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View Full Version : Youtube videos skipping, should I repair or replace the computer?



Andrew Joiner
02-19-2014, 9:36 PM
I don't know much about computers. My wife is real good with them and even knows more than our grand kids. She tried to fix the video skipping and said to take it in to our local repair shop.
Any easy fixes you recommend?

It's a Compaq desktop about 8 years old and is fine for my needs except the skipping. Is it worth putting out $50 to $100 to get the videos to stop skipping?

I got a new big monitor for Christmas so should I repair or replace the computer if need be?

Thanks

Tim Boger
02-19-2014, 9:39 PM
I wouldn't waste any money by trying to fix an 8yr old pc .... go get a new machine. You'll be glad you did.

Bill Cunningham
02-19-2014, 10:01 PM
Yup... replace it..You get a LOT more computer for the same money now than you did 8 years ago..

Jamie Buxton
02-19-2014, 10:11 PM
It might not be the computer, but rather your internet connection. If it doesn't have the data rate to support the video, it may stop and start a bunch.

Bill Huber
02-19-2014, 10:36 PM
I am with Jamie, check your internet speed first, if you have good seed then you can look at a replacement PC.

Internet Speed Test http://2wire.net/bandwidth/meter.php?kbps=5809.3

Now if you need to replace it there are a lot of good used PCs out there that will serve your needs and much cheaper then a new one with Window 8 on it.
I have bought 4 or 5 PC and laptops from these guys and have been very happy.
http://www.computerrefurb.com/

Curt Harms
02-20-2014, 9:19 AM
An 8 year old machine doesn't owe you much. However, there may be something to try that doesn't cost anything but time. I'm wondering if your flash player is malfunctioning a bit. If you're using a current mainstream browser such as I.E., Chrome, Firefox you could try playing this video. Just click on the black 'tv' and the video should start.

http://www.w3.org/2010/05/video/mediaevents.html

Here's another:

http://www.quirksmode.org/html5/tests/video.html

These use HTML5 instead of flash player. If they play smoothly, I'd look further into flash issues. Something else related you could try would be to go to youtube.com/html5 and ask to use the HTML5 player when possible in lieu of flash. If the jerkiness lessens or disappears, maybe remove flash, run a registry cleaner and reinstall flash.

Grant Wilkinson
02-20-2014, 9:21 AM
If the videos are Flash videos, it could simply be that your Adobe Flashplayer is either wonky or an old version. Since fixing this is FREE, I would suggest that you try this first. Go to adobe.com and download the uninstall flashplayer file. Run it and get rid of the current version of flashplayer. Then install the newest version of Flash. Make sure you uncheck all the damn boxes for the add ons they push. This will take you all of about 5 minutes and cost you nothing. If it doesn't help, no harm done.

Brian Elfert
02-20-2014, 10:54 AM
I would suggest borrowing a newer laptop from someone and seeing if the videos play fine on your Internet connection. That will tell you if it is the PC or the Internet connection.

Andrew Joiner
02-20-2014, 11:15 AM
I would suggest borrowing a newer laptop from someone and seeing if the videos play fine on your Internet connection. That will tell you if it is the PC or the Internet connection.

Thanks everyone.
Brian, We have laptops playing videos fine on the same wireless Internet connection.
Grant, We have the newest version of Flash.

Curt I'll ask my wife if she's tried that.

Larry Browning
02-20-2014, 12:30 PM
Sadly, an 8 yr old computer is about 3 yrs past it's usefulness in today's world. I think the PC manufacture's have designed it that way on purpose. So, even if you somehow find the solution to this problem, it won't be long before something else goes wrong. The best advice is to bite the bullet and get a new one.

It looks like all you need is the computer, no monitor needed. If you go with a refurbished model, I would recommend getting one with at least Windows 7 on it. XP is completely out of support and is really not recommended. I know there are many who will tell you to avoid Windows 8 at all costs. However, it sounds to me that you have no exceptional requirements for a computer, just the basics. You also will probably want to keep your new computer for another 8 years, so getting one with the latest hardware and software may be the smart thing for you to do in the long run. That would mean getting a new computer with Windows 8 on it. There is a little bit of a learning curve to Windows 8 but it is really not all that bad. Ad it does have some nice new features. (Even though others might question that!)

