Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

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chris319
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Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by chris319 »

I use Google Chrome to surf the web. The operating system is Windows 10. The issue I'm having is that just about any action on my part results in prolonged disk thrashing (I have a magnetic disk, not a SSD). The computer always seems to be sluggish and I sometimes get temporary warnings that applications are not responding, along with the dreaded hourglass. Even bringing up Task Manager seems slow and sluggish, as if the computer is running off floppy disks.

I keep Windows 10 updated religiously, so I've got the very latest version.

What do we think might be the reason for this sluggishness and almost constant disk accessing. There are no other programs running which would consume an inordinate amount of resources. Task Manager doesn't provide much insight. Is it Chrome that accounts for all this disk accessing? Is it adware? Is it Windows 10 itself? There seems to be an awful lot of caching or buffering going on.

I thought I would ask here before starting to chase the problem.

Thank you.
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RickBoglehead
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by RickBoglehead »

There are ways to determine what is going on. Task Manager will show you what's using resources.

I will guess that you need to clean out Chrome's cache.
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02nz
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by 02nz »

chris319 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:09 pm I have a magnetic disk, not a SSD
Why are you doing this to yourself? An SSD is so much more responsive. To answer your question, it may be that you have too little RAM - 8GB is a minimum, if you have a ton of tabs and other apps open, 16GB is preferable. But an SSD is the single biggest upgrade you can make to a computer, and the cost is very low now (~$50 for 500GB).
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by cacophony »

Open task manager and leave it visible while the issue is occurring. Is the CPU pegged at 100%? If so what process(es) are using the most CPU?

What percentage is your memory utilization?

How much disk space is free? Have you tried defragmenting the disk?

And yes, I agree with other posters that upgrading to an SSD is well worth it.
Last edited by cacophony on Sun May 09, 2021 6:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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warner25
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by warner25 »

chris319 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:09 pm...as if the computer is running off floppy disks...
No, as if running off a mechanical hard disk drive. Modern, heavy, software behemoths like Windows 10 and Chrome, especially with multiple tabs open, use a lot of memory and will surely grind to a halt with paging from a mechanical HDD. The speed-up you get with a SSD is life changing, like going from dial-up to a broadband Internet service provider.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by lazydavid »

02nz wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:17 pm
chris319 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:09 pm I have a magnetic disk, not a SSD
Why are you doing this to yourself?
Truth. A 480 GB SSD is $49. There is literally zero reason in 2021 to have spinning rust as your boot device. Arguments can be made in favor or opposition to high-capacity traditional HDDs for data storage. But no one should be using them as a system disk. Ever.
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greg24
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by greg24 »

Add more memory.

Add chrome extensions such as AdBlock and such, to reduce how much junk it is running in the background.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by Marseille07 »

lazydavid wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:33 pm
02nz wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:17 pm
chris319 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:09 pm I have a magnetic disk, not a SSD
Why are you doing this to yourself?
Truth. A 480 GB SSD is $49. There is literally zero reason in 2021 to have spinning rust as your boot device. Arguments can be made in favor or opposition to high-capacity traditional HDDs for data storage. But no one should be using them as a system disk. Ever.
Given most SSDs are 2.5 as opposed to 3.5, don't you have to buy some mount kit to install properly?
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kelway
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by kelway »

For one, get an SSD and don't look back. Very cheap. Next, there is a race condition bug that might be biting you too. Read about it here: https://www.extremetech.com/computing/3 ... his-update
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by tibbitts »

greg24 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:35 pm Add more memory.

Add chrome extensions such as AdBlock and such, to reduce how much junk it is running in the background.
Or try the opposite approach - if you already have a bunch of extensions, install just Chrome from scratch, with no extensions, and see if that matters.

Although I have an SSD (but on a HDD interface, so not the fastest) I never found Chrome that slow without it. It's been a couple of years since I've tried running without an SSD though.
02nz
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by 02nz »

Marseille07 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:43 pm
lazydavid wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:33 pm
02nz wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:17 pm
chris319 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:09 pm I have a magnetic disk, not a SSD
Why are you doing this to yourself?
Truth. A 480 GB SSD is $49. There is literally zero reason in 2021 to have spinning rust as your boot device. Arguments can be made in favor or opposition to high-capacity traditional HDDs for data storage. But no one should be using them as a system disk. Ever.
Given most SSDs are 2.5 as opposed to 3.5, don't you have to buy some mount kit to install properly?
Yes, but cheap and easy.
bryanm
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by bryanm »

In the meantime, try out Edge Chromium. It’s had better memory consumption than chrome for me. (It’s built on the same core program, so everything ports easily from chrome and the feel is similar.)
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by squirm »

Is Edge or Firefox any faster?
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by chris319 »

I am now on Chromium under Linux Mint. The HD is practically silent. I don't have the constant thrashing, disk accessing, unresponsiveness and hourglass that I encounter on Windows 10. Still using a mechanical HD.

