I've had this problem both on Firefox and on Chrome. In some cases I can just shut down the tab running the Google Doc, but in other cases I have to completely kill the browser.

When this happens, the fan kicks on (on my Mac mini or laptop) and my other applications slow to a crawl, including typeahead in a text editor!

Exactly, this is exactly what happens, including what you mention about any typeahead in a text editor, web browser, etc. The whole PC seems to go slow (although Firefox is just taking 50% of CPU, not 90%!!) and just typing becomes a nightmare until I kill the Firefox process.

I didn't know it happened as well on Chrome, so maybe it is not just an issue on Firefox. But as I said, this started to happen when I downloaded the latest Firefox release.

Let's see if someone knows any answer for this.

Thanks, Fernando

Oh, by the way. It is not just an issue on my home PC. It also happens in the laptop I use at work (just in case someone would suggest that it is a question of my system).

I have just checked in that second system that Firefox starts "freezing" after a few minutes working with Google Docs, and my typing is delayed in any application, because FF is taking 50% of the CPU (although in this case it took less memory than in my other tests at home, just 150Mb)

I will go now to Google Docs support to raise the issue as well, as far as we don't know where is the problem (if Firefox or Google Docs).

Thanks again, Fernando

The problem happens for me on my Mac mini (home), Macbook Pro (work) and MacBook (home/travel). Both Firefox and Chrome - and I'm surprised it happens on Chrome since you'd think Google could get their own application working on their own browser.

I really think the issue is with Google Docs, not with any particular browser. But perhaps Firefox is worse, or its latest version makes it worse.

Please respond back on this board if you find out anything from GoogleDocs... or post the URL for wherever you requested Google Docs support, Thanks!

I have reviewed the Google Docs support forum, and found that it is a widely known issue, not solved yet.

Here you have the link to the main thread where it is discussed: High CPU Usage while GoogleDocs page open in a tab for a long period

As you will see there, it is clear that the problem is at the Documents List. If you close that tab, even if you maintain your documents open, the problem is solved and the CPU usage returns to normal.

Not the best solution, of course, but at least a tactical one, until they solve it.

Fernando

I would think that such a popular combination (Firefox and google docs) would have had a fix in place already!

I've been having this issue for a few days now. This has never happened before. I will try the fix.

I opened two google documents in FF and kept working for 1 day. The memory footprint ballooned to ~1GB !. FF became very slow.. Even after shutting down the FF, the process lingers with almost the same memory FP. I then did the same work on IE 8, the memory foot print never exceeded 125 MB. Also, the performance was better. While I hate to work on IE, I don't have any other options.