When most production browsers are not stable on your computer then you have bigger problem to solve first.
What I love is reading the adverts for VPNs and the providers saying “we don’t log anything”. Even if you are using some underground provider that requires payment in Bitcoin I would strongly doubt that statement. You would log everything your clients do so you can use it to save your own neck when the Feds come calling.
I know, i need to upgrade this old girl! going to start the search for second hand Ryzen stuff this year i need a new MOBO first and foremost, this old AM3+ has had its day I Reckon! plenty of decent AM4 stuff knocking around, so that will be my starting point, but if i can I may go AM5!
This PC is actually very well specced and was a top end gaming machine 10 years ago when my pal built it, then when he upgraded he sold the “guts” to me so i could upgrade my Win XP machine! hahaha but its just starting to struggle now with stuff… so its getting time!
Alan
Currently not the best time for PC building as the AI bubble is pushing RAM and SSD prices up.
So maybe run a Memtest to see if that’s your issue. Or maybe a thermal problem on one of the processors/bridges?
I’ve used NordVPN for years and not had an issue
and once you’ve paid you can install it on quite a few devices. We’ve been watching iplayer whilst in France good throughput
no idea, i know the ram is ok! its just a dated system…. im aware of the RAM ETC prices, but i only work in the second hand market! and there will be some bargains to be had, if im careful and choose wisely… plus some of the stuff what i have now will transfer over just fine! I upgraded the GPU not so long ago to a fairly modern one, so thats good…. and all my drives are fine to carry on with, as is my PSU, its besically just RAM, Processor and MOBO I need
Alan
One possible thing to try thats cheap and cheerful is to repaste the processor with new thermal paste.
Its quite an old motherboard so theres a chance the paste has dried out. I think the AM3+ motherboards have temp sensors for the processor so worth checking if the processor thermals are ok. Something like HWinfo should be able to do this. Or just if the fans are running at 100% constanly.
The last PC I built from parts was in 2003. Since then I’ve bought ready made. I bought an HP Z220 desktop server in 2013 with a 3rd gen i7 new. It was an absolute beast then and was still more than enough for what I do in 2025. That was new and was not cheap. I upped the memory and replaced the spinny rust with and SSD. However, Win11 compatible it’s not… so I bought a Dell desktop second-hand from eBay.
Since 2006 I’ve seen my employers buy ten’s of thousands of laptops, desktops and servers from Dell and HP. I’ve had HP and Dell laptops from work. I’ve not seen any of the Dell or HP desktops have an issue. My previous Dell laptop had a random blue screen issue but TBH it only manifested when the laptop fell out of my rucksack on to the car park, a fall of about 1.5m. Dell swapped the motherboard under warranty and it was fine till it was replaced.
So now I buy from the huge numbers of computers offered on eBay. I use vendors with 100% +ve feedback who offer 3,6 or 12month back to base warranties. My old Dell work laptop was so good I bought the same model for myself. Dell Latitude 7490, 16GB i7 8th gen, 256GB NVMe, 1920x108 non glare screen, dual band Wifi yada yada. It was 3 years old when I bought it in 2023 and the battery still lasts over 6hrs. It was a massive £229 inc Vat and delivery.
The desktop Dell 7000 was on a 3mth back to base warranty 32GB RAM, i7 12th Gen 20Gbps USB3.2 Gen 2x2 etc. etc. which is Win11 compatible. It was immaculate and hardly looked used, certainly no dusk/fluff inside. It came with a lowend 1TB SSD & Win11. It’s even got a real RS232 port. £425 from eBay. The SSD became a spare backup and a 2GB NVMe gives this some real oomph especially as Win11 went in the bin and Debian was installed.
I don’t do anything that has special requirements for high end graphics or zillions of disks. This Dell has 1x M2 2230, 3x M2 2280, 3x SATA 3 1x half height PCIe Gen4 x16, 1x half height PCIe Gen3 x4, a DVD +RW (for those legacy jobs) and 3 DisplayPort connectors for the onboard i7 graphics. That seems fairly comprehensive especially for the price.
I had that thought a while back, but the temp monitoring never shows it gets hot (unless the heatsink fills with cat fluff) then a quick vac, and its good to go again! it rarely gets over 25°C! i just think its the old architecture letting it down now as opposed anything else!
A) Im a cheapskate, big time! ill be looking for a mobo and processor for under £100 and then its just whatever the RAM will cost me! I have everything else in this PC that is pefrfectly re-usable… SSD, 2 spinny drives, GPU and PSU are all good, as i got quality!
totally agree with yiou on Dell and HP stuff though ive got Dell and HP laptops (older ones now) but they all work!
Alan
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Geoff,
VPN = Virtual Private network. When the software is installed in your computer and activated, requests for web sites can be routed via a server run by the VPN provider and your computer’s actual location (mainly country) and other data is withheld, and the web server at the other end is given some info saying your location is where the VPN server is, rather than your actual location.
While VPN providers make a big thing about security and encryption, some commentators are dismissive of VPNs, saying they don’t add any security to what you already use for banking etc.
The above is written from my perspective and there are no doubt many other factors taken into account by IT security specialists.
Use a search engine for a zillion more words about VPNs.
Cheers,
Andrew vk1da