Firefox get slow fast? Chew up insane amounts of memory?
 

Since getting into developing extensions, I've been keeping closer tabs on them and found that many of them are causing big problems.

If you suspect big memory leaks, if your browser is sucking up 500m+ memory, try this:

Type in about:config into the address bar and click "I'll be careful, I promise"

Type in Javascript into the Filter and look for these two entries:

javascript.options.showInConsole
javascript.options.strict

Set them both to true and then continue browsing like normal.
This will output the errors that extensions generate.

An example that I've found is the google toolbar. For what ever reason, it was firing off an error that fired off another error in the very core of Firefox itself. This particular combination set off an infinite loop on itself generating errors as quickly as the computer could process them.

Firefox would ramp up to 700-800m of memory within an hour and begin to cause problems for the whole machine so long as it was open.

So if you have some extensions installed and find your memory problems have gotten out of hand, you may need to do some house cleaning. The extensions are only nice so long as they're not bringing down the entire computer with it.

bump for stuuuuuuuuuuu

yes sometimes i notice FF acts weird. like its eating memory, i usualyy just close all browsers tabs/windows and goes away... but sometimes I have tons of shit open, and programs running...

burn a DVD while playing WOW and looking at 10 tabs? lol

use opera :)

Or, if you want to use Firefox extensions, use Firefox.

something in the latest update of the fox is crashing it on mac for me now, no new extensions :(

I always use Opera and NEVER get problems or you can try Chrome or Safari, awesome browsers!

Like stated above, Opera, Chrome, NOR Safari have FireFox extensions, so if that's what you want, then obviously they are no good either...

thanks stuart. i've been having similar problems with firefox lately.

Some good advice! Thx

FF rules! :thumbsup

Interesting advice. That google toolbar slows it down, eh.

I have written many bug reports on this problem and Firefox pretends it doesn't exist... Google for it and everyone is talking about it...

I've had way too many problems with 3.x - went back to the last stable 2.x release.

I'd been having the same problem recently with SeaMonkey, which is based off FF... wish I had seen this sooner, I ended up getting pissed and uninstalling it and am now using Chrome.

I remember how with ff2 my max usage was hole 1 gb of ram.But with ff3 memory usage finaly normalized.

I updated Firefox the other day and now the ABC movie player doesn't work anymore, LOL.

Anyway, yes, sometimes Firefox can really tie up resources. I usually just close it out and open it up again.

good catch.

you did send this to Mozilla right? they should certainly know about this if they don't.

Thanks very much ..MAC user here ..will try it .. I was actually noticing some small issues

Output the errors where?

switch to firefox :winkwink:

FF sucked balls since day one. Worst browser ever. And fanboys continue wiping their dicks into it...

FF hasn't worked that great on any computer I've ever used it on. For me it has been the most shitty browser out of FF, MS, Chrome, NS and Opera.

I'm using Chrome and IE now without any problems.

That is such a pain though.

I can have IE and Chrome windows open for days and even weeks and there are no issues.

I like firefox. but yeah it was just slowing everything down. thanks to the OP

The Error Console, sorry, forgot to specify.
If you click on Tools and then Error Console, you can see all errors that a website, or Firefox itself generates.

try using Chrome

To add another issue, at least one I experience often, is if your internet drops even for a few seconds, FireFox seems to screw up and won't load any pages anymore. Closing it, if you view Task Manager you can see the process still running and have to kill it there. Then you can re-launch it and use it again properly.

With Firefox extensions?

I hate that shit and it happens all the time. Also one of the worst culprits for screwing up FF at least for me is GMail and Google Analytics. Seems like there's always some kind of fuckup when I use them.

get chrome

Those who can not read should not reply. :2 cents: