100 % CPU usage makes Firefox unusable :-(

Phil246 · Post by **Phil246** » April 30th, 2006, 5:19 am

Im suffering from this problem on firefox 1.5.02, flashblock is at the lastest version.
It seems to occur every 30 minutes, ive tracked it through 3 cycles so far.
Checking on the executable with sysinternals process explorer, the threads running at the time were :

mscvrt.dll!endthreadex+0x3a
Firefox.exe!jpeg_fdct_islow+0x247ac
mswsock.dll!NSPStartup+0x2cbf
RPCRT4.dll!RpcBCacheFree+0x5b8

(that probably would make more sense to the techies then it does me)
but my guess is its related to something cleaning out a cache - and a thread hanging for some reason
Have taken a screenshot if it helps :
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7130/screenshot1zm.png

palffyfan · Post by **palffyfan** » April 30th, 2006, 3:22 pm

I also suffered from high CPU usage for about a day. However I remembered that I was accessing the Internet through a proxy that caused my links to open 20x slower than usual while keeping my CPU at 100% during that entire time. Disabling proxy access resolved the issue.

nezvanova11 · Post by **nezvanova11** » May 1st, 2006, 9:45 pm

I have tried both with and without proxies and the problem persists!
Just today I got my SFNL newsletter and Scot had a potential cure for some FireFox users.
His suggestion did not help me but it should be explored by everyone inflicted with this FireFox problem of RAM usage, large virtual memory footprint and/or CPU hogging.
Briefly:

A Cache Fix That's Worked for Some
Double-check your browser cache settings to make sure they're functional.
You can also adjust the browser cache to match the amount of memory on your system.

Follow these steps:
Firefox has a special settings screen called about:config.
To access it, open a new tab and type about:config into the URL bar.
Press Enter.
You'll see a long list of text entries.
Each line is a different setting, like lines in an .INI file or System Registry entries.
You're looking for this line: browser.cache.memory.enable
There's a type-ahead feature, so just start typing.
Once you get there, check to make sure its "Value" setting reads True then follow these steps:
1. Right-click any blank area in the about:config window and choose New > Integer from the pop-up menu.
2. The New Integer Value box will open. Copy and paste this setting name into the open dialog box:
browser.cache.memory.capacity
3. In the Enter Integer Value box that opens, enter -1 to preserve Firefox's default operational mode.
4. To customize the setting to your computer's physical memory, consult this MozillaZine page.

As a summary, use the following:

RAM= 64MB >> CACHE= 4096
RAM=128MB >> CACHE= 6144
RAM=256MB >> CACHE=10240
RAM=512MB >> CACHE=22528
RAM= 1GB >> CACHE=32768
RAM= 2GB >> CACHE=45056
RAM= 4GB >> CACHE=59392
Note: If you have less than 128MB of RAM, that's probably the cause of your Firefox issues.
Heavy Firefox users should strongly consider upgrading their RAM to at least 1GB.

Seriously consider subscribing to his great SFNL Newsletter and/or his low-key approach to User/Help Forums

schapel · Post by **schapel** » May 2nd, 2006, 5:08 am

The default setting of -1 for browser.cache.memory.capacity automatically adjusts your cache according to the RAM present on your computer. The only value I would recommend setting it to is 4096, and only if for some reason you need to conserve every last megabyte. If you do that, I also recommend setting browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers to 0 to turn off the bfcache, which can potentially use more memory than the memory cache. <a href="http://kb.mozillazine.org/Memory_Leak#Settings_that_reduce_memory_usage">These settings are described in the MozillaZine Knowledge Base</a>. I would highly recommend anyone with Firefox problems look through the Knowledge Base for helpful tips like these.

I would suggest that everyone upgrade to at least 512 MB of RAM (<a href="http://www.seniortechcenter.org/hardware_and_software/minimum_recommended.php">this site recommends 512 MB even for senior citizens!</a>). 256 MB is the bare minimum amount of memory for booting Windows XP and running a few applications. Heavy computer users should probably upgrade to 1 GB of RAM, no matter which specific applications they use. Virtual memory should also be turned enabled in case your physical RAM isn't quite enough sometimes.

Jeffzd · Post by **Jeffzd** » May 19th, 2006, 9:08 am

If you upgraded your Windows OS since you began using Firefox, check the Compatibility tab under the FF shortcut Properties and make sure Compatibility is NOT checked. If checked, it can cause FF CPU/Mem hogging issues.

lukpac · Post by **lukpac** » June 2nd, 2006, 8:36 am

blouwagie wrote:Hi,

I've read many of the messages in this thread but have not seen anyone make the observation I have:

Win XP, 512 MB, AMD 3000+
- The near 100% CPU usage of FireFox happens quite regularly after resuming from a suspend. I"ll be using FF with several windows open and no real CPU load issues. At night I put PC to sleep ... doing the suspend restart a couple of nights and every now and then my PC will wake up extremely slow... It is almost always FF that eats up all the cycles at that point.
- Most of those times I do not have any flash sites up or sites with flash advertising.
- That bug has existed over several FF iterations... it was there over half a year ago, then seemed to have disappeared, but the latest version 1.0.7 still has it.