Under Windows I shut down Chrome. Once Chrome was out of the equation, there was still excessive HD activity when trying to close a document and when powering down the machine. We're talking 1 - 2 minutes of constant disk activity. I had to stand there and wait for the HD to stop grinding before the machine shut down. Conclusion: it's Windows 10. No such disk grinding with Linux.

Ever since MSFT strongarmed us into Windows 10 from Windows 7, I have noticed this sluggishness and excessive disk activity. Under Windows 7 the disk activity was reasonable. A SSD will help, but the amount of disk accessing required to do the simplest things on Windows is excessive to begin with.

What is a good make and model of SSD, minimum capacity 2 TB?
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by Nyc10036 »

Marseille07 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:43 pm Given most SSDs are 2.5 as opposed to 3.5, don't you have to buy some mount kit to install properly?
I bought these : https://www.newegg.com/orico-1125ss-bk- ... 0003-00108
Works wonderfully.

I upgraded to SSDs several years ago. Haven't looked back since.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by 02nz »

chris319 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:53 pm I am now on Chromium under Linux Mint. The HD is practically silent. I don't have the constant thrashing, disk accessing, unresponsiveness and hourglass that I encounter on Windows 10. Still using a mechanical HD.

Under Windows I shut down Chrome. Once Chrome was out of the equation, there was still excessive HD activity when trying to close a document and when powering down the machine. We're talking 1 - 2 minutes of constant disk activity. I had to stand there and wait for the HD to stop grinding before the machine shut down. Conclusion: it's Windows 10. No such disk grinding with Linux.

Ever since MSFT strongarmed us into Windows 10 from Windows 7, I have noticed this sluggishness and excessive disk activity. Under Windows 7 the disk activity was reasonable. A SSD will help, but the amount of disk accessing required to do the simplest things on Windows is excessive to begin with.

What is a good make and model of SSD, minimum capacity 2 TB?
Samsung, Crucial, Western Digital are all good. There’s not that much difference. If your system supports NVME drives get one of those, otherwise a regular SATA drive.
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chris319
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by chris319 »

kelway wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:44 pm For one, get an SSD and don't look back. Very cheap. Next, there is a race condition bug that might be biting you too. Read about it here: https://www.extremetech.com/computing/3 ... his-update
Thanks for that link. The article says the next big fix for Windows 10 will be in the fall of 2021. That's a long time to wait, assuming it isn't delayed in the interim.

If your car's engine is shot and getting ready to heave its last sigh, switching from regular to high-octane gasoline may help a little, but your engine is still shot.

A few years ago I tried to ditch Windows altogether. It was not without issue. Some programs I like (TaxAct) require Windows. LibreOffice is buggy (can't sort dates correctly) so I am somewhat dependent on Windows. Wine is iffy with regard to running Windows apps under Linux.
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dbr
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by dbr »

A computer upgrade being due I got a Dell Win 10 desktop with 2TB SSD and 16GB memory. I use the Edge browser that comes with the system. It looks pretty sure that 8GB would be marginal and I don't run anything exotic at all.

Without a doubt this is the fastest and cleanest system I've yet used in spite of all the usual bloat.

I have a 2TB external USB SSD from Samsung for standing backup and a 1TB SSD to store some libraries I am keeping.
Last edited by dbr on Sun May 09, 2021 7:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
02nz
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by 02nz »

chris319 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 7:05 pm
kelway wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:44 pm For one, get an SSD and don't look back. Very cheap. Next, there is a race condition bug that might be biting you too. Read about it here: https://www.extremetech.com/computing/3 ... his-update
Thanks for that link. The article says the next big fix for Windows 10 will be in the fall of 2021. That's a long time to wait, assuming it isn't delayed in the interim.

If your car's engine is shot and getting ready to heave its last sigh, switching from regular to high-octane gasoline may help a little, but your engine is still shot.

A few years ago I tried to ditch Windows altogether. It was not without issue. Some programs I like (TaxAct) require Windows. LibreOffice is buggy (can't sort dates correctly) so I am somewhat dependent on Windows. Wine is iffy with regard to running Windows apps under Linux.
Microsoft pushes major updates every six months (well, some more major than others), but there are security and other updates at least weekly. But your issues are not likely to be resolved by those updates.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by Marseille07 »

Nyc10036 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:58 pm
Marseille07 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:43 pm Given most SSDs are 2.5 as opposed to 3.5, don't you have to buy some mount kit to install properly?
I bought these : https://www.newegg.com/orico-1125ss-bk- ... 0003-00108
Works wonderfully.

