Checking here might provide some answers: http://www.mahalo.com/answers/web-browsers/why-does-firefox-304-on-win-xp-become-unresponsive-for-three-or-four-minutes-every-half-hour
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How many tabs are open? Tabs are a real memory hog, this could be it.
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I don't get Firefox behaving like that on my machine. I'd suggest you start over with Firefox. (ie: delete the application, as well as its files in the Library folders. home/Library/Application Support/Firefox being the main one.) ..export your bookmarks/favourites first, of course. ;)

Then once you have all that cleared up, download a fresh copy and start again. Only install the extensions you absolutely can't be without at first ..and try to add them slowly, so you can easily pinpoint which one of them is causing the problem (if it's an extension/addon problem, which it often is.)

That's the way I always handled Firefox problems, be they Mac or PC.
Source(s):
Much experience.

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If Firefox still acts like it used to in this aspect (and I believe it does), add-ons can really bog it down and cause it to act funny. I completely avoid add-ons in Firefox except for the really, really useful ones, like Adblock Plus.

I know it sucks but...3rd party stuff like that kind of blows when it comes to stability sometimes (see: Microsoft Windows - many of Vista's problems were third party developers getting their act together).
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