[REQUEST] Two Identical computer one with SLOW SPEED

[roborobs computer repair]

I have two Lenovo Flex 3s with identical specs. One which I uses as my PC for gaming, streaming, and have multiple browser tabs open. even with this running I usually run at 50% or less memory usage, normally around 30% however my wife's identical PC doing nothing but being booted runs at 65-70+ % of memory right from boot. No difference in software other her PC running the sophos VPN software for her work. I have disabled this on boot yet the memory usage doesn't change. I have also temporally disabled realtime AV scanning to conserve memory with little affect. Any ideas what could be causing this?

Both PCs are running Windows 10 Home, 8GBs of RAM, 1TB HDD, i5 Processors.

All drivers are showing current.

 

[Metanis]

Memory load may not have anything to do with perceived system speed. But I would start with the fact it is a Lenovo and investigate if you wouldn't be better off doing a clean install of Win10 without the Lenovo bloatware.

 

[JoelM]

I had a similar issue recently. I tracked it down to an issue with Windows Updates.
Using Tweaking.com Windows Repair it repaired the issues with windows updates. Once this was done I installed all updates and the machine was just fine.

 

[HFultzjr]

I have two Lenovo Flex 3s with identical specs. One which I uses as my PC for gaming, streaming, and have multiple browser tabs open. even with this running I usually run at 50% or less memory usage, normally around 30% however my wife's identical PC doing nothing but being booted runs at 65-70+ % of memory right from boot. No difference in software other her PC running the sophos VPN software for her work. I have disabled this on boot yet the memory usage doesn't change. I have also temporally disabled realtime AV scanning to conserve memory with little affect. Any ideas what could be causing this?

Both PCs are running Windows 10 Home, 8GBs of RAM, 1TB HDD, i5 Processors.

All drivers are showing current.

Have you checked to see what is using her memory?

 

[ZenTree]

Have you checked to see what is using her memory?

Yes that was my first thought too!

 

[roborobs computer repair]

Memory load may not have anything to do with perceived system speed. But I would start with the fact it is a Lenovo and investigate if you wouldn't be better off doing a clean install of Win10 without the Lenovo bloatware.

Almost all Lenovo bloatware has been unistalled. Actually that is one nice thing about lenovo is their image has very little bloatware to begin with.

 

[roborobs computer repair]

Have you checked to see what is using her memory?

That is what's odd. nothing is using a lot of memory. the only thing that is using a large amount is Firefox which is at 600 Mb which is about normal when it is running.

No processes seem to be using extreme amounts of memory.

 

[roborobs computer repair]

I had a similar issue recently. I tracked it down to an issue with Windows Updates.
Using Tweaking.com Windows Repair it repaired the issues with windows updates. Once this was done I installed all updates and the machine was just fine.

I just ran the Windows Repair software - Will do updates over night. and see how it is tomorrow.

 

[roborobs computer repair]

Memory load may not have anything to do with perceived system speed. But I would start with the fact it is a Lenovo and investigate if you wouldn't be better off doing a clean install of Win10 without the Lenovo bloatware.

Lenovos actually have very little bloatware which is what is great about them. I have already removed as much as possible. Again I have the same PC I use with no issues.

 

[ChrisTech]

That is what's odd. nothing is using a lot of memory. the only thing that is using a large amount is Firefox which is at 600 Mb which is about normal when it is running.

No processes seem to be using extreme amounts of memory.

My experience with FF is that memory usage is under 300......in fact mine is currently under that with 5 tabs open....?

 

[FremontPC]

Well, from my pov it's either going to be RAM, Disk I/O, or CPU usage that's different between the two. Either one is higher or compromised somehow, so if you're not seeing any difference along those lines in Task Manager (even when running the same programs), run the diags and see if there's a hardware problem. The idea of swapping drives was a good one. If it causes the problem to shift to your rig, you'll find it faster, nez paw?

No differences in virtual memory?

Any clues in Event Viewer /Custom Views/Administrative Events?

 

[HFultzjr]

That is what's odd. nothing is using a lot of memory. the only thing that is using a large amount is Firefox which is at 600 Mb which is about normal when it is running.

No processes seem to be using extreme amounts of memory.

Have a look with Process Explorer. Look a little deeper and you should find something at a higher %,
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/processexplorer.aspx
If Process Explorer is not showing a high %, my bets are on faulty hardware (ram?).

 

[fencepost]

My experience with FF is that memory usage is under 300......in fact mine is currently under that with 5 tabs open....?

Hm, mine's currently at 1.3GB, but I may have a few more tabs and windows open than you do....

I probably need to go do some note-taking and cleanup, those windows probably average around 8-10 tabs each all focused around the same topic per window.

 

[GTP]

I've currently got 23 tabs open in Opera, plus email and several folders open in tabs. (On Linux)
It's only using about 45% 3.6Gb of available ram (8Gb total)

 

[Your PCMD]

Porn tends to slow down any computer for some reason. Trust me, my clients prove me right every day.

 

[FremontPC]

What did you find out, Roborobs?

 

[drjones]

Have you checked the disk health?
A failing HD / SSD will obviously impact performance a great deal.

 

[fencepost]

Also (based on a system I was looking at last night), check C:\Windows\Logs\CBS and see what the largest log file in there is. Nuke anything > 2GB, then go to C:\Windows\Temp and remove all of the hundreds or thousands of cab* files (created by Windows trying to compress that too-large log file, failing, then trying, trying again). I only noticed because in looking for why it was slow, I was wondering why makecab was running and using a noticeable amount of CPU.

 

[brandonkick]

This is the sanity check that I would do, provided you have two spare drives around.


Clone both drives to spares, and then try each of the clones in this "slow" machine.

Assuming you haven't done something like go from source hard drive to target SSD....
the clone of the original drive should tell you something. If the machine is still slow then
you can assume it's a software issue. If the clone of the original drive runs much better
than you have a hardware issue with that drive.

If you pop in the clone of the good computers drive, into the slow computer, and the slow
computer is still slow then that leans towards a hardware issue on the slow computer.
If the good computers cloned drive has the slow computer running much better, that is
another indication you have a software issue on the "slow" hard drive.

Make sure, when looking at the processes that are consuming resources, that you look at
"ALL" of them. There's a little button I think that says to show system processes or something
like that. It leaves some of them out if you don't. Other wise, you should be able to see the
total amount of hard drive activity, memory usage, and processor usage. I remember a slow
running win8 machine that had the hard drive activity pegged almost all the time. I don't remember
what I had to disable to stop it, but it was a brand new machine once I got that activity in line.
You need to make sure all three are not being pushed to the limits.