Brave using a lot of RAM/CPU power causing fan to run high

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1

Hi, I’ve been having issues with Brave for a couple of months now, in that it randomly (especially in the evenings) keeps using a lot of memory/CPU and makes the fan run high. Closing the browser allows the fan to slow and stop. This doesn’t seem to happen on other browsers, but I like using Brave for the ad-blocking and privacy. I also have a Norton extension which isn’t a problem on other browsers, though doesn’t seem to be available on DuckDuckGo’s browser and doesn’t seem to be working on Norton’s own private browser. So I am still left with Brave for privacy/ad-blocking.

Please note, my computer knowhow is limited, so I am not able to go fiddling with running configurations and/or going into the registry etc.

  1. I have tried turning hardware acceleration off.
  2. I have tried minimising pinned tabs.
  3. I only have two extensions enabled: one is from Norton and the other is Adobe.

I only started having this issue with Brave after its last update.

Brave version: 1.74.51 (64 bit)
Windows 11 - problem occurred before and after 24h2 installation.

2

@Melissa4886 thanks for reaching out to us about this.

Issues like this can be tricky as lots of different things can factor into resource usage — how long the browser has been opened, how many tabs are open, what sites are they open to, extensions, browser cache, other apps open on the PC, etc.

I guess to start, can you tell me the following?

  • When you first launch the browser, how long does it take for the uptick in resource usage and/or the fan to kick on to occur?
  • How many tabs do you have open when this occurs? Does it make any difference? For example, if you open just two or three tabs and use the browser normally, does the high resource consumption still happen?
  • Further, do any specific sites/actions reliably cause the issue to occur?
  • If you do disable your extensions and continue to browse normally, does the issue still occur?
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1.) It was worse before updating windows to the current 24h2 version, but it’s typically happening either within seconds to minutes of opening the browser, or sometimes not for an hour or so. Before 24h2 it was within seconds to minutes all day. After installing 24h2 it may periodically happen during the day, but seems to spike a lot more after 5pm at the moment. I have to keep closing the browser and reopening, and it might happen straight away, after several minutes, maybe an hour. Who knows?

2.) Currently 4 as I switch between the same ones a lot as an author, however before December last year I had maybe 8 or 9 pinned tabs all the time and it was FINE. I rarely had any sort of spike like I’m getting now.

3.) Facebook is a known culprit for this sort of thing, but I moved it to just being a bookmark and closed the pinned tab (again, as an author I use it - for my page), and it still did it. The only ones I have open now are outlook and gmail emails, and a google search page - which I only pinned recently to try to use as a neutral page, hoping the others would be dormant until used. So it still happens whatever I do.

4.) I tried switching off the Adobe Acrobat Reader extension, but it still happens. I use the Norton one (I’d rather not say which for safety reasons publicly) regularly, but it’s not active unless I choose to activate it.

I have run malware scans, including a startup one, and they all come back clear. Norton is a paranoid piece of software, which I don’t really mind as it’s better to be overcautious than lax (as I have experienced AVG and Avast to be). I can run other programs and browsers without issue with this laptop, which has 16gb RAM without issue. It seems to be only Brave that’s doing this. I don’t really want to try to clean reinstall if I can help it, as I have a plethora of bookmarks and this has only been happening since, I think, a recent update. I think it’s only been going on since December 2024.

Granted the resource usage/fan kicking in will also occur when Windows is updating in the background, but I check this in the task manager. When that’s happening, I still close the browser, but most of the time it’s not Windows update. With Brave open, it’s apparently running 16-22 instances (give or take), and if there’s no windows update, the fan calms down and stops once Brave is closed.

4

One test you should try is creating and using a new browser profile for a bit to see if the issue occurs when using the new profile as well. Here is what I would suggest:

  1. First, in your current profile, export you bookmarks (brave://bookmarks/ then click the three-dots icon on the top right, then Export bookmarks)
  2. Then go to Menu --> More tools --> Add profile and create a new profile to test with (this will not erase your current one)
  3. Close your original profile window, and in the new profile, go to brave://bookmarks/ again, click the same menu then Import bookmarks
  4. I would recommend not installing your extensions in this new profile at this time

Browse normally using the new profile for a while and see if the resource uptick occurs again in the new profile. If it does, then let me know. If it does not, then try installing the extensions you use in the new profile as well. Continue to browser and see if the uptick occurs and let me know what you find out.

5

I didn’t have a profile for this community until yesterday when I’d become so frustrated with it. Does that make a difference?

6

@Melissa4886 apologies but I’m not quite sure I understand the question. Your Community account doesn’t have any bearing on the issue you’re encountering.

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You mentioned making a new profile and not having the extensions on it. I thought that’s what you meant. Does having a different profile reset the browser then? Because I never used any sort of profile on the browser until yesterday. The only one I know of is the login I created to use the community forum.

