Why Does Firefox do this ?

VLT · April 17th, 2006

If you use one firefox.exe process, and multitask inside it using the tabbed browsing etc ... over a few hrs look what it racked up.

Any ideas, anyone suffer this too ?

VLT · April 17th, 2006

Its molesting my memory

**Bman** · April 17th, 2006

That's really weird, I do crazy amounts of tabbed multitasking, and I never find it using that much...hmm

**Evil Marge** · April 17th, 2006

I used to get that a lot and had to stop using firefox but since I started using an updated version it's been fine.
*places hand on head* touch wood

**Bman** · April 17th, 2006

Yea what version do you have, cause I have no such problems with that.

**Mainframeguy** · April 17th, 2006

it is the famous / infamous Ffox memory leak - there have been a lot of them and they did fix a lot in the recent update - check the Ffox main thread - think I may have even posted there (or was it a comment on the news?) Because I checked the change log and saw they plugged at least three memory leaks....

By the way once Ffox starts on one of those memory leaks it will not stop and you have to terminate it as a process and restart.

[EDIT] I checked - it was in the recent news item where I commented, check if you have that version[/EDIT]

**Sazar** · April 17th, 2006

Firefox has always had a memory leak of some kind or other.

That and pure speed is why I have stayed with IE.

With IE 7, I haven't felt a need to go back to firefox.

**Bman** · April 17th, 2006

Yes, but not even one gets these memory leaks, and sooner or later they will be fixed.

**Admiral Michael** · April 17th, 2006

I used this "tweak" and when FF is in focus it uses abotu 30MB but when I minimize it, it will drop to about 5MB.

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.ph...652&hl=firefox

**Bman** · April 17th, 2006

I did that too, even though I didn't really need too.

**omg its nlm** · April 17th, 2006

I am user 163mb right now. I have 5 tabs open. 2 are java apps.

**omg its nlm** · April 17th, 2006

Thanks for the link Admiral!

**gonaads** · April 17th, 2006

Mine just peaked at about 112 MB. When minimized it sits at 3MB or less.

**Bman** · April 17th, 2006

how much mb, is 14000kb? 14mb?

**Sazar** · April 17th, 2006

100+mb scares the poop outta me.

Why does it use that much memory?

I have a coupla hundred dedicated to my F@H and I think probably another 100 or so for all my ati apps/media and what not.

IE uses about 40MB or so and then there's azureus which, when on, uses about 40-50MB or thereabouts.

Btw VLT, that backweb.exe app? What the heck is it? Is it a virus?

**LordOfLA** · April 17th, 2006

firefox is a broken browser - the sooner the dev team and the fanboys admit that the sooner it can be a great browser. The trouble is the web's gone the otherway. Instead of coding only for IE it seems to be coding only for firefox so its just as bad whichever way you look at it

**Bman** · April 18th, 2006

Each browser has it's problems, internet alone has problems of course. Any browser is better then IE, firefox will be fixed and better soon. Hopefully

**fitz** · April 18th, 2006

Originally Posted by Sazar

IE uses about 40MB or so and then there's azureus which, when on, uses about 40-50MB or thereabouts.

Hey Sazar, ever consider using uTorrent? Uses a heck of a lot less memory (mine is running at <7MB in memory right now.. even adding memory used by PeerGuardian, any time I use a torrent it uses <10Mb of memory..

**j79zlr** · April 18th, 2006

Originally Posted by LordOfLA

firefox is a broken browser - the sooner the dev team and the fanboys admit that the sooner it can be a great browser. The trouble is the web's gone the otherway. Instead of coding only for IE it seems to be coding only for firefox so its just as bad whichever way you look at it

I don't like feeding the trolls, but there's no such thing as "coding for firefox"

Unless of course you mean using web standards, also known as coding for every modern browser.

VLT · April 18th, 2006

Hey all,
thanks heaps for all your responses

I make sure im always uptodate with FF, so i currently have 1.5.0.2
And this version gave me 1gb of memory loss ahaha ... (fixed memory leaks ??)

I went to one of the link (Admiral Michael) posted
Entering " config.trim_on_minimize " as "True" on the FF config.
On minimise its "Memory Usage" reduces considerably, although the Virtual Memory and Peak Memory still are high, i will keep an eye on it though.

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #1
VLT OSNN Junior Addict Joined: April 2004 Location: Western Australia Posts: 43 Reputation: 0 Power: 100	Why Does Firefox do this ? If you use one firefox.exe process, and multitask inside it using the tabbed browsing etc ... over a few hrs look what it racked up. Any ideas, anyone suffer this too ?

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #2
VLT OSNN Junior Addict Joined: April 2004 Location: Western Australia Posts: 43 Reputation: 0 Power: 100	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? Its molesting my memory

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #3
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? That's really weird, I do crazy amounts of tabbed multitasking, and I never find it using that much...hmm

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #4
Evil Marge I Rule Joined: July 2002 Location: Teesside, the land of smog Posts: 6,547 Reputation: 2337 Power: 209	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? I used to get that a lot and had to stop using firefox but since I started using an updated version it's been fine. places hand on head touch wood . Google+

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #5
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? Yea what version do you have, cause I have no such problems with that.

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April 17th, 2006	Top \| #6
Mainframeguy Debiant by way of Ubuntu Joined: August 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 3,763 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 1390 Power: 169	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? it is the famous / infamous Ffox memory leak - there have been a lot of them and they did fix a lot in the recent update - check the Ffox main thread - think I may have even posted there (or was it a comment on the news?) Because I checked the change log and saw they plugged at least three memory leaks.... By the way once Ffox starts on one of those memory leaks it will not stop and you have to terminate it as a process and restart. [EDIT] I checked - it was in the recent news item where I commented, check if you have that version[/EDIT] hosted by Lord

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #7
Sazar F@H - Is it in you? Joined: April 2002 Location: Between Austin and Tampa Posts: 14,888 Reputation: 4110 Power: 313	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? Firefox has always had a memory leak of some kind or other. That and pure speed is why I have stayed with IE. With IE 7, I haven't felt a need to go back to firefox. Help to find cures for Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers. Folding@Home, is it in you?

