Firefox RAM usage causing crashes?
Within the last three days, I've observed a new problem with my Firefox. I have never encountered this problem before. If I load any text or images onto a tab, it causes the RAM usage to increase. Usage does not decrease over time, and websites such as Facebook and 9GAG, with long streams of images and text, can cause RAM usage to increase to over 2.5 Gigabits. Once it reaches this threshold, Firefox crashes. Manually closing Firefox also removes RAM usage, although closing tabs does not. I went through the help list for crashes, although nothing helped. I am running the most recent version of Firefox (15.0)
(Note: problems still occur with all functions below disabled) Add-on's: Adblock Plus 2.1.2 AVG Do Not Track 12.0.0.2189 Greasemonkey 1.0 Memory Fox 7.4 (attempted fix to problem, did not work) Printing Helper 2.5 TinEye Reverse Image Search 1.1 Xmarks 4.1.2 Plugins: Adobe Acrobat iTunes Application Detector Java Deployment Toolkit Microsoft Office 2010 Pando Web Plugin Shockwave Flash Silverlight Plug-In VLC Web Plugin Windows Live Photo Gallery
Chosen solution
Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).
- Don't click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.
See "Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile":
There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.
If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.
See:
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The Shockwave and Java applications may need 'PLUGIN UPDATE' for newer versions. Suggest a check for any outdated PLUGIN UPDATE found from the Mozilla Firefox Toolbar 'Help' Menu > 'Firefox Help' > [lower right margin displays link to more info to review and 'UPDATE PLUGIN's!
Chosen Solution
Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).
- Don't click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.
See "Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile":
There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.
If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.
See:
I think that updating Java did help, but the problem persists, just at a slower rate.
And rebooting in safe mode completely solved the problem. But I'd rather not spend all my time in Safe mode so does this signify some other available solution?
If it does work in Firefox Safe-mode then disable all extensions and then try to find which is causing it by enabling one at a time until the problem reappears.
- Use "Disable all add-ons" on the Safe Mode start window to disable all extensions.
- Close and restart Firefox after each change via "File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit")