Any Firefox guru's here?

[Joeaksa]

Anyone real good with Firefox here? Am having an issue with FF and have not found a descent way to get around it.

Simply put, its a memory hog after using it for a while. I open it up and usually have 4-5 browser windows open. Each browser window I have from 1-5 tabs open. Every time you open a new browser or tab it takes more memory from the system.

Problem is that when you close a tab or browser the system does not release the memory and after a while your system starts having problems. This is using XP.

My laptop is the worst and after it gets to 8-900,000k it starts to slow down. The desktop will work fine up to 1.300,000k then the same thing. Only way I can find to get it to release the memory it has grabbed is to "ctrl, alt, del" and close down Firefox then restart it and use the "Restore all windows" button to get back where I was.

Any suggestions?

[id10t]

What version? FF2 was like that for me, but FF3 is much better...

[Joeaksa]

Sorry, am using version 2. Tried V3 and liked it but it would not work with "Google sync" so reverted back to V2. Now that Google is stopping "sync" guess I could upgrade to V3.

Joe

[Rick V]

Just settle on one type of porn and it should be ok. FF doesn't like too much various stuff.

[Joeaksa]

Rick,

If it was porn could open only one or two windows and be happy!

Problem is that I am the admin on a couple of bulletin boards and open one browser for each board to keep an eye on them. Then open a separate tab for individual treads, then close it afterwards. FF does not release the memory once the tab is closed and after a while things just slow right down.

[masraum]

I'm curious about the answer too. I only occasionally have a problem with it, but I do see FF using tons of mem. I'm curious to see if there's an answer. Would adjusting the memory, disk cache and history of FF help?

[legion]

I have the same problem. Eventually the system locks up and I have to hit the power button.

With Version 2, I got an add-on that blocked Flash controls. That worked great...until I upgraded to Version 3.

I usually only have one browser with 1-5 tabs up.

Guess what? IE is much better at managing memory. Ironic, I know.

[masraum]

I have 4 Gigs of RAM. I usually have 10-20 tabs open, and often leave FF open for days or weeks. I notice things getting a bit slower than normal and close and reopen FF and that fixes it. I guess my issue is not really a problem, just an observation.

[RWebb]

it is a good idea to just shut down the computer at night and reboot in the am.

this solves your me release issue AND allows the various system checks that only come with a cold boot

[Zeke]

Set your FF to display a window that says "Clear Private Data" I also have a window that pops up when I close that asks, "Save and Quit" or just "Quit." Or you could simply erase your history every hour or so.

I'm not an IT guy whatsoever and I have no memory problems (with the computer that is)

[MBAtarga]

Joe,
One of the documented V3 "fixes" is to reclaim memory for the OS - which was a defect with V2 - memory was not being released when tabs were closed.

[chuckr]

completely delete the old FF off your system...control panel.. add/remove programs.
download FF 3 and install. You should be fine. I'm running FF3.1 beta 2 right now and have
been for a couple of weeks with no problems

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by chuckr

completely delete the old FF off your system...control panel.. add/remove programs.
download FF 3 and install. You should be fine. I'm running FF3.1 beta 2 right now and have
been for a couple of weeks with no problems

And if you do it this way how do you get all of your old bookmarks, cookies and such moved over to V3?

Joe

[chuckr]

Doing it this way you do loose all of your info.... however you are having an unusual problem
that is not normal. You can try downloading FF3, installing and then delete FF2 and see if that
solves your issues. If not.... well try it the other way. This may not be a FF issue. You may be
having memory allocation problems

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

And if you do it this way how do you get all of your old bookmarks, cookies and such moved over to V3?

Joe

You can export your bookmarks to a file called "bookmark.html" and then reimport them. I think that you could probably also backup your cookies. I think they are just small text files in a folder, but I'm not sure that copying them out and back in would work. That's only a guess on my part.

[Joeaksa]

Well guys, this V3 is a real POS! Switched to it two days ago and a MINIMUM of twice a day it "auto-shuts down" closing down every Firefox window on the computer. Error message is "we have encountered a problem that requires us to shut the browser down" ... end of story, you are dead in the water.

This is V3.0.5 and a fresh install. If this keeps going like this its going to be reverting back to V2 or IE.

[chuckr]

you have other issues going on with your pc. have you ever run ccleaner or hijackthis ??
I run FF all day with multiple tabs open sometimes watching cnn/live on one monitor
while working on another... never had a problem. the ccleaner and hijackthis will find
and correct most simple problems. Do you have IE installed ? it should not be an issue
I have IE7 and sometimes have it open while running FF, what I'm getting at is if you
have IE with your bookmarks FF should get them when you do a clean install of FF...
not sure about this though. Did you delete the old FF or install the new FF then delete
the old FF ? IF you have IE does it have any problems ? do you install Adblock plus
with FF ? I really like the adblock plus add on for FF !

[MBAtarga]

Sorry to hear of the problem Joe. I've been running 3.0.5 since 12/18 and have yet to have any crash/shutdown problem.