Member Avatar for Rooch

Guys

I am puzzled. My PCs (all of them) start off with normal flow when I watch a video using IE brouser. Then after a few days it begins to break up ...buffering..then breaks up again ..buffering!! I can no longer watch a video clip continuesly for more than a minute before another interrupting buffering....etc. Thi shappens with all PCs I engage (at least 5 now).

I have done the usual clean up: delete temp files, history, disk maintenace, etc. My CPU is over 2GHz and about 1GHz of RAM on a Dell D430 notebook!

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Rooch

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by MidiMagic

Dani AI

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A focused troubleshooting checklist that builds on points from , and and is aimed at isolating where the interruption starts (client, home gateway, or upstream).

  1. Reproduce while observing system and network:
    • Open Resource Monitor / Task Manager and watch per-process Network, CPU and Memory when playback stutters.
    • Run a continuous ping and a traceroute to the video host while you watch to see packet loss or hops with rising latency:
ping -t <video_host>
tracert <video_host>

  1. Isolate the network path:

    • Test the same PC on a different network (direct to modem or phone tether). If the problem moves with the PC, it is client-side; if it stays with the LAN, suspect the gateway or ISP.
    • Note router uptime. Some consumer routers show degraded throughput after long uptime or many simultaneous connections — a quick reboot and firmware update can confirm that.

  2. Look for client-side degeneration over time:

    • Leave a browser/process open for several hours and watch for steady memory or thread growth (a leak in the player/plugin will manifest gradually).
    • Try a clean browser profile or different player stack and toggle hardware-acceleration to see if behavior changes.

  3. Advanced diagnostics if needed:

    • Capture a short packet trace and check for retransmits or big RTT spikes (signs of upstream congestion or bufferbloat).
    • Update NIC drivers and router firmware; disable aggressive power-saving on wireless adapters.

Quick priority: direct-wired test or tethering first, then router reboot/firmware, then live ping/traceroute while monitoring the client. If diagnostics show packet loss or retransmits, the problem is almost certainly on the path (gateway/ISP); if only the client shows growing resource use, focus on the browser/plugin or scheduled tasks.

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Member Avatar for tiger86

Are you on a large network shared by others? If this is the case it means someone or a lot of people are using up to much bandwidth. If you are not at work I would suggest to try a video in firefox maybe your pc does not like ie. I just noticed something you only have one gig of ram that may be the whole problem. Try shutting down some uneeded processes then try a video.

Member Avatar for MidiMagic

Is this a video saved on your hard disk, or over the Internet?

- A video on your hard disk should not change. If it is changing, you have hardware trouble.

- You might have other software running that is stealing jiffies from the program playing the video. Close all other windows, and check for malware.

- Is your virus checker rechecking the file each time?

- If an Internet video slows down in the hours 4pm to 9 pm, you are fighting with other users for Internet bandwidth. It's a traffic jam on the Information Superhighway. Change your viewing hours.

These traffic jams occur at several different points:

1. Your ISP might be overloaded.
2. The server with the video might have too many requests to serve at one time.
3. There might be traffic jams in between.

Be aware that over the last two weeks, Pakistan has been trying to block videos from sites containing materials that violate Islam. The effects of these blocks (which are really packet eaters) have extended beyond the borders of Pakistan, causing traffic interruptions.

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