Fixing Firefox's Large Use For Memory...

[9block 0]

I am currently doing some quick research for why Firefox uses so much memory - right now mine's at 115mb and is very common for alot of users to reach 100mb. I have read that it has to do with the caching of pages and the navigation. A feature firefox apparently has is that it cache's links you previously clicked on a site (for how long I am not sure) and when you click a link you've already clicked, it loads quicker. They do this because studies have apparently said that 39% of link clicks are links clicked in the past 10 minutes - in the end faster navigation. It was said that multi tabs can quickly load up your cache.

 

The above may be one reason, but I researched further and found some adjustments you can make to lower the memory usage and increase speed times. (Odd because I thought the more mem usage, the faster it would go because it can use data in memory rather than calling it from harddrive).

 

Heres for the cache feature I was talking about.

1. type about:config (no quotes) in the browser.

2. Find browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer

2. set its value to 0″

apparently this is a little hack that will allow firefox to use only 10mb ram when its minimized... guess well see.

Note that firefox will become slower (less responsive) if you minimize/maximize alot because the following 'hack' will make firefox suspend memory to the disk when minimized. So it will have to write/read memory every time.

1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.

2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.

3. In the box that pops up enter config.trim_on_minimize. Press Enter.

4. Now select True and then press Enter.

5. Restart Firefox.

This will allow tab browsing to be faster by allowing more than one page to be loaded at a time.

Set network.http.pipelining to true

Set network.http.proxy.pipelining to true

Set network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to some number like 30.

and this modifies the amount of time the browser waits before it does something with incoming info...|

right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it nglayout.initialpaint.delay and set its value to 0″.

(you might have to create some of these entries by Right Click > New > Interger or String

 

network.dns.disableIPv6: set false

content.notify.backoffcount: set 5″

plugin.expose_full_path: set true.

ui.submenuDelay: set 0″ (zero)

There is a meta tag (i believe) that allows websites to prefetch webpages. It was said to (be known for) taking alot of memory.

Set network.prefetch-next to false.

 

And heres a little joke curtsy of signaturebar.com

 

Hope this helps everyone out. I'll post back in a bit and tell you if I notice any changes.

 

Sources

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/=

http://internetducttape.com/2006/12/02/howk-firefox-hack/

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

[jlhaslip 4]

Hope this helps everyone out. I'll post back in a bit and tell you if I notice any changes.

Well, I have done those changes and prior to the Modifications, I loaded three pages into three tabs and browsed through all three sites a little bit, then did a cntl-alt-delete to check the size of the process. 140 Megs being used by the Firefox process.

After performing those mods, and restarting Firefox, another cntl-alt-delete to check the size of the process. 76 Megs being used by the Firefox process. Just about 50% reduction in process size. WOW!

Although this is not exactly a 'scientific evaluation' I will check this again a couple of times and report any serious issues that may crop up. So far, i have nothing to report that affects the functioning of the Firefox Browser after performing those changes. Good find.

[dre 0]

Let it use 150+ mb, I got plenty more waiting. Since I do cruise around with the back and forward button a lot, this will come in handy. However, daredevils with 256mb (or less) might find this information more useful.

[9block 0]

After performing those mods, and restarting Firefox, another cntl-alt-delete to check the size of the process. 76 Megs being used by the Firefox process. Just about 50% reduction in process size. WOW!

hope that helps alot... dont forget to browse a couple pages and stuff and check because checking right after a restart would have it fairly low. Mines sitting at 105MB and ive been running it for hours.

[jlhaslip 4]

After 2 hours of using the Internet and Localhost, it is up to 104 Megs. Still better than the 140 reported earlier.

[eka_ys 0]

I think the configuration works well, I usually get more than 150 Megs after using firefox for more than 6 hours but now it's reduced to 80 Megs. Thanks a lot for the recommendation

[eldias 0]

ok, I will try on my ffox over linux, maybe can help, I need speed up my browser, its very lazy.

