Slow Input and Keyboard Lag in Google Chrome

A customer “complained” to me the other day that keyboard input on their computer was slow and delayed. I tested Microsoft Word and some other programs and everything worked normally. I troubleshot their computer some more and found that keyboard input was only slow and delayed in Google Chrome. Once I discovered keyboard input was slow in Google Chrome, I doubled down on the issue. Before I get into what all I did to troubleshoot the issues, this computer was running Windows 10 and Google Chrome Version 50.

I tried these troubleshooting steps and none of the below worked.

  • Started Chrome in Incognito Mode and typing was just as delayed
  • Created a new Chrome profile – same issue
  • Reinstalled Google Chrome – no go
  • Tried Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer – they were both fine
  • Checked Chrome browser extensions but only had LastPass & AdBlock Plus Installed
  • Disabled various flags under Chrome://flags – didn’t help
  • Checked to make sure the browser wasn’t starting in compatibility mode – it wasn’t
  • Tried starting the browser in compatibility mode – that didn’t work either
  • Disabled Hardware Acceleration in Chrome – No Change
  • Disabled Chrome from running in the background after the browser is closed
  • Removed Internet filtering software on computer- same trouble

I searched high and low on the Internet for an answer to this issue. However, I could find nothing that worked.

After all the above troubleshooting, I was convinced it was a process in Windows that was creating issues. I started by killing one process at a time and then typing in Google Chrome. After killing the iDrive process, for iDrive online backup, I tried typing in Google Chrome – everything was fine. I started iDrive backup again and once again my typing in Chrome was delayed.

I updated the iDrive application to the latest version and it seemed to have fixed the issue. If this issue returns again, I may need to uninstall iDrive and install a different online backup program.

I really can’t explain why this fixed the issue. I know the fix above may not solve your slowness issues in Chrome. If there is one person out there that this article can help, it will be worth this blog post. I will post some links below to some other articles that have Google Chrome troubleshooting tips that may help you.

http://www.tomsguide.com/answers/id-1951169/google-chrome-slow/page-2.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/2bslbg/reddit_on_chrome_is_going_slow_typing_lag_is/

Please let a comment below if this post helped you, thanks. This was posted by techspeeder.

13 thoughts on “Slow Input and Keyboard Lag in Google Chrome

  1. Collin

    I am now having this issue with Chromium on a brand new Suse Linux laptop. I will see if it happens with other browsers. Maybe it is some cloud facility or automated backup? I have no idea.

    Reply
  2. Steve King

    Same thing happened to me..Buried deep in the advanced settings of Chrome under SYSTEM there is a setting “Use hardware acceleration when available” that was turned on. When I turned it off everything worked fine..No more keyboard or scrolling lag.

    Reply
    1. Paul Sorauer

      Disabling hardware acceleration fixed the issue for me…

      I can’t believe that something intended to speed up system actually slowed it down. Must be a driver issue… Mine is a fairly complex setup though as I’m using a Surface Book 2 which has dual graphics cards and is set up to dynamically choose which card to use. Still…

      Thanks Steve, for taking the time to post your solution to the problem. Thanks also to techspeeder for also taking the time to make the original post.

      Reply
  3. Scott Holloway

    Disabling hardware acceleration eliminated the lag for me, too. I am using Version 73.0.3683.103 (Official Build) (64-bit) of Chrome.

    Reply
  4. Steve

    Holy hell, disabling hardware acceleration fixed it for me too. I’ve fought this for 6 months. It wasn’t repeatable, and was especially difficult to reproduce with an IT person standing next to you. I consider myself a pretty laid back person, but this particular problem incited in me unprecedented levels of rage. Thanks so much!

    Reply
    1. ROBERTO FARIA

      It worked for me, too – Chrome Version 80.0.3987.163 (Official Build) (64-bit), MacOS Catalina 10.15.4 (19E266) and Apple Wireless Keyboard

      Reply
  5. tom webster

    Sorry guys, but it only improved it a little bit for me, so I am wondering if it has anything to do with the size of the database of emails, 70K and counting? Or interned slow upload e.g., 1.7 Mbps.
    I am using windows 10,
    Also I notice that tying this reply is working as it should!!

    Reply
  6. Krane

    Helped a lot, thank you!! I searched for at least two hours, did all those settings clear/extensions off/etc steps, nothing helped. I started to kill the processes and it appeared to be the fault of Kaspersky Anti Virus Free. Not sure if reinstalling it will help but whatever happens – I can always install a different av. Thanks man, I was so pissed, I work on this pc every day for like 10hrs

    Reply
  7. Wander Oliveira Campos

    I have tryed to solve since yesterday, this post helps me a lot! After 2 days i decided to search the problem in google. I tryed almost all mentioned above. In my case the problem was a Kasperssky Free, i license expired last week and the version free has activated alone.
    Tks!

    Reply

Leave a Reply to manyodaCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.