For the computer gurus:

When I freshly start FireFox 2.0.0.3
{in WindowsXP SP2 with all updates}
and go a non-fancy plain jane webpage without Flash or Java
I can check FireFox's RAM memory use with a control-alt-del
to bring up the Windows Task Manager in the 'processes' tab
and find FireFox is using about 42 meg.

But as I surf this RAM number climbs and climbs past 80 meg or higher,
even if I close everything except for the original webpage where it was 42.

If I then quit FireFox and restart it back to the same webpage
it does go back to the original 42 meg of RAM.

I think I have read this is called a 'memory leak'.

Any fixes?

Although I like Firefox better
I notice that Internet Explorer 7 at this same exact webpage
only uses about 30 meg of RAM
and it does not keep climbing in RAM the longer you surf.

I also have Opera and K-Meleon web browsers
and they don't seem to do this either.

 

mine's reporting about the same thing (or worse) via task manager. however, my question to you is this: are you noticing any degradation in performance?

the reason i'm not worried, is that neither of my two work PCs have slowed down at all. i run Firefox for 9 hours a day when i'm at work and i've not noticed any problems. if your system's running the same, don't worry about it.

i also checked the Mozilla site's known release issues for 2.0.0.3 and there were no memory leaks mentioned.

 

my Firefox (XP Home SP1 w/ no updates) runs at around 20megs, then as i look on youtube or whatnot then it has climbed up to around 100megs. but it stays around 20-30megs. my IE uses like 50megs whenever i open it up though.

 

I first noticed this when trying to play a HDTV clip in 1080i
of the new 3rd movie trailer

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/pira...worldsend.html

with Quicktime 7.1.5
and the computer became extremely slooooooooooooow
because it had to use the pagefile so much.
As I tracked this down the 'ram hog' turned out to be
FireFox.

I asked this question a few other places and got answers that the 'memory leak' that FireFox fixed in 2.0.0.1 has mistakenly come back some how in version 2.0.0.3 and the fix will be coming out soon from Mozilla.

 

Makes sense. I just haven't noticed it as much, since I usually don't stream video using Firefox....it's fairly stable when you're just browsing pages, but I guess the stress of streaming would cause the leak to become more pronounced.

I'll wait for that patch.

Thanks.

 

I doubt it's a "memory leak". The more active tabs/windows you have open, the higher it will run. I've had a single window in IE running at 120mb, while having 2 other windows run around at about 14mb.....

If it is a memory leak, then IE has the same problem....

 

yeah that's pretty normal for watching videos, especially those 1080i trailers, those are HUGE files. If any of yall use Photoshop you will notice that can take up to and over 200mb at any given time. if you use AIM Triton, that takes up something around 65mb at normal use.

 

i'm not so sure that there isn't a problem with Firefox 2.0.0.3. I just started it up an hour ago and it's using 111MB and steadily rising. I have three tabs open: my webmail (very simple UI), MyYahoo and Dodge Forum.

I've also been averaging one Firefox crash per day, which I never had before.

I'm still not sold on the fact that there's a problem, but I'm more open to the possibility since it's acting odd on my work PCs.

 

hmmm. have u done any type of virus/adware/spyware scans? one time when one of my programs kept getting really high with memory usage, it was just a virus that would do its work while that program was working. and after i deleted the virus (aka i finally got smart to install a anti-virus on my computer lol). the program worked great.

 

i have. it's been about a month or so since my last scan. the thing that's getting me is that i'm having problems on both machines at work, not just the one. i do tend to use one more on the web than the other...one usually just rests on my email, yahoo and the section of the college's site that i'm working on.

i'll have to fuss with it more on Monday.