Thunderbird using too much memory

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thaleia6
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Thunderbird using too much memory

Post by thaleia6 »

I see this topic posted all over the forums, but I can't find a real answer. I took the advice of a few posts of installing MaxMem to control my memory usage but that doesn't keep the problem from happening. Both Thunderbird and FireFox use up a ridiculous amount of memory that I can't use them without getting frustrated.

I am using Win XP Pro on a fairly new laptop. All other applications run just fine.

I would really like to continue using mozilla products. Is this a problem that has a fix or will it soon?

thanks,
thaleia6
Bobmeister
Posts: 31
Joined: September 7th, 2003, 1:46 pm
Location: Mt. Prospect, IL

Post by Bobmeister »

Just curious, but what is ridiculous? I'm not in Windows now and I'm running both Thunderbird
and Firefox...currently Thunderbird is using 46.8MB and Firefox 62.3MB of memory. Combined
that is about 100MB. I'm in Linux now, but I'm assuming (maybe wrongly) that the numbers would
be about the same in Windows. Have you compared this to another browser and another mail
client? What are the numbers for those applications? I have read on these posts of people
complaining about not only memory usage, but also CPU usage being high, but on my computers
I haven't noticed any ill effects.

Fortunately, I have lots of memory in most of my machines and these issues seem to be somewhat
less important than they used to be....

Have some numbers?
Guest
Guest

Post by Guest »

I have 512 on my laptop. And I'm not clear if it's memory or CPU, but when I drag my mouse over thunderbird or firefox my CPU usage goes up 100% and that doesn't happen with Outlook or other web broswers.

When I use the application my computer freezes up and I can hear the hard drive working really hard, the mouse skips around while the computer catches up.

My computer can take a lot of work. I usually run Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash all at the same time working easily between them without any problems. But even when I run just Firefox or TB on it's own suddenly my computer is really slow...

As for some more numbers:
PM 1.4 GHz, 512 RAM, 40GB

Judging by what I've read in this forum it seems to be just Win XP which is probably the problem. I was just hoping for a patch or something to make it easier to use this app.
Bobmeister
Posts: 31
Joined: September 7th, 2003, 1:46 pm
Location: Mt. Prospect, IL

Post by Bobmeister »

Hmmm....sounds like it is paging to the swap file, which would indicate running out
of memory. I can't see this in my Windows XP machines...my wife has an old Pentium 3
800MHz with 512MB of ram and the programs run just great (windows XP Home). There
might be something else going on here, but I don't think that I'm smart enough to know..
I hope that someone jumps in with some help. Photoshop is a really heavy application, much
heavier than thunderbird OR Firefox combined...and Dreamweaver isn't a slouch either...so
there is definitely something unusual with your system and these apps....

It sounds like a memory ADDRESSING problem, and this can be either the operating system
OR the application (depending on how the code is written to address memory).

Hope that someone can help you....I'm out of ideas now
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tanstaafl
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Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Post by tanstaafl »

I'd browse the knowledgebase to the right, especially http://kb.mozillazine.org/index.phtml?t ... _Processed

You might have downloaded a message with bad headers. Thunderbird has problems dealing with that if you use POP (unlike Outlook Express).
thaleia6
Guest

Post by thaleia6 »

Thanks for all this help. My husband is running both FireFox on Windows 2000 on a machine with under 100MB of RAM and it runs beautifully.

I think it's something to do with XP Pro since others on this site have had the same issues on that platform. I wish I were smart enough to figure this out. ><
Pat Moore
Guest

Post by Pat Moore »

I'm using Windows 2000 and Firefox works great, but regularly Thunderbird eats up memory like crazy (CPU usage up to 100%) especially when retrieving mail.
eastrebel2004
Guest

Post by eastrebel2004 »

Anonymous wrote:I'm using Windows 2000 and Firefox works great, but regularly Thunderbird eats up memory like crazy (CPU usage up to 100%) especially when retrieving mail.
This memory/cpu usage problem some are having is bizarre - I can actively use both Firefox and Thunderbird at the same time as running a full system McAfee virus scan and SpyBotS&D scan with no memory or cpu problem. I have WinXP Home 2003/Celeron 2.8ghz and 512mb ram
Pat Moore
Guest

Eating up memory

Post by Pat Moore »

eastrebel2004 wrote:This memory/cpu usage problem some are having is bizarre - I can actively use both Firefox and Thunderbird at the same time as running a full system McAfee virus scan and SpyBotS&D scan with no memory or cpu problem. I have WinXP Home 2003/Celeron 2.8ghz and 512mb ram


I find that the problem occurs mostly when Thunderbird is downloading a large number of messages, like first thing in the morning, when my inbox is full of junk mail. AFter I finally manage to dump the junk mail that the filters have not detected, the memory problem stops being an issue. Could it have something to do with the filters or junk mail control? Is Thunderbird working too hard trying to sort out what is junk and what's not?
Prakash
Guest

Post by Prakash »

Yea, I have a P4 3Ghz with a Gig of Ram and Thunderbird absolutely slows down or chunks up my system on just selecting messages in my inbox. any real solution?
akkjasdhfkjashdfklj
Guest

Re: Thunderbird using too much memory

Post by akkjasdhfkjashdfklj »

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=530263
check out this thread, good advice i found.
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Daifne
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Joined: July 31st, 2005, 9:17 pm
Location: Where the Waters Meet, Wisconsin

Re: Thunderbird using too much memory

Post by Daifne »

Er, thanks, but this topic died almost 5 years ago. I really doubt that the guest posters are watching it. Please look at dates before you reply. Locking.
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