web browising lag: CPU bottleneck?

Hello all,

I mostly use my work laptop, but I am shopping for a personal one. I was thinking of getting a similar specs one, but have been experiencing some sort of lag when browsing webpages.

Sometimes the page seems to load fine, but I am not allowed to scroll down (as if it were frozen/locked). After waiting 5-10 seconds, its back to normal.

I want to figure out what is causing this, to know if I really need a more powerful laptop or not.

Current specs:
Toshiba Satellite L645
Intel Core i3 M370 (2.4 GHZ)
8 GB RAM
54000 RPM HDD

Current Internet connection:

 

Hi,

It may not be the laptop, but the web browser you are using.

Have you tried alternative browsers? For example if you are using plain INternet Explorer (9), have you tried Firefox or Chrome?

I have a similarly spec'd laptop (Vostro 3350), and it occasionally "freezes" for a couple seconds on content-heavy pages (e.g. http://theverge.com). Even behind a 100Mbit switch, my speed test speeds are


On browsers I only use for basic testing, like Chrome and Firefox, sometimes these pages do not have any lag time at all.

My recommendation is to try a different browser and see if the same pages that freeze/lag still give you trouble. But I still think your Toshiba laptop's specs are just fine for regular day to day use.

 

I have a similar problem with my Firefox across all computers I own and at the office. It must be a problem of the browser because the same behavior is encountered on my filthy atom netbook and to my i7 desktop computer at the office.
It could be the addons being used causing this as some of them modify the output of the pages you retrieve.
Chrome does not exhibit this, I haven't used IE for a long time.

 

you bring up a good point in that it might be an extensions issue.

the only extension that I have that would cause any such "pause" while loading the page is the Opera AdBlock. It makes the most sense as well since adblockers would need to parse through the page to remove any recognized ads. And when you have a very content-heavy page, it would need to take more cycles to complete the process.

 

Using Chrome, latest version.

It might be extension-related I guess, or due to bad coding on the site. Its hard to reproduce.

But its good to know that I am fine with an i3, wich I suspected...

 

I'm very familiar with these lags - having over 50 tabs (sometimes going well over 100) open, Firefox and Opera always have this issue, while Chrome only lags on some heavy sites like Engadget and HuffingtonPost. I tried everything, it's not the extensions and it's not the CPU, as both my Core 2 Quad has the same issue while not being even 50% loaded.

If anyone has a fix, please do share...

 

I don't know if your case is the same, but for me its not the browser freezing, since I can switch to another tab, minimize or close... I just can't scroll or click on anything on the website itself...

 

Firefox has been giving me occasional 2-3 second freezes lately, especially on NBR. I tried fidling with a lot of things but I'm starting to thin its the browser itself.

 

I stopped using FF over a year ago because of the crashes and instabilities that browser had on more websites than NBR. I highly encourage all FF users experiencing problems to explore other options.

 

I use firefox and find it can take 5 seconds for a page to load on some sites xda is one, and i am too inpatient and start to scroll down the page, it can get very stuttery, I installed addblock plus and my pages load a bit faster.

John.

 

I think that most power users will find that if they uninstall their primary browser, and re-install it, it will function - and most importantly, feel - as snappy as it was when they first used it on their shiny new computers. This is furthered by having a vanilla install with no extensions/plugins.

I feel that many users have a bajillion plugins that they have forgotten about, and that really slows down the browser.

Even on my little Xeon desktop/server (sitting by my feet), despite the powerful hardware, my heavily-used Opera can take seconds before the page has fully loaded and doesn't lag/hiccup/jump when I scroll.

 

I agree for the most part except on your distinguishing of power users. Most power users regularly check their plugins and addons and eliminate the ones they don't need. It would be more along the lines of the standard user that tends to let their browse get uneccesarily bloated.

Btw, not sure if it's the latest update to Firefox or an NBR thing, but I eliminated the lag on NBR by switching the new NBR style for the forum.

 

How on earth do you get speeds like those???

 

Um yes and no. I know people, who are sys admins, who aren't as good with checking plugins as some simple users. Then there are the power users who spend 15 minutes a day checking their plugins to make sure they don't have dupes or conflicts.

That said, you are right that most power users maintain their plugins well.

might be a firefox thing? I don't have problems in Opera using the new NBR theme.

If you check the ISP in my speedtest, you'll see that it's the university's network (I work at the IT dept there). We are our own ISP, so we have near real gigabit speeds. If i wasn't behind a 100Mbit switch (i share an office, and between the two of us we have 2 Voip phones and I think about 7 computers), I have had speed tests much higher than that.