303985 - Firefox hangs after being open for a long time and browsing huge amounts of websites durring that time.

Status: VERIFIED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Mathew]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.10) Gecko/20050716 Firefox/1.0.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.10) Gecko/20050716 Firefox/1.0.6

OK I have seen this happen on 3 of the 4 computers I use firefox on and the only
difference between the 4 that I can see is because I don't browse the internet
as heavily on the 4th as I do on the other 3. When I browse the web after I open
it for the first time it is fast as hell. After some time (1-2 hours) it starts
to slow down a bit. After about 20+ hours the cpu starts to stay at about 99% on
a 2.4 ghz Intel. I'm thinking maybe it has something to do with the way the
cache is indexed. I didn't look at the code but if it does cleanup after all
windows are closed but not at regular intervals durring the session then it
might get a very fragmented index file that is hard for the system to dig though
and might be causing the hang. Perhaps scheduling the "cleanup" to run every 1-2
hours the program is open would help this problem. 

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Browse LARGE amounts of different complex websites.
2.Use multiple windows and multiple tabs per window.
3.Repeat for about 20+ hours.

Actual Results:  
75% of the time Firefox became unresponsive and had to be "End Tasked". Upon a
new load it takes a longer time to load then usual but then is running fine.

Expected Results:  
should not become unresponsive. Maybe run cleanup rutines periodicly durring the
session.

Comment 1

[Chris Moran]

I have the same thing happen pretty much. It's recent, only within the last 3-4
weeks. The only change I made to the install that I recall was updating the
Forecastfox extension, which is have in the last 48 hours turned off.

I have typically up to 16 windows open with anywhere from 2 to 10 tabs each.
It's a lot, I know, but I've been browsing that way ever since I started using
Fx and it's not caused problems (or at least session saver saved my ****).

So, how it tends to happen to me: It never stalls while I'm using it. I'll do
some final browsing before going to bed and I never shut my machine down. When I
get up in the morning, typically 6-7 hours, I go right to the machine. Thes last
few weeks it's been at 99% CPU useage in task manager and though I can often
select a Fx window that's already on the desktop (not minimized), I can't open
up a minimized one nor can I get any activity on the open ones.

If I have an application covering the window and I move it, it leaves a white
block/ghost over the Fx window. 

I have waited after attempting to get a response for up to 15 minutes before
giving up and as typical, killing the process from task manager.

The actual sites I have loaded in my tabs haven't changed, and since I am using
session saver, when I do shut down on purpose or kill hte process, when I start
up, it's loading those sites again... most of which were the same sites that
were loaded before the problem started.

Comment 2

[Chris Moran]

(In reply to comment #1)
Forgot details:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.10) Gecko/20050716
Firefox/1.0.6

2.13 GHz CPU
1GB of ram

Comment 3

[Eye Look]

I experience this annoyance as well.  P4 3.0Ghz, XP Pro SP1, 512 megs ram.  Release 1.5.* and TETE CE builds.


prerequisites: free account with filefront

Steps to reproduce: 

- start firefox
- open four tabs each with URL http://uploadhosted.filefront.com/
- upload four files, one per tab preferably 400+ meg
- open another tab after uploads started
- load scroogle.org in tab5
- go out to dinner with friends
- whether or not screensaver kicks in: return to find 220+ megs of ram allocated to firefox.
- give firefox window focus.. watch RAM usage climb as you attempt to browse


Alternative: substitue filefront for any other free file hosting service that supports large files

notice:  commit charge is actually TWICE the ram allocated to firefox.  After end-tasking firefox regain firefox's ram and the mysterious additional amount.

http://img332.imageshack.us/img332/3846/insaneramgluttony4zv.png

Setting firefox task priority to Low ironically makes firefox more responsive in this condition!

Comment 4

[Steve England [:stevee]]

Reporter, do you still see this problem with the latest Firefox 2? If not, can you please close this bug as WORKSFORME. Thanks!

Comment 5

[Steve England [:stevee]]

No response from reporter re: comment 4 -->INCOMPLETE.
Reporter, if you still see this problem with the latest release of Firefox 2, please reopen this bug. Thanks!