Friend thinks that hes being DoS'd everytime his PC lags

[sesbetr72]

He has a very outdated PC with a lot of antivirus/security programs and with 20+ chrome tabs open at all times. Every time his PC starts to run slow he thinks he's being DoS'd. I've tried explaining to him that the problem could be that the security programs could be conflicting + have that many tabs open on a computer that's very outdated is more likely the issue. For some reason he's convinced that he's being DoS'd. Does anyone have any idea on how I could ensure him that he's not being DoS'd?

 

[cdabc123]

do a dual boot with a fresh copy of windows so he can see the massive performance change of haveing no extra programs on it. that or have him read up on the issue

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Doubt it their not going to waste time on a single PC user.

 

[Spectre694]

If he is important enough to be DDoS'd the he wouldn't have an outdated computer. Do cdabc123's suggestion it'll be a lot faster or even a Linux live CD if you don't want to go through the trouble of windows dual boot.

 

[sesbetr72]

Doubt it their not going to waste time on a single PC user.

If he is important enough to be DDoS'd the he wouldn't have an outdated computer. Do cdabc123's suggestion it'll be a lot faster or even a Linux live CD if you don't want to go through the trouble of windows dual boot.

I think the reason why he thinks he's being DoS'd is because some kids on xbox get cheap booters to kick people offline. I have tried to tell him that he should just save his important documents on a flash drive, and just reformat the computer. Even if he did reformat the computer idk if it would help him at all, because he would still have 20+ chrome tabs open and probably redownload all those security programs again. For some reason he thinks someone is either DoSing him or trying to keylog him.

 

[photonboy]

Hey,
Have him open up Task Manager to observe the CPU and System Memory usage.

20+ tabs can often use 1 to 4GB of memory (it varies a lot by the page and can increase as the page stays open). He's probably lucky to have 4GB and may have 2GB only which can easily be maxed out.

It may be the CPU, but I suspect it's mainly system memory (it can be both at different times).

DoS?
Not likely. Virus perhaps.

Solution?

As said, reinstall Windows. If possible use Windows 10 but it might not be compatible (primarily the video driver). If he has a spare drive he could:

1. create a W10 DVD/USB via media creation tool: https/www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows10

2. swap drives

3. Install W10 (skip key. if it works fine, then buy a key)

Other:
Various Linux distros may work quite well such as Mint. If he doesn't need specific Windows features that may be the best choice.