browsers

[+ Charlie]

Until last week, I had both Firefox and Chrome on my desktop (Windows 8.1), and all I had to do was click on one of them to bring up their start pages on the screen. Now nothing has changed with Firefox, but it takes about 10 minutes before Chrome suddenly appears. Any explanation?

[+ sync]

Until last week, I had both Firefox and Chrome on my desktop (Windows 8.1), and all I had to do was click on one of them to bring up their start pages on the screen. Now nothing has changed with Firefox, but it takes about 10 minutes before Chrome suddenly appears. Any explanation?

 

I have had a lot of success with tech problems when I have used a Google search. After running your question through a Google search I came upon the following posting. FWIW I tried it myself and it seemed to work. Good luck

 

Best solution

 

Jeff Buffington

June 30, 2014 12:23:59 AM

 

To anyone encountering similar issues... try disabling hardware acceleration.... it was a tenfold improvement for me on my laptop.

 

To disable it... type "chrome:settings" in the address bar, click Advanced Settings, then uncheck "Use hardware acceleration when available" under the System header. Close all open Chrome browser instances and restart Chrome.

 

Chrome had always ran really well for me.... until rather recently. This seemed to fix my biggest problem of late. Give it a shot and let me know... curious how it works for others. Not sure why HW acceleration seems to be the culprit, nor what exactly changed that caused this issue.

 

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kbxl

July 5, 2014 5:27:01 AM

 

then uncheck "Use hardware acceleration when available"

 

This worked beautifully! Thank you http://m.bestofmedia.com/sfp/images/design/usr/smilies/smile.gif

 

Score

4

[+ Charlie]

Ooooo! Thank you for the info, sync.

[whipped guy]

@sync is sooo right about tech problems and finding the solutions. A number of years ago I was given the exact same advice. After all, if you are having a certain issue that the odds were that others (and usually many others) are having or have had the exact same issue. What is interesting about the above example is that the solution was posted almost three years ago. Recently my neighbors were having an issue with their rather old printer. I googled the problem and model number and got a link to a website with the "fix".

 

So Google it and the odds are you in your favor that you will get the solution to your dilemma. Of course it works for non-technical issues as well!

[+ Charlie]

Unfortunately, unchecking that setting made no difference. It still takes about ten minutes before the Chrome start page opens.

[+ sync]

@sync is sooo right about tech problems and finding the solutions. A number of years ago I was given the exact same advice. After all, if you are having a certain issue that the odds were that others (and usually many others) are having or have had the exact same issue. What is interesting about the above example is that the solution was posted almost three years ago. Recently my neighbors were having an issue with their rather old printer. I googled the problem and model number and got a link to a website with the "fix".

 

So Google it and the odds are you in your favor that you will get the solution to your dilemma. Of course it works for non-technical issues as well!

 

WG, you were sharp to notice the date of the post. I selected it because it is closer to the release date of Windows 8.1, which Charlie mentioned he is running on his laptop. Curiously, the solution also worked for me in the Windows 10 I'm running on my laptop. I get a lot of tech help from Google searches because most of the respondents don't complicate the issue with tech-speak.

[escortrod]

Here are a couple more ideas. As @sync says, google is your friend.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2835855/google-chrome-slow-start.html

 

http://ccm.net/forum/affich-804748-google-chrome-loads-very-slow

[+ sync]

Unfortunately, unchecking that setting made no difference. It still takes about ten minutes before the Chrome start page opens.

 

I apologize if I'm stating the obvious, but did you reboot your computer after deselecting "Use hardware acceleration when available?"

[+ Charlie]

I apologize if I'm stating the obvious, but did you reboot your computer after deselecting "Use hardware acceleration when available?"

No,I didn't. The instruction next to that "uncheck" option just said "restart Chrome". I will now try re-booting the computer.

[whipped guy]

WG, you were sharp to notice the date of the post. I selected it because it is closer to the release date of Windows 8.1, which Charlie mentioned he is running on his laptop. Curiously, the solution also worked for me in the Windows 10 I'm running on my laptop. I get a lot of tech help from Google searches because most of the respondents don't complicate the issue with tech-speak.

Well I figured that you were sharp for that very reason... the closeness to windows 8.1! I had to do the something similar with my neighbors printer dilemma noted above as it was an older model. I was able to find a solution, but it was not easy because the original link to the HP website no longer was working because the model was so old!

 

Plus you are right that many of the solutions are given in more user friendly terms!

[+ Charlie]

Rebooting made no difference. I looked at the links from escortrod, but they are just too complicated for me. Unfortunately, I have little understanding or patience with electronics, which is one of the reasons why I don't own any device other than a desktop computer (not even a smart phone or DVD player). I will just have to live with the slow start from Chrome, which I use for only one purpose.

[escortrod]

Rebooting made no difference. I looked at the links from escortrod, but they are just too complicated for me. Unfortunately, I have little understanding or patience with electronics, which is one of the reasons why I don't own any device other than a desktop computer (not even a smart phone or DVD player). I will just have to live with the slow start from Chrome, which I use for only one purpose.

If/when you decide to change or upgrade your computer, you may want to look at an iPad. They can be combined with a Brydge keyboard to effectively replace a laptop, and they're rather more straightforward to use than traditional machines.