I upgraded to SSDs several years ago. Haven't looked back since.
Thank you. I'm also discovering that there's a new port called M.2 2280 or whatever. My motherboard doesn't support it, but something to consider when I upgrade my PC.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by kelway »

chris319 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 7:05 pm
kelway wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:44 pm For one, get an SSD and don't look back. Very cheap. Next, there is a race condition bug that might be biting you too. Read about it here: https://www.extremetech.com/computing/3 ... his-update
Thanks for that link. The article says the next big fix for Windows 10 will be in the fall of 2021. That's a long time to wait, assuming it isn't delayed in the interim.

If your car's engine is shot and getting ready to heave its last sigh, switching from regular to high-octane gasoline may help a little, but your engine is still shot.

A few years ago I tried to ditch Windows altogether. It was not without issue. Some programs I like (TaxAct) require Windows. LibreOffice is buggy (can't sort dates correctly) so I am somewhat dependent on Windows. Wine is iffy with regard to running Windows apps under Linux.
That KB patch is available now with Windows update. I think they released part of it early. I installed it on my wife's laptop last night and solved the high CPU / thrashing issue she'd been complaining about, so it was top-of-mind...
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by chris319 »

I upgraded to SSDs several years ago. Haven't looked back since.
I installed a SSD a LONG time ago. It worked fine for a while, until one day when the machine wouldn't boot. At all.

Bootable backups are your friends.

The SSD made a quick trip to the garbage can.

I've had more than one Western Digital HD catastrophically fail. For several years I've been using Toshiba HD's and they've never let me down.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by chris319 »

That KB patch is available now with Windows update. I think they released part of it early. I installed it on my wife's laptop last night and solved the high CPU / thrashing issue she'd been complaining about, so it was top-of-mind...
My Windows 10 was updated as recently as last night, and I'm "up to date", even the optional updates. I still have excessive disk thrashing. I have disabled automatic updates and now update on demand.

I also disabled telemetry which was phoning home to MSFT.

BTW, I no longer own shares of MSFT.
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123
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by 123 »

What anti-virus program are you using? All you likely need is Windows Defender which is built into Windows 10. If you are using another anti-virus program are you sure that Windows Defender is turned off? Using more than one anti-virus program at a time is a sure way to slow down many computers.
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hi_there
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by hi_there »

What are your computer specs? I'm running Windows 10 and Chrome, and it is flawless. Not so much with an older computer I had, which was due to be updated anyway.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by chris319 »

No other anti-virus program installed or running.
hi_there wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 7:40 pm What are your computer specs? I'm running Windows 10 and Chrome, and it is flawless. Not so much with an older computer I had, which was due to be updated anyway.
I forget the amount of RAM, but IIRC I maxed out the RAM when I installed the current mobo when I upgraded to Core i7 just a couple of years ago, so it is not an old 386 machine. It's fairly modern.
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Nyc10036
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by Nyc10036 »

I know with Dells you can run Dell Diagnostics to rule out hardware issues.

.
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chris319
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by chris319 »

I'm running Windows 10 and Chrome, and it is flawless.
Magnetic HD or SSD?
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02nz
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by 02nz »

chris319 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 7:23 pm I've had more than one Western Digital HD catastrophically fail. For several years I've been using Toshiba HD's and they've never let me down.
Such anecdotes are basically meaningless, and in the context of SSDs - a totally different technology - they are entirely meaningless. All name-brand SSDs are very reliable, and of course you should back up your data.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by lazydavid »

Marseille07 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 7:12 pm
Nyc10036 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:58 pm
Marseille07 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:43 pm Given most SSDs are 2.5 as opposed to 3.5, don't you have to buy some mount kit to install properly?
I bought these : https://www.newegg.com/orico-1125ss-bk- ... 0003-00108
Works wonderfully.

I upgraded to SSDs several years ago. Haven't looked back since.
Thank you. I'm also discovering that there's a new port called M.2 2280 or whatever. My motherboard doesn't support it, but something to consider when I upgrade my PC.
That 2.5->3.5 adapter looks really high quality for the price. Given that mechanical shock is not an issue, an extremely cheap boglehead could also use velcro to attach an SSD to any solid surface if $8 is too dear.

