Subscribe to our e-mail newsletters
For more info on a specific newsletter, click the title. Details will be displayed in a new window.
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
More E-Mail Newsletters 
Computerworld 2007Subscribe to Computerworld
40 years of the most authoritative source of news and information for IT leaders.

Hands on: A look at Firefox's memory issues

It's 'still my browser of choice,' despite an appetite for RAM, says Scot Finnie
 

Sign up to receive Security Resource Alerts

May 02, 2006 (Computerworld) -- Editor's Note: Online editorial director Scot Finnie has been using Firefox 1.5 since its release and has written about it extensively in Scot's Newsletter. This is a follow-up to earlier dispatches on the open-source browser.

Firefox continues to be the application that's the single largest memory and virtual memory hog on all my PCs. Despite that shortcoming, I haven't experienced any of the side effects detailed in my earlier articles starting when Firefox 1.5 was first released. Well, there's one I've continued to see: Firefox takes absolutely forever to launch when initiated from hyperlinks in third-party apps such as e-mail and instant messaging clients. That problem predates Firefox 1.5 though (as did the high memory usage).

But while Firefox 1.5 has been pretty clear sailing for me, not a day goes by when I don't get at least one e-mail from a frustrated Firefox user who has some mix of the problems I've described in the past, including exceptionally high use of physical and virtual memory, CPU usage that climbs to 100%, program hesitations and freezes, a launch failure that requires an operating system reboot or termination of the firefox.exe process in Task Manager, specific Web pages that don't load, and crashes.

I'm not getting as many messages as I once did, but they're still trickling in. One reader wrote:

"Not long ago you mentioned a memory hole problem in Firefox. I experience the problem on a daily basis and it's been driving me nuts. I can see RAM usage via Task Manager going up and up and up until even virtual memory gets swamped. As soon as Firefox 1.5 came out, the memory problems began. If I use IE6 instead of Firefox, I have no memory problems. I've searched the help forums MozillaZine.org without luck. Does Mozilla think it's fixed this problem?"

What he is describing is a memory leak, and it sounds more serious on his machine than on some others. I don't see an ever-escalating use of memory, but some other people have. Because a small number of people are struggling with this, I'm going to pass along a tip that has worked for some users, although I'm quite sure it won't work for everyone.

Start by checking how much memory Firefox is using. There are many ways to do this, but under Windows there's only one easy way that everyone has access to. Press Ctrl-Alt-Del once. In Windows XP, that opens the Task Manager. Click the Processes tab, and check the numbers on the firefox.exe line under the headings "Mem Usage" and "VM Size." Click the Mem Usage header twice to sort the rows by memory usage, highest to lowest. Is Firefox at the top? Is it a six-digit number? If so, Firefox is consuming a lot more memory than it should. Watch these numbers over time as you run Firefox to see whether they grow significantly.

Double-check your browser cache settings to make sure they're functional. You can also adjust the browser cache to match the amount of memory on your system. Follow these steps:

Firefox has a special settings screen called about:config. To access it, open a new tab and type "about:config" (without quotation marks) into the URL bar. Press Enter.

You'll see a long list of text entries. Each line is a different setting, like lines in an .INI file or System Registry entries. You're looking for this line: browser.cache.memory.enable.

There's a type-ahead feature, so just start typing. Once you get there, check to make sure its "Value" setting reads "true," then follow these steps:

  1. Right-click any blank area in the about:config window and choose New > Integer from the pop-up menu.
  2. The New Integer Value box will open. Copy and paste this setting name into the open dialog box: browser.cache.memory.capacity
  3. In the Enter Integer Value box that opens, enter -1 to preserve Firefox's default operational mode.
  4. To customize the setting to your computer's physical memory, consult this MozillaZine page. For RAM sizes between 512BM and 1GB, start with 15000. For RAM sizes between 128MB and 512M, try 5000. Note: If you have less than 128MB of RAM, that's probably the cause of your Firefox issues.

