Whether to upgrade 6yr old sys. GA-970A-D3 (rev. 3.0)

[VirtualLarry]

I know, but some people just don't want change.
You know the hell i went though convincing my Mom she had to upgrade her phone, not because its broken and she needed a new one, but because its old, dated, and the battery no longer held full charge.

You know what she ended up making me do?

Yup change the battery and never mention the word upgrade again. lol.
After a few months later the phone finally started having issues, and she finally changed, because i refused to get it repaired.

Some people just don't like too much change. :T

Although in both cases i really recommend it.

Kind of like my Mom. Her internet router, at least a four-year-old Dlink AC750 "round" router that handles gigabit LAN, picked up on ebay some years ago for $10 BNIB.
Well, something was up with her wifi last week. Rebooting the laptop didn't help, and rebooting (power off-on) the router, resulted in only one of the LEDs lighting up.
Fast-forward to this week, mysteriously, it works again.

So, either it's getting flaky, and dropping the wifi, or it was hacked, and potentially flashed / compromised.

So I got her a refurb TPLink AX1500 off of Amazon some time back.

I'm not in good enough health to go over there. She had a friend over at the end of last week, but "because it was now working, we didn't want to mess with it".

Trying to convince her that a router that hasn't seen updates in years should be replaced with something a little more modern... that probably won't see any updates for years, either. Thanks, TPLink, for your mediocre support policies with regards to router firmware.

 

[A///]

Kind of like my Mom. Her internet router, at least a four-year-old Dlink AC750 "round" router that handles gigabit LAN, picked up on ebay some years ago for $10 BNIB.
Well, something was up with her wifi last week. Rebooting the laptop didn't help, and rebooting (power off-on) the router, resulted in only one of the LEDs lighting up.
Fast-forward to this week, mysteriously, it works again.

So, either it's getting flaky, and dropping the wifi, or it was hacked, and potentially flashed / compromised.

So I got her a refurb TPLink AX1500 off of Amazon some time back.

the more powerful routers got the most suseptible they became to heat damage over time before they quit working. those ancient 4 port 10/100s still running in some biz out there that are over 20 years old are still going strong due to their simple nature.

 

[aigomorla]

Also @bobhowell.

PC's are not what they used to be in 2007.
You don't typically wait for a PC to die, before you replace it, because you need to break in the new machine, and migrate all the data.
Its very difficult to do that when something isn't working, and you need to swap out parts to get data out. Also time wasted while parts arrive, and assembly... in short, its far easier to upgrade when both machines are working, then having to replace it with a new machine, and gut and Frankenstein the old one to get stuff out.

So typically i always say never hold onto a machine longer then twice its warrenty period.
The warrenty period is gaurentee certain in most cases, the machine will run problem free.
Double means your taking a light gamble the machine will still work when you replace it.
Add on more time, and the lottery goes up exponentially as you have dust accumulation, voltage degradation, and wearing out of Fan's and other stuff, to add to hardware failure.

Trust me you do not want to have to be forced to upgrade, then doing it on your own time.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Trust me you do not want to have to be forced to upgrade, then doing it on your own time.

Wise words. Always better tp upgrade your PC at your leisure, than "under the gun".

 

[A///]

Wise words. Always better tp upgrade your PC at your leisure, than "under the gun".

also for feeling pressured to upgrade due to seeing what others have. I typically upgrade every 2-3 generations I am not sure what the future holds but 2-3 generational difference would be sound if you've got the money to spend and you require to have faster hardware.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Wise words. Always better tp upgrade your PC at your leisure, than "under the gun".

You hush up Larry, you're a bad influence.

