Message boards : Questions and problems : my PC is getting hijacked by !!!
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Send message Joined: 31 Dec 12 Posts: 7 ![]() |
I need help! I've been noticing that Google Chrome has been acting oddly VERY sluggish, and maybe some other programs that are lightweight (i.e. Windows' Minesweeper game, and Notepad) have been slowing down. I was convinced it had to do with the number of extensions I had installed in Chrome, but the more I thought about it, I've had those Chrome extensions for many months and this is a somewhat new phenomenon. That was strengthened when I uninstalled Chrome, reinstalled, and exact same behavior. And then I realized it couldn't be Chrome since Windows itself is acting so incredibly sluggish. As in, I might move my mouse, and it could take 30 seconds to see the cursor move. And sometimes what I type does NOT match what's on the screen, like Windows is having a hard time catching up. I was about to post to the Chrome forums when suddenly it hit me-- I had recently told BOINC to run while the computer is in use, and also gave it permission to use 100% of the processor. Well duh, NO WONDER I'm having issues. And then I had immediately forgotten that I had done so. So I updated my BOINC preferences to uncheck "Run BOINC while the computer is in use" and saved, but I didn't notice an improvement. So I reopened the BOINC manager and found that it had not saved my change. So I unchecked that box again, and modified the percentage of CPU that BOINC is allowed to use from 100% to 5% and saved again, reopened BOINC manager to see if my changes had taken effect, and no-- right back to using 100% of CPU while computer is in use. NOTE TO ALL FUTURE BOINC USERS: -=NEVER=- DO THAT-- MY COMPUTER IS USELESS AND THIS SHORT NOTE HAS TAKEN SEVERAL HOURS TO COMPOSE IN NOTEPAD. I've tried several times to snooze and suspend BOINC activity, but no relief. That makes me suspicious that perhaps it's not BOINC that's hogging my processor-- well heck, I just ran Windows Task Manager, which showed me that Chrome was highest on CPU usage and was eating all me memory. Plus, for some odd reason I had 3 different Chrome processes running. Task Manager let me kill all three, and everything's mostly good again. So then I had Task Manager open while I started Chrome, to see if it is the culprit, and was surprised to see 13 different processes for Chrome all start, so now I'm confused as to whether Chrome is causing my woes or BOINC, as without Chrome running I just checked my BOINC settings, and I still cannot get it off of "use 100% of the processor while the computer is in use." But I mostly only notice the PC dragging when Chrome is open, so goodness sakes am I confused. I'm going to post this to both the Chrome forum and the BOINC forum. Can anybody help figure this out? MANY THANKS! |
Send message Joined: 23 Apr 07 Posts: 1112 ![]() |
Please pass by this thread and at the very least supply your Boinc startup messages, the first 20 to 30 lines will do: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=5925#34096 Then we'll have an idea what projects you're attached to, and the likely causes. Claggy |
Send message Joined: 5 Dec 12 Posts: 42 |
I've been in the same situation on more than one occasion, I'm sure we all have. When it gets to the point where the system is so sluggish it takes hours just to teak a few settings or type out a plea for help then you're only banging your head against the wall trying to find the elusive setting that is causing the problem or will relieve the problem. Don't do that. Sounds like Chrome is acting up. Delete it. Don't mess around tweaking Chrome settings, you've done that already or it sounds like you have so just delete it and all its extensions. Then reboot. If that doesn't help then check system temperatures. Check CPU for sure, GPU and RAM if you can. Check for fans that are worn out and not spinning or are spinning too slow to cool things properly. Blow the dust out of the heatsinks and fans. You should blow the dust out at least twice a year even if nothing is going wrong so do this anyway. If that doesn't help then suspect a BOINC project. BOINC itself is very safe, well behaved and rarely causes problems. However some projects send science apps that cause problems. Stop BOINC and make sure it won't auto start when you reboot. You may have to uninstall BOINC to make sure it doesn't reboot, I'm not sure, I use Linux and don't know how the BOINC autostart works on Windows. Then reboot. If it's better then you know it was one of the science apps BOINC was running. If that doesn't help then virus scan. Maybe virus scan is one of the first things you should do. If that doesn't help then I would say you've eliminated the prime suspects and you should then suspect the hardware. Run the standard diagnostics: memtest, prime95, whatever. Check RAM and CPU then disks. Get SMART reports from disks. You can try defragging and all that but I don't think fragmentation is the cause here. Next slash and burn the software. Take no prisoners, shoot first and don't even bother asking questions later because they're all liars anyway. The strategy is: 1) Save everything you want to a DVD, thumbdrive, whatever because in a few minutes you're gonna wipe the disk and reinstall the OS if things don't improve quickly. Don't save any executables, they're all suspect. Save porn, links to porn, browser bookmarks, essays, homework, source files, text files, etc. 2) One by one uninstall any app you think might be the culprit. Uninstall one then reboot. If the problem persists then kill the next suspect. Burn everything they own or ever touched. Reboot after *every* execution, absolutely no exceptions. Repeat until things get better. 3) If all your apps are gone and it's still FUBAR then wipe the disk and reinstall the OS. The alternative is plunk around until you drive yourself crazy and gash your own throat just to stop the pain. Or you can flog the machine on Ebay and buy a new one. "Windows" -- an American English word, meaning "A real operating system is too hard for me." |
Send message Joined: 31 Dec 12 Posts: 7 ![]() |
Well many thanks y'all. It appears to be fixed, and I'm embarrassed to say how this came about-- I figured my PC had gone into Hibernate overnight for too many days maybe, so last night I shut it all the way down for the first time in a really long time. Then this morn I was talking to mom, asking if Staples does PC tune-up's. "Well, try rebooting first." And lo and behold, I turned it on this morning and everything seems back to normal. *sigh* Don't tell anyone that my last job was as a computer programmer... :-) Thanks again, case closed.... |
Send message Joined: 14 Jan 13 Posts: 2 ![]() |
For your future reference - the reason you saw Chrome with multiple processes is because that's how Chrome works. It creates a separate process for every open tab and for every running extension. This allows a tab or extension to crash or lock up without losing your entire browsing session. I currently have 19 instances of chrome.exe in my task manager. |
Send message Joined: 5 Jan 13 Posts: 81 |
OMG! You're right! I didn't notice that before. Thanks for mentioning it. Oh, btw, I'm not saying 19 sessions is a bad thing. Looks to me like each one takes only a wee bit o' RAM so it's cool, probably no more RAM (total) than FF would need for 19 tabs. |
Send message Joined: 3 Feb 13 Posts: 1 ![]() |
for anyone interested, hope this helps! http://www.howtogeek.com/119191/browser-slow-how-to-make-google-chrome-fast-again/ |
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