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Why does Firefox keep grabbing more memory and never releasing it until you have to restart it?

  • 3 replies
  • 28 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by DrSteveL

DrSteveL
DrSteveL
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Firefox starts out taking up a relatively small amount of memory, but with use it takes more memory (1,000K) which is never released even when tabs are closed. I run Firefox on a Pentium HT system, 4GB RAM, Win XP Prof and on a Core i3 system, 4GB RAM, Win 7 Home Premium (64 bit) and see the same behavior on both systems. Is anyone working on a fix for this? I did not include the troubleshooting info because it made the question too long to post.

Firefox starts out taking up a relatively small amount of memory, but with use it takes more memory (1,000K) which is never released even when tabs are closed. I run Firefox on a Pentium HT system, 4GB RAM, Win XP Prof and on a Core i3 system, 4GB RAM, Win 7 Home Premium (64 bit) and see the same behavior on both systems. Is anyone working on a fix for this? I did not include the troubleshooting info because it made the question too long to post.

All Replies (3)

spock-
spock-
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I to have the same problem. However, it starts off with very low usage. Just having it sitting idle it starts to climb. Right now its approaching almost 300,000!!!! WHY??? Im using XP and I think 4 gigs of ram

David McRitchie
David McRitchie
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I have a suggestion to use an extension to restart Firefox when you will be away from your machine for a couple of minutes. "QuickStart" for users prior to Firefox 4.0 or "Restartless Restart" extension for those on or after Firefox 4.0.

See

DrSteveL
DrSteveL Question owner
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The problem is not in restarting, the problem is that Firefox (8.0.1 in my case) starts out grabbing about 300,000 K according to the task manager and keeps on gobbling up memory until it gets up over 1,000,000 K at which point it usually crashes. The point at which it crashes is usually between 1,000,000 K and 1,500,000 K. It also grabs an enormous number of processor cycles from time to time; enough processor cycles and memory that Norton 360 posts an alert.