Last Update...now slow and laggy

[prlundberg]

Ever since my RT updated on Wednesday it has been slow and laggy as heck. It's never performed this poorly.

I haven't looked into what the update was exactly yet. I went to look at what was running and I got too frustrated trying to do anything in desktop mode because it was so unresponsive. I'll try again this weekend, but in the meantime just wondering if anybody else has had issues. The update happened when I powered it up after the kids had run the battery dead, so I'm wondering if it was supposed to update before it shut down like usual and that messed it up somehow.

 

[berty6294]

The only difference I have noticed is that waking up my surface takes about 2 minutes if its been sitting. I have no idea why, but it is super glitchy waking it up after it's been asleep for a while.

 

[prlundberg]

Well after spending a good part of Sunday refreshing, uninstalling and installing updates, and clearing out disk space it seems to be working ok again now. Except for the Store, which has stopped working on my profile but works fine on all 3 other profiles on it. I have tried everything short of reinstalling windows to no avail. Cache clearing, changing to a local account, app troubleshooter, account troubleshooter, refresh, etc, etc. I had this issue with the 8.1 preview as well and it was only resolved when I went to the official release. So I'm hoping the 8.1.1 update fixes it. Regardless, I'm very frustrated with Windows right now.

 

[prlundberg]

Ugh...another update and again slow and laggy. Check disk space, almost out. Cleanup, back up to 5GB, which is 2GB less than before the refresh. What the heck is Microsoft doing to my Surface? I only have a handful of apps on it, all my media is on an SD card. This is getting to be ridiculous.

 

[prlundberg]

Now during the day yesterday something drained my battery and ate up another 2GB of space. This morning yet another updated installed, now my free space is back about where it was. Figure the update ate up almost 4GB. The Surface evidently can't function properly with less than about 3.5GB free space and that's what was causing everything to be slow and laggy. Still can't figure out what is taking up so much space on the thing to begin with. I'm starting to suspect old apps aren't fully uninstalling. And the app store still doesn't work.

Next step will be to try to gain access to the WindowsApp folder to see what's going on there. Microsoft in their great wisdom has removed the ability for administrators to even see how much space that folder is using. I sure am getting tired of basic management tasks being overcomplicated and cloaked in mystery on this thing.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

I sure am getting tired of basic management tasks being overcomplicated and cloaked in mystery on this thing.

That is one thing that surprised me about Windows RT. It has all of the systems maintenance needs as full-blown Windows.

Do you use Dropbox? I noticed that dropbox creates a cache folder in internal storage. The WinRT client doesn't manage the cache very well. Every time you access a file from dropbox, it dowloads it as a new file with a sequence number suffix. eg. Editing the dropbox-stored file ToDo.txt 3 times will result in ToDo.txt, ToDo(1).txt, ToDo(2).txt. Not such a big deal with small files, but if you download larger files, like videos or music multiple times I can see this thing getting out of hand.

You might want to poke around the folder tree: C:\Users\<username>\AppData to see what remnants of uninstalled apps remain.

 

[RTGent]

Ugh...another update and again slow and laggy. Check disk space, almost out. Cleanup, back up to 5GB, which is 2GB less than before the refresh. What the heck is Microsoft doing to my Surface? I only have a handful of apps on it, all my media is on an SD card. This is getting to be ridiculous.

Sorry you're experiencing problems. I have a similar setup to yours (only about 20 post-original apps, and ~40GB of music on an SD card) but I haven't experienced any issues with 8.1: the RT is running at least as well as it was, with streaming being the only noticeable improvement -from fine to even finer. Good luck getting past this, which you will.

 

[Brad and Ellen]

Check disk space, almost out.

That's you're problem right there. We have found that when our Surface has less than 2-3GB of space left, we experience the same laggy and slowness as yourself. It has to do with Windows space allocations for OS functions. When we ensure that we always have more than 2-3GB on the hard drive, the issues disappear and our Surface runs smooth and clean.