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@Melissa4886 I am referring to a browser profile. In Brave, you can have multiple browser “profiles” that hold/store data individually. Sometimes, browser profile data can be corrupted or otherwise “messed up” which may cause issues when browsing (note that this is common for any/all browsers to encounter).

In asking you to test using a new browser profile, we are testing to see whether or not the issue with resource consumption is due to some “bad data” contained within the browser profile you’ve been using or if there is an issue with your system and the browser itself.

As stated before, creating a new browser profile is very easy and has no impact on your current profile and/or its data. Also, once the test is done, you’re free to delete the new profile and resume using the one you always have (I can show you how to do that when we get to that point).

For now, if you can run the test as instructed above (I’ve pasted the steps again below) and tell me what you find out that would be helpful.

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Ah OK. I didn’t realise that. Thank you for clarifying.

Due to rather poor mental health with neurodivergent burnout, I have very little head space and a lot of stress going on, so it might take me a little while to find the head space to do this test. I will try to do it as soon as I can though. I hope that’s OK?

1 Like
10

Yep, just let me know once you’ve tried and what you find out :+1:

11

Hi,

I’ve done as you suggested with a new profile, and for a few days or so it’s been a lot quieter. However, over the last couple of days, Brave has started using 20-40% of the CPU randomly again. I’ve tried it with and without extensions active, and it still seems it’s the only browser with this problem.

It really is a pain, seeing as it’s the only browser I feel I can use with the privacy features and me using the password manager extension for Norton (it seems DuckDuckGo’s browser doesn’t currently support extensions, and Norton’s private browser apparently doesn’t have the password manager feature actually working - besides, it’s not blocking as many ads, especially those on YouTube).

Kind regards,
Melissa.

12

Hi,

I emailed you ten days ago with a reply and haven’t heard back since. See below.

I have noticed that it’s often Facebook causing a spike, and I usually have it open to manage my pages. It doesn’t matter whether it’s pinned or not, and it can cause the fan to run either instantly, after minutes, or sometimes not for hours. It seems to be worse in the evenings for some reason, and the laptop is not doing anything more strenuous at all. I used to have the Facebook tab pinned along with maybe 7 or 8 others and pretty much never had an issue until a Brave update around November/December time.

I also reiterate that using other browsers does not seem to cause this spike. It seems I can’t open Facebook on Brave, or run Brave and use the Facebook app without it spiking (seeing as the app uses Microsoft Edge so essentially it opens an second browser).

I have even uninstalled and reinstalled Brave, which seemed to work for maybe a few days and then it started again.

I have also run virus scans with Norton, and there’s nothing.

I hope that helps further.

Regards,
Melissa.
Show quoted text

13

Sorry for the late reply.

If anything I think the Norton extension might be part of the issue.

Outside of that I’m not super clear on what would be causing this. We’ve ruled out quite a few things and it seems to be mostly limited to Facebook. I’m going to have to reach out to a couple colleagues about what else we can try/test here.

In the meantime, if you wanted to run another test, you could download the Brave beta build and test to see if Facebook exhibits the same behavior there. Note that downloading/installing the Beta will not overwrite anything related to your current install. It will just install as a totally separate browser can be uninstalled once testing is done.

14

Hi,

I’ve emailed you back twice and nobody has responded. Please get back to me. The issue is still ongoing, even after a recent graphics driver update. It never used to happen even with a Facebook tab and about 9 pinned tabs in total.

Melissa.

15

@Melissa4886 I replied to you two days ago:

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It’s not Norton’s extension (the only extension I use for it is the password manager). I think it’s largely Facebook causing it as I seem to have narrowed it down to it happening mostly when Facebook is open whether it’s pinned or not, but it never used to happen even with several pinned tabs and that being one of them. It only started with a Brave update a few months ago (that I noticed). I usually have it open for managing pages as well as keeping in touch as I’m not able to get out that much right now. If I close the tab, the fan calms down and stops, but it only seems to happen on Brave.

I did reply to emails a few times but not received any back recently, and I wasn’t alerted to this reply. I chose to take a look as I’d not heard anything from emails.

I’ll consider trying the beta build, but does it count as a different installation or does it override the current one? And what’s the difference with it? Just curious.

17

To me it sounds like something on Facebook is clogging the browser up. I’d like to have you test Facebook using only Brave Beta for a bit just to see if it still causes the same issue. As for the Beta, as mentioned previously:

18

Thanks for letting me know. I’ll try to do that as soon as I can and will then reply again here.

1 Like
19

I found a fix. I just downloaded Firefox to replace Brave and CPU went straight back down to 15% from the recent 60%

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I don’t go on Facebook. Just so you can rule that out. Found this thread from google. Already had an account. Recently got very high CPU and my fans blaring just off a single youtube tab using Brave when it didn’t previously so something in brave has clearly changed if lot’s of people are experiencing this