Decent PC grinds to a halt with moderate usage of Chrome and Edge

government PC was at 16% CPU, 74% Memory, and 0% disk,  running 84 Chrome processes and 41 Edge processes

Home system (12 GB memory) grinds to a halt  running 34 Chrome processes and 11 Edge processes

How much memory on the work PC?
Your computer:  Definitely run Disk Cleanup (Admin Tools) and cleanup up System Files.  This may take a few minutes.  Then run Disk Defrag and let it run overnight.

What software do you have running on home machine not on the work machine.

My machines (one SSD one HDD) run Edge and all the tabs (processes) I need without grinding to a halt (or even slowing down).
The SSD machine has Chrome and it runs a half dozen tabs (and more processes) without slowing down at all.

John,

thanks for the quick response!

at work - 24 MB Ram - so there's a big difference !!!

>>Definitely run Disk Cleanup (Admin Tools) and cleanup up System Files
ok

>>Then run Disk Defrag and let it run overnight.
ok, but it says "Drives are optimized automatically (weekly)

at home I have no client software running, just browsers.

My gut reaction is that ad blockers will do the trick. At the government PC (I assume) they have it locked down, although I'm on Facebook at work all day. But can't figure out why Disk at home gets so bogged down.

>>Ads should definitely be blocked.
- Ok, that's reasonable

>>Maybe put your home PC to 16 GB
- doable too ...

>>Open Admin Tools, Resource Monitor and make sure the Disk window is open. Let it run for an hour
ok

Thx!

look if these tips are of any help :  https://www.online-tech-tips.com/google-softwaretips/google-chrome-running-too-many-processes/

nobus, great article, thanks!

mainly it says to disable Flash and disable extensions. I will definitely try that, but am sticking with Epic and see how that goes.

John,

- Disk is only 1% fragmented, and is optimized weekly
- Resource Monitor running all night, nothing much going on (only running Epic browser)
- I ran Disk Cleanup (Admin Tools) and cleaned up System Files.  

========== 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.

Keep us posted on Disk Usage.  90% or more Disk Usage on HDD will drag down any system.  Also see if Epic only helps out.

Disk and CPU have been running very low (less then 15%) and Memory is holding at 50%.

will keep you posted, thanks!

Michael Painter (on my earlier post) says run HDDScan, so I will keep that in mind, on this site: hddscan.com

nothing in event viewer?

nobus,

well, first time checking event viewer, interesting. LOTS of errors in Application and System.

At work (which I just checked), there are still a healthy amount of errors, but definitely way less than home.

Samples:
Application

Application Error
Faulting application name: chrome.exe, version: 72.0.3626.119, time stamp: 0x5c6b8d50
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.17763.292, time stamp: 0xb51bba8e
Exception code: 0xe0000008
Fault offset: 0x0000000000055549
Faulting process id: 0x5ef4
Faulting application start time: 0x01d4cfd03abdce37
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: eac6a3fd-473a-4c53-9741-cd7215e8b544
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

SecurityCenter
Security Center failed to validate caller with error DC040780.

.NET Runtime
Application: HPSupportSolutionsFrameworkService.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.Runtime.InteropServices.SEHException
   at Microsoft.Win32.NativeMethods.ShellExecuteEx(ShellExecuteInfo)
   at System.Diagnostics.ShellExecuteHelper.ShellExecuteFunction()
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object)
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()

System

DistributedCOM
The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{2593F8B9-4EAF-457C-B68A-50F6B8EA6B54}
 and APPID
{15C20B67-12E7-4BB6-92BB-7AFF07997402}
 to the user DESKTOP-5O82VS3\willi SID (S-1-5-21-2527925327-3536603358-1461120991-1001) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

Netwtw04
Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165 : The network adapter has returned an invalid value to the driver.

DistributedCOM
The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Launch permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
Windows.SecurityCenter.WscBrokerManager
 and APPID
Unavailable
 to the user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM SID (S-1-5-18) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

i would run sfc, or do a repair install, or system restore to a date it was ok
look if this thread has useful info :  https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/appcrash-kernelbasedll/d4b9431e-1749-4302-91a4-a602f9ab2cbc?auth=1

Nobus,

ok, good, looking into that. Thanks!

Are you still having issues with Epic?  

And did you monitor disk usage as discussed earlier?

John,

not having the same issues with Epic ... definitely lower ... biggest difference (after a couple of days) is disk usage is like 10% or less!

CPU is also light, Memory up to 65% with 1 google window open.

I monitored disk usage via Resource Monitor (Disk Activity), nothing is jumping out at me.
Disk is 1% fragmented.

What did you mean by "Constant on Disk will slow down any machine"?

Thx!

What did you mean by "Constant on Disk will slow down any machine"

On any machine with a hard drive, Disk Usage of 90% or more will drag down any machine.

I monitored disk usage via Resource Monitor (Disk Activity), nothing is jumping out at me.

That is with Epic running.  Maybe start Monitoring again and run Chrome like you did and see what happens to disk. Way back you said disk usage was high with Chrome / Edge.   (With Chrome and Edge running ….Disk often at 100%)

>>On any machine with a hard drive, Disk Usage of 90% or more will drag down any machine.
- got it, makes sense.

>>Maybe start Monitoring again and run Chrome like you did and see what happens to disk.
- ok, I'll do that. I'm going to use Epic through tomorrow night, post results and close ticket. Will then start again with Chrome Monday night after work.

Just wondering what version of Windows 10 you are on.
(I know that version 1803 has several issues among which a sluggish chrome browser as you discribe.)
have you already been updated to 1809 ?

This article popped up and seems interesting. I've found Kim Komando to have good tips.

Some of these I think we have discussed.  Resource and Process Monitor are Microsoft and the other tools like Process Monitor and Process Explorer (SysInternals and the author is a Microsoft person) are generally a bit more complicated to find things

Thierry - Windows 10 version 1809, since Feb 21.

Closing ticket now, Epic browser has been really good with some limitations.

Good part is the Disk is consistently under 10%, CPU usually less than 20%, and CPU has crept up to 65%, but holds steady.

EPIC Limitations:
- MixMax email productivity extension only works on Chrome, I love that for scheduling emails
- Google Slides doesn't work, and no applicable extensions
- My bank app didn't work, just came up blank

Really, the work around is to close all browsers each night. I'm just surfing around at home so nothing really needs to stay open. At work I'm doing all kinds of things online that I don't want to shut down each night.

I'll go back to using Chrome and Edge tomorrow night, and see how things track for a week.

From this ticket, I did the following
- disabled Flash on Chrome
- monitored Resource Monitor
- Evaluated Event Viewer and posted sample errors
- ran Disk Cleanup
- Disk is only 1% fragmented, and is optimized weekly

Other things on the to-do list
- add 4GB RAM
- maybe run HDDScan, hddscan.com
- run sfc.exe

Thanks all!

Thanks again, I'll keep monitoring. I like EPIC's light PC usage but it does have limitations.

You are very welcome and I was happy to help

Update: I chugged along per this post through most of 2019, but finally bought an extra 4GB of RAM, bringing my total to 16, easy to install.

(Spec's): HP Desktop 5082vS3 (750-114), 12 ---> 16 GB RAM, 64-bit PC, Windows 10 (OS 17134.523). 1.7 TB storage free, HDD.

The increased RAM has made the world of difference, the PC runs at a lot less stress, for example, now it's at
- 5% CPU
- 40% Memory
- 2% Disk

And it generally is running smoothly.

I'd still like to add a solid state drive. that's a bigger challenge for me, but would be a good learning exercise and should also set up my PC for the long haul ...

Happy 2020!