Massive memory hog that freezes consistently

Question

Ever since the update for FF7 came, I have experienced problems with the browser freezing on all pages. It doesn't crash & kick me out, the program will just lock up and stop responding. Not a matter of if, but when and it always freezes. After going to the task manager, I noticed that FF + plug-ins are using over 400,000K of memory space. I was using it a home & work. Now it has been taken off my pc at work and is the number 2 browser at home.

Answer 1

Are your mailboxes very large?
I think so. I generally keep just about everything.
Currently, /Users/dland/Library/Mail/ is about 600MB, with almost 425 of that for my work account. Of the 600MB, about 250 is in emlx files, 225 in the cache files, and the rest is distributed among other types. (Praise be to "Disk Inventory X.app" for the stats.)
Do you periodically rebuild them?
Not explicitly, although I will do so right now and report back.
Do you run the overnight system maintenance scripts?
Not usually -- the machine is off overnight. I think I know how to find out how to run them manually, so I'll do that and report back.
Are you using pop or imap?
IMAP (It's almost 2006, you know
Is mail automatically checking for new mail?
That's why I leave it on.
Is Spotlight indexing your mail?
I haven't told it not to, so perhaps so.
How is your hard disk space?
It's fine, thank you. And yours?
It's getting kind of full -- about 94% (much to my surprise).
Thanks for your help,
Dave