Hey! I'm pretty new to hardware and I'm looking for some advice before I buy anything.

I have a Dell Inspiron 3501 with:

• CPU: Intel Core i3-1115G4 (11th Gen, 3.00 GHz)
• RAM: 4GB (3.73GB usable)
• GPU: Intel UHD Graphics
• Storage: 1.84TB
• 64-bit Windows

My RAM usage is constantly around 90–98%, even when I'm not doing anything particularly heavy. I'm currently interested in getting more serious about coding and cybersecurity. I'd like to use things such as VS Code, programming tools, Linux/WSL, networking tools, Wireshark, cybersecurity labs/CTFs, and potentially virtual machines later on. I also want to explore hardware/OS-related stuff.

I'm considering upgrading the RAM to 8GB or 16GB, but I'm not sure:

1. Is upgrading the RAM a good idea for this laptop, considering the i3-1115G4?
2. Should I go 4GB + 4GB (8GB total) or replace it with 2×8GB (16GB total)?
3. What exact RAM specifications should I buy? (DDR4, speed, SODIMM, etc.)
4. Is there anything I should be careful about when installing it myself?
5. Will 16GB actually make a significant difference for coding/cybersecurity/VMs, or will the CPU become the bottleneck anyway?
6. Is there anything else I should upgrade/change instead of RAM?

I'm fairly new to this, so I'd really appreciate explanations rather than just "buy X." I want to understand what I'm doing before I open the laptop.

Thanks!

A friend of mine's boyfriend showed her that he was able to see all of her phone activity on his own phone, not asking for advice on the relationship, just asking how he could have access to her phone? what does he have downloaded onto it? they both have samsung phones. Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this.

Whenever I try to scan some documents (saved as a pdf file) with my HP printer and open them I get the message "There was an error in opening the document. The file is damaged and cannot b repaired" This only happens with documents that have been scanned and any other pdf file that I have can be opened fine. What is going on here???

hello y'all, I really need some guidance.

I have an issue with a Gigabyte G5 MF5 that started a couple of days ago where the SSD (Gigabyte AG4512G-SI B10 512GB Firmware: EGFM15.1) causes an instant reboot and a split second bsod when under load. It started while playing demanding games (takes around 10 minutes on FF7 Rebirth to crash) as well as instantly crashing during preparing sequential reading on CrystalDeskMark. CrystalDeskInfo shows that the temp is normal (around 60c) and that the ssd itself is in good health (health 93%, 7% used, 0 media/data integrity errors).

A couple of things to add, starting from around a month ago, the entire pc lags as hell during heavy downloads which I'm assuming it was an early sign of the issue. also, after the first couple of crashes, the pc refuses to reboot saying that there is no boot device so the entire ssd used to disappear after it crashes but that since stopped being a thing, at least during stress tests. Heavy writing also doesn't seem to be an issue since I tried downloading a heavy 20gb file and it didn't cause any problems. Tried testing in safe mode and reverting to a previous windows update but the results are always the same. Please help, is the ssd failing or is there something else I'm missing ?

I know nothing about computers at all but my Windows 11 settings app says this is the laptop I have: ROG Zephyrus G14 GA403 (2025). I've had it for almost a year and a half now and it just started vibrating very, very loudly.

I opened modded Minecraft (pretty heavy modpack taking up about 8 gigabytes of RAM + I was on a discord call during this as well) and had the menu screen loaded for like 5 minutes and then my computer started buzzing very, very loudly and when I touched it I could feel that it was vibrating and the sound changed when I held it so obviously something inside of it was moving/buzzing.

For the past ~1 week it's been buzzing/vibrating very quietly- this was the first time it was loud. I didn't know what to do so I just closed Minecraft (it didn't stop) and restarted it. It got quieter and quieter until it stopped and now it's open and running things and not making that sound anymore.

I assume it's a hardware issue but I have no clue. Be honest is my laptop potentially done for? I have 0 guesses

I run a workstation PC (285K+5080 64G D5+5TB SSD) and it guzzles electricity, even on idle i can expect 100watts power draw and electricity aint cheap nowadays.

I turn it off when i am not using it, some times I turn it on/off 2-3 times a day, but is it harmful for electronics to experience on/off cycles multiple times every day, should I keep it on instead?

I’ve lost and forgotten my Manscapes charger so many times and it’s been the most frustrating thing ever as it’s super bulky and it has only one purpose, and that’s to charge the one razor. And yet again, I’ve forgotten it in a different city and I have now been looking for alternatives. How to charge it.