Sent from our Surface RT

 

[Brad and Ellen]

Next step will be to try to gain access to the WindowsApp folder to see what's going on there.

Follow the instructions on our thread that we posted here:

What is 'c:/program files/windows apps' hidden - Microsoft Community

Hope your issues get resolved!



Sent from our Surface RT

 

[prlundberg]

That's you're problem right there. We have found that when our Surface has less than 2-3GB of space left, we experience the same laggy and slowness as yourself. It has to do with Windows space allocations for OS functions. When we ensure that we always have more than 2-3GB on the hard drive, the issues disappear and our Surface runs smooth and clean.

Yeah, I figured that much out. I just don't understand how it got so low to begin with. I'm now sitting at around 6GB which evidently isn't enough when updates happen.

Another issue I have with lag appears to be coming from the store. As mentioned earlier my Store no longer works on my account. But the store broker service still randomly runs and uses 50-80% of my CPU until I kill the service. So I need to get that fixed, but I don't want to spend a weekend wiping it and starting from scratch while losing app progress on the kids' local accounts. Doesn't look like I have any choice though.

 

[prlundberg]

Update: FIXED!!!!

Windows Store Broker problem: very high CPU usage - Microsoft Community

From "TypoII" on that support forum:

Kill Store and Store Broker from task list.

Rename the Cache folder to CacheOld at:

C:\Users\(Your User Account)\AppData\Local\Packages\WinStore_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState

(Your WinStore_gobblygook might be a different bunch of gobbblygook)

Create an empty folder called Cache.

There's a file in that folder that is too large to delete, evidently, which causes a loop. Over a month since the problem first appeared, yet no official fix from Microsoft yet. Unbelievable.

 

[Brad and Ellen]

6GB should be more than enough. Our RT sits between 5-8 unless my wife goes bonkers with the photos.

You obviously have something more going on here. If I was you, I'd be reformatting and starting over. Why frustrate yourself? You've tried more than just basic maintenance, reformat and then and only then if the issues reoccur, take it back for a refund/exchange.

 

[prlundberg]

If I was you, I'd be reformatting and starting over. Why frustrate yourself? You've tried more than just basic maintenance, reformat and then and only then if the issues reoccur, take it back for a refund/exchange.

I've had it for over a year, so warranty is out. And starting over is a major pain due to the local accounts for the kids. Lot of time involved, and they would have to start over on the games they use.

Anyway, the troublesome update is installed, disk space is adequate, and my Store is working again. I still need to figure out why my disk space is so low, but at least it's fully functioning again.

 

[RTGent]

This link may help: Tips to free up drive space on your PC - Microsoft Windows Help
Also, the gaming, especially extensive and certain games, may be eating up a lot of storage. That's why the 4GBs in Xboxes are only for the most essential/basic functions.

 

[ominaxe]

I've been having the same issues. Ever since a couple updates after 8.1. I really think it has to do with the way windows multitasks now. It used to be when I swiped down the application was completely closed. Now, even after closing, it seems it's still active as I can see it in the task manager. Is there an option to end this multitasking? It eats resources and makes my RT slower than ever.

 

[prlundberg]

I've been having the same issues. Ever since a couple updates after 8.1. I really think it has to do with the way windows multitasks now. It used to be when I swiped down the application was completely closed. Now, even after closing, it seems it's still active as I can see it in the task manager. Is there an option to end this multitasking? It eats resources and makes my RT slower than ever.

When you swipe down to close, keep your finger on the screen and hold the app towards the bottom until it flips over. Definitely a change for the worse in my opinion.

 

[ominaxe]

....


Who the F thought that was a good idea?! If I don't want to close it, I'll just multitask it. Geez!

 

[curseoftheninja]

I've noticed high disc usage in recent weeks. On task manager "Communications Service" seems to be the culprit. I might refresh to see if that fixes the lag.