This thread is great. The upgrade convo was almost 5yrs ago and Bob stuck with his FX setup. Now he is back for help with a SSD upgrade, and everyone is still trying to make him spend more money. 🤪

Bob made it those intervening years already. I am looking forward to reading his response when he checks back.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Kind of like my Mom. Her internet router, at least a four-year-old Dlink AC750 "round" router that handles gigabit LAN, picked up on ebay some years ago for $10 BNIB.
Well, something was up with her wifi last week. Rebooting the laptop didn't help, and rebooting (power off-on) the router, resulted in only one of the LEDs lighting up.
Fast-forward to this week, mysteriously, it works again.

A bit of topic, but check the wallwort. Those things are usually the first to give out, especially when powered on 24/7/365. If you allow them to cool off, they just might work for a bit again.

Just a useful tip, since you've already solved the problem.

 

[VirtualLarry]

A bit of topic, but check the wallwort.

Yeah, those can burn out too, I know. But an out-of-date router, unless it's running firmware that's no more than two years out of date, should be replaced.

 

[Tech Junky]

two years

I update my kernel weekly. Two years would drive me nuts. Advantages of diy.

 

[Abwx]

A bit of topic, but check the wallwort. Those things are usually the first to give out, especially when powered on 24/7/365. If you allow them to cool off, they just might work for a bit again.

Just a useful tip, since you've already solved the problem.

On any hardware there s always a chip here and there that run hot but is still within specs thermally speaking albeit barely, sticking a little heatspreader, even a tiny one, will reduce temp consistently and hence you get inconditional reliability.

That s what i generaly do on all hardware i own, heck, i even used 2-5 cts € copper coins (when the IC is very small) stuck with cyanolit after i applied a tiny amount of thermal paste...

 

[moinmoin]

Yeah, those can burn out too, I know. But an out-of-date router, unless it's running firmware that's no more than two years out of date, should be replaced.

Personally I only buy routers on which one can put OpenWrt. Everything else is frankly a waste of time and electronics, commercial support for this class of products is usually abysmal.

 

[aigomorla]

I update my kernel weekly. Two years would drive me nuts. Advantages of diy.

Mah i just run a UDM PRO and a UDM PRO SE at the office, and let it do its own thing like updates when needed.
But its probably way more then what the average person needs.

I would definitely not set one up at my parents house, and expect them to be able to handle it.

Everything else is frankly a waste of time and electronics, commercial support for this class of products is usually abysmal.

errrrrr
My UDM PRO disagree's...

Also its a matching set with my layer 3 PRO switch. :X

 

[moinmoin]

errrrrr
My UDM PRO disagree's...

That's enterprise-grade. Do you call those consumer routers?

 

[aigomorla]

That's enterprise-grade. Do you call those consumer routers?

You only stated commercial support tho.
Nothing about Consumer grade.
And Ubiquiti does have consumer grade stuff, which has great consumer class support.

 

[moinmoin]

You only stated commercial support tho.

The context of the whole router discussion was setting up routers for (grand) parents. This very thread is about how to keep an old computer perfectly usable for personal use with rather cheap upgrades. It should be obvious that then with "this class of products" I'm not referring to enterprise-grade routers. How does that even enter your mind in that context? (Btw. commercial support is the support by the manufacturer. OpenWrt is volunteer driven, so the opposite of commercial. You were probably thinking of enterprise support.)

 

[VirtualLarry]

The context of the whole router discussion was setting up routers for (grand) parents. This very thread is about how to keep an old computer perfectly usable for personal use with rather cheap upgrades. It should be obvious that then with "this class of products" I'm not referring to enterprise-grade routers. How does that even enter your mind in that context?

Easy, the need to brag about being a super-nerd, using commercial networking products. Good for him. ^_^

I'm more aligned around a more recent under $50 or under $100 consumer SOHO router that: 1) doesn't suck, and 2) is reliable, and 3) reasonably recently updated.

I wish that there were actually some sort of legislation, at least in the US and EU, regarding wireless firmware and support, some sort of minimum 3-year support guarantee, with updates.

It would make the online world safer (less exploited routers to serve in DDoS and SPAM bot-nets), and save consumers money, not having to replace them as often, and remove the need for some consumers to resort to commercial-grade gear, just to get up-to-date support.

