Stop Resource-Intensive Processes
As mentioned in episode 3 of our Broadband Troubleshooting videos, sometimes your computer or device may have some applications or processes running on them that might be consuming a large amount of system resources, limiting how much other resources can access. To remedy this, first, you should always try restarting your computer or device, as this is usually the cleanest and most complete way to give your system a fresh start. We know that it may seem like a bad-faith troubleshooting tip, but you would be surprised how many times a simple restart can fix computer issues.
If you still experience the problem with slow responding programs immediately or soon after restarting, then we can try to find out what is using all of that memory or processing power, and stop it if needed. Note that there are some processes that can't or shouldn't be stopped, and doing so might cause system instability, although as mentioned before, a system restart may fix those issues. If you feel uncomfortable with this process, you may want to contact an expert. Proceed at your own risk.
Windows
We are looking for an tool called Task Manager. You can get to the Task Manager a few different ways. You can click on your Start Menu and type "Task Manager", or press Ctrl + Alt + Del together and then click on Task Manager, or press Ctrl + Shift + Esc, which will bring up Task Manager directly.
From the Task Manager window, you can sort by CPU utilization, Memory usage, Disk utilization, and Network utilization. If any of these categories are running higher than 90% or so might need to have a process ended. You can click on any column to sort by utilization (example, click once on Memory, and it'll sort it with the highest Memory usage processes on the top).
Click on whichever process is using the bulk of the resource in question, and click End Task. Note that if it's something that you're actively using, for example Google Chrome, you'll need to re-open that program.
macOS
You can use Activity Monitor on your Mac to see which processes are using system resources. To open it, click on the Finder on your Mac, then click Applications on the sidebar. Open the Utilities folder and double-click Activity Monitor to open it (you can also type "Activity Monitor" in the search bar at the top-right corner of the Finder window).
At the top of the Activity Monitor window, there are buttons for CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk, and Network. You can review each tab to see if any process is using a bulk of these resources. Identify which program that you would like to close (note that you should be careful to only close applications that you're familiar with - if you close something that macOS relies on, your system may become unstable, requiring a restart to resolve). Click once to highlight that program, then click the octagon with the X in the middle (the button should have a tooltip that says "Stop" if you hover your mouse over it).
Once you click the Stop button and a new window should pop up asking if you're sure that you want to quit the process. You can click Quit to gracefully close the program. If that doesn't close it, you can click "Force Quit" to close it immediately.
Android
The built-in task manager in Android: Apps won't shed too much light on which processes are using your system resources, but you can still force stop applications that you suspect are causing your device to slow down. If you're unsure as to what is using the bulk of these resources, you might want to try a third-party "task manager" app from the Google Play store, but as with all downloads, beware: certain applications may be malicious, so research the app before you download (check reviews, do a search to see if there's an independent review of the software, etc.).
To open the Android Apps program, access your Settings menu (there may be a button for this somewhere on your homescreen or you might need to swipe down from the top of the screen; look for a gear icon). In the Settings menu, click the magnifying glass to search, then type "Apps". It should find the Apps program; click it to open it. Navigate to the program you suspect is using too many resources (note that you should be careful to only close applications that you're familiar with - if you force close something that Android relies on, your device might become unstable, requiring a restart to resolve).
Click the program in question. On the new screen that pops up, you will see a "Force Stop" button at the bottom. Click that and it will ask you if you're sure; click OK.
iOS
Much like Android, there is no built-in app on iOS to see CPU or memory utilization outright, you will have to research and find a third-party app for that. If you already suspect a particular application is using too many resources, you can force it to close. If your iPhone or iPad has a physical Home button on the front, double-press that to bring us the app switcher screen. If your device does not have that Home button, simply swipe up from the bottom of the screen while on the Home screen to bring up the app switcher screen.
The app switcher will show you all the applications that are running on your device (note that there might be several pages of apps - swipe left or right to see more apps that are open). To force close the app that you don't want running, swipe up on the app card (the screenshot of the app).
