Major Problem

The past few days my ability to surf the net has developed a major problem. I am unable to open multiple tabs without everything crashing and on some occasions even a single tab opening Google Maps causes everything to freeze up. My provider Plusnet tell me everything there end is working as it should. I have reinstalled Chrome, but it make no difference and the problem affects both Edge and Firefox. The problem seems worse at peak times. I have tried various fixes suggested on the net, but none of them work. Could the modem be at fault?

Well, it could be the modem, it could be loads of things and nothing prompts me to choose any cause over any other from your description. We are missing important information your operating system, the spec of your computer and the type of connection you have and your ISP.

My suggestion as a starter is to create another user id on your computer and see if the problem reproduces or goes away or try with another computer if you have one available.

DFScale

Thanks for responding. To give you more information, my operating system is Windows 10, it has Ram 4.00 GB and storage of 224 GB or which 112 GB is used. My broadband speed is 31 Mbps.

I don't have another laptop or modem to hand to try and see if the same thing occurrs when I use a different computer. I will give your suggestion of creating another user ID a go.

Do you have a smartphone? Does that work ok?

Can you do a speedtest (either use the one on the home page of ThinkBroadband under tools or use something like speedtest.net) from the computer and from a phone and compare the results?

In reply to a post by Mikey417:

my operating system is Windows 10, it has Ram 4.00 GB

A bit under spec for multiple tabs ??

I don't have a smart phone, but I will try the speed test here on ThinkBroadband.

In reply to a post by Adduxi:

In reply to a post by Mikey417:

my operating system is Windows 10, it has Ram 4.00 GB

A bit under spec for multiple tabs ??

Adduxi

Everything was fine until Sunday. I have using this for five years without problems.

Ian

I carried out the speed test here on Think Broadband and the results were....

Idel 24.8

Download 31.9

Upload 6.1

If the speedtest was showing consistently then those speeds are more than adequate for what you are doing. I suspect it is something to do with your PC and potentially related to something happening on Windows - might be something running in the background or some malware causing issues or even a dodgy update. It is a shame you don't have another device to compare as that would potentially help rule out your Internet but at the moment I suspect your Internet has nothing to do with the issue you are seeing.

Is this a laptop? Just thinking back my mum had an issue with her laptop running very slowly a while back and it was because the power connector had broken and so the laptop was running in a low power mode and only using a fraction of the processor capacity.

Can you open task manager and look and see what speed the processor is running (I don't have Win 10 so can't remember exactly what it looks like but on the CPU tab in task manager it should show Speed that would probably be variable as it will go up and down as the demands of the machine change).

Ian

Thanks for coming back twice. I did a scan for malware a couple of hours ago and found nothing. Scanned with McAfeee twice in two days and also found nothing.

I replaced the mains power lead with a new one yesterday. However, you might be onto something with the CPU status. It is as low as 10% when I have a couple of tabs open, but when I open You Tube in a third tab it goes up to 98% in red.number and then everything freezes up and I have to wait a while to get back in.

I was wondering if a System Restore to an earlier date would eliminate the problem?

In reply to a post by Mikey417:

Ian

Thanks for coming back twice. I did a scan for malware a couple of hours ago and found nothing. Scanned with McAfeee twice in two days and also found nothing.

I replaced the mains power lead with a new one yesterday. However, you might be onto something with the CPU status. It is as low as 10% when I have a couple of tabs open, but when I open You Tube in a third tab it goes up to 98% in red. numbers and then everything freezes up and I have to wait a while to get back in.

I was wondering if a System Restore to an earlier date would eliminate the problem?

Ian

Soory, yes it's a laptop.

Edited by Mikey417 (Thu 05-Feb-26 16:08:23)

In reply to a post by Mikey417:

DFScale

Thanks for responding. To give you more information, my operating system is Windows 10, it has Ram 4.00 GB and storage of 224 GB or which 112 GB is used. My broadband speed is 31 Mbps.

.

opening w10 with 4gb is heading for a slow system, and will likely hit pages with out any apps open. I've got one tab open with only one extension and thats gobbled up 1gb.

I would check to see if the ram is upgradable and maybe sling in another 4gb or even 2x8gb.

