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FIrefox 81.0.1 consumes RAM until computer freezes

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by FredMcD

genari1
genari1
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Firefox 81.0.1 consumes RAM until my computer freezes. High RAM consumption was always a problem with Firefox, but the recent update seems to be much worse. Why can't Firefox release memory like all other high resource programs? After about 30 minutes it's consuming 2GB, and my 8GB RAM gets maxed out. I use very few plug-ins and no frills in the browser.

Firefox 81.0.1 consumes RAM until my computer freezes. High RAM consumption was always a problem with Firefox, but the recent update seems to be much worse. Why can't Firefox release memory like all other high resource programs? After about 30 minutes it's consuming 2GB, and my 8GB RAM gets maxed out. I use very few plug-ins and no frills in the browser.

All Replies (5)

FredMcD
FredMcD
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https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-slow-how-make-it-faster

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-many-cpu-resources-how-fix

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-much-memory-ram

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-hangs-or-not-responding

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-takes-long-time-start-up

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/quick-fixes-if-your-firefox-slows-down


MemTest LAST UPDATED : 12/04/2020 Could you please run a tool from http://memtest.org/ in order to check the integrity of your RAM?

You will need a thumb or disk drive to install it on.


Do you let Windows handle the page file or did you set a fixed size ? If you use a fixed size for the page file then try the former and let Windows handle the page file.

genari1
genari1 Question owner
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I formatted a USB with the memtest tool, but there's no information on how to use it or how to boot from it. I changed the page file to a fixed size from windows controlling it, and everything except Firefox seems improved. Facebook is the worst RAM hog. My laptop is less than 4 years old and has 8GB RAM. Firefox should be able to release memory better than it does.

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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You can check the Firefox Task Manager (about:performance) and about:memory pages.

genari1
genari1 Question owner
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The Firefox task manager shows no more than 50MB of memory in use. I wish! The Windows task manager shows almost 2GB being used by Firefox. Minimizing the memory in the about:memory page works for a few minutes, then the RAM becomes swallowed up again. I'm not even sure if all (or any) of that RAM is being used, but it's definitely unavailable for any other use, and it crashes the system instead of being released. Neither Firefox nor Windows is able to "manage" the RAM. Frustrating.

FredMcD
FredMcD
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You may have ad/mal-ware. Further information can be found in this article; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware?cache=no

Run most or all of the listed malware scanners. Each works differently. If one program misses something, another may pick it up.