Decent HP Desktop running sluggish, mostly due to Chrome and Edge

Home, HP Computer, right after re-boot and opening Chrome with 1 tab open show Disk 100%

Run Admin Tools, Resource Monitor and look at the Disk line. See what comes up using Disk. You can do the same for memory.

I would be inclined first to scan for viruses and malware (Windows Defender and Malwarebytes).

I use Edge with a half dozen tabs and sometime Chrome with 3 or 4 tabs and very low CPU and very low disk.

If it were a Windows Feature Update, that only takes 2 (outside 3) hours and then gone. So I assume that is not the issue.

chrome can be a memory pig.  Why do you have 3 browsers open?
The memory usage is really dependant upon the # of and the particular extensions loaded.

I would scan for viruses, but our company has hundreds of workstations deployed running Windows 10, and if it doesn't have a virus, its usually an early sign of drive failure. We clone the image to a new drive and it works like a charm.

if disk usage  is at 100 % i would run a diag on it to be syre it's ok
run the manufacturers diag on it  - what disk model do you have?  find it in Device manager
also - are ther more than 1 drive attached?

Thanks all! I'll run some of the tests tonight.

John - I have both Malwarebytes and McAfee ... will check both of them tonight as well as Resource Monitor. I don't think it's the Windows Feature Update, as the performance issue is constant now.

David Johnson - I tend to stick to Chrome and Edge, I do different things with them and so I find it easier to find things. I use FF for work email but I had found it to be a big memory hog way back (before this PC, mainly Flash) and so FF usage is limited. I also go to other browsers every now and then (Opera, Epic, Brave). I will check the extensions (at work they're minimal on Chrome, none on Edge)

zjb100 - I have both Malwarebytes and McAfee ... will check both of them  tonight

nobus - ok, will run HP Diagnostics tonight. Just one hard drive.

Please keep us posted after testing.

Disks have two measures of performance - Thoughput and Bandwidth

Thoughput is measured in MB/s and for a spinning rust disk is typically a maximum of around 150MB/s (a consumer grade SSD typically 500MB/s)

Bandwidth is measured in I/O per second, normally referred to as IOPS, and again for a spinning rust disk about 150 IOPS (consumer SSD 30K)

So in your case, disk usage is IOPS, so you are running out of IOPS.
Upgrading to an SSD will fix the issue

Gerald - thanks! Good tips ... I thought this had a SSD but maybe not, will check tonight.

David, thanks too! good tips, esp. the Ad Blocker.

=============
At work I have 119 Google tabs / processes open ... :-)  ... taking 6.2 MB memory (65%), but only 14% CPU and 0% disk ... and has been running for like 2 weeks. It has a SSD, plus 24 GB RAM.

i already asked what disk model you had; did you miss it?
>>  run the manufacturers diag on it  - what disk model do you have?  find it in Device manager

Nobus, I can't get to  this until tonight at home ... will check and post.

no problem, take your time, i'll be ' round

John -
- I ran Resource Monitor, that's new to me, but helpful

- McAfee and Windows Defender are all green

David Johnson
- Chrome extensions are minimal
- No Edge extensions

zjb100
- Ran a McAfee scan, found 0 issues. McAfee and Windows Defender are all green

Nobus
- HP Diagnostics
      - Short Drive Self-test (CANCELED)
      - Disk Read Verify PASSED
      - Video Memor Fast Check PASSED
      - IRQ Test PASSED
      - ROM Test PASSED
      - CPU Stress Test PASSED

      - Running Long Test overnight
      
- I have a HDD, thought it was SSD (ST2000DM001-1ER164)
- Disk is optimized weekly (1.7 TB free)

Gerald
- how can I track the troughput and bandwidth?

David Favor
- definitely Chrome and Edge are killing it. Probably the ads with all the tabs open. Will look into the Ad Blockers after other steps

===============
It seems like I have too many processes open. Attached is my Task Manager running processes.

After re-booting, I have two Chrome tabs open - 4 and 5 tabs open. But Task Mgr is showing 42 processes ???

I don't think it's viruses.
tasklist.lst
Task-Mgr-Chrome-42-processes.JPG

I have a lot of things going on in my Consulting Laptop. There are about 135 processes running (many of which I can identify) and it runs very low CPU, very low disk, and about 25 % of my memory is used.

You have about 240 processes running - nearly double what I have. Some of that may be because the list was expanded.

The svchosts entries appear to be normal. I have lots of these as well.

Lots of Chrome processes.   Quit Chrome (exit / close Chrome). Does the machine speed up? (CPU % goes down?)

What is "memory compression"?  I have not seen this.  Same question: mDNS responder; mfemms; RichVideo 64; mfefire;

Maybe disable McAfee temporarily and see if CPU % goes down.

Try to understand what is running (excluding svchosts) and if there is an apparent process taking CPU and / or Disk that you do not understand.

John,

- CPU went down when I closed Chrome, to about 34%. Now it jumped up to 50%, most of which is Brave browser

- not sure about "Memory compression", or the others..

- will disable McAfee tomorrow night ...

- sounds like I just need to do troubleshooting with the processes ...

Thanks!

why was the short test cancelled?
and that is the ONLY disk?  then think about getting an SSD for the OS, you still can use the other one for staorage

nobus - not sure about the test, will run it again tonight.

I ran the long test and everything passed, now running Component tests.

just one disk, yes ... will consider getting an SSD for the OS, but that's a tall task for me ...

the simplest way to do that is taking an image of the current os, and put that on the new SSD

ok, I can probably do that with a little research ...

if you want help on this, post a question, and we'll guide you

Short-Drive Self Test passed 2nd time around

HP Diagnostics Test (System Extensive Test), all passed -
- Long Drive Self-Test
- Disk Read Verify
- Video Extended Memory Check
- IRQ Test
- ROM Test
- CPU Stress Test

All Component tests passed

===================================================
I think the computer is fine, but this is my diagnosis of the issue(s) (based on EE help)

- Browsers taking up too much memory, disk
      - somewhat due to Ad's

- Too many processes running

So here's my plan, will do this in pieces over a month or two ...

- study Task Manager processes to determine why there are so many, clean-up as appropriate

- install ad blockers

- add 4 GB RAM

- add SSD for OS

I will close this post and add others as needed.

Thoughts?

Look through posts that helped you and accept those

Thanks all! I'm moving on to Task Manager Analysis, I can compare my work PC to home PC and then try to clean up home PC.

Appreciate all the responsive and helpful tips!

Run HDDScan on the drive.
Hopefully from Hirens WinPE.
We have been finding more and more that HDDs aren't just good or bad, many sectors can get "SLOW"  And cause severe lag when doing read/write operations.  
An SSD "would" solve the problem.

Michael,

thanks!

I found hddscan.com but Hirens WinPE takes me to https://www.hirensbootcd.org/ and search on HDDScan doesn't find anything, mostly it's Hiren's BootCD

SSD is on my list, but last. Plan of action is Ad blockers first. Epic browser is looking good. Here's my current question, and statusmy current question and status:

========== Status - using Epic, so far so good =========
Just from overnight and light usage and only using Epic, things are pretty good  
60% Memory, 15% CPU and 5% disk

The only thing I use Chrome for is MixMax email extension (which I really love). Mainly to schedule emails. So I might pop open Chrome to schedule an email, then close it.

I'll see how it goes this weekend, then close the ticket out Sunday evening, before my Sunday night re-boot.

Note: Epic is always telling me about blocking this and that, I'll keep a close eye on that and see what it's telling me.