Slow Windows Box

techlists at phpcoderusa.com techlists at phpcoderusa.com
Thu Jul 13 19:43:46 MST 2023 

On 2023-07-13 18:38, Michael Butash via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>> Ok, Thanks!!  I have an HP laptop running Win 10 Pro that I use to
> make
>> videos.  It has 8GB of ram and an m.2.  It is about 6 years old.  It
> is
>  > using 41% of RAM... Yikes!!
> 
> I really have to wonder how the browsers work like that with so little
> ram, they will tend to use as much or as little as you have, and
> aren't shy about having their way with pagefiles if not.
> 
> I say this as with 128gb of ram, under linux (any) it's not uncommon
> to see firefox and worse chrome when I'm busy with multiple customers
> and browser profiles using 30-40gb of said ram.  I use a lot of
> windows/tabs, I run for weeks or months between session restarts, and
> various research professional or otherwise, I'll open dozens of tabs
> on each easily.  To hear people use 4-8gb seems crazy to me.  My
> system lets me know, and used to with *only* 64gb that "hey arsehole,
> you need to upgrade!" with OOM's.
> 

You are on the extreme.  On my laptop I may have one browser open with 2 
- 4 tabs max.  Add to that video edition software.

My wife uses one browser and I am not sure she knows about tabs.. maybe, 
if so she might have 2 to 4 tabs open at any given time.


>> My wife could get by with a netbook.
> 
> Never hurts to earn some points.  Maybe a special dessert for your
> consideration.
> 

I get it....

>> Next go around I'm going to build anything I need except laptops.
>> Before 2005 I built everything.
> 
> Best desktop-ish I've had for a while now is a factory-built Dell
> Precision T7910, dual xeon cpu, 128gb of ram, super silent, I use it
> for proxmox now vs actual desktop, but used to.

I like Proxmox and think it would be cool to configure it like you are.

> Not sure I'd build my
> own vs. buy good bones and augment like I did this with good
> ram/disks.  I've long used Dell Latitude, XPS, Precision, and as long
> as you get good models, they're tight and work forever.  Get the cheap
> Inspirons or others, you get what you pay for.

I'll bet your laptop cost a few grand.

> 
> If you want a laptop to "build" (or enhance), look at Framework, their
> 13" and soon 16" are pretty sweet, built to be serviceable/upgradable,
> and will probably be my next purchase once the 16" is out.  My Lenovo
> Thinkpad is pretty good hardware at the core, but things like their
> TB4 dock and even their jank website annoy the hell out of me.  It
> doesn't even work in firefox under linux.

I figure I will not upgrade for several more years.  I think things will 
change a lot. When I upgrade I want something(s) with lots of 
cores/threads and lots of RAM so I can have lots of options like Proxmox 
running multiple different things all at once.

I'm interested in the Rasberry PI also... would be interesting to build 
a home web server on multiple PIs.