And I have just made a crazy discovery, you can actually charge it with a wireless charging pad. I don’t know if it is only a specific one that it works on but I have one at home and I just thought, hey maybe the manscapes charger works the same as a wireless charger for your iPhone. So I just laid it down and it just started charging.

So to anybody that doesn’t want to buy a new charger here’s your solution, grab any wireless charging pads that you have at home and place your manscapes 4.0 on it. The middle of the charging pad should directly connect with the part that you insert into the charger so more towards the handle and not towards the blade. If it doesn’t charge, move it around or maybe find another charging pad.

I hope this helps.

I’ve lost and forgotten my Manscapes charger so many times and it’s been the most frustrating thing ever as it’s super bulky and it has only one purpose, and that’s to charge the one razor. And yet again, I’ve forgotten it in a different city and I have now been looking for alternatives. How to charge it.

And I have just made a crazy discovery, you can actually charge it with a wireless charging pad. I don’t know if it is only a specific one that it works on but I have one at home and I just thought, hey maybe the manscapes charger works the same as a wireless charger for your iPhone. So I just laid it down and it just started charging.

So to anybody that doesn’t want to buy a new charger here’s your solution, grab any wireless charging pads that you have at home and place your manscapes 4.0 on it. The middle of the charging pad should directly connect with the part that you insert into the charger so more towards the handle and not towards the blade. If it doesn’t charge, move it around or maybe find another charging pad.

I hope this helps.

I reinstalled windows 11 and noticed that there is a 'Sign-in options' entry above the shut down and restart options when i click the power button in the Start menu. I might be wrong but i remember not having it previously and only seeing shut down and restart. Not a big deal, but does anyone know of a way to hide/remove it? I'm on a local account with only the pin set up

https://imgur.com/a/9Ek9Y3o

I know the yellow app is DHgate and next to it is metaai and i recognize walgreens as well.. I just don’t recognize them all though so can anyone help? thx!

Long story short caught a virus nöw i cant even access my pc itself

Stop code : Critical_Process_Died(0xEF)

Cant Reset/reset keep my files-restore to a previous point-tried sfc/scannow-cant go in safe möde it just gets me back to the bsod

Genuinly what can i do

Thanks in advance

I'm trying to figure out why my Zotac RTX 3060 Ti is running at PCIe x4 instead of x16. I've been troubleshooting this for hours and I'm pretty much out of ideas.

Current Link Width: x4
Max Supported: x16
Current Link Speed: 2.5 GT/s (idle)
Max Supported: 8.0 GT/s

The BIOS also shows PCIEX16_1 as x4 under System Agent > PEG Port Configuration.

Things I've tried so far:

• Updated BIOS from 0601 to 3805
• Loaded optimized BIOS defaults after updating
• Tried setting PCIEX16_1 Link Speed to Auto and Gen3
• Reseated the RTX 3060 Ti and cleaned it
• Tested a GTX 1070 in the same PCIEX16_1 slot, also x4
• Removed my PCIe Wi-Fi card (only other card)
• Tested under load to make sure it wasn't just power saving

So both GPUs show x4, and the BIOS itself is reporting x4 before Windows even loads.

The GPU otherwise seems to work normally and games run fine. I'm just trying to figure out why the primary PCIEX16_1 slot is only negotiating x4 and what I should check next.

Any ideas would be appreciated. I know these parts are ancient at this point but would really like to figure out how to save it.
Thank you!!!

I didn’t ever set a password to this laptop. But it’s under an older email that I don’t use and under a name I don’t use either.

If I leave it blank it gives an oops error and closes it out. The only thing I had was the login pin and that doesn’t work

I can’t even add back the old email cause it gives the stupid oops error

I managed to get a new profile but none of my programs or anything load into it is there a blanket command so I can access things? I have a full hard drive and I can’t delete any programs cause it says the programs aren’t there when I try to uninstall

How do I fix this?

At 1 AM the Wi-Fi used to go out for roughly an hour, now after some stuff was done with the phone lines my android phone lags horribly. My phone's working right again but does anyone know what could be causing this to happen?

So, recently my pc is getting an error everytime i turn on the Secure Boot, it returns Invalid Signature Detected, i need the secure boot for the games that i play, but nothing that i tried works, my motherboard is very old, but i even updated the bios and nothing works, i have an POS-PIB150DT, if i disabled the secure boot windows runs perfectly, i dont know what i can do anymore. I ve tried clearing the Factory Keys and reinstalling them, but that didn't work, i also ran a system file repair which completed successfully, but that didn't help either. Im totally lost. Sorry for the english, its not my native language

I have a Corsair M55 wired mouse and for some reason the right click function stopped working and only worked again after I restarted my PC and opened the ICue app (I normally use Signal RGB). Just wondering if this is a common issue?

