PC doesn't perform well. Is it my processor? Do I need more RAM? Something else?

S

sporti883

Hi!
I have an HP laptop running Windows 10 (came with Win 7 but then the auto upgrade happened). The processor is AMD A8-6410, 4 GB RAM, 2.00 GHz, 64-bit. I use the internet a lot for both work and play and that's the most I use the computer for. I use File Explorer every day for a bit, sometimes a photo editing program or a word processor, but that's about it.

The computer is slow at the best of times. I like to have multiple tabs open in Chrome. Facebook, my e-mail, a news tab are always open and then there are at least 3 others, sometimes more. I try to keep it low because the computer doesn't seem to like it. If I go to play a silly Flash-based game on Facebook, it REALLY doesn't like it. One game always gives the 'Flash Player is not responding' message and I have to wait up to 10 seconds for it to process - this happens even if I have just re-started. If I try to load a similar Flash-based game at the same time in another tab, both tabs freeze, again for 5-10 seconds, until it processes what I'm doing. Sometimes I get the 'page is unresponsive' message because of this and I have to 'kill' the page.

I thought I had done proper research when buying this machine by getting a quad-core processor but it doesn't appear to have been the right decision. Now I'm looking to replace it and would really appreciate some help with what I should buy. Was buying AMD the mistake? I have a budget which goes to about an Intel i5-5200 or i5-6200 which are duo cores (although there are i3s in the same price range, as well as AMD A9s and 10s) and can go up to 8GB of RAM.

Oh! And the website where I'm shopping has Windows 7 Pro available on a couple of machines but the price is $50-100 higher than the same specs on a computer running Windows 10. Why is that? Won't the auto-upgrade still happen?

I would appreciate any advice you can give in laymen's terms :) I thought I had some clue about it all but after the head spin I was in after reading a dozen or more articles on duo vs quad, how much RAM one needs and comparing processors, I realize just how little I know or understand! Thanks so much!
 
Tuning systems is about reducing work to the minimum. Your usage of 'multiple tabs open in Chrome. Facebook, my e-mail' can be an issue as extra memory is consumed while not even active. I like tabs too, but close them as soon as done with that page - - leave only the site page tab active. Facebook??? come on, it can't be THAT critical that it is required all day long.

In your browser, disable ALL ADD-ONS; they're pigs and 99% of the time you can well do w/o any.

Time to play? QUIT FB, Email, and the Browser.

I'm still on Win/7 (thank God) and there's a benefit to having the pagefile in one segment and allowing Ms to Manage it is the wrong choice for performance. Set the Min & Max filesize to the same value, ~2x you memory size. You would need to reboot to make that active, defrag to get the benefit and reboot once again. Not a all sure of how-to for Win/10 - sorry
 
jobeard said:
Facebook??? come on, it can't be THAT critical that it is required all day long.

I kind of figured I'd get a judgement on that. So, I'll explain why I do it and you can decide if it's valid, I guess. My business Page is on Facebook and it's where all the photos of my designs are, along with the codes and the prices. So, it's open all day as I work to re-create them, for easy reference. Yes, I have photos in files on my computer and a separate price list I could access, but having the large pictures (as opposed to thumbnails) and being able to more quickly go back and forth between albums, is easier to me.

I have seen posts from people who talk about regularly having 20 more more tabs open at once with no issue. Some even talk about 100 or more. I thought I could do the same, figuring my computer is the problem, not the way I'm using it, especially since the page loading issues can happen immediately upon opening Chrome after a re-start. But, I'm here asking because I don't know. Now I do :) I'll try the other things you mentioned but it sounds like you're saying they won't really help, I just have to start having only one or two tabs open at a time. Thanks very much for the input and the help.
Click to expand...
 
4Gb ram is not much for 64 bit Windows but how much difference doubling it would make I don't know. It's worth looking into it rather than buying a new computer though.
 
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Since you were on Windows 7 and then upgraded to Windows 10, you more than likely could use a refresh in your OS. Over time an OS can be weighted down by usage/updates. When this happens a fresh start is nearly the only way to go.
 
bazz2004 said:
4Gb ram is not much for 64 bit Windows but how much difference doubling it would make I don't know. It's worth looking into it rather than buying a new computer though.
Click to expand...

That is a fabulous suggestion. I'm not sure why I didn't think of it! Thanks so much!
 
cliffordcooley said:
Since you were on Windows 7 and then upgraded to Windows 10, you more than likely could use a refresh in your OS. Over time an OS can be weighted down by usage/updates. When this happens a fresh start is nearly the only way to go.
Click to expand...

By this you mean to format the computer? I am currently doing housekeeping on this machine (have so many duplicate files and photos from loading old data back-ups onto new machines) and was planning on doing that. Thank you!
 
Doesn't Windows 7 and beyond defrag automatically? I remember running a couple of free utilities after upgrading to Windows 10 and finding a lot of minor errors. I use CCleaner fairly regularly but for that job I also used Glarysoft Utilities. I remove the latter after use though because it is a busybody and flags up new drivers constantly. An awful lot of problems arise from being obsessed with drivers. If it works then I leave well alone.
 
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Win/7 may or may not defrag depending upon settings & services. I've disliked MS Defrag for the manner of clumping everything contiguous and all freespace at the end - - making LONG seeks to extend a file.

Personally, I use DeFraggler as I get to choose which files to defrag, like DLLs & EXEs as these are the daily performance files. User data files like JPG, TXT, DOC make no sense due to their rare access.

Regardless, It's work the time to be sure that the system is not heavily fragmented - - oh btw, a new install will certainly be :sigh:
 
I reckon more ram will speed things up but if you go that route be aware of compatibility issues. It's easy to go wrong with ram and although it may be a bit more expensive the bigger companies like Crucial have online scanners that analyse your installed ram and recommend solutions that will work. In the unlikely event that there is a problem they will exchange it. Another way is to carefully remove and examine what is installed and then look on eBay for matching sticks. Sometimes there can be a limit on the memory size sticks that a motherboard will recognise. For example, I'd love to put a 4Gb stick in my netbook but the motherboard won't recognise more than 2Gb.
 
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bazz2004 said:
4Gb ram is not much for 64 bit Windows but how much difference doubling it would make I don't know. It's worth looking into it rather than buying a new computer though.
Click to expand...


I agree, have you considered taking it to a service center? It might still be covered by warranty, you can have it checked there.
 
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