Keith

> 
> -mb
> 
> On Thu, Jul 13, 2023 at 1:19 PM <techlists at phpcoderusa.com> wrote:
> 
>> On 2023-07-13 10:03, Michael Butash via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>>> Well that's about what I was expecting you'd see...
>>> 
>>> First, start with getting her more memory, I'm amazed it'll even
>> run
>>> and start a browser with only 4gb of ram.  Firefox/Chrome alone
>> uses a
>>> good 8-20gb of ram at a time for my normal usage, anything else
>> will
>>> just sit in swap/pagefile (which is why your disks are running
>>> overtime).
>> 
>> Ok, Thanks!!  I have an HP laptop running Win 10 Pro that I use to
>> make
>> videos.  It has 8GB of ram and an m.2.  It is about 6 years old.  It
>> is
>> using 41% of RAM... Yikes!!
>> 
>>> I'd say no less than 16gb for any reasonable modern use,
>> ---
>>> or if her I'd divorce you for less.
>> 
>> Funny!!
>> 
>>> 
>>> Second, get rid of the spinner disk, or at least move it to a role
>> as
>>> a secondary drive for storage.  Putting the OS on any SSD will
>> make it
>>> feel like lightning comparatively.  If you can, put an m.2
>> directly in
>>> a pci-e slot with a slot adapter, that'll be your fastest choice,
>> or
>>> any sata-based SSD as a fallback.
>>> 
>>> Between ram and new ssd, it should rip even with an older
>> processor.
>> 
>> Does not need to be fire breathing.  Seems quickest fix would be to
>> upgrade to 8GB of RAM based off of my HP's performance.
>> 
>> My wife could get by with a netbook.
>> 
>>> 
>>> You can probably reinstall the dell image clean downloading it
>> from
>>> dell and keep using the oem key (they're baked into the hardware),
>> but
>>> they're usually riddled with crapware and demos.. You're better
>> off
>>> getting a clean win10 build for $7 bucks from gkeys.
>>> 
>> 
>> I do not like all the add-ons they provide either!!
>> 
>> Next go around I'm going to build anything I need except laptops.
>> Before 2005 I built everything.
>> 
>> Thank you for all your help!!
>> 
>>> -mb
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Jul 13, 2023 at 9:38 AM Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss
>>> <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Thank you to all who replied.
>>>> 
>>>> I spent over an hour on trying to figure this out.
>>>> 
>>>> I opened the Event Viewer and discovered the system was using 94%
>> of
>>>> 
>>>> memory and 100% of the disk in idle mode.
>>>> 
>>>> This computer is running Windows 10 pro with 4GB of ram and and 4
>>>> cores
>>>> and 4 threads.  Is has a rust spinner.
>>>> 
>>>> This is my wife's computer and she uses it for limited email,
>> some
>>>> google searching, and mostly to watch YouTube.  This computer
>> gets
>>>> used
>>>> very little.
>>>> 
>>>> It has been slow from the beginning.
>>>> 
>>>> One of the issues was once the computer went into sleep mode it
>>>> would
>>>> take forever to wake up so I turned off sleep mode.
>>>> 
>>>> What I found was hundreds of things running in the background.
>> Not
>>>> sure
>>>> why and it was unclear what was the memory hog.
>>>> 
>>>> I was puzzled what was going on with the HD.  Disk properties
>> showed
>>>> 
>>>> 825GB of 915GB free.  I tried to scan and it said the disk had
>>>> issues.
>>>> So I let it troubleshoot and it fixed it in about 10 minutes. It
>> did
>>>> not
>>>> report what the actual issue was.
>>>> 
>>>> I monkeyed with the background processes and got the memory usage
>>>> down
>>>> to 86%.
>>>> 
>>>> I know next to nothing about managing windows so I do not want to
>>>> monkey
>>>> with it much more.
>>>> 
>>>> At this point I am thinking of creating a reinstall disk or USB
>> and
>>>> while I'm at it instating a SSD.  Newegg has some really good
>> deals
>>>> on
>>>> SSD.
>>>> 
>>>> Since this is a Dell computer I suspect the Win install will not
>>>> complain about the different HD.
>>>> 
>>>> Will an OEM install require a key?
>>>> 
>>>> Any thoughts are most welcome.
>>>> 
>>>> Keith
>>>> 
>>>> On 2023-07-07 17:06, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>>>>> Thank you so much!!  Might be a couple days before I can work on
>>>> it
>>>>> again.  I'll let you know how things go.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On 2023-07-07 15:40, Michael Butash via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>>>>>> Task manager and/or Resource Manager should show you where your
>>>>>> bottlenecks lie, but sounds like either disk (spinner vs ssd),
>>>> memory,
>>>>>> or cpu is getting pegged.  This should show you what processes
>>>> are
>>>>>> using said cpu/memory/io, either kill them, or feed them more
>>>> hardware
>>>>>> resources.  The sysinternals tools like process explorer and
>> such
>>>> are
>>>>>> also helpful in seeing applications and/or system processes
>>>> freaking
>>>>>> out, including more hidden ones.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> If still a spinner disk, the best thing you could do is get her
>>>> any
>>>>>> SSD to run the OS and primary apps on alone.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Could be windoze is just trashed after a while with
>> applications
>>>>>> coming and going, upgrading, breaking stuff, etc.  Might be
>> worth
>>>>>> trying a clean restore of the system and/or wiping the disks
>> with
>>>>>> zero's to reset state ala fragmentation or if ssd, needing a
>>>> reset
>>>>>> with secure erase.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> -mb
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Fri, Jul 7, 2023 at 2:29 PM Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss
>>>>>> <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> This is mostly off topic given this is a Linux List.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> I have two separate work areas in my house.  I have my home
>>>> office
>>>>>>> which
>>>>>>> is doing well.  I am using my Linux Ubuntu desktop to send
>> this
>>>>>>> email.
>>>>>>> My Linux machine is hardwired.  This is my main box.  I also
>>>> have a
>>>>>>> Win
>>>>>>> 10 Pro laptop that I use to make and edit YouTube videos.  My
>>>>>>> editing
>>>>>>> software only works on Win and MAC.  This laptop is connected
>>>> via
>>>>>>> WIFI.
>>>>>>> No Problems.  The O/S loads reasonably fast.  My video editing
>>>>>>> software
>>>>>>> loads reasonably fast and the rendering process takes a bit
>> but
>>>> not
>>>>>>> too
>>>>>>> bad.  This is a 6 year old HP - nothing fancy and it works.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> My wife's office in another spare bedroom and she has a Dell
>>>>>>> mini-tower
>>>>>>> Win 10 ... I want to say pro as well.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Here is where I need help. My wife's dell is very slow and has
>>>>>>> trouble
>>>>>>> with loading Firefox and it takes a while to load YouTube
>>>> videos.
>>>>>>> Even
>>>>>>> windows takes a while to load which make me think it is a
>> local
>>>>>>> problem
>>>>>>> (the Dell box).
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> I am reaching out because I do not know how to troubleshoot
>> this
>>>>>>> issue.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Any help much appreciated.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Keith
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