Why is IE eating all my memory?

[gelcreative]

Hiya - I've been having probs with IE7 and memory.

I'm using Vista & IE7 and have allowed standard windows updates to take place. Since about January, I've been having problems with IE taking up all the memory. It seems to be building up and up over the course of a few hours until it hits about 750,000K and then it pretty much freezes.

I've taken a quick screenshot.

http://www.gelcreative.co.uk/temp/taskman.gif

As you can see the memory usage is in the 700,000Ks and as I type this post (in Firefox) I can see that the CPU is operating at between 80-90% in IE - yet I haven't even opened the IE tab for about an hour and all its accessing is one text webpage!

Any ideas how I can remedy this? I'm sick of keep having to close down IE and then open it up again. Out of choice I am using Firefox, but as a webdesigner, need to have IE open too for testing purposes.

Thanks!

[DaveSawers]

IE7 has lots of problems. I don't see the same memory problem you do but my installation keeps crashing, particularly when several tabs are open. I'm running XP (don't see any advantage in switching to Vista at the moment).

I guess it's no coincidence that IE8 is about to come out so soon after the release of IE7.

[jhilgeman]

Yeah, that's unusual. If IE7 is hitting 90% CPU and taking up that much RAM, then either:

1. The page it is on has a script or some plug-in that is making IE7 go into a crazy loop. Check to see if the problem keeps happening when IE is on a particular page, even if you haven't touched it for a while.

2. You might have a browser plugin (called a Browser Helper Object or BHO) or an ActiveX control that is doing something. Most "good" plugins don't cause these types of problems, so you might have some spyware/malware. Download and install a program called SpyBot: Search and Destroy:

The home of Spybot-S&D!

In Advanced mode (one of its menu options), you should be able to get to its tools, one of which is a tool to show you what ActiveX plugins are installed, and another tool that shows you the BHOs that are installed. Those tools also let you de-activate bad plugins by unchecking them or deleting them from the list. (Keep in mind that some malware has several different "pieces" to it and will just reinstall itself if you try to remove it)

[sands]

You could try out the No Add-ons version of IE7 and see if you have the same problem. If you don't it means it has something to do with the Add-ons. Then you could go to the Programs tab in Internet Options and click the Manage Add-ons button and try disabling all add-ons and ActiveX Controls one after the other while checking to see if the problem resolves itself.

[carolin.c22]

she is right ...I tried IE 7 for a while ...It was so hard to deal with it , it is using the most of my PC memory.I had to uninstall it after one week .

[marms676]

I have a similar problem where if I have say 10 IE windows open at one time and then I try to open that 11'th window it comes up blank. I can't stand IE.