Now dh's computer is acting up again, being super slow. I have no idea. I am not a tech person. My guess is he doesn't have enough memory and ends up with too many programs and browser tabs open all at once. He gets mad, then tries to do a restart and it takes forever for his computer to restart. Then expects me to figure it out. Well, once restarted that typically makes the issue go away, for the most part. He says it's doing "this, this and that". Finally after looking at it and researching stuff online I said to him NEXT time it's doing it, just come and get me to look at it AS it's doing it. Don't restart. Don't close any programs. I need to see what it's actually doing and see how much memory, etc it is using at the time. I need to see all what programs he's trying to use at one time.
His computer just has 8GB of memory. Supposedly enough for what he uses a computer for? It's not like he's trying to do gaming or photoshop intense type programs. I went and checked my computer (supplied by my employer) and it is 16GB memory. Maybe that is why I don't have any issues and dh is. I'm also reading that 8MG probably isn't enough for Windows 10.
I also went to task manager to try to see what all was running, using memory, etc. The "disk" % kept spiking to 100%, so I googled that. That's not good, but as usual you get a hundred different reasons of what it could be. I found a couple of articles on like "top 10 things to try" type so I did some of those I could. But, of course first I did a restart. While doing all this I left the task manager open and the "disk" % would be very low and then when I'd open something it would spike to 100% and then go back down to almost nothing. Anyway, I did a few of the suggestions. He got back on his computer and it seemed to work fine the rest of the evening. I watched a video on how to add memory to a pc....probably not something I want to try myself. I'd probably just mess it up more haha. I'd probably be better to just buy him a new computer with 16GB memory. While in Task Manager I also looked to see what "start up" programs he had running that maybe was causing it to restart soooo slow. He hardly has any start up programs, in comparison to my computer, so I don't understand why it's so slow to restart.
I might do some more research on his particular computer model (an HP) and see if I can find exactly what extra memory I would need to buy to try increasing his memory.
How old is his computer? More memory will probably help - but does he need to clean it up? I know computers need to be de-fragmented so maybe this could be done as well?
ReplyDeleteI was trying to remember when I got this for him, I'm guessing at least 4 years now? I think we got it before we moved in to this house, but I am not really sure. I'm sure I ordered it online (I thought from Staples, but can't even find email where I ordered it). According to the windows program I accessed yesterday he does not need to de-frag. He really hardly saves anything on it at all. Maybe a few pictures is all. My guess is he gets too many tabs open in Firefox and has too many things going on at one time, but I don't know :/ I think sometimes he even has the Firefox browser open 2 times, one on each screen. I imagine that doesn't help.
DeleteYeah he does not strike me as someone who does a whole lot per se with the computer! But it might be he needs a better browser or more memory added to help that experience!
DeleteYep, LOL. pretty much all he does is browsing the internet, so you wouldn't think his computer would get slow. I have a virus scanner on it, so I don't think it's caused by a virus. And it will work fine for a couple of months or so and then suddenly all bogs down. These are the times I wish I was a computer expert, haha. The IT guy for my work just told me the other day that I should do a restart on my home computer once a week, like on Fridays at the end of the work week. Maybe dh's needs that too, so it can reset. I just read that that is good to do weekly to clean up your computer processes and keep performance at a maximum. I'll try that and see
DeleteI shut my work computer down every day, and restart every day but I rarely do it at home. I have a Macbook and I can see it is slow and needs a new battery too. So we definitely need to do some shutdowns/restarts on both our ends lol!
DeleteI wish I had a guy to call LOL. I just realized he doesn't have Windows 10, he has 11 and in looking at what that "requires" for RAM, I'm reading it really doesn't need all that much. I'm going to guess it's dh having 2 Firefox browsers open at the same time (one on each screen) and trying to do too much for what his system can do. But, I can't know until he leaves it be next time it's acting up so I can actually see WHAT he was doing
ReplyDeleteWe quit using Firefox due to it not keeping up with security concerns and now use Duck Duck Go. DC
ReplyDeleteoh, I didn't realize duck duck go was a browser, I thought it was just a search engine, like google.
DeleteToo many tabs open plus two browsers and not enough memory is probably combining to cause the problem. Probably his knowing what he is doing to cause the problem plus more memory will help fix his problem.
ReplyDeleteit's frustrating! I'm going to start with restarting his computer weekly and see if that helps.
DeleteI found this online.... "The estimated average life of HP laptops is between 5 and 6 years when it comes to high-end devices. However, budget-friendly and inexpensive HP models last 3 to 4 years on average. These laptops will last longer than expected if you can handle HP devices with proper care and maintenance."
ReplyDeletehis is a desktop but not sure if that makes a difference in the life span
DeleteCheck your Feb 3rd, 2016 blog entry. You said something about DH's new computer.
ReplyDeleteoh you are good! I didn't think it had been that long! I thought we bought one after we moved over here...I really think I did buy him this one about 3 or so years ago because I can remember looking at an office store in the city.
DeleteI did a search and found I did buy one at Staples in the city on Sept 9, 2019...and as you noted above, even though it's not a laptop it was a budget friendly/inexpensive model and now it has been 3 years.
Delete8 GB of ram is plenty, if you have a slow processor then that’s a bigger problem. My husband is in IT and I do a LOT of computer work in my job. Also having a mechanical hard drive instead of an SSD can slow things down.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I was reading up on, with his Windows 11 and what he uses his computer for 8GB should be plenty. When I look at task mgr it always shows memory at around 50% usage. It was the "disk" that kept spiking to 100% that I don't know why. His computer specs show speed is PC4-19200 mb/s...whatever that means LOL. The processor is an Intel i3-8100 @3.60 GHz
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