100 % CPU usage makes Firefox unusable :-(

[Hazelip]

Sorry, I got a little lost in the forum layout. I've also reported the issue here: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 64#1115264

[AnotherGuest.]

I am interested in what happens when it gets unstable. I assume you are all watching memory on the Windows Task Manager or equivalent.

Specifically, please look at the Performance tab and the Processes tab. Please set the performances tab to view Memory Usage and VM (Virtual Memory) Size. You can set CPU Usage too if you want. On the Performance tab look at Physical Memory, categories Available and File Cache.

I'll tell you right now what my observations are. I loaded Firefox down with over 300 MB of images (more than my RAM space), and it still gave sprightly performance. More important, it released memory when it was required by other programs, so it caused no problem at all. I tried this kind of test with 2 operating systems. No problem with either. I once even ran my system down to 1 MB free memory and then loaded a big hog of a program. FF swapped out enough memory to leave me with 83 MB free.

So something is happening to your systems that I and others have not been able to duplicate. Can you please let me know what you find, and maybe we can find some clues? Thanks.

[jbash]

I don't think I have these Performance tab options on XP Pro. Or am I missing something? AFAIK there are no memory options, performance shows total memory (with subtotal for system cache), commit charge and kernel memory (with paged and nonpaged). I've never really understood 'commit charge' in XP, but then I'm a uniz bigot anyway.

jim b

[AnotherGuest.]

Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to get the Task Manager. (Take courage )
The Processes tab has all the processes that are running. Press "Image Name" to get an alphabetical display.
In the Processes tab, you can select the fields to display in the View/Select Columns menu. That will get you more than you will ever want to know.
The fields you mentioned are on the Performance tab. Also useful information.

Come to think of it, if you observe a really serious slowdown or imminent crash, maybe we'd better get stats for all three: Physical Memory, Commit Charge, and Kernel Memory.

If you muck around in the help documents, it defines all these. Committed memory is, roughly, that committed to programs. Changes are a little hard to reconcile with changes in Available memory, but I think it probably works out if you consider all the caches. If there really is a memory problem that is at the heart of the problems, I think these numbers will probably tell the story. If you find something, we may also have a look at the Firefox Memory Cache Device.

[phrooty]

The only time that I have noticed FF to do anything like this, was when I was downloading an in-line PDF which was nearly 17MB! Once the file had finished downloading, I was given my PC back. Other than that, no stability issues.

Sys:

Athlon XP2600+ w/512MB RAM, UK blueyonder 1.5Mbit through 100Mb/s LAN, no proxies. XP SP2, Nortons, cuddly toy and teasmaid.

[wlanni]

I have exactly the same symptoms on a mac os x 10.3.7, 10.3.6, 10.3.5, firefox 1.0, 1GB RAM. ONLY HAPPENS when I have a page with flash running. For example,

http://www.staytunedtheband.com

has a flash announcement banner. While listening or reading the forum, performance slowly degrades until I have to force quit. Also with

http://www.markofthebeast.net

same thing -- flash nav/joke banner, and with that page open in a tab or a background window, after some time my performance goes to crap.

I'll open up the resource tools on the mac and see if I can pinpoint anything.

[AnotherGuest.]

That's the spirit, wlanni. Flash. A real clue. Maybe it will take a Mac user.

You might also check the FF cache. Open a tab and type about:cache in the address window. Note: the information presented is a little subtle, and not exactly what it seems to be. So don't worry about the numbers, just report them. See if you can get data from before and after loading one of those computer-crushing Flash pages.

[mrheckman]

<<
I am interested in what happens when it gets unstable. I assume you are all watching memory on the Windows Task Manager or equivalent.