 

https://www.brydgekeyboards.com/

[whipped guy]

If/when you decide to change or upgrade your computer, you may want to look at an iPad. They can be combined with a Brydge keyboard to effectively replace a laptop, and they're rather more straightforward to use than traditional machines.

 

https://www.brydgekeyboards.com/

I definitely second the iPad option. I have laptops that I used to use for work to do my books. Now that I am retired I only use a computer to keep records for my taxes, work with tax programs etc, and to record and edit music, create music files, burn CD's, etc, which is a hobby. Plus, based on my music postings here it is common knowledge that I am into opera and am an audiophile of sorts so I need the larger capacity that a PC would provide, not to mention external hard drives. Plus, both are good to backup records, photos, etc.that are on your iPad.

 

Other than that I am on my iPad or iPhone. I do 90 percent of what I need to do on my iPad mini such as what I am doing right now. Heck you can even print from it. Much easier to use and while I thought that I would want a keyboard I found that I really could get along without it... of course that's why I make so many typos... but there is nothing perfect in life! However, to each his own in that regard.

 

Incidentally the neighbor that I mention above who is not computer savvy uses an iPad and does so like a pro. I could not live without mine... so something for @Charlie to consider. It will probably simplify things and make things more compact and convenient as well.

 

PS: Chrome works perfectly on my iPad!!!!

[+ Charlie]

I do have an old iPad, but I only use it for email when I am traveling. I need a much bigger screen to use a computer-type device comfortably, and the only actual work that I do online requires a desktop with a big monitor.

[whipped guy]

I do have an old iPad, but I only use it for email when I am traveling. I need a much bigger screen to use a computer-type device comfortably, and the only actual work that I do online requires a desktop with a big monitor.

I know what you mean! I need to be wearing special glasses no matter which device I'm using! Still, good to know that you have an iPad and technically have at least one foot in the Twenty-first Century! Now can we interest you in a smart phone? Actually that would open Pandora's proverbial Box! So tread lightly!

[+ Charlie]

I am too clumsy to manipulate something that small, e.g., I can't imagine trying to text anything. I carry a fliptop cellphone when I am away from home, but sometimes don't turn it on for months at a time, and only one person has my phone number. I really don't like to be easily accessible.

[whipped guy]

I am too clumsy to manipulate something that small, e.g., I can't imagine trying to text anything. I carry a fliptop cellphone when I am away from home, but sometimes don't turn it on for months at a time, and only one person has my phone number. I really don't like to be easily accessible.

You are probably better off. If I get in the car to go anywhere and forget my phone I feel as if I am naked... as if there will be some impending disaster.... I keep thinking that the car will break down and I will be stuck by the roadside and be easy prey never to be heard from again! And to think that there was a time when we left home to escape the telephone and now we can't leave home without it!!!

 

So you are most likely in a better place!

[escortrod]

I am too clumsy to manipulate something that small, e.g., I can't imagine trying to text anything. I carry a fliptop cellphone when I am away from home, but sometimes don't turn it on for months at a time, and only one person has my phone number. I really don't like to be easily accessible.

It's rather easier to text on a touchscreen than a flip phone. You can mash five virtual buttons simultaneously and a decently programmed virtual keyboard will ignore the unintentional key presses and work out your intended input instead. Then there's dictation. iOS and Android have excellent dictation capabilities. Using Carplay I am able to dictate long messages, including full punctuation, with about 99.9% accuracy. That uses the same voice recognition as the keyboard does in iOS.

[+ sync]

I have little understanding or patience with electronics, which is one of the reasons why I don't own any device other than a desktop computer (not even a smart phone or DVD player). I will just have to live with the slow start from Chrome, which I use for only one purpose.

 

I am too clumsy to manipulate something that small, e.g., I can't imagine trying to text anything.

 

It was not so long ago that I felt exactly as you do. Technology was forced upon me a few years before I retired. It was learn it or retire early. It was not easy for me because I too and on the clumsy side, but not nearly as difficult as I imagined. Now I have a nice degree of comfort with the technology I use (smartphone, laptop, email, Microsoft Word, Excel "occasionally", along with the updating features, virus detection and troubleshooting software.

 

My intention is not to coerce you toward something that you don't want to do, but if you ever have maybe and hour of free time, and you are curious, I encourage you to explore some of your computer's features that you have not used, and consider a smartphone, which is much like a computer. Just putting it out there, I hope I have not offended you.

[+ Charlie]

Of course, I am not offended by these suggestions. I realize that is where the world is going--in fact, where much of it is now. But I don't want to partake. For instance, this site is the only form of social media I participate in. I don't share photos because I hardly ever take them. If watching tv programs or movies becomes too simple, I will spend too much of my time doing that instead of other things, like sitting and watching the moon rise and set. If I can hear any music I want at any time anywhere, then listening to it becomes less of a special experience. I have a limited number of brain cells left for storing information, and I don't want to use them for remembering how to use various gadgets rather than for the things I care about remembering. I understand and appreciate that they can be very useful, but I don't want to be any more dependent on them than is absolutely necessary.

[+ sync]

I have a limited number of brain cells left for storing information, and I don't want to use them for remembering how to use various gadgets rather than for the things I care about remembering. I understand and appreciate that they can be very useful, but I don't want to be any more dependent on them than is absolutely necessary.

 

Understood. You have established an environment of limited technology that works well for you. That is enviable, but be prepared, after the apocalypse we technology-dependents will be banging at your door for refuge and leadership.