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Thread: More computer issues, browsers

  1. #1

    More computer issues, browsers

    Computer is a Dell T5400 Precision, x2 Xeon 3.16 processors, 8 cores, 32gigs ram, 1TB SSD...

    I've been a diehard Firefox user for years. But lately I've been having issues with watching streaming video from news and other sites. I get perfect audio but the video is nothing but a slide-show; one frame, 4 seconds of wait, another frame, 4 seconds of wait... Everything was fine until I made the stupid mistake of, after 4 years of zero Windows Updates, I downloaded and installed the now-available full-library of updates. This computer has been, simply put, a piece of crap since then. Haven't tired a system-restore, as that would likely be a 10 hour operation since that's about how long the updates took to install.

    Ive been wondering if it might be a browser issue? I've never had ANY trouble with firefox, but yesterday for fun I opened my rarely used IE11, and lo and behold I got actual watchable video on a news site! Then I gravitated to reading a few news stories, which always have links to fact-checking or related-story pages...
    after clicking one of those links I was greeted with

    YOUR BROWSER IS NOT COMPATIBLE
    WITH THIS WEBSITE!!!!

    AAGGHH!! --Good old MS BS forced obsoletion at work, which I'm simply sick and tired of. And I remembered at the top of the IE page was an 'update to Edge' advertisement. Since IE doesn't work, ya think? What the ad SHOULD say is "you might as well update to Edge because like with Win95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7 and 8, our forward-only never-look-back thinking engineers have purposely kneecapped IE rendering it completely useless for current and future use. So there."

    SO-- why am I getting chopped up video in firefox but not IE? One piece of advice I found suggested disabling hardware acceleration in firefox - no help.

    My computer is also getting to where it gets slower and slower as time goes by, to the point that by day's end clicking to open or save files takes several seconds- I've counted 45 seconds more than once! - for a reaction from the computer. I used to never turn the thing off, hibernated for months at a time with no issues. Now, after 15 hours I have to reboot. I used "Reimage", which makes for a drastic improvement initially, but after 2-3 days of hibernating it's back to 'swimming in molasses'. The internet tells me my computer is 'leaking memory' badly..? Can a manual memory dump be done without rebooting?

    And just earlier this morning I tried changing my virtual memory settings a bit, I've noticed no difference...

    The other day I re-arranged all my drives and drive letters in case I was having a drive-letter 'sharing' issue, seemed to help but the molasses set in later in the day...

    I'm thinking I probably should just dump & re-install my Windows, but I'll need to get a disk...

    If anyone has any suggestions...


    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2019
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    The old pueblo in el norte.
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    IE has issues that makes it now inherently insecure.
    ~mike

    happy in my mud hut

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Mtl, Canada
    Posts
    2,379
    Have you checked the usual stuff? Clean out all the temporary files and check the HD is not full. You need a certain amount of empty sppace for windows to work properly. Check firefox is up to date etc.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Location
    Vancouver Canada
    Posts
    716
    I have a 5 YO Lenovo 15" laptop which gets and installs EVERY update as it comes down the 'pike. My preferred browser is Firefox as well. You shouldn't be having the kinds of problems you're describing with your rig.
    Agreed, clean the cache, delete all the temporary Internet files, empty the recycle bin, and check the warnings- do you get messages that you're running out of room? I'm partitioned, but cleaning up the "C" drive is often needed when you only have one drive.
    Do you have a data backup? If so, make sure it's current and see if you need to restore your basic operating system files. If you don't know how to do it safely, ask your grandchild (or find a computer guru).
    Let us know as you proceed.
    Young enough to remember doing it;
    Old enough to wish I could do it again.

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    Location
    McKean, PA
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    Check to see that you have the most recent edition of firefox or reinstall the current version.

  6. #6
    Here's a snapshot of my computer-
    programs running: Remote Desktop, OE Classic (an OE clone email program), 2 notepads, Corel X4, Foxit PDF reader, Firefox (3 tabs going),
    Process Explorer, Media Player, Control panel "system" option and task manager (to get the snapshot), Corel Photopaint...