Specifically, please look at the Performance tab and the Processes tab. Please set the performances tab to view Memory Usage and VM (Virtual Memory) Size. You can set CPU Usage too if you want. On the Performance tab look at Physical Memory, categories Available and File Cache.
>>

You asked for more information about this problem. I have observed this problem on a W2K VM. It is so bad that I have gone back to Mozilla 1.7, which does not exhibit the problem. What happens is that, after Firefox has been running for a while, I have multiple Firefox windows open (some of which have flash), and, in my most recent test, it is at about 49M in Mem usage (peak mem usage is 59M and VM size is 54M), it bogs down whenever I even click on a window, try to use the scroll bar, or open a new window. CPU usage goes to 100%, but there is no appreciable change in any other of the parameters that you mentioned. My original hypothesis was that Firefox was entirely swapped out and had to be brought back into memory, but there isn't any disk activity to speak of when this happens. I also thought it might be due to DNS lookups, but that isn't it either because it happens when I just click on a Firefox window. I hope you can solve this problem. I am hesitant to recommend (or use) Firefox because of it.

[Lubricant]

I am running Fedora 3, and firefox 1.0, and flash blocker solved my problem..
I had 100% used resources.. Now I dont..
I can use firefox again!

[AnotherGuest.]

Very interesting. There are reports that Flash slows FF to a crawl (or maybe it's Flash that's holding everything up). Does anything know what happens to memory and cache usage at that time?

[mrlaugh]

I'll chime in: running dell inspiron 5100 (P4 2.66, 768 MB RAM, ATI 7500C mobility, XP SP2) I also have way to many USB devices, most noteably an external hard drive and an external soundcard in addition to the keyboard and mouse. (but no problems with any other programs besides firefox)

I do have extensions installed: yahoo companion, forecastfox, spellbound, dictionary search and all-in-one gestures

I just rebooted twenty minutes ago, with one window of FF 1.0 open these are my stats:
under processes: mem usage = 33,956 K
under performance: CPU usage = 10-15% ; physical memory: 785748 total, 484020 available, 521392 system cache; commit charge: 269220 total, 1529736 limit, 329796 peak; kernel memory: 71008 total, 50736 paged, 20276 nonpaged

now, I want to play the game here: (and other games cause this problem)
http://www.en.zylom.com/game/51/balls-n-walls.html

after 5-10 minutes stats look like this: (2 firefox windows open)
under processes: mem usage = 55,920 k (have seen higher than 90,000); CPU 70 - 100
under performance: CPU usage = 100; physical memory: 785748 total, 458124 available, 523204 system cache; commit charge: 295108 total, 1529736 limit, 329796 peak; kernel memory:72848 total, 51704 paged, 21096 nonpaged

at this point playing the game is impossible without freeze/hang ups, and typing in the text box is slow at best

I hope this helps get this issue rexolved, because otherwise I've been loving firefox.
obviously, flashblocker doesn't do many any good if my object is to play flash games, so I haven't tried it.

[Hazelip]

My problem was resolved by uninstalling and then reinstalling FF. I first experienced these spikes after the known issues with the Switch Proxy plugin.

[koppee1]

now I don't have firefox but I use mozilla 1.7.5 and I've noticed SLOWDOWNS or "freezes" of the browser when browsing certain sites. I don't know if it's becuase it's doing some javascript or what but certain sites like Gmail and Friendster "freeze" the browser for a few seconds on both mine and my wife's computer

[srtechy]

I have had the same problem with both Mozilla and Firefox for well over a year. Since I first began using it actually. Maybe two years. Cannot remember now. This has occured on several different platforms of Windows 2000/XP, across different versions of Service packs and different versions of Mozilla and Firefox. The web client runs great for a while, but then my PC gets sluggish. I "ctrl-alt-del", and notice that Mozilla is burning all the CPU. The most obvious solution is to close out the app and restart, and its fine again, for a while. I hate doing that because I have to save off all my active pages and their corresponding Google search keys in order to do a restart.

[markrogo]

Of course this problem is real, folks. Please stop always going after the poster.

I have the problem too. And it just occurred. 7 windows, about 50 tabs. This time I did the reboot when Firefox was only draining 70% of available CPU cycles, instead of the 100% it gets to at times.

After restarting with the exact same windows open, memory went down from 240MB to 160MB. CPU usage went from 70% to 1%.

So we can rule out Flash being involved because the exact same windows are open in each case. It's a memory leak / processor usage glitch. And it's real.