Post deleted by Taras

In reply to a post by Mikey417:

The past few days my ability to surf the net has developed a major problem. I am unable to open multiple tabs without everything crashing and on some occasions even a single tab opening Google Maps causes everything to freeze up. My provider Plusnet tell me everything there end is working as it should. I have reinstalled Chrome, but it make no difference and the problem affects both Edge and Firefox. The problem seems worse at peak times. I have tried various fixes suggested on the net, but none of them work. Could the modem be at fault?

@Mikey417,

I think you should do a test with a Live USB flavour of Linux and see if you get the same problem with Linux. If you do then it might be down to either your laptop needs to be replaced or, highly unlikely, your broadband. If Linux works fine then I would recommend installing Linux over Windows 10 especially since Win 10 has reached End Of Life and is no longer supported fully by MS. If you're based anywhere near Basingstoke, Hampshire then I would like to offer my skills to resolve your issues. Drop me a message on here or email me ([email protected]).

HTH,

Agreed 4gb of RAM is not enough for a few tabs in Chrome or most Chrome based browsers. I struggled on Linux with Chrome and about 5 tabs on 4gb. Upgrade will deffo help.

In reply to a post by mking90031:

In reply to a post by Mikey417:

The past few days my ability to surf the net has developed a major problem. I am unable to open multiple tabs without everything crashing and on some occasions even a single tab opening Google Maps causes everything to freeze up. My provider Plusnet tell me everything there end is working as it should. I have reinstalled Chrome, but it make no difference and the problem affects both Edge and Firefox. The problem seems worse at peak times. I have tried various fixes suggested on the net, but none of them work. Could the modem be at fault?

@Mikey417,

I think you should do a test with a Live USB flavour of Linux and see if you get the same problem with Linux. If you do then it might be down to either your laptop needs to be replaced or, highly unlikely, your broadband. If Linux works fine then I would recommend installing Linux over Windows 10 especially since Win 10 has reached End Of Life and is no longer supported fully by MS. If you're based anywhere near Basingstoke, Hampshire then I would like to offer my skills to resolve your issues. Drop me a message on here or email me ([email protected]).

HTH,

i agree with what your saying mark - upto a point, but you really struggle with 4gb - even on windows xp. as you hit the paging file pretty quickly whilst ssds reduces the effect it still isn't the same as pure dram.

I do 8gb or 16gb linux vms, i just don't touch 4gb even in vm

In reply to a post by Mikey417:

Everything was fine until Sunday.

OK, a sudden change. I have a 4GB laptop which can cope with Zoom, a spreadsheet, email and a browser tab. It is not brilliant, but it copes.

I think I would try the laptop on a friend's wireless or on public wifi somewhere, to see if the problem lived on the computer or stayed at home. If it stayed at home, I would be looking at the router - has the cat disturbed the antenna? Or has a new neighbour moved in and put themselves on your wifi channel. Look at available networks and try changing channels. It could also be that a portion of your memory has gone duff. Unfortunately, nothing is pointing in any specific direction at the moment.

In reply to a post by Mikey417:

The past few days my ability to surf the net has developed a major problem. I am unable to open multiple tabs without everything crashing and on some occasions even a single tab opening Google Maps causes everything to freeze up.
...
Could the modem be at fault?

No.

This is a software or hardware problem on your laptop. Anything from malware to faulty RAM could be the cause. Nothing your service provider can do to fix that.

You are using an old PC that will struggle to keep up with current demands but a couple of things to try:

• reboot your router, it's amazing what difference that can make
• install and run a registry cleaner such as Ccleaner or Wise

I'm not sure whether the free version of Ccleaner still provides registry cleaning but it will clear redundant files. Do backup your registry and run the cleaner several times. If you use Ccleaner, uninstalll it after use as it now runs in the background as a service, which will add a load to your system.

All

Thank you for replies and advice regarding my laptop problems. Late yesterday I did a System Restore and fingers crossed this appears to have done the trick. I don't know what actually caused the problem in the first place and so it could happen again. I take the point that what I have is not state of the art and perhaps I need to look at upgrading.

Again thank you.

It sounds like you might be sorted.
Did you try clearing cookies in all browsers?
When you experience a sudden change in machine behaviour it's a simple but easily-overlooked and sometimes effective answer.

you can test it in a non distructive way and make a new browser profile

CWH

Yes, clearing the cashe was one of the first things I did. I'm thinking that the problem may have stemmed from Windows 10 not being updated any longer.