[anachro 0]

ha! thats pretty cool, if all seems to go well I just might do this, thats is.. if it truely does more good than bad

[whiskers_w 0]

Let me join the bandwagon. The fixes in this post have saved me from throwing my computer out of the window. Not only did it stabilize and reduce Firefox's use of memory on my computer, but it appears to have gotten rid of the main problem i have been having for several months. At least, I think it has. Thanks for that scoop. It has really been a life saver for my computer.

 

I would like, however to get some feedback on the most persistent problem I have been having with this machine, in case the solutions presented here do NOT really impact it. The problem is so bad it appears to be spreading virally between computers, and therefore is an area of extreme concern. Here's what happens at least 10 times per day:

The computer stops responding

The hourglass replaces the arrow cursor

The screen goes white

The hard disk light comes on

I can hear the hard disk doing something like its scanning or seeking

The windows piano sound (for failure or something incomplete) chimes in

An Unresponsive Script Error message pops up.

Once the script stops the page contents become visible again

That whole process takes about 6 minutes and usually ends with a change in my Gmail to a "newer version"

Once all that ends, the computer functions normally until i either type something or open another window. Then the proccess repeats itself. It happens whether I am online or offline. Whether I am running internet explorer, firefox, or netscape, microsoft word 2007, excel, or any other office product, adobe illustrator, acrobar, or photoshop....

 

First, my wife's laptop was doing it. Hers is a vista machine with a P4 HT 3.0 2GB, with 100GB HD. I thought it was a flaw in Vista, but after about 2 months, whatever was wrong with hers started to affect mine. We are connected to a wireless network in the house with internet service provided by Comcast Cable. We have Comcast phone service on the network, as well as Vonage (4 lines). We use a double firewall on top of the built-in firewall in the Comcast modem. The worst thing is now, one of my business associates is having the same problem, as of Friday past (January 11th), and im worried that it could have been spread via gmail.

 

Can somebody please tell me what this is and how to get it to stop.

[coolcat50 0]

Let me join the bandwagon. The fixes in this post have saved me from throwing my computer out of the window. Not only did it stabilize and reduce Firefox's use of memory on my computer, but it appears to have gotten rid of the main problem i have been having for several months. At least, I think it has. Thanks for that scoop. It has really been a life saver for my computer.

 

I would like, however to get some feedback on the most persistent problem I have been having with this machine, in case the solutions presented here do NOT really impact it. The problem is so bad it appears to be spreading virally between computers, and therefore is an area of extreme concern. Here's what happens at least 10 times per day:

The computer stops responding

The hourglass replaces the arrow cursor

The screen goes white

The hard disk light comes on

I can hear the hard disk doing something like its scanning or seeking

The windows piano sound (for failure or something incomplete) chimes in

An Unresponsive Script Error message pops up.

Once the script stops the page contents become visible again

That whole process takes about 6 minutes and usually ends with a change in my Gmail to a "newer version"

Once all that ends, the computer functions normally until i either type something or open another window. Then the proccess repeats itself. It happens whether I am online or offline. Whether I am running internet explorer, firefox, or netscape, microsoft word 2007, excel, or any other office product, adobe illustrator, acrobar, or photoshop....

 

First, my wife's laptop was doing it. Hers is a vista machine with a P4 HT 3.0 2GB, with 100GB HD. I thought it was a flaw in Vista, but after about 2 months, whatever was wrong with hers started to affect mine. We are connected to a wireless network in the house with internet service provided by Comcast Cable. We have Comcast phone service on the network, as well as Vonage (4 lines). We use a double firewall on top of the built-in firewall in the Comcast modem. The worst thing is now, one of my business associates is having the same problem, as of Friday past (January 11th), and im worried that it could have been spread via gmail.

 

Can somebody please tell me what this is and how to get it to stop.

Well, I do not believe that it has anything to do with Firefox. I believe a virus got in your computer and is still in there and doing damage. If you have uploaded anything recently through Gmail and sent that to your business associate and he/she downloaded the file. The virus could have attached itself to your file and you basically sent him/her a virus. I would run several virus scans and look through your files for anything suspicious. Be careful though and if you do search your files, do it in safe mode.

