Closed Bug 401930 Opened 17 years ago Closed 14 years ago

Firefox goes non-responsive over time

Categories

(Firefox :: General, defect)

2.0 Branch
x86
Windows XP
defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

()

RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: thunderstone.hank, Unassigned)

Details

(Whiteboard: [CLOSEME 2010-07-30])

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8

Open Firefox and about 55.6K size is shown in Process; open 5 tabs and the size grows to 135K; over time, more CPU is used (2 Gigs) and eventually hoses the system to the point that Ctl+Alt+Del will not present itself. Shutting down Firefox (if you can; it will go non-responsive) restores the response of the system.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Just use Firefox and it eventually will go non-responsive over a few hours use.
2.
3.
Actual Results:  
This seems to have started on 29 Oct and has gotten progressively worse.  It appears to be a memory utilization issue and the program seems to be hanging on callbacks.  The access to the Internet slows over time (sending an upload command takes 3 to 10 seconds, which is abnormal) and it is not the bandwidth to the Internet because the bandwidth test shows all is normal.

Expected Results:  
When Firefox is shut down, the System restores to a responsive state forcing me to use Internet Explorer or Safari for Windows as a backup.

The current version of Firefox becomes unusable. BTW, Safari is faster under a similar usage configuration (using the same tabs to the same websites).
Correction:  the "K" should be "M" as in megabytes of Memory Usage.  In summary ... Firefox opens with 55M of memory growing to 135M with 5 tabs open and then progressively growing to 180M of memory.

Since this submission, the memory requirement for Firefox has grown to 180M, even if you close tabs.  It has grown 5 to 185M over the past few minutes.
Been doing some testing:

Firefox:  launches at 55M Mem Usage gradually building to 185M and NEVER releases memory; further, when it goes active, it uses 100% of RAM (2 Gigs in this case).

Safari:  launches at 15M Mem Usage gradually building to 135M and goes to 4M inactive; further, it never uses more that 25 % of RAM.

There is something terribly wrong with the current version of Firefox.
Additional Information:

When Firefox grows to 200M and 100% RAM (2Gigs), it goes "non-responsive"; also
noted, that when you minimize, it DOES NOT release memory, it just keeps
growing.  When Firefox goes non-responsive, an error report is generated and sent to Microsoft

Suggestion:  Get this fixed or start loosing Market share, which would be a
shame because allot of good people have put allot of effort into creating the
product.  Remember:  "Perception is EVERYTHING!"

Timestamp: Fri - 02 Nov 2007.0824.10 (Mountain Daylight Time)
Note:  The latest patch, released today, has improved performance; but, the software still uses 100% of CPU (2 Gigs) for a shorter period of time, which helps   and then settles down to 10% in idle, moving to 50% when I start typing.  Before, it was using 100% CPU for more than 10 sec and hosing the system.
Update:  Firefox went non-responsive and generated a error report to Microsoft.

Observation:  CPU usage goes to 100%; if a script slows and is not detected or stops, the system goes non-responsive.  Hopefully there is some way to control CPU usage under your design specification or there is an issue with Microsoft and their current XP OS, which I am told they no longer support and want everyone on VISTA.
This bug was originally reported on Firefox 2.x or older, which is no longer supported and will not be receiving any more updates. I strongly suggest that you update to Firefox 3.6.6 or later, update your plugins (flash, adobe, etc.), and retest in a new profile. If you still see the issue with the updated Firefox, please post here. Otherwise, please close as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
http://www.mozilla.com
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+mode
Whiteboard: [CLOSEME 2010-07-30]
Version: unspecified → 2.0 Branch
No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.8 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 14 years ago
Resolution: --- → INCOMPLETE
Resolution: INCOMPLETE → WORKSFORME
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