Fix Excessive Firefox 3 CPU and Hard Disk Usage

I have this exact same problem on my firefox 3.0 Heh I even though the same thing as you did of the bookmarks.

I wonder why it’s set default -1 ? Problems are gone now, thanks for the heads up.

As I told you, I’m using external cache manager Handycache, and internal cache is turned off (set to 0).

So, I don’t see any problem with cache.

Now I use both - Firefox 2 and Firefox 3. I miss Tab Mix Plus in FF 3, so FF 2 remains my main browser at work, and Opera 9.26 at home.

I find development build of it - on Tab Mix Plus forum. Thanks one more time for tip about development builds.

Hi, I had the same annoying issue for months now. Couldn’t find the issue. Was indeed also thinking along the line related to the live bookmark system.

Great site you solved my most annoying performance issue!

If you still experience the issue I would suggest to reduce the cache even more. I’m still experimenting with the best settings and have the slight feeling that this is not the whole picture.

I am using FF3 and I didn’t feel that problem. Even though, I have change this parameter. Some people may don’t know how to change this parameter. You have to access about:config in the URL-bar and search Urlclassifier.updatecachemax. Then, modify.

Odd, I’ve been running the nightlies for about 6 months now and haven’t experienced this issue, though I’ve also been running the RAMBack addon for about that long, which clears Firefox’s internal caches, I wonder if this has anything to do with my not experiencing this issue.

Anyone having the Brief extension installed as well ?

Hmm, now you mention it, …. yes, I’ve noticed that problem too. Thanks for the heads-up.

I have seen the same issue on my pc and have read several notes posted here and there about it, seems to be a common issue. Thanks for the fix.

[...] I realized that the Brief Firefox add-on was - at least partially - responsible for the high cpu and disk usage of Firefox every 45-60 minutes I had to find another way to read my subscribed RSS Feeds. I [...]

[...] Fix Excessive Firefox 3 CPU and Hard Disk Usage :: ghacks – for the brave folks out there trying the newest version of Firefox a few suggestions to help tame it. [...]

[...] 《Fix Excessive Firefox 3 CPU and Hard Disk Usage》中说，反钓鱼数据库文件的不断增长，在带来不断消耗硬盘空间的同时（特别是Windows版本没有大小限制的时候），也可能带来CPU短时间的“pause”。 所以既不希望禁止Firefox的反钓鱼功能，又不希望反钓鱼数据库占用太多硬盘空间的，可以把“urlclassifier.updatecachemax"的大小设置为一个合理的值（在Windows下面，我设置为50M的大小）。 [...]

This is Bug 329534
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=329534
isn’t it?

I have had this issue too. Thank you for this article, I really didn’t realise it was my firefox killing my Cpu like this- though I suspected it.

[...] Fix Excessive Firefox 3 CPU and Hard Disk Usage 104857600 [...]

hi all,
I’ve installed yesterday firefox 3
but CPU usage of firefox process go from 15% to 35% always!!!!!!!!
with 2.0 it’s 0% if I don’t do anything …

FF3 causing CPU usage on my computer of 10-50% almost the whole time. What a cock up by Mozilla, they won’t pick up market share if they launch a product with this sort of bug. I’ve switched back to IE after using FF for two years until there is an update to FF to sort this properly.

I’m experiencing this same issue on multiple machines.

I’ve solved my problem
1)deinstalling Firefox
2)delete folder c:\program files\Mozilla Firefox
3)re-install firefox

my problem it’s also caused by 6 tab open with http://www.codeproject.com/ so I’ve installed adblock plus and now I’ve 0%/2% of CPU usage

HTH

Thanks all for the solutions provided here.

I was dissapointed with version 3.0. Firefox has always had slower startup and used more system resources on my boxes than IE.

With Firefox 3.0 the problem became much worse, with sometimes up to 49% CPU usage and the cooling fan going mental. For me, this is paramount reason to run like hell from a browser as I have other resource hugging applications like Visual Studio and SQL Server installed and would rather have RAM and CPU cycles allocated to these more productive tools. Also, I don’t want to crank up my browser only for the annoying fan to switch on and begin mucking with my mind.