No hate shown towards those with commercial gear, that's great that you can get that kind of thing working, and honestly, as internet ISP speeds increase, we may see more prosumer networking gear on the market or in the field, but for your average consumer, a decent SOHO router is "simple", and all that they need.

(I put "simple" in quotes, as for many non-enthusiasts like my mother, ANYTHING having to do with networking or wifi, is a black box, full of mystery, and somewhat scary to them. Think of the crowd, with VCRs and microwave ovens that blink 12:00.)

 

[blckgrffn]

I run "untangle" or whatever it is now on very cheap commodity PC hardware.

Not on an AMD FX though, too much power usage

Something like 10th gen Intel tho? Sure you might be in for $250 (using used parts) but the fact that it's "real" and not more ewaste is solid. Uses more power, yes, but is worth it IMO.

I've also found Apple routers to be very cheap (now) and quite reliable.

I find it quite shocking they haven't come back around to this with even their meager smart home push. The insides of a Apple TV but sold for $250 or more? Easy money, and the app is still embedded in my phone.

 

[moinmoin]

I wish that there were actually some sort of legislation, at least in the US and EU, regarding wireless firmware and support, some sort of minimum 3-year support guarantee, with updates.

My experience with OpenWrt is really positive. So my favourite legislation would be forcing manufacturers to open their hardware specifications and firmware to open firmware as soon as they stop/fail with their own updates. This would offer the best of both worlds to the consumers.

 

[VirtualLarry]

My experience with OpenWrt is really positive. So my favourite legislation would be forcing manufacturers to open their hardware specifications and firmware to open firmware as soon as they stop/fail with their own updates. This would offer the best of both worlds to the consumers.

That makes just as much sense, and fits in with current pushes for "right to repair". I would hope that would include the signing key or cert or whatnot in order to load new 3rd-party firmware onto a SoC system that had an encrypted boot-loader. (I believe Merlin-WRT will load onto Asus routers that have encrypted bootloaders in the CFE, Asus gives him the "secret sauce" to do that, as a trusted partner.)

 

[bobhowell]

I have not replaced the processor yet. Time passes and the build has become unstable. I would like to fix this and use it as a server. I have a lot of music ripped and photos.

It turns off/goes to sleep.
For 1-2 m it hangs up.

Any help would be appreciated
Bob

 

[blckgrffn]

I have not replaced the processor yet. Time passes and the build has become unstable. I would like to fix this and use it as a server. I have a lot of music ripped and photos.

It turns off/goes to sleep.
For 1-2 m it hangs up.

Any help would be appreciated
Bob

I think that its likely time to move on. Especially for a server. 8th gen Intel or better is going to have huge advantage in power usage not to mention performance and flexibility.

 

[mmaenpaa]

If PC shuts down (power goes off) then it can be processor overheating. I sold many (>100 pcs) of Gigabyte boards from that era. We have had those motherboard brackets give in. Usually one of those "teeths" has begun giving up and the cap between processor and heatsink has widened resulting overheating.

 

[blckgrffn]

If PC shuts down (power goes off) then it can be processor overheating. I sold many (>100 pcs) of Gigabyte boards from that era. We have had those motherboard brackets give in. Usually one of those "teeths" has begun giving up and the cap between processor and heatsink has widened resulting overheating.

View attachment 93252

I've had similar issues with the Intel Push Pin heatsinks, particularly if they were installed a couple of times. The pins just lost its hold in the board and the corner of the HS would come up, then CPU overheat protection would turn it off.

 

[bobhowell]

It acts like that! Somewhere I once monitored a temp reading. Where is it now?

 

[mmaenpaa]

It acts like that! Somewhere I once monitored a temp reading. Where is it now?

One of the easiest ways to check temperature is in bios. If it steadily rises and PC shuts down (at about 70c), then problem is found 😁

Press <DEL> at startup screen

CPU Temp should be in MIT status page: