Mozilla Firefox

[meglet]

I installed it recently and found it surfed through websites quicker than Internet Explorer. But if I use it for a couple of hours it starts to run really slowly, This happened today and when I checked my Task Manager processs I found that the memory usage was 168Mb so I had to quit out of it. Is there anything I can do about this?

[matt1e]

this link might help

http://howto.helpero.com/howto/Reduce-Firefox- Memory-Usage_4.html

[meglet]

Thanks Matt1e.

[Buenchico]

Go to Tools > Options > Network > Cache.

Click 'Clear now'. Set the maximum cache size to something rather lower than the current value. (Try 40Mb). Click 'OK'.

If that doesn't do the trick, follow these instructions (although you can ignore #2, since you've done the same job already):
http://internetducttape.com/2006/12/02/how-to- fix-the-firefox-memory-leak-firefox-hack/

Chris

[meglet]

Thanks Chris. It was only set at 50Mb but I've done as you suggested. Hope it works!

[ACtheTROLL]

the issue of the cache ...
my ie cache is currently set at <600mb (the default on this system)
(at work ... we use an 800mb default)
the idea is that ie clears a % chunk and then fills it with new stuff .... when it gets full ... it does it again

if you surf a lot ...50 (and now 40Mb) doesn't go far .... your system (firefox) is constantly going to be clearing it's cache.

remember the cache is going to be the same size as IE for any given site.

so rather than reducing it .... i'd say bang it up to 500-700Mb
to prevent sys slowdown

(firefox works like all browsers in this respect ... it's the way it handles the code that's different


as for the memory (I assume you mean mem and not disc space)

windows uses pre-fetch which is like the browser cache.... it hangd on to code that's been used recently .... just in case you need it again .... if you need more ... it drops memory as it needs it (because mem significantly faster than a hdd windows generally gets away with it).

unless a prog has a memory leak ... then it hangs on to chunks even though the main prog has gone.

the upshot is that over time your ram fills .... and stays full .... ram amnagers tend to slow systems down rather than speeding them up .... but the big numbers look good.

[ACtheTROLL]

damn .... wrong button

I was going to add .... try a big cache and see .... you can always make it bigger/smaller as and when you decide what's best

[meglet]

Thanks AC. I mean the "Mem Usage" in the Processes tab of Task Manager.

Not sure what to do now! Increase or decrease the cache! I'll try both and see how I get on.

Thanks again.

[ACtheTROLL]

meglet

trying both gets the smart money!
a couple of days of both ... (unless obviously bad!!)

[fo3nix]

Also, Firefox is notorious for memory leaks (fragmented memory, etc.).

Firefox 3, in beta to download and due out officially, sorts some of these issues. Try it if you like (with some messing, you can run both 2 and 3 at once).

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta. html