Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

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survivor78
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Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by survivor78 »

I've looked over the list of problematic extensions. Before I had NoScript, IETab and Cooliris installed, but now of those three I only have NoScript. Reading the potential issues it seems only IETab had some kind of memory leak.

Also I have tried with hardware acceleration off as well.

When FF is at it's worst there is always some CPU usage, generally anywhere from 6-12% up to about 24% at the highest; not a lot to be sure, but enough to cause a lag. That is also when the mem leak occurs. If things settle down, iow cpu at idle, then memory leak stops.

I am vexed.
Alan Baxter
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Joined: May 30th, 2005, 2:01 pm
Location: Colorado, USA

Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by Alan Baxter »

Just to cover your bases, survivor78, install the current development build of NoScript. See if that helps at all.
http://noscript.net/getit#devel
survivor78
Guest

Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by survivor78 »

Alan,

Thanks for the suggestion. Not that I thought it would help, but I did install the development build of NoScript. Same issue. Like I stated earlier, I tried even a brand spankin' new install of FF 4.0.1 with no extensions installed, same issue.

Unfortunately for now I am using Chrome for regular browsing, but I will keep on trying to get FF 4 running properly, but I have a feeling that ff % is going to be the next real try for me. I've seen elsewhere that Mozilla is aware of some kind of leaking issue and 5 is when it will be fixed. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Alan Baxter
Posts: 4419
Joined: May 30th, 2005, 2:01 pm
Location: Colorado, USA

Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by Alan Baxter »

You're welcome. Good luck!
survivor78
Guest

Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by survivor78 »

Here's a good one: Using FF 4.0.1 on my Vaio using Linux. I have a dual boot system and just play around with Ubuntu, just upgraded to "Natty Narwhal", whatever, and Firefox is running beautifully. No lag, no freeze, nada.

Go figure.
VanillaMozilla
Posts: 13808
Joined: November 7th, 2005, 11:26 am

Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by VanillaMozilla »

survivor78 wrote:I was watching the mem usage in task manager go from about 230,000 to over 500,000. Right now as I write this it stands at about 344,000k. So it dropped almost 200,000k just sitting here.


That doesn't sound like a memory leak. Something is allocating lots of memory and deallocating it. [b]Web sites can allocate memory on your computer. There can be many possible reasons. Large images. Stupid JavaScript. A plugin, e.g. Flash. I don't know what it is, but there's something active on that computer. There are also possible reasons why it might not happen all the time, or might happen on one computer but not another (e.g., a different setting?). A large memory leak by Firefox itself is possible, but not very likely (with the possible exception that I know nothing about hardware acceleration). No confirmed bugs listed. There are many other possible causes for what you are observing, like this this serious Google Mail bug).

survivor78 wrote:I've looked over the list of problematic extensions. ...Reading the potential issues it seems only IETab had some kind of memory leak.

Don't assume the list is complete. It does not even cover all known problems, much less the unknown problems.

You keep fooling with extensions. I really wish you just start with a new profile and not add anything to it until you're absolutely certain it works (or doesn't). Forget about extensions for a while. If you add an extension AFTER you're certain it works, and it doesn't work any more, well, there's your culprit. Keep in mind that extensions can change your settings, and thus have an effect even if they're not active.
billko
Posts: 281
Joined: September 30th, 2009, 9:24 pm

Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by billko »

On my machine, anything that has Flash involved is likely to take up a lot of memory that isn't returned to the system when it is finished with it. This has been a recurring theme from when I used FF3.x back in the day. If you play flash games on FB, for example, where you are constantly ducking into and out of the game, it could eat so much memory and CPU time that you have to restart FF. As it stands here, I've played online about 1/2 hr and my memory usage skyrocketed from ~ 200MB all the way to >500MB and so far after closing everything game-related and about an hour of poking around the internet, it's given me back a whopping 20MB, leaving it around 480MB. With Chrome and IE, I can play as long as I want to.
teoli2003
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Joined: November 10th, 2005, 2:54 am
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Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by teoli2003 »

billko, you do not have disabled plugin-containers, do you?
survivor78
Guest

Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by survivor78 »

Vanilla Mozila,

Your description sounds potentially accurate, but read through the whole thread, and you'll see not only did I try a new profile, but uninstalled and reinstalled FF, and tried it before I added anything. Same problem. I've tried with one and many tabs open, same thing. It will probably be a bit before I can find a good block of time to do more troubleshooting, but what would your thoughts be about the fact it does the same exact thing on two of three computers? It seems to work fine on Linux as well.