M2 is an interface for modern SSDs that connects directly to the PCIE bus, rather than transitioning over to a SATA interface. There are several device lengths defined in the standard, with 80mm being the most common by far for storage devices. Hence 2280. The spec allows for 32, 40, 60, 80, or 110mm device lengths. But in reality, all commonly-available SSDs are of the 80mm variety.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by chris319 »

These things helped settle down the disk access:

Remove One Drive

Run services.msc and disable service "Connected User Experiences and Telemetry"

Run services.msc and disable service "Windows Search"
Last edited by chris319 on Sun May 09, 2021 9:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by Marseille07 »

lazydavid wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 9:28 pm That 2.5->3.5 adapter looks really high quality for the price. Given that mechanical shock is not an issue, an extremely cheap boglehead could also use velcro to attach an SSD to any solid surface if $8 is too dear.

M2 is an interface for modern SSDs that connects directly to the PCIE bus, rather than transitioning over to a SATA interface. There are several device lengths defined in the standard, with 80mm being the most common by far for storage devices. Hence 2280. The spec allows for 32, 40, 60, 80, or 110mm device lengths. But in reality, all commonly-available SSDs are of the 80mm variety.
$8 isn't too dear. It's more of a timing issue for me, as I plan to upgrade my PC next year. Thanks for explaining M.2 2280, good to understand the meaning behind the numbering.

i haven't started spec-ing out the PC yet, but a motherboard like this should be able to leverage 2280: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards-Co ... 90-P-WIFI/

Added bonus of 2280 is it doesn't require any cabling. My plan is to simply get a small SSD for OS, as I already have big HDDs for data storage.
weirdsong1
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by weirdsong1 »

Chrome is a notorious resource hog. This may not be the source of your sluggish performance as others have suggested with hardware upgrades that will undoubtedly help. But my experience is that firefox out-performs chrome quite consistently.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by F150HD »

deleted
Last edited by F150HD on Sun May 09, 2021 11:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by BolderBoy »

Marseille07 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 9:35 pm$8 isn't too dear. It's more of a timing issue for me, as I plan to upgrade my PC next year.
I simply laid the SSDs (have lots of them in use [RAID-1]) on wash cloths in the 3.5" bays. They don't need to be mechanically secured.

For slow-behaving desktops the two biggest improvements are achieved with SSD boot disk and as much RAM as one can afford.

All the disk thrashing the OP is describing sounds like the swap file being heavily used.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by eye.surgeon »

Look at task manager and see what's consuming your processor and memory resources. RAM is more important for Chrome than hard disk speed. Minimum 16 GB if you want lots of tabs open.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by Marseille07 »

BolderBoy wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 9:55 pm
Marseille07 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 9:35 pm$8 isn't too dear. It's more of a timing issue for me, as I plan to upgrade my PC next year.
I simply laid the SSDs (have lots of them in use [RAID-1]) on wash cloths in the 3.5" bays. They don't need to be mechanically secured.

For slow-behaving desktops the two biggest improvements are achieved with SSD boot disk and as much RAM as one can afford.

All the disk thrashing the OP is describing sounds like the swap file being heavily used.
Yeah, I read that they don't need to be mechanically secured. The only knuckleball is I might move later this year and the PC would have to travel thousands of miles on the ground.

With newer motherboards natively supporting M2 2280, I think I'll hold off upgrading to SSD this year and spec it out next year.
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chris319
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by chris319 »

I followed the three steps above and the HD is now much less busy.

Delete One Drive

Disable Windows Search

Disable Telemetry

I'm also using Firefox instead of Chrome. Much quieter and more responsive now.

Oh, dear! This machine has only 4 GB of RAM. Time to upgrade!
All the disk thrashing the OP is describing sounds like the swap file being heavily used.
Yeah, probably.
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niagara_guy
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by niagara_guy »

I like to keep lots of tabs open in chrome on a windows 10 machine. My machine came with 8gb of memory; I immediately upgraded it to 16gb (has a spinning disk drive). Performance with dozens of tabs open is very good. Some laptops are harder to upgrade the memory than others. Generally memory is cheap.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by cheese_breath »

chris319 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 6:09 pm ...I keep Windows 10 updated religiously, so I've got the very latest version....
But do you keep Chrome updated religiously? Chromebooks update automatically, but I don't know about PC Chrome.

Also I remember a notice about a month or so ago urging users to update to the latest version to fix a security problem.

edit: Just checked my PC Chrome, and it wasn't the latest version. So I updated it.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by cacophony »

I'm running Windows 10 and Chrome on 9 year old Thinkpad and everything I do is lightning fast. Zero delay when running multiple simultaneous browser tabs (eg. running 1080p60 video while accessing other tabs), zoom calls, and various other apps. It also boots after being entirely off in about 10 seconds.

specs:
CPU: i7-2760QM (10 year old design)
RAM: 16GB (but only about ~25% utilization at any given time)
256GB SSD

I also have a desktop build with a Q6600 (a CPU from 2007!), an SSD, and only 4GB of RAM that is able to run Windows 10 and Chrome without much trouble.

