Slow Response After Long Idle Periods

[Mythran]

After I leave the computer idle for an hour or so, when I come back and
"unlock" the computer, all the programs are very slow at responding to my
input for several minutes. This slow response clears up after using the
system over a period of 5 minutes or so. It is becoming a pain having to
wait for what I type to be displayed on the screen. If I try right-clicking
on ANY file, pffft, I can go off and get a cup of coffee, lunch, and get
comfortable reading a book before the context menu appears.
I assume that maybe all running programs are being cached to disk during a
certain period of time of being idle, and that is why I get the slow
response. If I am actively using the computer with an application open but
minimized for a long period of time, the single application that was
minimized will have a slow response for a few minutes before being a fully
productive or responsive app again. So I think there is a connection there.

This isn't a problem with a single application. I usually don't have more
than 4 or 5 applications open at the same time. My machine specs are decent
(2 GB Memory on a P4 3.2 GHz proc) and my applications that are open are not
CPU intensive (but some are memory hungry...*cough* visual studio .Net,
which I only have 1 copy of VS open usually).

Is there a setting/registry key that specifies an application time to
"cycle" memory into cache after a certain amount of idle time for the
application or computer? Is there another way to prevent this "slow-down"
without having to sit and actively use all open applications?

Thanks,
Mythran

 

[PD43]

After I leave the computer idle for an hour or so, when I come back and
"unlock" the computer, all the programs are very slow at responding to my
input for several minutes.

Do you have the Indexing service running?

 

[Mythran]

Do you have the Indexing service running?

No, I turned it off because IIRC it locks certain files I need during my
development (while indexing)...I'm not sure which as it has been several
years since I ran into the problem, but I think that was the problem and
cause for me to turn it off....will enabling it help to speed things up
after an idle period?

Thanks,
Mythran

 

[John McGaw]

After I leave the computer idle for an hour or so, when I come back and
"unlock" the computer, all the programs are very slow at responding to
my input for several minutes. This slow response clears up after using
the system over a period of 5 minutes or so. It is becoming a pain
having to wait for what I type to be displayed on the screen. If I try
right-clicking on ANY file, pffft, I can go off and get a cup of coffee,
lunch, and get comfortable reading a book before the context menu appears.
I assume that maybe all running programs are being cached to disk during
a certain period of time of being idle, and that is why I get the slow
response. If I am actively using the computer with an application open
but minimized for a long period of time, the single application that was
minimized will have a slow response for a few minutes before being a
fully productive or responsive app again. So I think there is a
connection there.

This isn't a problem with a single application. I usually don't have
more than 4 or 5 applications open at the same time. My machine specs
are decent (2 GB Memory on a P4 3.2 GHz proc) and my applications that
are open are not CPU intensive (but some are memory hungry...*cough*
visual studio .Net, which I only have 1 copy of VS open usually).

Is there a setting/registry key that specifies an application time to
"cycle" memory into cache after a certain amount of idle time for the
application or computer? Is there another way to prevent this
"slow-down" without having to sit and actively use all open applications?

Thanks,
Mythran

Hard disk shutting down to save power? If you go away and do not "lock" the
computer is is still slow? I take it BTW that by "lock" you mean logging
off, if not you might want to clarify.

 

[PD43]

No, I turned it off because IIRC it locks certain files I need during my
development (while indexing)...I'm not sure which as it has been several
years since I ran into the problem, but I think that was the problem and
cause for me to turn it off....will enabling it help to speed things up
after an idle period?

Enabling indexing NEVER speeds things up.

 

[Mythran]

Hard disk shutting down to save power? If you go away and do not "lock"
the computer is is still slow? I take it BTW that by "lock" you mean
logging off, if not you might want to clarify.

I checked power settings, everything is "Always On".
By "lock" I mean by locking the computer, not logging off...(WindowsKey +
L).

I don't know, I won't leave my work computer without locking it First,
it's not a good idea, second, it's not allowed

Mythran

 

[Bruce.]

After I leave the computer idle for an hour or so, when I come back and
"unlock" the computer, all the programs are very slow at responding to my
input for several minutes. This slow response clears up after using the
system over a period of 5 minutes or so. It is becoming a pain having to
wait for what I type to be displayed on the screen. If I try
right-clicking on ANY file, pffft, I can go off and get a cup of coffee,
lunch, and get comfortable reading a book before the context menu appears.

Just to see if you're being CPU starved, leave the task manager Performance
tab on the screen next time you leave it. See what the CPU usage is when
you first wake it up. If it's high, use the Processes tab to see which task
is loading the system.

Also watch the I/O Reads and Writes on the Processes tab (you might have to
add those columns, View -> Select Columns) to see if a process is thrashing
the disk.

Bruce.

 

[Mythran]

Just to see if you're being CPU starved, leave the task manager
Performance tab on the screen next time you leave it. See what the CPU
usage is when you first wake it up. If it's high, use the Processes tab
to see which task is loading the system.

Also watch the I/O Reads and Writes on the Processes tab (you might have
to add those columns, View -> Select Columns) to see if a process is
thrashing the disk.

Bruce.

Thanks, I'll try it...although, not sure if it'll help. Any perf. monitors
I should be using/keeping an eye on?

Mythran