I’m going to try the solutions on here (perhaps a life has been saved ).

This is not the only monumental cock up with this version of Firefox. There was a critical security issue raised within 5 hours of its launch.

Maybe Firefox is becoming IE-esque???!

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3148636.cms

Thanks alots.. i havent implemented this solution yet but i was wondering FF team made so much fuss about FF 3 and its failing terribly on CPU and disk usage.. great article..
may be using sqllite was not that idea or may it is .. time will tell

I fixed this problem on my system (Windows XP) by unchecking the two boxes in Tools -> Options -> Security -> “Tell me if…”

I also deleted the urlclassifier3.sqlite file in C:\Documents and Settings\*Username*\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\85vqzktl.default\

hey did u uninstall firefox 2 first
becuh i think this will solve ur problem

@bitdave
On my system (Win XP too) its enough to delete/rename the urlclassifier2.sqlite and restart the ff3.

Thanks for help

Thanks guys, I was watching some videos on this site and noticed a recurring issue, the video would stutter for a few seconds, sure enough my CPU usage was just going bonkers, 88% at the time the videos would stutter, I removed my live bookmarks, and unchecked the “Tell me if” thing, and now when it’s idle it’s taking up 0%-2% max and 20% with the video going, I guess we can just hope for a bugfix, otherwise I’m converting back to Firefox 2, I need to have my bookmarks EVENTUALLY.

[...] number of people have cited Live Bookmarks as the issue. So if you do have a lot of those, you might want to jettison [...]

I see this: “change the value of Urlclassifier.updatecachemax from the default Windows value to the default Linux value”, but I haven’t seen any instructions on how to do it. My Fx 3 is completely broken and unusable. My laptop hdd light is mostly solid and the drive is thrashing the entire time I have Fx3 open. I have to use IE 7 because Fx 3 makes my entire computer grind to a halt. This is the first time I’ve been let down by Fx. This is a terrible release. Maybe I can find version 2 and re-install it. Fx 3 blows.

Ok, I found some instructions here https://wiki.foresightlinux.org/display/docs/How+to+fix+Firefox+3+freezing+or+heavy+disk+use
It doesn’t help me though. When I open Fx 3, my laptop locks up and the hdd light still goes solid. After 30-60 seconds it stops, but it starts again any time I click on the address bar or try to load any webpages. I’m dumping Fx 3. I may even look for another browser. This severely diminishes my opinion of Fx.

A *lot* of live/rss bookmarks seemed to cause this problem for me.

FF3 would pretty much freeze and cpu/memory usage would spike every hour or so — especially when first started.

I strongly suspected it was related to Foxmarks synching bookmarks so first I disabled *all* of my extensions but it didn’t do anything. I usually keep 10+ tabs open at a time and carry them over into new sessions, so I cut down the number and that didn’t help either.

Deleting 95% of my live bookmarks wasn’t a major loss since I use google reader now and it fixed the problem.

How did you export and delete your Firefox Live bookmarks? I’d like to do this, but have no idea.

Dan here you go

http://www.ghacks.net/2008/06/09/how-to-export-live-bookmarks-in-firefox/

Thank you for the fast response!

Backing off to Firefox 2… this is a disaster… it occurs on multiple machines.

Firefox 3 RC1 High CPU and Memory Use? Try this fix at the link below. It work for me

http://just-thinkin.net/2008/05/firefox-3-rc1-high-cpu-and-memory-use-try-this-fix/

[...] I’ve noticed for the past couple days, there seems to be a constant read/write with my HDD when I open up Firefox. After trying to find out what it was, I decided to do a Google search for it, which brought me to a post on gHacks. [...]

[...] found that two tips helped me reduce both CPU and memory [...]

Thanks for the info!

I thought I was the only one but obviously not!
Mine was a little more extreme - memory usage in excess of 1.6Gb and a bit more for the page file - my page file went from approx 600Mb to 2.24Gb because of FF3.

You have saved my bacon! will link you from my blog as most other ppl would have the same issue \o/