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firefox causes my system to become unresponsive

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since upgrading to firefox 20, I have noticed that after about a half hour of use, the browser starts using up all 1.23 GB of available RAM on my system. when this happens, my system becomes frozen (the clock stops) and I usually have to do a cold reboot. with chrome, when memory gets dangerously low, I can free up more ram by closing unused tabs, but closing tabs with firefox doesn't do any good! what can I do to fix the issue?

since upgrading to firefox 20, I have noticed that after about a half hour of use, the browser starts using up all 1.23 GB of available RAM on my system. when this happens, my system becomes frozen (the clock stops) and I usually have to do a cold reboot. with chrome, when memory gets dangerously low, I can free up more ram by closing unused tabs, but closing tabs with firefox doesn't do any good! what can I do to fix the issue?

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Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration. Since this feature was added to Firefox, it has gradually improved, but there still are a few glitches.

You might need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).

Then perform these steps:

  • Click the orange Firefox button at the top left, then select the "Options" button, or, if there is no Firefox button at the top, go to Tools > Options.
  • In the Firefox options window click the Advanced tab, then select "General".
  • In the settings list, you should find the Use hardware acceleration when available checkbox. Uncheck this checkbox.
  • Now, restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.

Additionally, please check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in the following Knowledge base articles:

Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems

Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL

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