Mike Chance in Iowa
02-20-2014, 3:21 PM
Before you go and spend money, I would do a few simple things. 1) Clear your cache in your internet browser. For IE, go into Tools, Internet Options and delete your History, Temporary Internet Files and Cookies. If you are using Firefox, there were older versions that did NOT clear temp files properly and you had to delete them manually or else the drive could fill up. When the cache is never cleared out, after several years of use, it will slow down your intenet connection. 2) Check your hard drive space. If it is filling up, it's time to do some house cleaning and delete temp files and other unnecessary files. If you are uncertain what to delete, don't do it. Have someone else that actually knows what they are doing delete them. If not, you could corrupt programs by deleting necessary files. 3) Check for software updates. (Once again, if your hard drive space is low, updating software will only take up more space...)

Larry Browning
02-20-2014, 3:31 PM
Before you go and spend money, I would do a few simple things. 1) Clear your cache in your internet browser. For IE, go into Tools, Internet Options and delete your History, Temporary Internet Files and Cookies. If you are using Firefox, there were older versions that did NOT clear temp files properly and you had to delete them manually or else the drive could fill up. When the cache is never cleared out, after several years of use, it will slow down your intenet connection. 2) Check your hard drive space. If it is filling up, it's time to do some house cleaning and delete temp files and other unnecessary files. If you are uncertain what to delete, don't do it. Have someone else that actually knows what they are doing delete them. If not, you could corrupt programs by deleting necessary files. 3) Check for software updates. (Once again, if your hard drive space is low, updating software will only take up more space...)

+1 This is very good advice!

Tim Boger
02-20-2014, 7:55 PM
I am with Jamie, check your internet speed first, if you have good seed then you can look at a replacement PC.

Internet Speed Test http://2wire.net/bandwidth/meter.php?kbps=5809.3

Now if you need to replace it there are a lot of good used PCs out there that will serve your needs and much cheaper then a new one with Window 8 on it.
I have bought 4 or 5 PC and laptops from these guys and have been very happy.
http://www.computerrefurb.com/

Some terrific prices Bill, I'll be bookmarking it.

Tim

Curt Harms
02-21-2014, 9:40 AM
That would mean getting a new computer with Windows 8 on it.

Not necessarily. I hear Lenovo has done rather well selling new machines with Windows 7 installed, no shortage here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=lenovo+windows+7&N=-1&isNodeId=1&Page=2
I also read recently that Microsoft has no cutoff on when machines can be sold with Windows 7 preinstalled. I've also heard that Windows 8.1 is not too bad but I have virtually no experience with Windows 8.

Jessica Pierce-LaRose
02-21-2014, 12:27 PM
Some good info here, but one thing that I didn't see mentioned was the video resolution.

My wife's ancient XP desktop begin having issues with Youtube videos skipping - turned out a lot of the issues was for some reason Youtube was defaulting to HD resolutions!

That computer just couldn't play streaming videos in 1080p and keep up. We simply set the player to something more reasonable for that computer that wasn't an issue - 480 or something not "HD" that still didn't look terrible on the monitor - and things went much more smoothly. There's an option in Youtube to "never play HD video", so it will always default to a lower rate, but it didn't always "stick" on that computer. Some of the youtube plugins (I have one on Chrome on my computer, that I mostly use to keep videos from playing automatically when a page is visited) also have options to set things to default resolutions.

If you don't know how to set the resolution in a video on Youtube, simply click on the little "gear" at the bottom of the video (by the volume controls and such) and select a value from the list - bigger numbers look better, smaller numbers are less taxing, both on your computer and your bandwidth.

If you bought a good computer, (so parts failure isn't as much of an issue, except that all harddrives die eventually!) an 8 year old computer could still have plenty of life in it if your needs never change - it will still likely run the same old versions Office or Photoshop or whatever software you throw at just as well as it did eight years ago, but unfortunately, we keep asking more of our computers every year! The new version of software will be more taxing than the old version, and the web just keeps getting more and more taxing on a system.

