Occasional VERY slow web page load, how can I fix this?

[pgoelz]

Occasional VERY slow web page load

I have a new (to me) Lumia 1020 and while it is fast and fluid everywhere else, web pages sometimes take forever (sometimes as long as 15 seconds) to load. Often it is the first visit to a page after opening IE, but not always.

I am on a VERY fast WiFi connection that is capable of 120Mb/s and tests at about 50Mb/s using a speed test app on the phone. Other PCs on the same WiFi network do not exhibit ANY page load delays.

The issue seems the same whether I am on WiFi or cell data (ATT LTE with a strong signal).

Data Sense is set to NOT compress web pages, but the issue seems the same if I enable web page compression.

Anyone got any ideas about why web pages take so long to load... sometimes? It is the only issue I have with WP8.1.

Paul

 

[ven07]

Re: Occasional VERY slow web page load

Never noticed this.. but did you try using other browsers available in the store? just to see if the issue is still there try uc browser

 

[pgoelz]

Re: Occasional VERY slow web page load

Good thought. I installed UC Browser and tried it. Seems the same to me..... for example it took close to 15 seconds to complete the Google page load. Other pages were faster.

While the page is slowly loading, the progress bar does move... fitfully. So it seems to indicate that data is flowing, just not as fast as expected.

I think I have noticed something similar when downloading and installing apps, but it is hard to be sure.

Note that this was a used phone but I did a factory reset and all the updates when I received it. Since then I have only installed a couple of apps.

As an aside.... why in the world in this 21st century is it so hard (usually impossible) to share favorites (bookmarks) between browsers?

Paul

 

[ven07]

Re: Occasional VERY slow web page load

I can honestly say that I don't really notice the lags, but then again, wifi in my country (or even data) aren't that great. Not sure if it's a hardware limitation. Which build are you on (8.0/8.1/10)? do you know anyone else with a WP? (that way you can compare the browser speeds)..

As far as the browsers go; I assume you're talking about syncing favorites between the phone IE browser and the laptop/pc browser? Unfortunately we just don't have that option yet. Might be available in w8.1 though (not sure; never had 8.1)

 

[pgoelz]

Re: Occasional VERY slow web page load

I can honestly say that I don't really notice the lags, but then again, wifi in my country (or even data) aren't that great. Not sure if it's a hardware limitation. Which build are you on (8.0/8.1/10)? do you know anyone else with a WP? (that way you can compare the browser speeds)..

I'm on WP8.1, with all the latest updates. I just compared it to my Lumia 820 on W10 (Spartan browser) and they seem similar. It is somewhat intermittent, and seems worst when you first begin browsing. After a couple pages, they all seem to load faster (even new un-cached pages).

As far as the browsers go; I assume you're talking about syncing favorites between the phone IE browser and the laptop/pc browser? Unfortunately we just don't have that option yet. Might be available in w8.1 though (not sure; never had 8.1)

Yes, it is a pet peave of mine that bookmarks seem to be so hard to sync and many browsers overlook decent bookmark managers. It is improving though..... Windows 10 (phone and PC) does synch bookmarks across platforms. But on the phone there is no bookmark manager at all and on the PC it is klunky and un-obvious how to manage bookmarks.

Paul

 

[pgoelz]

Re: Occasional VERY slow web page load

OK, I think I am narrowing it down. The issue seems to be related to how long the phone has been awake. If I have just awakened the phone, web pages are slow to load. If I do something else for a minute or so and THEN try loading a page, they seem to load much faster.

My best guess is that when the phone wakes up, it is busy doing things and the CPU utilization is so high that pages load slowly. I see the same thing if I wake the phone and immediately try to sync mail..... it takes much longer than it does if the phone has been awake for a minute or two.

I'm thinking this is an artifact of the power management algorithm in WP8 where tasks are grouped and don't run any time they want to. If so, understandable but not desirable. And it doesn't seem to be much better in W10, if my 820 is a good example. I haven't had the guts to try W10 on the 1020 yet.

Paul

 

[ven07]

Interesting find! Im wondering if this has anything to do with IE running in the background. Check if yours is set to run in the background (I believe it's turned on by default, but couldn't hurt to check, turn it on and off)

 

[pgoelz]

Interesting find! Im wondering if this has anything to do with IE running in the background. Check if yours is set to run in the background (I believe it's turned on by default, but couldn't hurt to check, turn it on and off)

I don't see anything in IE Settings for background operation. Do you mean background data?

Paul

 

[ven07]

Yes, but the option is found under Settings > swipe right

Edit: You can also reach it via the battery saver app

 

[pgoelz]

Yes, but the option is found under Settings > swipe right

Edit: You can also reach it via the battery saver app

I'm still not sure I understand what setting you are referring to. All I find under SETTINGS > swipe right > Internet Explorer are the ones I can reach from within IE. And none refer to background operation.

In Battery Saver, all I find is a setting to enable or disable Battery Saver (which restricts background DATA).

Paul

 

[pgoelz]

Well now, this is interesting. I was poking around again this evening and decided to look at my router settings. They all looked OK, but in the process I noticed that it was taking way longer than usual to actually reach the router config page(s). The browser would stall on the "resolving host" stage, which isn't right for a device I am talking directly to. In addition to the lags on my phone, I was getting some lag loading pages on my laptop that were unusual. Speed tests were still normal.... 110Mb/S down and 10-20Mb/S up.

So on a whim I pressed the hardware RESET button in an attempt to to reset the router to factory settings. On the Netgear WNDR3700V2, there is a hole with a reset button behind it. After using the reset button, things are MUCH faster, both on the phone and on PCs. I did notice that the configuration was NOT erased, so apparently pressing the reset button with power ON resets the modem but not back to factory settings. On reflection, I think that happens when you power on with the RESET button pressed. Haven't read the manual in a while

Go figure. For once it wasn't Microsoft's fault?

Paul

 

[ven07]

Lol I'll keep this one in mind Eh I will have to post the background thing later, as I don't have my other phone with me. My 920 has w10, but batt saver doesn't function properly :/

 

[pgoelz]

The other day I loaded DD-WRT in the router and so far, everything is still fast. Still no idea what happened.

Paul