Restarting FF and all is OK... That bug is the main reason to still use Opera for 90% of my browsing.. The other being that Opera remembers all my tabs with their sessions even after any crash.

So suspend several nights and FF will start eating many many cycles (sometimes but not all the time).

Other than having a 3400+ CPU, that's *exactly* the same thing that's happened to me. Things load *very* slowly on wake (especially my wireless network connection) and the trackpad is very jerky in FF (the scroll region will just stop working). Quitting FF and starting it back up fixes the issue.

dennishm · Post by **dennishm** » June 14th, 2006, 6:33 pm

I just noticed that my Firefox really slows down when I have the Windows Task Manager open on screen. It doesn't act as slowly, and in fact it kind of seems normal if I minimize or close the Task Manager. The CPU usage still goes up when I use the mouse wheel(I can see this from the CPU usage icon in the tray when Task Manager is minimized), but at least it scrolls almost normally. I am running Windows xp. Could it be that what we are trying to use to troubleshoot Firefox is actually causing the problem?

schapel · Post by **schapel** » June 14th, 2006, 7:36 pm

dennishm wrote:The CPU usage still goes up when I use the mouse wheel(I can see this from the CPU usage icon in the tray when Task Manager is minimized), but at least it scrolls almost normally.

I don't understand comments like this. The CPU usage going up as you're using a program is completely normal behavior. Are you thinking it's some kind of problem? The CPU is what is making the program do what it's doing.

djDarkX · Post by **djDarkX** » June 14th, 2006, 8:01 pm

I'm new here, but have been using Firefox for a while now. Before the latest release, I didn't have the CPU problem at all. The only problems I had were with certain MySpace porfiles crashing the browser, but that got fixed. My point is that on my PC, Firefox will jump to about 84% - 100% CPU usage and stay that way until I close it out and reopen it. Once reopened, I don't have that problem anymore. It is random, but still pretty consistant. Here are my PC's stats:

OS: Windows XP Pro w/ SP2
CPU: 1.1Ghz AMD Anthlon XP
RAM: 512MB
Firefox ver: 1.5.0.4

Also, my computer is almost never off so that I can have less wear and tear on it for it to survive longer. Also, during the CPU spike, all other apps run fine. It just happened about 10 minutes ago and I was running Winamp, Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and CoolEdit Pro v2.0 alongside Firefox and all other apps were running smoothly. Is there a code error that may be leading up to the CPU spiking like that? Also, my RAM is intact when this happens. Thanks for any help I can receive!

djDarkX

heheman3000 · Post by **heheman3000** » July 4th, 2006, 5:43 pm

I can't relate to all the flash animations causing problems, as I don't get very many flash animations, but I get 100% in another way. Whenever I'm running a 3D game that's made by EA games (Emperor, Generals), if either thunderbird or firefox is running, the cpu usage goes up to 100%, within 5 minutes of the game starting, guaranteed. This is just on plain old php forums and stuff. If I close thunderbird, then firefox starts hogging the CPU. I usually have to use my linux box to browse the web while a game is running because of this. However, it never ever happens with UT2004, I've played it for hours on end with browsers open. Come on firefox, give me a break...

This happened on 1.0.7, and still happens on 1.5.0.4...

hanrai · Post by **hanrai** » July 25th, 2006, 7:37 am

Phil246 wrote:Im suffering from this problem on firefox 1.5.02, flashblock is at the lastest version.
It seems to occur every 30 minutes, ive tracked it through 3 cycles so far.
Checking on the executable with sysinternals process explorer, the threads running at the time were :

mscvrt.dll!endthreadex+0x3a
Firefox.exe!jpeg_fdct_islow+0x247ac
mswsock.dll!NSPStartup+0x2cbf
RPCRT4.dll!RpcBCacheFree+0x5b8

(that probably would make more sense to the techies then it does me)
but my guess is its related to something cleaning out a cache - and a thread hanging for some reason
Have taken a screenshot if it helps :
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7130/screenshot1zm.png

I have the same problem. Something in jpeg_fdct_islow really slow down the system, and I have to kill them.
My system is XP SP2. And I always open a lot of tabs with photos.

schapel · Post by **schapel** » July 25th, 2006, 2:41 pm

hanrai wrote:I have the same problem. Something in jpeg_fdct_islow really slow down the system, and I have to kill them.
My system is XP SP2. And I always open a lot of tabs with photos.