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #8
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? Yes, but not even one gets these memory leaks, and sooner or later they will be fixed.

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #9
Admiral Michael Michaelsoft Systems CEO Joined: February 2003 Location: Hamilton, Ontario Canada Earth Posts: 3,125 Blog Entries: 8 Reputation: 2216 Power: 166	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? I used this "tweak" and when FF is in focus it uses abotu 30MB but when I minimize it, it will drop to about 5MB. http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.ph...652&hl=firefox Apple MacBook Pro Intel Quad-Core i7 2GHz \| Corsair 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 Memory \| WD 750GB 7200RPM Black Edition SATA Hard Drive \| Intel HD Graphics 3000/AMD Radeon HD 6490M 256MB GDDR5 \| 15.4" LED backlit glossy screen @ 1440x900 \| Dual Band Airport Wireless/Bluetooth \| Gigabit Ethernet \| Thunderbolt I/O \| Built-in Webcam \| Backlit Keyboard \| Firewire 800 \| DVDRW \| OS X Lion 10.7.1 My Site \| My DVD Collection \| Your Chevrolet Guy

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #10
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? I did that too, even though I didn't really need too.

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #11
omg its nlm lvl 17 Hax Joined: January 2004 Location: Minnesota Posts: 1,829 Reputation: 1210 Power: 132	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? I am user 163mb right now. I have 5 tabs open. 2 are java apps. \| Vista Ultimate \| AMD 4900 \| Nvidia 9600 512 \| 2 gigs Corsair Ram \| Cooler Master Stacker 830 \|Dell 22 Inch Wide screen \|

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #12
omg its nlm lvl 17 Hax Joined: January 2004 Location: Minnesota Posts: 1,829 Reputation: 1210 Power: 132	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? Thanks for the link Admiral! \| Vista Ultimate \| AMD 4900 \| Nvidia 9600 512 \| 2 gigs Corsair Ram \| Cooler Master Stacker 830 \|Dell 22 Inch Wide screen \|

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #13
gonaads Beware the G-Man Joined: March 2002 Location: XP-erience, NTFS, OSNN, Bay Area, California Posts: 18,474 Reputation: 4070 Power: 348	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? Mine just peaked at about 112 MB. When minimized it sits at 3MB or less. *"I play violent video games, I could snap at any second."*

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #14
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? how much mb, is 14000kb? 14mb?

April 17th, 2006	Top \| #15
Sazar F@H - Is it in you? Joined: April 2002 Location: Between Austin and Tampa Posts: 14,888 Reputation: 4110 Power: 313	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? 100+mb scares the poop outta me. Why does it use that much memory? I have a coupla hundred dedicated to my F@H and I think probably another 100 or so for all my ati apps/media and what not. IE uses about 40MB or so and then there's azureus which, when on, uses about 40-50MB or thereabouts. Btw VLT, that backweb.exe app? What the heck is it? Is it a virus? Help to find cures for Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers. Folding@Home, is it in you?

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April 17th, 2006	Top \| #16
LordOfLA Godlike! Joined: February 2004 Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7,031 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 4137 Power: 213	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? firefox is a broken browser - the sooner the dev team and the fanboys admit that the sooner it can be a great browser. The trouble is the web's gone the otherway. Instead of coding only for IE it seems to be coding only for firefox so its just as bad whichever way you look at it If HK-47 and GLaDOS had a child, the character they create would cause the video game world to overdose on awesome. -sheridanmovieguy: Dragon age forum user.

April 18th, 2006	Top \| #17
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? Each browser has it's problems, internet alone has problems of course. Any browser is better then IE, firefox will be fixed and better soon. Hopefully

April 18th, 2006	Top \| #18
fitz *XPista7eopardix Joined: April 2004 Location: Chicagoland Posts: 4,028 Reputation: 2947 Power: 168**	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? Originally Posted by Sazar IE uses about 40MB or so and then there's azureus which, when on, uses about 40-50MB or thereabouts. Hey Sazar, ever consider using uTorrent? Uses a heck of a lot less memory (mine is running at <7MB in memory right now.. even adding memory used by PeerGuardian, any time I use a torrent it uses <10Mb of memory.. Hee-hee! Evil makes my buttocks tingle.

April 18th, 2006	Top \| #19
j79zlr Glaanies script monkey Joined: February 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 2,725 Reputation: 1520 Power: 155	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? Originally Posted by LordOfLA firefox is a broken browser - the sooner the dev team and the fanboys admit that the sooner it can be a great browser. The trouble is the web's gone the otherway. Instead of coding only for IE it seems to be coding only for firefox so its just as bad whichever way you look at it I don't like feeding the trolls, but there's no such thing as "coding for firefox" Unless of course you mean using web standards, also known as coding for every modern browser. http://www.j79zlr.com

April 18th, 2006	Top \| #20
VLT OSNN Junior Addict Joined: April 2004 Location: Western Australia Posts: 43 Reputation: 0 Power: 100	Re: Why Does Firefox do this ? Hey all, thanks heaps for all your responses I make sure im always uptodate with FF, so i currently have 1.5.0.2 And this version gave me 1gb of memory loss ahaha ... (fixed memory leaks ??) I went to one of the link (Admiral Michael) posted Entering " config.trim_on_minimize " as "True" on the FF config. On minimise its "Memory Usage" reduces considerably, although the Virtual Memory and Peak Memory still are high, i will keep an eye on it though.