Sleep mode issues & requesting assistance

[Lorien]

I've noticed since I switched from my last forum where I had 12 open IE8 Windows at the same time (each with multiple tabs - there I needed a separate window for each individual forum because of how things worked), Outlook, Word, and perhaps several other programs and had memory usage around 40-60% (I only have 2GB which is all my motherboard can handle), that when I put my computer to sleep, when waking up again it was as slow as molasses to the point where I needed to restart within a matter of minutes because it was intolerable.

Now using IE9 and having only one open IE9 window (with a few tabs) and essentially the same other applications, memory usage is around 10-20% and when I wake from sleep mode it starts up immediately and I have no problems whatsoever. So it seems that memory usage (or the change to IE9 - but probably the memory more) makes a huge difference in how it functions (and whether it functions properly).

I thought I'd mention that for anyone with anyone who's got someone having problems with waking from sleep. Be sure to check on memory utilization when the computer is put to sleep as it may be the cause and, if reduced before putting the computer to sleep (in my case, if I had closed all the IE8 windows perhaps), maybe the wakeup problems will be resolved.

This, of course, makes sense since sleep mode uses RAM to store information so if a lot of RAM is already being used, there isn't much left for sleep mode information and when you wake you find you're close to 100% utilization which naturally grinds you to a halt.

I also discovered that each IE8 window was taking 8-12% utilzation from time to time - so sometimes even during the middle of the day I would max out and needed to close all IE8 Windows and start over (and even though I re-opened all the same windows again, it didn't use the same amount of memory and I was back down to 50-60%). With IE9, I'm finding each instance takes 0-1% utilization. I don't know if it's a difference in the forums or a difference in IE, but it's quite a lot better. I think it's perhaps a little of both, but that IE9 does use less resources.

Anyway, I thought I'd share that with everyone in case it helps. Perhaps it's just a fluke with my system or differences in how many IE Windows I have open at one time (or maybe it does have something to do with IE9), but whatever, things are much better now and sleep mode functions perfectly again and I'm very happy about that.


P.S. There's a thread here http://www.vistax64.com/vip/279014-more-help-requested.html that I think we could all use from time to time and apparently something similar seems to be a big hit in SF. It's a way to request help from others if you're stuck with a problem in a thread without needing to message friends individually for assistance. This way everyone sees it and anyone who's available can pitch in to assist. We all get in such situations from time to time and everyone else assume we have it covered and often ignores the thread when in fact we really could use some assistance. This has happened to me a couple of times recently and I have yet another one that's very close to being the same. I've at times even gone so far as to post the questions in other forums for assistance - but I think all the help I really need is already here.

I think this is a way we can help each other out when we run out of ideas or things become more complicated than they originally seemed (maybe we just started by asking questions about the problems and the answers revealed a situation much more complicated than it seemed at first because the original post was too vague - or maybe we've tried all the solutions we know and researched for an hour or more and still come up with nothing useful). I intend to try using it myself if needed and I will try to help if I see someone else has posted there.

Best wishes to all.

 

[niemiro]

I know what you mean about tabs! This is slightly off topic, but sometimes when I am doing research for programming or something, I have a window for each website, and each with many tabs. So, I might come on here, open a new tab for everything that I need to action from my UserCP, every unanswered, some New Posts, and very soon I can reach over 100 tabs, some of which I have not even looked at.

It then becomes a bit messy, so I open a new window for the few things I need to do. Then maybe a repeat of this for SF and EF, then Facebook, then G2G.

Then I start to research. Google search. Open every entry on the first page, look at the first few. More detail on a new tab for the first few pages. Maybe I get 50 tabs. Throughout the day, I could perform quite a few Google Searches, and never get round to closing anything! By the end of Saturday, I could have 40 windows, each with 50-60 tabs on average! When I right click > Close Group, it can take nearly five minutes for windows to get its act together and actually close them all! I usually get over 500mb in the RAM (4GB total) and I once saw it at 650mb!

I may not be the average user, but maybe I need to change my browsing habits!

Richard

 

[niemiro]

LOL, it is 9:30 in the morning, and already with 17 windows and 430mb in the RAM for firefox.exe. Shame I am going out in an hour, or it might have been a new record!