Thanks.
VanillaMozilla
Posts: 13808
Joined: November 7th, 2005, 11:26 am

Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by VanillaMozilla »

Survivor78, I saw that you tried a new profile, but I didn't understand why you're troubleshooting extensions. If you're sure that that part of the advice is not relevant, then ignore it, of course.

I don't know why it works on one computer but not another. A different setup? A different plugin or extension? (In the case of Linux, you definitely do have different plugin code.) A different Web site? The Web site serving different content? A bug that acts differently on different hardware? I have no idea, and I can't see the computers.
billko
Posts: 281
Joined: September 30th, 2009, 9:24 pm

Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by billko »

Hi, teoli:

plugin-container.exe appears in the task manager. This is all the entries I have for it:

dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npietab2.dll;true
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled;true
dom.ipc.plugins.java.enabled;false
dom.ipc.plugins.processLaunchTimeoutSecs;45
dom.ipc.plugins.timeoutSecs;45

Should there be an entry for Flash??? Having Flash run inside of FF instead of in plugin-container.exe would cause FF to eat up chunks of memory?

I looked the web around and found this, which should be the entry for Flash:
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll;true

I'll put it in and see what happens.
VanillaMozilla
Posts: 13808
Joined: November 7th, 2005, 11:26 am

Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by VanillaMozilla »

billko wrote:Should there be an entry for Flash??? ...I looked the web around and found this, which should be the entry for Flash: dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll;true

No. My version 4 for Windows does not have that entry. You shouldn't need it. I have no idea why.
billko
Posts: 281
Joined: September 30th, 2009, 9:24 pm

Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by billko »

Hmmm, you're right, I saw plugin-container.exe pop up in task manager without the entry as soon as I played a flash game on FB.
anathematized_one
Posts: 4
Joined: May 16th, 2011, 4:49 am

Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by anathematized_one »

I really only read the first page of this.

I seem to have a massive problem in leaking. Before version 4.x, I had no problems. Now, I get hangs and lags to the point that Firefox actually stops responding.

I have properly disabled everything that can be disabled as has been stated before on several things and I still have the same problem.

I noticed some people have these problems and some don't. My machine is a Windows 7 Home Premium x64, and I use Panda Cloud Antivirus, which I've tried running Firefox with that particular program completely closed (as well as any non-essential programs/extensions).

The problems I am having with Firefox 4 remind me of the problems I had with my Microsoft LifeCam Cinema in a way. When I first got it, the camera was great. Eventually, it would stop working though. I would try to use it and the blue indicator light would come on, but no other programs (including its own software) would even recognize it as plugged in, much less not in use by another program. I'd completely uninstall it, reboot, then reinstall. You would think that this would make it work, but even then it didn't work. The only thing that made it work is if I completely reinstalled the OS (I only found that out because I had to do so one time). Several people had this same problem, but many didn't. The people who had the problem all seemed to be Windows 7 users.

So, the problem to me seems to clearly be in Firefox, but not necessarily totally Firefox's fault. I think there might be something wrong with the coding or way it's set up so that with certain versions of windows or types of systems, there are some bugs that come out, which seems apparent in here as some people on some machines have the problems even with nothing running and some people have everything running and no problems.

I did notice one thing though that hasn't been mentioned.

When Firefox is deciding to work, I can load a page with flash stuff on it (for this example, I will use the CityVille Game on Facebook, as this is how I discovered the problem), and have no problems if the Firefox window is maximized. However, if the Firefox window is any other size other than fully maximized and I have a page like that open, it doesn't matter what I do, it instantly crashes every time, which I find highly peculiar.
VanillaMozilla
Posts: 13808
Joined: November 7th, 2005, 11:26 am

Re: Firefox memory leak the cause of most problems

Post by VanillaMozilla »

anathematized_one wrote:I really only read the first page of this.

Yeah, me too. I'm not going to read your long problem description. :wink:

anathematized_one wrote:if the Firefox window is any other size other than fully maximized and I have a page like that open, it doesn't matter what I do, it instantly crashes every time,

Wow. A crash you can duplicate. Has nothing to do with the subject of this thread, but interesting. Post a crash report and consider filing a bug report. Quite possibly a Flash bug, not a Firefox bug, of course.
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