Firefox difficulties (Plugin container crashing)

[Misdreavus]

I've been using Firefox for awhile now and have been happy with it, but a few months ago, I began to experience issues with it suddenly becoming very slow if there are a lot of tabs open (10-15 or so) and the Firefox window has been open for a long period of time, particularly if I've put my computer on standby since I opened the window. It will become so slow that I will have to use "End Task" in the Windows Task Manager. Quite often, the task manager shows that Firefox is using an insanely large amount of memory, sometimes over 1 GB. After I select "End Task," I get a message telling me that the Firefox plugin-container has stopped working properly.

For extensions, I have:

• Java Console
• Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant

For plug-ins, I have:

• Adobe Acrobat
• downloadUpdater
• downloadUpdater2
• iTunes Application Detector
• Java Deployment Tooklit 6.0.220.4
• Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U22
• Microsoft Office Live Plug-in for Firefox
• Mozilla Default Plug-in
• Office Genuine Advantage
• QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.8
• Shockwave Flash
• Silverlight Plug-In
• VLC Multimedia Plug-in
• Winamp Application Detector
• Windows Genuine Advantage
• Windows Live Photo Gallery
• Windows Presentation Foundation (this one is grayed out for some reason)
• WPI Application Detector

I only have 1 theme aside from the default one (I downloaded and use "dark myth" by daydreaamm). There shouldn't be a problem with 10-15 tabs being opened since I have 4 GB of memory and dual 2GHz processors. I'm running Windows Vista 32-bit.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem is? I've been advised by a tech-savvy friend of mine to switch to Chrome, saying that it is quite similar. Would that be my best solution?

I'm also planning on switching to Windows 7 64-bit soon, and I understand that there's not an official 64-bit version of Firefox, and that the 32-bit version has been known to have issues with x64 operating systems. I assume I'll need to switch to another browser then, right?

Thanks!

 

[Trax]

I'd start by turning off Winamp and the Windows Plug-Ins.

It could be that running both versions of download updater is causing some kind of crash?

 

[Misdreavus]

I'd start by turning off Winamp and the Windows Plug-Ins.

It could be that running both versions of download updater is causing some kind of crash?

Okay, I'll give that a try. Do I not need downloadUpdater if I have downloadUpdater2?

 

[Trax]

Okay, I'll give that a try. Do I not need downloadUpdater if I have downloadUpdater2?

I have to be honest with you: I simply assumed they were two versions of the same product.

You might want to read the post by PacJack360 at this topic on another forum, it seems to cover a similar issue - I've seen a bunch of posts on the web about this stuff with downloadUpdater looking like a common theme (it may not be the problem, but I think it is):

http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/com...ts-of-problems-with-firefox-3-6-2/t.59920655/


I'd recommend you turn off any addons/plugins you aren't always consciously using.