Tom Stenzel
02-21-2014, 12:38 PM
I dunno.

The Windows XP computer I'm using now was pulled from the trash- monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse and the main box. The problem was it would fail the power up self test. The CPU fan had gotten bound up with dog/cat hair. The POST sensed the rotation failure and stopped the boot up. That was almost 3 years ago. The only problem I have with it is the 30 gig hard drive is a bit tight but I manage. And it plays Youtube videos just fine. The only thing I've changed is the keyboard, I didn't like the feel of the one I found with it.

My wife has an Acer laptop that came with Vista. It included a coupon for a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it came out in a month or two. Ever since that machine has had Windows 7 installed on it Youtube videos have skipped. Even with a much faster processor, 8X the RAM, and a hard drive that dwarfs the one in my XP antique. I've checked everything, the CPU isn't taxed at all, there's nothing showing in the task manager that is pulling resources or interfering with the network. But the skips remain no matter what browser I've tried.

Buying a new computer doesn't always mean that all or some of your problems will be solved and may just create new ones. But then again I drive a 17 year old car. I don't replace things because I'm tired of looking at the stuff I have.

Jessica Pierce-LaRose
02-21-2014, 2:45 PM
No idea what the specs on your Acer are, but if the new OS makes things slower, it might be worth looking into whether drivers are up to date - on some computers, the graphics card or integrated graphics or something have built-in things (dedicated chips or something) to make processing H.264 videos easy. This is how a lot of phones can handle streaming video without sucking down battery or pegging the processor - a separate chip or coprocessor or something handles this. If the drivers aren't right, the graphics card setup might not be running things in it's most efficient mode, pegging either the CPU or the graphics processor.

I could be totally off base - I don't quite know the correct terminology, and if the CPU isn't pegged, it's obviously not handing the task of there, but maybe it's handing it off to a graphics card/processor and not doing it right because things aren't right? I remember a lot of reviews of things getting worse or even stopping to work when moving to Windows 7, particularly when moving to 64 bit, until drivers were updated.

Tom Stenzel
02-21-2014, 11:14 PM
I don't really want to hijack the thread. My wife's addled Acer has other problems too. My point was that I couldn't recommend buying a new computer until there was some attempt to find what the problem is.

I would hate to have Andrew buy a computer when he could be having a network slowdown in his house or area, or his ISP is taking advantage of the Verizon vs. FCC court result.

Michael Mahan
02-22-2014, 12:30 PM
http://www.pcworld.com/article/243190/how_to_repair_a_corrupt_windows_7_installation.htm l

I do this every few months & it has kept all my PC's running fast .
it's best to print these instructions out 1st as some of the files you need to clean up will not delete when a browser is open
this a pre-clean 'How To' to install fresh copy of windows but It really works well to clear out old files that slow the operating system
but I'd also do a uninstall of Adobe Flash & reinstall a new copy
here's that uninstaller " how to " page with a link to the uninstaller as well
http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-windows.html#main_Download_the_Adobe_Flash_Player_ uninstaller

Jessica Pierce-LaRose
02-22-2014, 1:49 PM
As I mentioned before, I'd still recommend checking the default resolution on Youtube when it's skipping. Sometimes it changes when you click fullscreen as well. Like I said before, we had the same problems on my wife's XP computer; hers got choppy playing youtube, no other computer in the house did, keeping youtube from running videos in 1080p fixed things.

instructions from Google/Youtube:

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/91449?hl=en

As far as keeping Flash up to date, a quick check to see if that is indeed the problem would be to try using Google Chrome browser on the computer; Chrome uses it's own flash-rendering engine, and keeps itself up-to-date automatically. But keeping Flash up to date is a good idea in general.

Another thing to check is that you're actually using Flash on Youtube. Youtube can also play videos using HTML5; this shouldn't be default, but some computers have a harder time keeping up with one of the other. Check http://www.youtube.com/html5 to see what the default on your computer is.