Firefox 3 RC1 High CPU and Memory Use? Try This Fix.
This post is out of date: Please see the updated post on my new tech site–Green Mountain Geek
In testing out Firefox 3 RC1 I realized that when loading up a page in a foreground tab when two or more tabs were present, my single core CPU maxed out and loading slowed to a crawl making the browser unresponsive until I switched the tab into the background to let it finish loading. At that point, CPU usage returned to normal. As long as the tab that was loading remained in the background, the CPU never rose above an average of 20% max not counting the occasional spike or two from flash and script content.
Other folks were having these problems also which included high initial memory use for some as well so after much troubleshooting and constructive cursing I finally found the culprit that was causing this high CPU/memory use problem and I’m passing it on.
The fix is actually pretty simple and involves changing the state of “browser.cache.memory.enable” in Firefox’s “about:config“. Just follow the simple instructions under the image below:
-
Type “about:config” into the FIrefox 3 RC1 location bar and tell it you’ll be careful (you’ll see what I mean).
-
When the list of configuration options shows up, type “cache” without the quotes into the search bar as shown above. A list of all entries will appear with the word “cache” in them.
-
Change the state of the “browser.cache.memory.enable” entry to “false” by double clicking on the entry itself. Make sure the state has indeed changed to “false”.
-
Restart the browser and you’re done.
Firefox RC1 should now run right along nice and fast no matter what tab is loading in the foreground and without the high CPU use as I saw before the change and apparently the memory problem is also fixed. Performance in RC1 does not seem to be degraded at all by this change and speeds things up nicely.
If this fix helps anyone running Firefox RC1, please leave a comment and let me know as I’m really curious if this works for others as well.
This fix along with disabling the “Java Quick Starter” plugin really worked!
Partha – Glad it worked for you. I’ll have to try disabling the Java Quick Starter plugin myself and see what happens. Thanks for mentioning it.
Where do I find the java quick start plugin to disable it?
Jen (welcome!),
Depending on your version of Java, you will find the Java Quick Start plugin in the “Extensions” tab in the “Add ons” dialog box (you’ll find it under the “Tools” menu). not the “Plugins” tab like you might think. You can disabled it from there. You’ll have to restart the browser once you do though for it to take affect.
Hi
I tried it on my Firefox 3.0.7 and
it did not work, this firefox is running on linux CentOS4.7.
When i am running Pandora.com and listening to music the cpu usage goes to 93 and makes all navigation impossible …
I also checks my news papper and i think java have to do with it but i do not have java quick starter in my firefox, so i am looking for some way to fix the problem …
Matte
I tried this procedure on Firefox 2.0 with great results. Now I don’t have to wait (and wait) for a response from my system when Firefox is consuming CPU time.
Note: CPU utilization still reaches 100% now and then, but the system does not stall other programs when Firefox is processing its webpage. (I am running Windows Server 2003).
This solution solved the problem partially.
I have the Java quick starter plugin turned off along with your above given solution, but as soon as I load a foreground tab the CPU usage shoots to 100% then starts fluctuating from 20% – 100%.
I have given up on this problem altogether. If I have anything else open and enlarged, in addition to firefox, it seems to go to very high cpu and stops. So I have taken to closing firefox via task manager when this happens, and then restarting, and minimising all other screens if I’m not working on them.
Wow, I think that fixed my problem. THANKS!
I had this same issue with Firefox 2.
I have 3 now and after disabling the Cache and turning off the Java it still runs like crazy also uses over 200Meg of Ram.
I also shut down the .net Framework…
Really dumbing down my system…
Any other Fixes?