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November 26th, 2005

Firefox not responding

It’s the weekend which means boring technical posts and repeats.

firefox not responding

Click below to read my not particularly interesting analysis.

As I’ve mentioned before I love the Firefox internet browser, but it does have some problems which cause me frustration on a daily basis. I think I’ve worked out the problem though. Firefoxes problem is that it won’t leave the past behind.

Let me explain. With one ‘tab’ open Firefox uses 30000-40000K of memory. A lot compared with most programmes, but not unworkable. But then with a number of tabs open this figure rises until it can reach 80000 to even 120000K. Unfortunately my computer is at severe risk of going into meltdown at this point. But all would be well if when one closed some of the tabs the memory usage figure reduced. But the problem is that on my one year old computer, running Windows XP Service pack two with no viruses and no spyware and running Firefox 1.0.7 with all the updates… it doesn’t. Firefox holds on to the maximum memory usage figure and continues to opeate using that much memory, even if you only have one tab open.

firefox problem

[Other programmes blanked out for security purposes]

So the only answers seem to be to restrict Firefox to two or three tabs at the most, or to close Firefox down at regular intervals, which can be a time consuming process at by this point it will usually be not responding.

Update for those who have surfed in: Since writing this post I have upgraded to Firefox 1.5 which does seem to be a bit better on the whol. Here’s a button for you to get it (button might not show in all browsers).


11 Comments »



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This is a single post on the Cartoon Blog by Dave posted on Saturday, November 26th, 2005 at 8:00 am. Click here to read all of the latest posts. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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11 Responses to “Firefox not responding”


  1. Chas says:

    Dare I encourage people to use Opera instead – particularly since it is now ad-free …

  2. Dave says:

    Yes, you might be right Chas. The problem is in every way I think Firefox is great. I’ve got it all set up just nicely with a few extra toolbars I like and all my favourites and it would be a real hassle to change. I know in theory you can import things from one programme to another but it never works for me in practice as I am a special case.

    So I’ll just moan instead.

  3. Simo says:

    Hi Dave, this is a known problem with firefox, I have read about it before lets hope it’s something the mozzila corporation will sort this out for the next update. I haven’t looked at opera recently, I used to like it and have used it a bit in the past and it has always been the adds that put me off so maybe I should look at it again, it does get some very good reviews recently.

  4. Steppenwolf says:

    Something else may be going on. I have no idea what voodoo Windows (98SE) (or the Windows version of FF) is or is not doing with memory on my old 128MB RAM Pentium II, however I – too – am having FF freeze a lot lately. It began some 2 or 3 weeks ago with FF 1.0.7. It had been running fine for a long time, then it suddenly began to enter the “not responding” state, occasionally even on the first page. I was forced to check my web-based email with IE for a while. Then I discovered that FF 1.5 had come out and installed that over 1.0.7, and the problem went away. Now, a week or so later, it has suddenly reappeared. Starting a new profile didn’t help back with 1.0.7, and probably won’t now. I wonder what gives. (I too protect myself fiercly against malware (firewall, startup controller, virus scanner, adware scanner…). I am a bit at a loss. The problem seems to crop up independently of user profile, (recent) FF version, or number of tabs opened. I have used FF since version 0.8 and never had such a problem before. I have no explanation, but tab buffering doesn’t look like the culprit on my end.

  5. Scott says:

    Dave, i found your site surfing for info on this very problem. i too am a diehard firefox user but because of the hangtime waiting for windows/popup boxes etc to open i was just about to uninstall (last resort). However, in the program menu i came across something called Firefox (safe mode). I decided to give that a try and i havent had any problems with hangtime and delays. Maybe it works.. give it a try.

  6. Greg says:

    Same story here. I’ve used Firefox 1.5 since it was beta and recently it started hanging and saying “Not Responding”. It even disappears from the task bar in Win XP SP2. I recently upgraded my CPU from a P4 non-hyperthreaded to a P4 hyperthreaded. I thought that might have something to do with it since Firefox still works on my Win XP laptop just fine.

  7. Kevin Taylor says:

    I also get Firefox’s Not Responding but my hard drive also keeps on loading something for a good 30seconds before firefox starts to work again. I use nortons 2006, Ad-Aware SP and Spybot Blaster. Any ideas why firefox does this every-so-often cause it gets so annoying?

  8. Daniel Phillips says:

    Yea I have the same problem.

    I work alot of traffic exchanges and thought I may have picked up a virus from a traffic exchange.

    Two of my computers have it now. I have since reinstalled version 1.5 and it still doesnt work.

    ARRGHH! Help!

  9. Muniery says:

    I was using firefox 1.50 but still not working..please help me…..

  10. Brian says:

    FF icon, right click, properties, compatibility,
    compatibilty mode, check off ‘run this program in
    compatibility mode for:’, select ‘Windows 98/Windows Me’.

    Worked like a charm. Couldn’t believe it after months
    of frustration.

    b.

  11. Emilio says:

    I had the same problems. I had copied the bookmarks file from another computer and Firefox didn’t like that one! When I removed the bookmarks.html it was fast as ever.