    My current internet speed:


    ***************************

    Right now the computer is working well above 'molasses' level, but it's only been on, according to task manager, a little over 9 hours, and I really haven't been overworking it today.

    When running a video, the CPU usage varied from 20 to 54%,
    I snapped this screenshot. (The vid was pretty choppy)--



    ******************************

    Just to note, NONE of my other computers- three win7 32's and 3 XP's have any of the video issues I'm having with this computer. All of them have a simple on-board graphics card, this one has a plug-in card, an Nvidia Quadro FX580, which I've changed out to an Nvidia G-force 750 ti card, only to have the new card never go longer than 3 hours before it locks up the computer. Changing drivers never helped, although oddly enough, the newer 750 driver works with the FX580, and while the whole computer perked up, the choppy vid remains...

    My Firefox updates automatically...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2019
    Location
    The old pueblo in el norte.
    Posts
    1,846
    Does this happen when running firefox in safe mode? Or, have you tried chrome (less interested about the browser than it uses a completely different engine). FF has been a resource hog recently IME.
    ~mike

    happy in my mud hut

  8. #8
    I don't have Chrome installed, but IE works. Well, sorta works-- I notice the vid is still choppy, but the stops are so quick it's barely noticeable...

    Never tried FF in safe mode...

    I'm downloading Chrome right now, BRB..
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  9. #9
    OMG, I didn't think it was possible but video playing on Chrome is about 100x WORSE than firefox!

    Chrome is chopping up the video AND the audio, locks up for several seconds at a time, it's ridiculously unwatchable! And the mouse is almost totally useless while the vid is attempting to play. Mouse movement with this computer has always been a bit choppy when a vid is playing, but with chrome is locks up in almost in sync with the video...

    Oy...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2019
    Location
    The old pueblo in el norte.
    Posts
    1,846
    Try this:


    Click the “Customize and control Google Chrome” button. (It’s the button at the top-right with three dots)
    Choose the “Settings” option.
    Scroll to the bottom and click “Advanced.”
    Scroll to the “System” section and click the button to the right of “Use hardware acceleration when available” to turn it off.
    Click the “Relaunch” button to restart Chrome.
    ~mike

    happy in my mud hut

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    271
    Kev, I find backing up and secure erasing the SSD drive and installing windows from scratch every 18-24 months let’s me keep my sanity by keeping my computer running nice and fast. Between all of the windows patches and updates and all of the apps and their updates just slows down windows over time no matter what you do. A fresh install is your best bet if you feel comfortable doing that. You will be amazed at how much fast it should be running and it will feel like a new computers. Good luck.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Mtl, Canada
    Posts
    2,379
    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    Computer is a Dell T5400 Precision, x2 Xeon 3.16 processors, 8 cores, 32gigs ram, 1TB SSD...

    I've been a diehard Firefox user for years. But lately I've been having issues with watching streaming video from news and other sites. I get perfect audio but the video is nothing but a slide-show; one frame, 4 seconds of wait, another frame, 4 seconds of wait... Everything was fine until I made the stupid mistake of, after 4 years of zero Windows Updates, I downloaded and installed the now-available full-library of updates. This computer has been, simply put, a piece of crap since then. Haven't tired a system-restore, as that would likely be a 10 hour operation since that's about how long the updates took to install.

    Ive been wondering if it might be a browser issue? I've never had ANY trouble with firefox, but yesterday for fun I opened my rarely used IE11, and lo and behold I got actual watchable video on a news site! Then I gravitated to reading a few news stories, which always have links to fact-checking or related-story pages...
    after clicking one of those links I was greeted with

    YOUR BROWSER IS NOT COMPATIBLE
    WITH THIS WEBSITE!!!!