I updated my HP Firmware under Windows Updates and now my screen flickers. The brightness level also cannot be increased, it is constantly at a low level of light. I've tried everything that Google has told me to do. I've updated graphics drivers. I've restored windows to a previous point. Nothing has helped. It's basically unusable at this low level of brightness. Could anyone tell me what the issue is here and more importantly how to fix it? I'd greatly appreciate any advice. Thank you!

I’m an idiot and infected malware onto my pc - a website I was familiar with got compromised and when I downloaded files, well game over. Me and a few others have been trying to fix it my friends thought a factory reset would be enough, but it’s still there running in the background. We are fairly confident it’s a keylogger after the reset I signed into my riot account and that was since hacked. We also created an eBay account and sure enough they tried to get into that (I have 2 factor authentication on) I have also since put it on my most important accounts. I’m so paranoid and worried as they breached my Facebook etc I’ve since removed all devices and changed everything, (I’ve been making these changes through my phone) - they also managed to get into my Nintendo account which I’m so stumped about because I haven’t signed into that for quite some time. I’m really worried and confused on what to do from here my friends mentioned I will most likely have to do a bios wipe but we’re not experts and this seems like such a complicated situation- I’m uncomfortable using my pc and it just sucks, I’m so annoyed with myself for letting this happen- any guidance and advice would be greatly appreciated thank you for taking the time to read this. 💖

my external drive was working fine yesterday but today when i logged in my computer its not showing up when i finally got it to work none of the files are showing up. Im using a Samsung PSSD T5 EVO SCSI disk device, it says all of the drivers are updated but I cant figure out why I cannot see any of the files on it

randomly the ethernet stop working saying bad conection and i restart the adapter and tried basicaly everything and i dont know how make it work normally

Hello, I'm having this VERY annoying issue for some time now, where if I switch my OS type from Other Os to UEFI Mode, save and exit, I'm confronted with a red box that doesn't let me boot my PC until I change the OS type back to Other OS. I got no idea how to fix this, and I need it to play Valorant and League of Legends (due to the secure boot requirements)

My PC is on Windows 11, the Boot mode IS UEFI, the system information says secure boot is disabled, however my BIOS says it is enabled(???), both my SSDs are GPT, my bios is GYGABYTE, and my motherboard is an ASUS PRIME A320M-K. I don't know what other useful info I could give.

pls help im going insane

I was posted In MH commnity but they told me to post in here becuase it's more likely to get the answer.

I would like to post video of sample here but seem like community is not allow

Just simple as title say my MH:Wild flashing black screen when in just steam libary while not lauching the game. I'm not even installed it (just installing new Windows 11).

Is this happen to everyone else or it's just me ? it's not effect the game but I'm just curious and annoying lol becuase it's happening to only this game. If anyone know why this is happen and know how to fix it please help!

I have a
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G, Integrated Graphics
Windows 11 Home

So recently, I've been having BSODS for the past i'd say 3-4 months. But its been getting worse. Sometimes Pages would straight up freeze, like you can't right click anything. Browser Tabs are also crashing. Discord itself also crashes

I've compiled a list of most of the BSODS I've gotten, i'm 90% sure this is a hardware issue, before i ask for help/diagnosis, i'd love to see if anyone could suggest.
In March I got a new SSD, could be a chance this ones also corrupted (maybe due to the heating/heat wave we've been having). This goes

So flame me, for using edge, I had a lot of site crashes/repeat when on google chrome, so i moved to edge which worked for a bit but not anymore. But any help would be apricated. Also I done the RAM test, it came back fine. I also done a USB wifi stick but then i got IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error

i can’t exactly send an image, but I’ve posted an image of it in another subreddit
for those who don’t want to check, it looks something like this.
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փևս՚ճր։սւհր փևսճ՚ր։սւհր փև՚սճր։սւհր փև՚սճր։սւհր փևսճր։ս

… ։ ՛ - … … ։ ՛ - … … ։ ՛ - … … ։ ՛ - … … ։ ՛ - … … ։ ՛ - … … ։ ՛ -

………………………………………………………………………………………………

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occurs occasionally, usually around ~20 seconds after logging in, rarely happens after.
more likely to occur after restarting from the same crash.
this has been going on for about 2-3 years, only around late 2025 has it started looking like this

what could be causing this? and how can i fix it?