[Saint_Michael 3]

The computer stops responding

The hourglass replaces the arrow cursor

The screen goes white

The hard disk light comes on

I can hear the hard disk doing something like its scanning or seeking

The windows piano sound (for failure or something incomplete) chimes in

An Unresponsive Script Error message pops up.

Once the script stops the page contents become visible again

That whole process takes about 6 minutes and usually ends with a change in my Gmail to a "newer version"

Once all that ends, the computer functions normally until i either type something or open another window. Then the proccess repeats itself. It happens whether I am online or offline. Whether I am running internet explorer, firefox, or netscape, microsoft word 2007, excel, or any other office product, adobe illustrator, acrobar, or photoshop....

 

First, my wife's laptop was doing it. Hers is a vista machine with a P4 HT 3.0 2GB, with 100GB HD. I thought it was a flaw in Vista, but after about 2 months, whatever was wrong with hers started to affect mine. We are connected to a wireless network in the house with internet service provided by Comcast Cable. We have Comcast phone service on the network, as well as Vonage (4 lines). We use a double firewall on top of the built-in firewall in the Comcast modem. The worst thing is now, one of my business associates is having the same problem, as of Friday past (January 11th), and im worried that it could have been spread via gmail.

 

Can somebody please tell me what this is and how to get it to stop.

1. Open the task manager and see what processes are being run while this is happen, pay special attention to the CPU Usage % to see how it spikes, then while that is going press the CPU tab so the highest % is up top, and that way you can see whats taking up all that processing speed. {Problem is your RAM/Processor}

 

2. Loading something up so there is no real problem with that just the program your loading. {Problem: Program Possible RAM issue}

 

3. Well I check some other sites about this problem and it could be the video portion of your motherboard could be failing and the only fix for that is to replace the motherboard, unless of course if you have a video card then try updating hte drivers or replace the card itself, after trying it on another machine.

 

4-5. Your hard drive is writing information in and if your not doing any saving of anything kind them you could have a virus in your computer

 

6. Is it repeating the sound or just sounds when an error shows up, and do you get an error pop up at all when this chimes in?

 

7. No idea since its hard to tell what script your running when you get that error

 

8. Usually you get that error when the Javascript doesn't load completely and so pressing stop the script usually helps or just reloading the page will fix this error. These errors usually don't cause to many problems though, because I get it a lot when I login into yahoo.

 

9. Go through steps 1-8 to troubleshoot your problem.

 

First off P4 processors have some issues with vista due to the fact that they are very old so you might have upgrade your processor, which also means upgrading your motherboard as well to go duo core. You don't mention RAM so I assume you have 2Gb needed to run it somewhat smoothly, and I haven't encountered any problems with vista from what your describing. I don't know any known viruses that are out right now, and so I would assume you are scanning to see if you picked anything up, and if not go into safe mode and scan your computers to see if they find anything. If I am reading this correctly your saying you have two firewalls installed on each computer, and if so thats a bit overkill and get rid of one of them since you got one through your router as well.

 

I think its just a memory problem and not a virus, and I would say do a little computer cleaning such as running disk cleaner and defragging your computer, maybe run spybot as well to fix some of the problems to see what happens.

 

PHEW...ON TOPIC

 

I put these tweaks in and seen some improvement, and someone of them are already defaults so that save some time, which lead me to find a few more on a topic I created for it as well. So hopefully when Firefox 3 goes full version that these tweaks will improve the memory even more.

[FLaKes 0]

That is one of the reasons I have sort of stopped liking firefox, I cant believe they let it do this. It gets really slow to the point were you have to restart firefox. =( its been giving me plenty of problems lately.

[Watermonkey 0]

Macs aren't immune to this problem either. I'll have to try using those settings on my Mac and I'll get back to you all. Right now, FF is consuming more than 71% of the CPU!