Firefox driving MBP (and me) crazy

[marine610610]

Im one of those guys that opens a new window, keeping the old ones open for reference when im working, while using FF or Safari. I prefer Firefox, however, FF always seems to run away with my processor.

When i go to activity monitor its using 60-70 percent, the fans are up and the heat is high. Safari doesn't do this to me, not with the exact same web pages open. Is there a reason for this runaway? Some setting that needs to be tweaked or adjusted?

 

[colmaclean]

Same here!

I can only get 2 hours' battery out of my late-2008 MBP when I'm running Firefox.

However, I usually have quite a few tabs open including a few which use Ajax postbacks, so cause more wifi network activity than a static page...

 

[Ice Dragon]

Firefox is great at blocking ads (and is great overall) though it does often have a tendency to hog resources. It's probably best to have open no more than five tabs at once I have noticed.

 

[rodo]

same here !

I noticed Firefox eats many many resources since version 3.0 (the "ultra optimized" 3.5 included)

I keep a copy of FireFox 2.0 that doesnt eat that much...

 

[sharkync]

If Firefox is that bothersome, close it occasionally and reopen it. It will remember your tabs and use far less resources than keeping it open continuously.

 

[rodo]

If Firefox is that bothersome, close it occasionally and reopen it. It will remember your tabs and use far less resources than keeping it open continuously.

yup 100% agree

 

[The Samurai]

I've lost count of how many times FireFox crashes on me each day. Just as well they've got that restore option.

Anyone else get these 'crashes'... beach ball comes and then you've got to do a force quit.

And yes, ive reinstalled FF - no change.

 

[Rampant.A.I.]

I've lost count of how many times FireFox crashes on me each day. Just as well they've got that restore option.

Anyone else get these 'crashes'... beach ball comes and then you've got to do a force quit.

And yes, ive reinstalled FF - no change.

This is exactly the reason I quit using Safari, and yet I have zero problems with FF.

Are you running any addons in FF?

 

[The Samurai]

This is exactly the reason I quit using Safari, and yet I have zero problems with FF.

Are you running any addons in FF?

I've got a few plug ins running.

 

[RandomKamikaze]

I've lost count of how many times FireFox crashes on me each day. Just as well they've got that restore option.

Anyone else get these 'crashes'... beach ball comes and then you've got to do a force quit.

And yes, ive reinstalled FF - no change.

I've had no problems with FF randomly crashing out. It normally does it when the website causes an issue, or like earlier, user error (I tried to print. Printer was off. Print Drivers hadn't been installed since SL install, but still had the printer listed)

 

[Collider]

I've lost count of how many times FireFox crashes on me each day. Just as well they've got that restore option.

Anyone else get these 'crashes'... beach ball comes and then you've got to do a force quit.

And yes, ive reinstalled FF - no change.

I recently had exactly this problem, and I found it solved by reinstalling the Flash Player plugin and then rebooting my MBP. Hope this works for you, or proves at least vaguely helpful.

 

[The Samurai]

I recently had exactly this problem, and I found it solved by reinstalling the Flash Player plugin and then rebooting my MBP. Hope this works for you, or proves at least vaguely helpful.

Cheers

Will give this a try. Just disabled loads of other plugins (MS silverlight). Fingers crossed.

Thanks everyone

 

[The Samurai]

Arghhh

I disabled the flash plug-ins yesterday from the 'add-ons' section in Firefox, done a restart and then enabled the flash player. Still no luck - still crashes and it happens on both my machines (new iMac 21.5 and MBP).

How do I uninstall flash? I'm thinking to uninstalling it and then do a fresh install of flash again... hopefully this will make a difference...

 

[MecPro]

I don't know why every one is having problems with FF? It is my browser of choice and I generally keep heavy loaded tabs open for days (I have a MBP which I just sleep), and I have no problems with FF at all. Actually if I think about it, it's never crashed for me

Specs of my machine are in my sig, maybe you should check your add-ons, use the tweak guide for FF (this might be the difference) and as others have said, close down FF once in a while

 

[Shodan]

Firefox failed for me when 3.0 was released - 3.5 is like ultra-bloat.