It sounds like you have some very specific information that could help developers fix a problem. Have you searched Bugzilla to see if there are any <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=325384">comments that mention jpeg_fdct_islow</a>? If not, write a bug report with the information you have about the problem.

drekidd · Post by **drekidd** » July 27th, 2006, 9:56 am

schapel wrote:
hanrai wrote:I have the same problem. Something in jpeg_fdct_islow really slow down the system, and I have to kill them.
My system is XP SP2. And I always open a lot of tabs with photos.

It sounds like you have some very specific information that could help developers fix a problem. Have you searched Bugzilla to see if there are any <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=325384">comments that mention jpeg_fdct_islow</a>? If not, write a bug report with the information you have about the problem.

I reported this memory leak ages ago.. havent been on here in ages..
My firefox.exe process would grow to around 311MB (of 512) where the system would die.. the CPU is circa 99%. Killing Firefox.exe solves the issue, providing it actually dies when I try to!!! sometimes taskman wont respond or load in time so its quicker to reboot (I love windows!)

I leave web pages open for hours, maybe even days, as my laptop is always running and connected to the internet when docked at home.

FF still leaks memory for me, and I've narrowed it down to:

When I have multiple tabs open, AND/OR
when I leave certain sites loaded in the page, and that site tries to update the page

examples:
www.wayn.com (log-in, and it will try to update the number of messages automatically)
www.gmail.com (log-in, it does the same).

Maybe the same for JPEG's as mentioned, will have to see.
Viewing a plain site (Pure HTML, text and nothing else) doesnt seem to cause this problem.

I reported this way back around 1.0.5'ish, no fix.

So, I open wayn.com and gmail.com in IE, and run the rest in FF to gaurantee no leak.

How sad is that??!!

schapel · Post by **schapel** » July 27th, 2006, 2:53 pm

drekidd wrote:
schapel wrote:It sounds like you have some very specific information that could help developers fix a problem. Have you searched Bugzilla to see if there are any <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=325384">comments that mention jpeg_fdct_islow</a>? If not, write a bug report with the information you have about the problem.

I reported this memory leak ages ago.. havent been on here in ages..
My firefox.exe process would grow to around 311MB (of 512) where the system would die.. the CPU is circa 99%. Killing Firefox.exe solves the issue, providing it actually dies when I try to!!! sometimes taskman wont respond or load in time so its quicker to reboot (I love windows!)

First, what memory leak? I thought we were discussing a CPU usage issue.

Second, what's the bug number for the memory leak you reported?

Avat · Post by **Avat** » July 31st, 2006, 8:26 am

Honestally, I noticed a slight bit of difference from build 1.5.0.4 to 1.5.0.5 in regards to my CPU usage and Mem usuage. I spent a few mintues searching the database and found some realtively useful information (i.e. the helpful suggestions from SFNL) I hadn't expected to find .

Upon restarting FF after the change in Browser.cache, with each web page that I was opening, I watched my Task manager window. Now, before any of these issues started surfacing, I've always had the extensions such as NoScript (wonderful!), Flashblock (Amazing!), and the like because I wanted to enage with content I sought after, not what was served up to me via ad-placements. If I want to watch flash, I'll temporarily allow it from a particular site. If I support a site, I'm cool with allowing adsense and the sort.

Back to the problem at hand. It was immediatly obvious, that it wasn't the new FF build or even my system (P4 3.3Ghz with 2GB RAM), no, this problem with high memory and high CPU usage was much clearer then either of those. Simply put; Not all web sites are created equal. Some content managers know what they're doing, others, just do what ever it takes to get the script up and running (read: ad-click). I thought about listing some of the sites that I noticed have "issues" for me but, because some would read like a "who's who" of that popular group of TUBES!© (sic), I'll refrain and just bestow it upon you, the user. After all, projects that spawn great works like FF have one thing in common; It is you the user who decides how an application should work for YOUR needs, not a blanket "User friendly", as if all users were the same with the same needs.

My suggestion, utilise what you have. FF allows for great customability and because of this it becomes easier to spot the weak links. Keep an eye on the types of sites you're using or viewing, not all are optimized and applications such as IE just mask the real problem.

Just my 2¢ that is, take it or leave it.

100 % CPU usage makes Firefox unusable :-(

firefox 1.5.02

Re: firefox 1.5.02

Possible fix for some

Compatibility (not!)

Re: CPU to near 100% after suspend

100 % cpu usage makes firefox unusable

Re: 100 % cpu usage makes firefox unusable

Re: firefox 1.5.02

Re: firefox 1.5.02

Re: firefox 1.5.02

Re: firefox 1.5.02