Extra firefox process randomly run.
Hi. For a while now I've seen extra Firefox processes randomly appear in Windows Task Manager. These extra processes persist after closing the browser while the main Firefox process actually closes. When trying to open Firefox again, these extra processes stay as they are, using ~4MB RAM and hardly seeming to do anything else whilst another process launches that the browser appears to run from.
The extra processes can range in number depending on when i notice them. They appear one by one, not all at once.
Opening the file location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe so it is indeed Firefox.
The browser is left open 24/7 with multiple windows and tabs open.
Malware scan has been run with both the latest versions of Malwarebytes and Norton Anti Virus.
The Windows 7 installation is only a few days old, however before the latest install i had observed this issue. I HAD copied my profile over from the old installation however when i noticed the issue again, i completely deleted all traces of Firefox from my system including profiles and folders (with the exception of the password files), did a fresh install of Firefox 32.0.1, configured Firefox settings, re-installed 3 extensions (Classic Theme Restorer, Hide Tab Bar With One Tab 1.4, Throbber Restored 1.2) and carried on using Firefox with Windows Task Manager open to observe if and when the extra processes appeared.
I have done a lot of browsing on various sites, watched youtube (flash plugin) videos and opened PDFs in the browser which are typical of my usage but i noticed an extra process appear when i opened a new window and did a Wikipedia search from the search bar so I do not think it is any specific action i perform in use.
Couple of pictures here, although I doubt they would be much use. http://i.imgur.com/n1JxSLw.png - Windows Task Manager (only showing one extra there but more tend to spawn) http://i.imgur.com/heodDcP.png - Processexplorer - All the items listed also appear in the normal Firefox process.
Any ideas on how to stop these extra processes appearing? (whilst writing this the extra process has grown to use 6MB RAM) Thanks
Modified by bleets
All Replies (5)
Actually i made the bug re-appear by repeatedly opening (with Firefox button on quick launch) and closing new Firefox windows until an extra process appeared. Numerous times i've seen an extra process appear when usually it doesnt, sometimes the extra process disappears straight away however sometimes it sticks. So it's a bit of random behaviour from Firefox.
Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} Let it run for a few minutes, then shut it down. Is the problem still there?
If you still have problems;
Type about:support in the address bar and press Enter. Under the main banner, press the button; Copy Text To Clipboard.. Then in the reply box at the bottom of this page, do a right click in the box and select Paste. This will show us your system details. No Personal Information Is Collected.
It could be the work of one of your add-ons, or even add / mal-ware.
Open your Add-ons Manager <Control>(Mac:<Command>)<Shift> A and make sure you know what each one is and what it does. Some added toolbar and anti-virus add-ons are known to cause Firefox issues. Disable All of them.
Also, check the programs that are on your computer
Windows: Start > Control Panel > Uninstall Programs. Mac: Open the "Applications" folder. Linux: Check your user manual.
Go thru the list. If you find something that you don't know what it is, use a web search.
Firefox checks for itself in memory at startup and usually will avoid creating a new instance, either by opening a new window in the existing instance of Firefox or displaying an error message that Firefox is running and then refusing to start. You may be seeing some third behavior?
One thing you might try is to make a browser other than Firefox your default browser for a day and see whether the extra processes still show up. If they don't, that would suggest that other programs/processes might be trying to open a window.
Hi. I've tried in safe mode and yes intermittently when i open a new window, an extra process launches and persists. Quite often when opening a new window via the Windows quicklaunch shortcut on the taskbar, I see an extra process appear and quickly disappear, it's the ones that persist that are the issue. The issue does not occur when using ctrl+n or the new window toolbar button in Firefox.
As requested here is the about:support dump.
Application Basics
Name: Firefox Version: 32.0.2 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0
Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days
All Crash Reports
Extensions
Name: Classic Theme Restorer Version: 1.2.3 Enabled: true ID: ClassicThemeRestorer@ArisT2Noia4dev
Name: Hide Tab Bar With One Tab Version: 1.4 Enabled: true ID: {e5bbc237-c99b-4ced-a061-0be27703295f}
Name: Throbber Restored Version: 1.2 Enabled: true ID: Throbber-Restored@jetpack
Graphics
Adapter Description: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti Adapter Drivers: nvd3dumx,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2umx nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um Adapter RAM: 2048 ClearType Parameters: Gamma: 2200 Pixel Structure: R ClearType Level: 100 Enhanced Contrast: 200 Device ID: 0x1380 Direct2D Enabled: true DirectWrite Enabled: true (6.2.9200.16492) Driver Date: 7-2-2014 Driver Version: 9.18.13.4052 GPU #2 Active: false GPU Accelerated Windows: 5/5 Direct3D 10 Vendor ID: 0x10de WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0) windowLayerManagerRemote: false AzureCanvasBackend: direct2d AzureContentBackend: direct2d AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0
Important Modified Preferences
accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0 browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false browser.cache.frecency_experiment: 4 browser.newtab.url: about:blank browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion: 7 browser.search.suggest.enabled: false browser.search.useDBForOrder: true browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand: false browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID: 20140917194002 browser.startup.homepage: about:blank browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID: 20140917194002 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone: 32.0.2 browser.tabs.drawInTitlebar: false dom.mozApps.used: true extensions.lastAppVersion: 32.0.2 gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0 network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1411223517 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types: application/pdf plugin.importedState: true plugin.state.npauthz: 0 plugin.state.npctrl: 0 plugin.state.npspwrap: 0 privacy.donottrackheader.enabled: true privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs: true storage.vacuum.last.index: 1 storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite: 1410879603
JavaScript
Incremental GC: true
Accessibility
Activated: false Prevent Accessibility: 0
Library Versions
NSPR Expected minimum version: 4.10.6 Version in use: 4.10.6
NSS Expected minimum version: 3.16.4 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.16.4 Basic ECC
NSSSMIME Expected minimum version: 3.16.4 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.16.4 Basic ECC
NSSSSL Expected minimum version: 3.16.4 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.16.4 Basic ECC
NSSUTIL Expected minimum version: 3.16.4 Version in use: 3.16.4
Experimental Features