Safari 4 on the Mac, Chrome on the PC.. when I have to use one.

Use Safari - or even Opera, the new 10 is quite nice!

 

[vant]

My roommate made the switch from FireFox to Safari and he noticed large differences in temperatures and CPU usage.

I'm not sure why people would choose to use FF in the first place on OSX?

 

[anirban]

I agree, FF throws my MBP into an overdrive too. My temperature rises up to 70C, and hogs about 60-70% of the CPU. This is when I have around 7 tabs open!

Reinstalling FF didn't really help. I just close and restart FF to reduce the chance of it crashing out.

 

[skye12]

I've had very little problem with FF, but it does crash sometimes when
certain apps from brokerage houses are being used.

I'd try downloading FF again fresh. It is my favorite browser.

 

[Collider]

How do I uninstall flash? I'm thinking to uninstalling it and then do a fresh install of flash again... hopefully this will make a difference...

I'll confess, I never did uninstall Flash, I just went to the website and reinstalled it over whatever was already there... and that, coupled with a reboot, cleared up my crash problems.

That said, amen to what everyone else has observed about Firefox upping CPU usage and temperature. I've not yet experienced 70C from Firefox alone, but I have seen increases of up to ten degrees.

 

[Azathoth]

I'm not sure why people would choose to use FF in the first place on OSX?

Platform independence - if you know your way around Firefox then you can work on Windows, Linux and Mac PCs without needing to relearn UI or shortcuts.
Same with Thunderbird and OpenOffice...

 

[henry72]

Im one of those guys that opens a new window, keeping the old ones open for reference when im working, while using FF or Safari. I prefer Firefox, however, FF always seems to run away with my processor.

When i go to activity monitor its using 60-70 percent, the fans are up and the heat is high. Safari doesn't do this to me, not with the exact same web pages open. Is there a reason for this runaway? Some setting that needs to be tweaked or adjusted?

So Safari lol

 

[rodo]

Platform independence - if you know your way around Firefox then you can work on Windows, Linux and Mac PCs without needing to relearn UI or shortcuts.
Same with Thunderbird and OpenOffice...

I'd also add the zillion of extensions... some of them are essential for me as a developer.

 

[lumpi]

Eww, I just was about to install the fox and now I read this.


Just one thing to those blaming extensions and open tabs: I can open 15 tabs, sites with heavy flash and content, a good dozen extensions including adblock, tabmix and download helper... and get a 1% processor use on a Windows XP desktop (on a comparable core2duo 2.3 GHz). ONE percent. When I load up all the most expensive websites I can think of, running 2 youtube high res videos in the background... I peak at 15%.

This is so strange, I do not understand. it's one of those many little things that gives PC users a pretty damn good excuse to stick with M$. I hate it, but seriously, what's going on there?

 

[vant]

Platform independence - if you know your way around Firefox then you can work on Windows, Linux and Mac PCs without needing to relearn UI or shortcuts.
Same with Thunderbird and OpenOffice...

Is it really that hard to know two browsers?

I use IE on WinXP and Win7. I also use Safari on OS X. It seems pretty straightforward in terms of shortcuts and GUI.

Command/CTRL (depending on browser) W/T/Q/F generally all the shortcuts are the same.

 

[Azathoth]

Is it really that hard to know two browsers?

I use IE on WinXP and Win7. I also use Safari on OS X. It seems pretty straightforward in terms of shortcuts and GUI.

Command/CTRL (depending on browser) W/T/Q/F generally all the shortcuts are the same.

The availibility of noscript and adblock plugins, knowing where to change my cookie and password settings, etc etc.

Yeah it makes a difference. I already use half a dozen different programs for work, across Windows 7 (home/office), Mandriva Linux and Solaris platforms - so yeah - the fewer programs to mess around with, the better.