FireFox Memory Leak

[de-co1]

As a recent newcomer to Firefox, I have been enjoying the functionality of the application, and in particular, the ease and speed of browsing - that was on 1.0.7.

I upgraded to 1.5 last week, both at work and home, and have noticed a huge increase in my memory usage. I don't notice it at work, as the PC here is a decent spec, but at home, my laptop only has 256Mb RAM.

I did all the standard checks etc, and on researching this problem, have noticed that it is an actual Firefox issue with no fix (as of yet). Bugzilla forums even have the developers discussing the issue with no solution to date.

This effectively renders Firefox on my home PC useless, but having got used to the program, it's hard to turn back. I do surf graphic intensive sites for 3D work and images, yet the problem continues with all and any sites. I also know that this has to with Firefox not releasing the memory used to store the image data required to render images and backgrounds, and / or possibly conflicts with the Adblock, Java and Flash extensions - uninstalling these didn't help either.

I have changed the config settings in Firefox as suggested as a work around on the various forums, as well as ALL the other suggestions I have come across, but to no avail.

I have gone as far as loading up a small app that frees up my RAM, but even this isn't that successful in freeing up my memory.

I'm sure people here have experienced this problem, but with the good level of professionalism in this forum, and strong knowledge base, I am wondering if anyone has actually discovered a method, or permanent work around to this problem.

[Glenn Pope]

I never noticed it. Probably because I have 2gb of ram on my home system. Looks like the only work around so far is to get more memory. Could that be an option for you? Not only should it fix this problem, but help the system just run faster.

[de-co1]

It's my business laptop, and it's only really meant to be used for documentation and administration, as well as web surfing, so I'm really reluctant to upgrade the RAM, add to which, I'm busy working on a new desktop, and know this won't be a problem then, but I need to keep the funds for that. For the time being though, it's really :banghead: .

As so many people around the world seem to have the same problem, I hope that sometime soon, someone will come up with a proper solution / fix. I like AUGI for that reason - many intelligent minds working together, and it's in here where solutions can be found.

As a layman on the world wide web, developer forums are complete jargon and therefore beyond me. Any other not-so-technical forums related to this always tend to contain threads with people simply blaming, throwing insults, and using poor grammar, but they do not contain actions being taken to actually assist developers...!

[Damo]

Hi De-Co1,

I upgraded to Firefox 1.5 last week and noticed the next day that my PC was struggling. At one stage it wouldn't load any web site, including Google and BBC News. Had to re-boot the PC for it to work again.

My initial thoughts were; what has changed on my PC (Firefox upgrade to 1.5) and is this causing the problem? I don't have the time to investigate it fully (been using IE in the meantime).

Your post is making me wonder whether it is Firefox !!

I have a 3.2Ghz with 1GB ram.

[de-co1]

Simply searching for Firefox 1.5 memory leak (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hs=8RZ&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial_s&q=firefox+1.5+memory+leak&btnG=Search&meta= target=blank) on Google will give you a good idea.

My laptop struggles generally (1.5 Ghz / 256 RAM), but after I loaded up Firefox 1.5, I really noticed the difference. It took me several days to figure out why, before I actually started having a look around on the web. I came across loads of sites where people were discussing this issue, and this was all confirmed when I stumbled upon the Bugzilla developer's forum, where the developer's themselves were discussing the issue.

My work PC is quite a high spec, and I don't experience the problem here... Now I have to decide - do I backtrack and go back to 1.0.7, at the same time wasting all the time I spent getting my Firefox on work system running really well (with all it's extensions etc), or do I hold out until someone comes along with a plan, frustratingly closing down and / or rebooting my laptop just so that I can surf the net...?

I tried going back to IE, but that non-existent tab feature really does make it hard to return...

[Glenn Pope]

WOW, I just now check task manager to check out how much memory Firefox was taking. Its using up 160mb :shock:

[blads]

WOW, I just now check task manager to check out how much memory Firefox was taking. Its using up 160mb :shock:I've just checked mine with task manager & I'm only getting 39,000K ....

[Mike.Perry]

Kudos to Troy Williams for originally posting the following link...

This May Help Your Firefox Memory Leak (http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/03/26/this-may-help-your-firefox-memory-leak/)

[Ron Oldenbeuving]

As usual, you're on the money again, Brother Mike. :beer::beer::beer:

[de-co1]

Thanks for the link Mike... will try it out and see how it performs....

[Mike.Perry]

Kudos to Troy Williams for originally posting the following link...

This May Help Your Firefox Memory Leak (http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/03/26/this-may-help-your-firefox-memory-leak/)Here is some more info on this subject, that may prove helpful / useful...

Reducing Your Memory Usage In Firefox (http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/04/04/reducing-your-memory-usage-in-firefox/)

Hands on: A look at Firefox's memory issues (http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/apps/story/0,10801,111065,00.html)

[de-co1]

Here is some more info on this subject, that may prove helpful / useful...

Hands on: A look at Firefox's memory issues (http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/apps/story/0,10801,111065,00.html)

This one may prove useful, however, my experiences aren't as bad now that I upgraded from 256 RAM to a 'whopping' 768 RAM!!! But even before that I started getting better performance from Firefox, but as the article above mentions, I do still wait a little for it to open if I click on a link within email... not that this really concerns me that much...

Now to try out the suggestions in the articles...

Thanks again

[Mike.Perry]

This one may prove useful, however, my experiences aren't as bad now that I upgraded from 256 RAM to a 'whopping' 768 RAM!!! But even before that I started getting better performance from Firefox, but as the article above mentions, I do still wait a little for it to open if I click on a link within email... not that this really concerns me that much...Hi David

This might prove handy...

Leak Monitor (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2490/)


This extension pops up an alert dialog to warn chrome and extension developers about one particular type of leak. It warns when chrome windows close but leave other code pointing at their JavaScript objects.:beer: Mike