Heavy Firefox users should strongly consider upgrading their RAM to at least 1GB.

It's clear to me that there are pandemic memory problems in Firefox, and also that Mozilla has not responded adequately to them. But this is still my browser of choice. I can't wait for 2.0 -- even if it will lack the Places site-search functionality, which Mozilla recently decided not to implement in Firefox 2.0 (see "Firefox drops Places feature; security patch coming soon"). Frankly, I never bought into Places, whose concept was to let you run a search that will check your bookmarks and browser history — the idea being to help you find a site you know you've visited in the recent past. But if you know the site well enough to search for it by keyword, just Google it. No?

There are other features Firefox is more in need of. Heck, I'd just like a Bookmarks manager that doesn't make drag-and-drop moves of bookmarks, bookmark folders and separators nearly a spectator sport. There are many things that are a bit twitchy in Firefox. Improve and extend. Whole new modules whose advantage aren't slam-dunk obvious probably aren't the right approach for what is still a very young application with huge potential. And it's still fun to use.

Scot Finnie has been an editor for a variety of IT publications for more than 20 years, and this article originally appeared in his newsletter. It is reprinted by permission.




Print this Story Send Us Feedback E-mail this Story Digg! Digg this Story Slashdot this Story
"It's IT Blogwatch: in which billionaire investor Carl Icahn starts a proxy fight to restart the Microsoft/Yahoo merger talks. Not..." Read more...
"I've just put the beta of OpenOffice 3 through its paces, and found that the office suite can do just..." Read more...
Read more Desktop Applications posts or See all Blogs
Microsoft: Don't misunderstand UAC, other Vista features
HP confirms XP SP3 endless reboot snafu, promises patch
Microsoft pulls Windows Home Server backup feature
More top stories...
Yahoo tells Icahn that its own board knows best
Tools circulate that crack Debian, Ubuntu keys
Elgan: Hyperconnectivity: Friend or foe?
Specialists have retrieved about 99% of the data on a disk drive on board the crashed space shuttle Columbia. Don't miss the photographs of the recovered drive.
These big ideas were supposed to revolutionize technology, but they never actually appeared. In a few cases, you'll be glad they didn't.
Nearly 20 years after the first Internet worm, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols takes stock of the malware/anti-malware landscape and spotlights how the two sides are approaching the battle.
Though some thought it was released too soon, Mac OS X 10.5 has matured into a solid operating system, says reviewer Michael DeAgonia.
Reviews, analyses, how-tos, visual tours, hot issues and predictions about Microsoft's new OS.
Four years from now, the IT field will be a vastly different place. Will you be ready?
All Zones
Application Performance Zone
Enterprise-Class Security Zone
Enterprise Solutions Zone
The File Data Management Zone
Grid Computing on Windows Zone
Security Management Zone
ITIL Best Practices Zone
The SAS Zone
Storage Virtualization Zone
The Data Center Management Zone

Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Computerworld Report: Storage Gets Strategic
Download this Computerworld Report, free, compliments of HP.
(Source: Computerworld) Data Storage has emerged from the back room to become a key part of regulatory compliance, disaster recovery and strategic tecnhology plans. Learn more in this new this Computerworld report, a $49.95 value, available free for a limited time, compliments of HP.
Download this executive briefing download
E-Mail As a Service: Time for Another Look?
E-Mail As a Service: Time for Another Look?
Download this webcast, compliments of Google.
Go to the webcast 
3 Building Blocks for a Profitable Green IT Strategy
Get this white paper now!
(Source: Verdiem) This practical white paper compares "greening" your IT department to "greening" your home: the key to a lasting return is starting with small steps. Learn how to create an IT carbon footprint baseline, draft a list of objectives, and implement for the best ROI.
Download this white paper go
White Papers
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services.
Securing Financial Services Beyond the Perimeter
Intercept Spam & Viruses With MessageLabs
Meeting PCI Compliance with SonicWALL Global Management System
View more whitepapers