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Excessive CPU & Mem Usage in New Firefox Release 58.0.1

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Firefox was running OK after you guys got past the bad initial v57 releases. However, after the most recent update to 58.0.1, the old problem with extremely high CPU and memory usage has returned. CPU usage routinely peaks out at 90-99% and mem usage will approach or exceed 50%, which when over 50% has caused my ThinkPad to crash.

Back when I had problems with the initial Quantum v57 release, The dom.ipc.processCount value had been modified down to 2, and the com.ipc.processCount.webLargeAllocation had been modified down to 4. These changes seemed to help before but now makes no diffference.

The high CPU & mem usage happens with only 1 or 2 tabs active. In the attached screen print, there is only one active tab but 3 active instances of Firefox sucking up 70% of the overall 99% CPU utilization which basically hangs up my ThinkPad.

What gives? I'd appreciate some help. Thanks.

Firefox was running OK after you guys got past the bad initial v57 releases. However, after the most recent update to 58.0.1, the old problem with extremely high CPU and memory usage has returned. CPU usage routinely peaks out at 90-99% and mem usage will approach or exceed 50%, which when over 50% has caused my ThinkPad to crash. Back when I had problems with the initial Quantum v57 release, The dom.ipc.processCount value had been modified down to 2, and the com.ipc.processCount.webLargeAllocation had been modified down to 4. These changes seemed to help before but now makes no diffference. The high CPU & mem usage happens with only 1 or 2 tabs active. In the attached screen print, there is only one active tab but 3 active instances of Firefox sucking up 70% of the overall 99% CPU utilization which basically hangs up my ThinkPad. What gives? I'd appreciate some help. Thanks.
Ama-screenshot ananyekiwe

Isisombululo esikhethiwe

I haven't gotten any responses for weeks. My workaround has been to use MS Edge. MS Edge will open up almost a dozen processes but will not suck up as much cpu/mem resources as Firefox.

I was about to post a follow-up compliant on this thread when i came upon a post by Felis-Licht on 01/31/18. The soloution presented there also presented a solution to this problem. Modifying the brower.tabs.remote.autostart setting eliminated the multi-processes and dramatically reduced cpu/mem usage.

This problem can be considered closed.

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All Replies (11)

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hello, can you try to replicate this behaviour when you launch firefox in safe mode once? Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems

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Hello Phillip,

Restarted Firefox in SafeMode. Opened CNN in one tab. Had another tab opened that was restored from the previous session, which showed procedures for SafeMode restart.

Same problem. Attached screen print of high cpu utilization. Mem usage was lower this time.

BTW - when rebooting laptop after shutting down Firefox to ensure exit from SafeMode, Windows boot hung after log-in, with blank screen, and took several minutes to complete. But no apparent problems.

Hope this helps.

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thanks, in addition could you go to the firefox menu ≡ > help ? > troubleshooting information, copy the contents of that page and paste them here into a reply on the forum (or if it's too long and doesn't fit here through a site like https://pastebin.mozilla.org/ and provide the link)?

this might give us a clue what is going on. thank you!

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There's 9 pages of troubleshooting info. Do you want all 9 pages or just the first page? I saved the 9 pages to a PDF.

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please use the copy button on top of about:support to put the text into the clipboard and then go to https://pastebin.mozilla.org/ and paste it there, send it and share the link here. that's the best & easiest way. thanks!

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OK ... here's the link.

https://pastebin.mozilla.org/9077155

Also, attached screen print of Task Manager status that corresponds to the troubleshooting info.

Hope this helps.

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that link only contains a fraction of the useful info from that page (the graphics section would be interesting for example). just hit the "Copy text to clipboard" button on top of about:support and it will capture all the information to paste...

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OK ... hope you'll get everything you need this time.

https://pastebin.mozilla.org/9077235

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thanks, is there any change when you update your graphics driver to the latest available crimson edition beta version from http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/legacy?product=legacy3&os=Windows%2010%20-%2064 ?

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I'd already used AMD's auto-detect last November to update my graphics drivers and did so again just a little while ago.

The beta release that you want me to try came out in 2016 (see below), is dated and should have been incorporated in subsequent releases.

Radeon Software Crimson Edition Beta 260 MB Crimson Edition 16.2.1 Beta 2/29/2016

Anyways, peformance did not change/improve after driver update. See attached screen print.

As an aside, after a while, utilization will settle down but will peak out unexpectedly and remain high when I have other apps open or if additional tabs are open in Firefox.

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Isisombululo Esikhethiwe

I haven't gotten any responses for weeks. My workaround has been to use MS Edge. MS Edge will open up almost a dozen processes but will not suck up as much cpu/mem resources as Firefox.

I was about to post a follow-up compliant on this thread when i came upon a post by Felis-Licht on 01/31/18. The soloution presented there also presented a solution to this problem. Modifying the brower.tabs.remote.autostart setting eliminated the multi-processes and dramatically reduced cpu/mem usage.

This problem can be considered closed.