# Weird memory leak when using Observe Field (?)

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/weird-memory-leak-when-using-observe-field/185087>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 13, 2010, 10:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/weird-memory-leak-when-using-observe-field/185087 "2010-03-13T10:11:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@andy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/andy)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 10:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/weird-memory-leak-when-using-observe-field/185087/1 "2010-03-13T10:11:23Z")

</div>

Hi,

I have a few users who are complaining that two pages on my website  
are “locking up their browser” such that they can’t click on the  
javascript menu I have. The only thing in common with the two pages is  
that they’re both making very extensive use of observe\_field with the  
following call:

\<%= observe\_field :verseguess,  
:frequency =\> 0.6,  
:update =\> ‘ajaxWrapper’,  
:url =\> {:action =\> ‘feedback’, :only\_path =\> false},  
:with =\> “‘echo=#{@show\_feedback}&correct=#{escape\_answer(@text)}  
&guess=’+encodeURIComponent(value)”  
%\>

Since it’s calling every half second or so and is providing feedback  
on a paragraph that people are typing in, it could be calling back to  
the server hundreds of times. The response typically executes in about  
20ms and the log files are all clean.

My question is this: could this possibly be causing a memory leak? The  
result is returned and updated in a feedback box alongside the entry  
form and is re-written each call. The “lock up” has only been reported  
so far on IE7 on (I suspect) somewhat older laptops. I’ve used a  
variety of approaches to look for a memory leak (sIEve, etc) but  
nothing has shown up.

I’m hoping that someone wiser might have a bright idea because I’m at  
a total loss and the client is increasingly unhappy ☹