There is nothing slow or sluggish about Win 10 and Chrome
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by chris319 »

The machine is less busy now, but I'm still hearing non-stop disk activity, even when it isn't doing much of anything.

There could be excessive disk activity with a SSD but you wouldn't hear it. Maybe my machine is just starved for RAM and the swap file is busy all the time.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by mpnret »

chris319 wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 1:39 am The machine is less busy now, but I'm still hearing non-stop disk activity, even when it isn't doing much of anything.

There could be excessive disk activity with a SSD but you wouldn't hear it. Maybe my machine is just starved for RAM and the swap file is busy all the time.
With a SSD not only would you not hear it but it would be happening so fast you may not even notice it. I have a 12 year old Sony All in One Desktop. It was top of the line back in it's time with a Intel Q8400 processor @ 2.66GHz with 4 GB of RAM. It started to slow down long before Windows 10. I upped the RAM to 6 GB (most it would accept) and put in a Samsung SSD. It gave the machine a new life. Fast forward to today, I run Windows 10 with Chrome, multiple windows open, etc. with absolutely no issues.
Last edited by mpnret on Tue May 11, 2021 8:15 am, edited 3 times in total.
bloom2708
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by bloom2708 »

How old is the laptop?

Processor? RAM?

If the disk is highly utilized and slow, it isn't Windows 10 and/or Chrome.

I wouldn't upgrade the SSD if the laptop is 5+ years old.
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by RickBoglehead »

chris319 wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 1:39 am The machine is less busy now, but I'm still hearing non-stop disk activity, even when it isn't doing much of anything.

There could be excessive disk activity with a SSD but you wouldn't hear it. Maybe my machine is just starved for RAM and the swap file is busy all the time.
In the 2nd response to this thread, I told you that Task Manager will tell you what resources are being used. There is no need to speculate, nor to apply measures that fix nothing.

CTRL-ALT-DELETE
Pick Task Manager
Click on Processes Tab if it doesn't come up first.

My machine is currently, as I type, using 4% of CPU (machine is a decade old), 63% of memory (has 8GB), 0% of disk (SSD).

If you click on any column, you can sort from High to Low or Low to High. Of my memory usage, the number one use is Google Chrome using ~ 600MB of memory. Quicken is second with ~200MB.

You can click on the Performance tab and see CPU usage, Memory usage, etc. You can also see disk usage.
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RickBoglehead
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by RickBoglehead »

chris319 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 7:49 pm No other anti-virus program installed or running.
hi_there wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 7:40 pm What are your computer specs? I'm running Windows 10 and Chrome, and it is flawless. Not so much with an older computer I had, which was due to be updated anyway.
I forget the amount of RAM, but IIRC I maxed out the RAM when I installed the current mobo when I upgraded to Core i7 just a couple of years ago, so it is not an old 386 machine. It's fairly modern.
Type in System Information, and it will show you how much memory you have...
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golfer292
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by golfer292 »

Uninstall chrome and reinstall. My 11 year old Dell windows 10 was sluggish for a couple of weeks and would get stopcode shutdowns. After reinstalling chrome, its like new again. Its worth a try.
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CardinalRule
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by CardinalRule »

My next desktop will have an SSD drive, for sure.

Task Manager is definitely the place to go for app-specific utilization issues (as opposed to the general thrashing that might be fixed with the aforementioned Microsoft update).

For me, right now, my culprit is Apple's iCloud Photo Library, which is almost always sucking up 25-30%of my CPU, despite no apparent activity. I usually just end the task, but I need to figure out what is going on with that. Maybe I need to reinstall it.

Image

Speaking of Chrome, does anyone know what the parenthetical number is that appears on Task Manager? Right now, mine says "Google Chrome (14)" and it is the only process that has that.
SerenityBlue
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by SerenityBlue »

CardinalRule wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 8:27 am Speaking of Chrome, does anyone know what the parenthetical number is that appears on Task Manager? Right now, mine says "Google Chrome (14)" and it is the only process that has that.
If I remember correctly for Chrome, it represents unique processes for each of the following:
1. One process for each tab open
2. One process for each active extension.
3. GPU rendering engine etc.
mptfan
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Re: Windows 10 + Chrome = Slow and Sluggish

Post by mptfan »

Ditch Windows and get a Chromebook or a Chromebox. Fast and responsive, problem solved.
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