Internet Browser Using Up All Memory

Jambo · 13 Jul 2012 at 17:21

I have a MacBook Pro with 4Gb of memory and am having some annoying problems using my internet browser.

I thought it was an issue with Chrome but it's the same with Firefox. It seems to use up all the memory for some reason. If I look at the Activity Monitor there is usually very little or no memory free. It doesn't actually show high CPU usage unless I am doing something yet memory remains low at all times.

I have a suspicion it might be flash related but I'm not sure.

I don't have much else open at the same time. Just Word, Excel, iTunes and Mail.

Does anyone have any ideas?

mr.sly · 13 Jul 2012 at 17:45

Jambo said:
I have a MacBook Pro with 4Gb of memory and am having some annoying problems using my internet browser.

I thought it was an issue with Chrome but it's the same with Firefox. It seems to use up all the memory for some reason. If I look at the Activity Monitor there is usually very little or no memory free. It doesn't actually show high CPU usage unless I am doing something yet memory remains low at all times.

I have a suspicion it might be flash related but I'm not sure.

I don't have much else open at the same time. Just Word, Excel, iTunes and Mail.

Does anyone have any ideas?

How much memory is it actually using? How many tabs do you have open? And what sites are they?

Jambo · 13 Jul 2012 at 17:53

It says 771.2Mb for Firefox and when sitting idle it is only about 5% CPU usage. But if I load Facebook for example it shoots up to 90% or so. Even when it's idle though there is currently only 71Mb free in total. If I close Firefox it will free up loads.

Currently only 4 tabs. 2 Gmail, OcUK and Facebook.

Woden · 13 Jul 2012 at 17:54

Disable your extentions and see if that fixes it. If so, enable them one by one and single out the culprit.

Jambo · 13 Jul 2012 at 18:03

Woden said:
Disable your extentions and see if that fixes it. If so, enable them one by one and single out the culprit.

Will try that thanks but only have 4 and problem was in Chrome as well.

I've closed as much as I can for now and will see how it goes.

Jambo · 14 Jul 2012 at 16:12

Woden said:
Disable your extentions and see if that fixes it. If so, enable them one by one and single out the culprit.

This didn't seem to help unfortunately.

I had 196Mb free there and when I closed Firefox it went to 1.77Gb free. Now that I've restarted it's currently 1.58Gb free.

That certainly suggests that Firefox is clogging up the memory over time but I have no idea why. Any ideas anyone?