Computer Freezes after a couple of hours of non-use

November 5, 2006 1:35 PM

If I don't use my Dell PC computer for several hours and return to it, the various screens on my Firefox browser are often frozen. This sometimes affects non-web screens, such as word processing, etc.--but sometimes it doesn't. I can't even close out of the Firefox screens--I keep getting an error message. Any suggestions? I'm using a direct ethernet connection with a cable modem.
posted by quintno to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

What version of Firefox are you running? Try updating to the latest stable release. (www.GetFirefox.com)
posted by doomtop at 1:40 PM on November 5, 2006

1.x-era Firefox has a bit of a memory problem: it's footprint steadily increases as it runs.

I'd be interested to know your computer's vital statistics, as my own machine (XP, PIII 933 MHZ, 384 MB Ram) has never completely *locked up* from this syndrome.
posted by The Confessor at 2:40 PM on November 5, 2006

Ah yes, sorry.

To fix whenever this occurs:

Press CONTROL + ALT + DELETE

When the task manager shows up, click on the size column header to sort by that amount.

If my theory is correct, firefox.exe should have the largest footprint.

Click on it, and click on End Task.
posted by The Confessor at 2:43 PM on November 5, 2006

I've had these sorts of problems with FireFox. They were usually caused by an Addon. Try disabling your addons and see if the problem continues. If it doesn't, add them back, one by one, until you find the culprit.
posted by Tacos Are Pretty Great at 2:55 PM on November 5, 2006

I get a similar problem with firefox - it's not just the memory leaks as already mentioned, but it causes the CPU to max out doing (as far as I can tell) nothing of use, sometimes for ages. You can help mitigate the problem with a program called Process Tamer - it basically just manages program priority levels, offering a bit more user designation than taskmanager. If you set it to ensure firefox is running at a lower priority level, then when it flips out and attempts to eat all resources on the computer, the other programs will retain CPU priority over it, and you'll be able to shut it down without it bogging down their performance.

I'd really like to know what the CPU is crunching all that time that it's doing nothing - the fan air heats up so it's definitly processing, but I've had it do that for 15 minutes... WTF is it doing?
posted by -harlequin- at 3:40 PM on November 5, 2006

Some versions of the Google toolbar have caused Firefox to run up to 100% CPU usage and stay there (on FF 1.5.x), for me at least. I've since switched to the Lite version you can get from the addons site, with no recurrence of the problem.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:07 PM on November 5, 2006

(PS For the question poster: the terminology most people use is to call physical displays 'screens' (ie your monitor or monitors), and applications on those displays 'windows', at least on the PC. Adopting these words may help you more clearly explain problems to people in the future. Also, when asking for tech help when there's an error message, it's a good idea to actually include what the error message says.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:11 PM on November 5, 2006

I'm having this issue too, I think. I've got a new HP Pavilion running XP, and I tried not to add too much crap to it (that's a technical term), but I am using a Google screensaver that runs a montage of random photos from my hard drive. I'm suspicious that it's the problem. When I come back to wake up the computer, the screensaver stops, but then everything is frozen solid. (soory to tag along on your question, quintno)
posted by tizzie at 5:39 PM on November 5, 2006

What happens when you leave your computer alone? Is it set to go into standy or hibernation? Both of these can cause the problems you describe. Coming out of hibernation often sets my firefox to 100% cpu usage. My understanding is that this is a known bug.

If this is a desktop then there is no reason to use standby (kills the network connection) or hibernate.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:12 PM on November 5, 2006

Response by poster: thanks for the suggestions (and sorry for my clumsy terminology). I'm using the latest version of Firefox (2.0) and when I do hit CTRL+ALT+DEL, I find that CPU is rarely going at more than 35%. When I do go to applications and try to close FIREFOX and hit the END NOW button, window simply goes blank and nothing happens. I try this repeatedly and each time APPLICATIONS will continue to show FIREFOX running as well as the END TASK "program"--for as many times as I have clicked it to run. At this point there is nothing to do but to unplug the system, since it will not shut down through Windows.

P.S. Only ADD-ON I have with Firefox is ROBO-FORM
posted by quintno at 7:42 PM on November 5, 2006

Response by poster: One other point--I am not using standby or hibernate. Machine is simply staying on while I am away for several hours.
posted by quintno at 7:43 PM on November 5, 2006

Doing an End Task on the firefox.exe process (under the Processes tab in the Task Manager) is usually more reliable than killing the Firefox application. I think Task Manager probably tries to send messages to applications to tell them to shut down, which won't do much if the app has locked up and is refusing to process messages. Windows processes (which include, but are not limited to, application programs) aren't guaranteed to have any kind of message handler, so Task Manager just kicks them in the head without warning.

I haven't suffered the particular freezes you speak of, but sometimes one of my Firefoxes will refuse to exit cleanly if an errant Java applet doesn't do the right thing; the symptom is that when I try to start Firefox again, it whinges about being already running (even though Task Manager doesn't show it in the Applications tab). In these circumstances, there's always a firefox.exe sitting there under the Processes tab, and killing it always restores normality.
posted by flabdablet at 2:17 AM on November 6, 2006