hello rafaelmemail, could you go to firefox > help > troubleshooting information, copy the contents of that page and paste them here into a reply on the forum? this might give us a clue what is going on...

Application Basics

Name: Firefox Version: 26.0 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:26.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/26.0

Extensions

Name: DivX Plus Web Player HTML5

Name: DownloadHelper Version: 4.9.21 Enabled: true ID: {b9db16a4-6edc-47ec-a1f4-b86292ed211d}

Name: Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant Version: 0.0.0 Enabled: true ID: {20a82645-c095-46ed-80e3-08825760534b}

Name: RAMBack Version: 1.0 Enabled: true ID: ramback@pavlov.net

Name: McAfee SiteAdvisor Version: 3.6.4 Enabled: false ID: {4ED1F68A-5463-4931-9384-8FFF5ED91D92}

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.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400 browser.fixup.alternate.enabled: false browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion: 4 browser.search.searchEnginesURL: browser.search.useDBForOrder: true browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand: false browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID: 20131205075310 browser.startup.homepage: https://www.google.com browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID: 20131205075310 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone: 26.0 browser.tabs.loadInBackground: false browser.tabs.warnOnClose: false dom.mozApps.used: true dom.w3c_touch_events.expose: false extensions.lastAppVersion: 26.0 font.internaluseonly.changed: true gfx.blacklist.direct2d: 3 gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d10: 3 gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d10-1: 3 gfx.blacklist.layers.direct3d9: 3 gfx.blacklist.layers.opengl: 3 gfx.blacklist.stagefright: 3 gfx.blacklist.suggested-driver-version: 6.1400.1000.5218 gfx.blacklist.webgl.angle: 3 gfx.blacklist.webgl.msaa: 3 gfx.blacklist.webgl.opengl: 3 network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1389798203 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 66855 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types: plugin.importedState: true privacy.cpd.offlineApps: true privacy.cpd.siteSettings: true privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs: true privacy.sanitize.timeSpan: 0 security.warn_viewing_mixed: false storage.vacuum.last.index: 1 storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite: 1388584562

user.js Preferences

Your profile folder contains a user.js file, which includes preferences that were not created by Firefox.

Graphics

Adapter Description: Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family Adapter Drivers: igxprd32 Adapter RAM: Unknown Device ID: 0x2a02 Direct2D Enabled: Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating your graphics driver to version 6.1400.1000.5218 or newer. DirectWrite Enabled: false (0.0.0.0) Driver Date: 1-21-2009 Driver Version: 6.14.10.5029 GPU #2 Active: false GPU Accelerated Windows: 0/4 Basic Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating your graphics driver to version 6.1400.1000.5218 or newer. Vendor ID: 0x8086 WebGL Renderer: Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating your graphics driver to version 6.1400.1000.5218 or newer. windowLayerManagerRemote: false AzureCanvasBackend: skia AzureContentBackend: none AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0

JavaScript

Incremental GC: true

Accessibility

Activated: false Prevent Accessibility: 0

Library Versions

NSPR Expected minimum version: 4.10.2 Version in use: 4.10.2

NSS Expected minimum version: 3.15.3.1 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.15.3.1 Basic ECC

NSSSMIME Expected minimum version: 3.15.3.1 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.15.3.1 Basic ECC

NSSSSL Expected minimum version: 3.15.3.1 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.15.3.1 Basic ECC

NSSUTIL Expected minimum version: 3.15.3.1 Version in use: 3.15.3.1

FF is currently At 796,240 k, and increasing.

4 Windows 15 tabs total

I have opened and closed approx 20 tabs.

RM

hello again & sorry for the slight delay in replying - nothing in your configuration looks particularly out of order or like an obvious candidate for causing such memory leaks.

however, in order to diagnose the issue further, could you test if the same problem is occurring when you launch firefox in safe mode once like described in Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems?

1. Phillip:

I started FF with Add-ons disabled, and proceeded to do my stuff as usual. FF went as far as 645346k, and when I stopped all browsing it went back down, eventually settling on 286712k. The 286712k is twice the amount of memory that FF starts with, but at least it returned some of the memory.

So are the add-ons the culprits? If so, do you recommend to disable them until we have the culprit?

Thank you for you input and efforts.

R

yes, there a couple of things that are different in safemode - keeping all the extensions disabled during normal browsing while observing the ram behaviour is certainly a good way to start. another thing you could try is to update the graphics driver of your computer - this should be the most up-to-date version for your configuration: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18774&lang=eng&OSVersion=Windows%20XP%20%20Home%20Edition*&DownloadType=Drivers

Phillip:

Thank you for your valuable input.

I updated the video driver as suggested, and have been running FF for the last couple of days. FF just simple does not like returning all the memory back to the OS. Today, went as high as 976456k, then I killed every window and tabs except one, and this one contained the google page (fairly basic page). FF proceeded to return about half the memory, eventually settling at 574345k.

574345k is about twice what FF starts with, it would be nice if FF went back down to that.

Ill start with the disabling add-ons and report back,

Thank you again.

Rafael