525683 - Firefox increased memory usuage increases the longer it runs; dowload virus scan stalls

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[David]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.4) Gecko/20091016 Firefox/3.5.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.4) Gecko/20091016 Firefox/3.5.4

I have 2 issues which I believe might come from the same source.
these problems have occurred since a week or so.
1. My firefox seems to become slower and uses more memory the longer I use it. Sites such as facebook seem to become incredibly problematic after a while, but the memory usage does not significantly decrease (if at all) after navigating away from these pages. on 3 seperate occasions, this caused a crash hard enough to freeze my laptop until Firefox could be ended by force.
2. My laptop seems to stall and firefox seems to stall and/or increase its memory usage incredibly when a file has finished downloading and firefox initiates the virus scan. after this is completed, things return to normal.
having several downloads complete at once cause the program to freeze, needinga force end once again.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Navigate heavy sites
2. download several files of any filetype
3. leave the program running for a short while during normal usage.
Actual Results:  
unpredictable, but without fail, firefox and the rest of the computer slows down.

Expected Results:  
the same, but more severe, ending in a frozen program which has to be force quit.

I have noscript plug-in installed, which I keep up to date.
somewhere along the line, I believe "ask.com" managed to get on my computer, I have disabled the toolbar, but I do believe there is more spyware. it might have an effect.
I have the yahoo! toolbar, disabled.
Skype extention for Firefox version 2.2.0.102. I have skype running most of the time
Java quick starter version 1.0 installed.
-
I run in multiple windows, not multiple tabs, by preference, this might have an effect, I do not know.

Comment 1

[David]

Firefox version 3.5.4

Comment 2

[Mardeg]

Please add a comment with the results of installing and using the following extensions:

Memory: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/14666/
CPU   : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9954

Comment 3

[David]

I've installed the add-ons but I do not know how to use them. note that I have no expertise at all in programming, I'm just reporting something I've come across.

sending error reports through the firefox crashreporter failed both times I had that option.

Comment 4

[Mardeg]

For the second issue it seems that if your virus scanner is already compromised by spyware, there's no point having it run badly affecting Firefox, to stop it doing the scanning, put into the address bar:
about:config
then click "I'll be careful" (or similar link/button) to dismiss the warning, then into the filter box that appears paste this in:
browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone
then double-click on the line listing that preference to change the value to false.

This is more of a support issue you need help with than a proper bug report, so we'll close this as INCOMPLETE and have you go to one or more of the following links for support:

http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum.php?forumId=1&openpost=1
http://forums.mozillazine.org/posting.php?mode=post&f=38
http://embed.mibbit.com/?server=irc.mozilla.org:+6697&channel=%23firefox&nick=David