEB BROWSER COMING UP SOON BETTER THEN FIREFOX.. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[N0HR]

Guys

Don't abandon Firefox quite yet...

They make very good improvements in each release. Often they are adding bells and whistles that slow it down a bit, but they are also working on performance/memory improvements.

Besides, memory is cheap http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

73
Pat NØHR
http://www.n0hr.com - Ham Radio Stuff (http://www.n0hr.com)

[VE3SRE]

Not planning on abandoning Firefox at all. I usually have at least half a dozen web browsers installed on any machine I'm using ;)

On the work machine I'm stuck in the Windows world, so split between using Firefox and K-Meleon most of the time...and IE only when dealing with an M$ "vendor lock-in" situations.

At home though I'm free as a penguin ;) I have Firefox, SeaMonkey, Flock, Opera, Galeon, Epiphany, Kazehakase, Konqueror, Dillo and I've probably forgotten something! ;)

73

[K7KR]

I had something like this happen to me a while back. I think it was caused when I experimented with some plug-in or another.

Anyway, you might try to launch Firefox in safe mode to see if it helps speed it up.

You can create a shortcut and then change the target to "firefox.exe -safe-mode"

If that works, there is a command to reset your profile to the default, just like it's right out of the box. This will kill all your extensions so you can start again fresh and add just the ones you know work properly... (sorry I can't remember the reset command but it's probably in the knowledgebase at Mozilla.org)