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Myself and the other developer are running Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit with 8GB RAM on different Gigabyte motherboards with Quad core Intel CPUs. Most of the time, it runs like a dream. We use VMware workstation a lot (hence the 8GB) and that works well.
Except... now and then, after the PCs have been on for a few days, the whole system starts getting really sluggish doing certain tasks. The other's developer's system is far worse than mine with it taking up to a minute to launch IE. Today, mine has gone sluggish but nowhere near as bad. For example, normally when I click on a new tab in IE, it's instant. Today, there's an obvious delay. Right-clicking in this window to trigger iSpell is normally instant, right now it takes about five seconds. I've got resource monitor open on my second monitor and when I did that right-click, there was no obvious peak in CPU, disk or memory.
A reboot does fix it so it does sound like a resource issue but haven't a clue what might be to blame. The two computers have similarities (same spec) but also differences (like motherboard, RAM & CPU models).
So I guess the question is, any pointers on diagnosing why a PC is sluggish? What could cause such a right-click slow down in IE for example? It sounds like such a simple operation.
NOTE: whilst typing this message alone, it was fine performance wise. I can click around the page no problem but right-click still is noticeable slow. Will reboot over lunch...
Maybe try the Resource Monitor in Win7? – Svish – 2010-06-11T13:46:55.193
Are you running IE x86 or x64? I heard about some issue with IE x64 running on x64 based OS. – r0ca – 2010-06-11T13:48:10.387
Note that for opening new tabs in IE certain Add-ons get always loaded. You can see their load time in the add-on manager. – Joey – 2010-06-11T14:08:31.523
2As a developer I would have hoped you used something other then IE :( – Unfundednut – 2010-06-11T14:25:30.077
1Get 16gb ddr3 !!11 :) (Don't know what it could be sorry.) – Apache – 2010-06-11T14:48:40.733
I'm already using using Resource Monitor and there is nothing obviously peaking or using excessive resources. It just feels like the PC is running a 4MHz Z80 and not a 2.8GHz quad core CPU. Nothing is hammering the CPU - it just responds slowly and not for everything, just some activities like right-click.
I narrowed in on IE but it's not just IE at fault although I'm willing to accept it could be IE causing the problem. – munrobasher – 2010-06-13T10:31:40.827
1As a developer who lives in the real world, I have to work with the same browser that 100% of our pharmaceutical clients use. Would love to use Google Chrome all the time as the JavaScript engine is just so speedy but unfortunately, it's not compatible enough yet with many sites. One may say it's very compatible just that IE wasn't but everything now works with that. It's an unfair world sometimes and the best often doesn't win. But getting this back on thread, it is not specifically IE related but IE really suffers when it happens. – munrobasher – 2010-06-13T10:35:29.790
Good question about x86 or x64. I'm never 100% which flavour the task bar icon launches by default. Will check on Monday – munrobasher – 2010-06-13T10:36:45.607