Solved Slow Computer

[despuit]

My moms computer is ridiculously slow, and she is a very impatient women. Drives you mad. I've boosted the whole thing like explorer can actually open now without waiting 10 mins. There is more memory coming in the mail as she refuses to close things, disabled unneeded services, put the computer in performance mode. Boots at around 800mb not too bad compared to the 1.5 mark she was hitting before when she only has 3 to begin with. Only two errors pop up on login which actually makes the computer stall at the logonui prompt for like 5 minutes. One is a virus, pain in the ass keeps rewriting itself. The other is one seems to be the problem though network framework 2.0 or other is not installed it pops up with. I looked into it and it says it's unneeded non-existent. I'll reboot once I post this and update.

Chrome takes up between 600mb IDLE to 1.5GB in use which cripples the computer, she has 9 tabs open now and two exstentions. She is mainly on those memory hoarding sites like top ten this or 15 best, MSN, Facebook, Pogo, Youtube, and Outlook are always running which is mad. Facebook is either left on the newsfeed which I keep telling her to switch over to her profile when tabs off as it will help but no. So that's 300 MB right there not kidding sometimes more. If she is not on the newsfeed she is playing a game while playing a game on pogo which is 160mb on top of that. Youtube can take up between 150-300mb as well, outlook is 60-120mb. That's like 900MB right there on a machine already loading around 1GB in memory from the boot so that's 2GB and there is only 3GB on here.

I would have thought maybe the extra 1 would provide leeway but it does not, once that point is crossed every thing is on 5-20 min delay. She refuses to use any other browser. And the memory is sort of a last resort thing, like it will do the trick I just don't want to burn out the computer is all ready pretty old.

Any ideas how to lower memory consumption, or leverage the extra gig into favour? My computer is optimised for service handling not application so I have no idea.

 

[despuit]

Update: I hate this computer. Booted in 3 mins, no problems. Memory usage is through the roof now though at double 1.6. However everything is working really fast still. So it is definitely the processes she is running in chrome that are killing the computer. I don't know why.. if it is crappy CPU, or HDD or what is going on with the pages but it's killing the computer. I've attached some information, if you need anything else ask. Thanks in advanced for any advice you can give.


Image 1: Error on boot
Image 2: Memory at boot
Image 3: System Info
Image 4: Memory with just this page open

 

[DavidE]

One is a virus, pain in the ass keeps rewriting itself.

You can ask for help in the http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/ forum.
You should get the virus cleaned up first, no telling what it is doing.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Any ideas how to lower memory consumption, or leverage the extra gig into favour?

None at all, given her habits and preferences. I'll take your word for it that those aren't going to change.

What's the over-riding reason this is your problem rather than her problem, considering that she has a long history of ignoring your suggestions?

 

[despuit]

Thanks David, yeah it is just an overwrite for browser settings nothing malicious more or less annoying. Have to go through the registry and appdata and clear it out. Just not really pressed on it.

@ignat lol i just don't want to hear about it anymore, I know if it is not this it will be something else but at least it is one less thing. For peace of mind. Like she reaches the point she will take the computer and just throw out the windows because "it doesn't work". There is no rationale, there is no way to make compromise so I figured hey maybe someone has dealt with memory issues and chrome in the past and know ways to bump up speeds. Like I now don't believe the memory is the major contributor to the problem. So even if I do update the memory it may help a little bit. But if the pages are taxing another component am not sure how to fix that. The CPU reads out pretty good, the temps are all in range (besides one being broken reading -128), the HDD reads 95% performance and 90% fitness. I even just loaded ten websites all high in resources, works fine.

The only thing left I can think of is the pages she is on update a lot and bloat the system , maybe the networking is going haywire. Maybe it's posible to do something on the firewall to limit inbound connections? Limit chrome refresh rate for pages or something

Update: installed the great suspender maybe this will help, set it up to 5 mins and whitelisted the pages I know she relies on to update

 

[ignatzatsonic]

@ignat lol i just don't want to hear about it anymore,

Very small chance of that I'd guess since you are apparently (for whatever reason) the in-house IT support guy. Hope you are getting paid in some way--room and board, a few laughs, whatever.

 

[despuit]

If I am here, I am the cause and solution of all problems. Not enough, am just around for the winter first time in 8 years don't think it will happen again. I just stay out of sight, and keep my headphones on. Help around where I can, maybe allievate some of her frustrations. They're internal for sure, but a little goes a long way.

Will see how performance is today, and if the add-on fixed it. I'll close it off, is just odd. Have never had this problem with any of my machines. Disabled flash as well unless clicked into should help.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

Usually the SIMPLEST solution will fix the problem. First you DO have to have enough RAM so if you haven't END OF STORY.

Now in all my experience with computers it's invariably HIDEOUSLY SLOW HDD's that kill a system. If you can't get an SSD then at least try SATA or any HDD's with at least 7200 RPM and LARGE CACHE.

Slow HDD's even with an I7 processor -- also END OF STORY !!!.

I've actually seen very few machines that have poor performance due to slower CPU's etc when used for normal office type apps.

Gaming etc - different considerations.

Also don't run too many apps at once.

Finally get rid of any STUPID security packages like McAfee or Norton and install MSE (Microsoft security essentisls - it's free) instead.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[despuit]

Thanks Jimbo funny you mention HDD problems. Frig was messing around and found a huge bug in Chrome. Apparently going on for years now, the reads/write to the IO go through the roof and more pages you run the more these writes/reads increase in the session memory. Up 300k on 4 pages in 40 mins. So either be rid of the program, or is going to be slow is all I can deduce. The drive is pretty healthy for 8 years of the torture went down 10% so shouldn't die till 72 more years if lucky mathematically speaking.

Yeah I've noticed that, only thing the CPU usually is killed from is video processing IME.

Thank god no one does gaming.

Yeah that is out of my control, I've said that and is why I am upgrading the ram whenever it comes in the mail. Is special order as they no longer make for computers this old.... fantastic.

Security using low resource program commodo leveraged to disable a lot of the windows security features to save on resources in conjunction AntiLogger which is the biggest thing running next to explorer and trustedinstaller at 30mb the IO writes on her are pretty huge too 350k and I just started this computer.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Mate I see the tick for solved but if you want a bit more out of any 7 machine see this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html

 

[despuit]

Jeepers they added a lot to the list, thanks appreciate it.


Solution: Wasn't a memory usage issue, the extra memory was unneeded as the hard drive was being heavily taxed by chrome. The more tabs open the more read/writes to the session memory are performed. Either migrate to another browser, or as Jimbo mentioned you can upgrade to a better HDD or even an SSD something that can take the abuse. While knowing it will deplete lifespan.

Secondary work around as I am not touching the HDD not worth my time, installed "The great suspender and since I have been on here now for 3 hours unfortunately I can fortunately say it works incredibly well. Decreases memory usage, I/O activity. Tabs suspend automatically in 5 minutes, and if you click them reload pretty fast even with key entries if you made any so that's good. Has whitelist options to avoid closing important tabs.

https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=176727

 

[ICIT2LOL]

yep agree with Jimbo an SSD would be the go and don't worry too much about what you hear about decreasing SSD life by over doing it I think you would need to thrash it with a bit stick to do that. My current laptop SSD has I think a very long warranty period - approx. ten years at an average 40GB rad write per day
Samsung SSD 850 PRO Overview | Samsung SSD