    AAGGHH!! --Good old MS BS forced obsoletion at work, which I'm simply sick and tired of. And I remembered at the top of the IE page was an 'update to Edge' advertisement. Since IE doesn't work, ya think? What the ad SHOULD say is "you might as well update to Edge because like with Win95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7 and 8, our forward-only never-look-back thinking engineers have purposely kneecapped IE rendering it completely useless for current and future use. So there."

    SO-- why am I getting chopped up video in firefox but not IE? One piece of advice I found suggested disabling hardware acceleration in firefox - no help.

    My computer is also getting to where it gets slower and slower as time goes by, to the point that by day's end clicking to open or save files takes several seconds- I've counted 45 seconds more than once! - for a reaction from the computer. I used to never turn the thing off, hibernated for months at a time with no issues. Now, after 15 hours I have to reboot. I used "Reimage", which makes for a drastic improvement initially, but after 2-3 days of hibernating it's back to 'swimming in molasses'. The internet tells me my computer is 'leaking memory' badly..? Can a manual memory dump be done without rebooting?

    And just earlier this morning I tried changing my virtual memory settings a bit, I've noticed no difference...

    The other day I re-arranged all my drives and drive letters in case I was having a drive-letter 'sharing' issue, seemed to help but the molasses set in later in the day...

    I'm thinking I probably should just dump & re-install my Windows, but I'll need to get a disk...

    If anyone has any suggestions...


    Is it possible that you picked up a virus?

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2019
    Location
    The old pueblo in el norte.
    Posts
    1,846
    I think it's more likely an issue with hardware acceleration, given this bit.


    which I've changed out to an Nvidia G-force 750 ti card, only to have the new card never go longer than 3 hours before it locks up the computer.
    ~mike

    happy in my mud hut

  14. #14
    First, thanks for all the responses..

    About the 750 ti graphics card, I got it cheap, and have read that it's probably a chinese knockoff. It DOES say 'made in china' on it... whatever, I just know it doesn't like this computer!

    As to the funky video problem: About 2 years or so ago, I read (right here IIRC), that Flash was bad, for whatever reasons. So I uninstalled it from the computers I have that had it. Never noticed a pro or con to doing so...

    --so this morning, I read up on Flash a bit, 'they' say it's much better than before, less security issues, yada... so I downloaded and installed it.

    And Voila! Perfect video all around, my news channels, youtube, my own vids, no chop at all. Go figure

    --before installing flash, I turned off the hardware acceleration in Firefox, it DID seem to minimize the chop somewhat, but only somewhat...

    My molasses issue, waiting to see what happens after a few days of hibernating instead of rebooting. Rebooted this morning so she's running good right now...

    Virus-- I run Security Essentials/Defender and Reimage... I read awhile back that Reimage is/was supposed to be bad, but it works great for cleaning the computer, and every time any program is loaded, or updates, or is uninstalled, it lets me know about it. My Gravostyle 7 program mimics some virus, and every time I run it it wants to dispose of it. No other AV has detected GS7 as a virus... Security Essentials has never failed me either, it caught a ransomware installer in an email while the email was still on my website's email server, before I ever saw it!
    ransomvirus.jpg
    So I'm pretty sure this computer is virus-free
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  15. #15
    So I go to the post office, come back, have some dinner, take a nap, head downstairs to work and my screen is BLUE Could be the newer driver is clashing with the old graphics card..?

    And I find out after installing Flash that it's going away next month...
    Seems html5 is the most used format at the moment...

    And Chris, I have no problem re-installing Windows on a freshly formatted drive, done it many times over the years. (Probably re-installed ME 20 times!) -- NONE of my work files are saved on my 'windows' drive specifically for this reason. I only have programs and printers loaded, which can be re-installed within a couple of hours. I DO have pics, important documents and video's on my SSD but they're all backup copies.

    The absolute fastest computer I have is my ancient e-machine with XP Pro 32 installed from a 'mechanics' disk I've had for years. No updates or service packs. A lot of programs can't be installed because of that, but it's doing mostly print-server duty...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


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