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Extreme Video Lag

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19K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  DT Roberts  
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#1 · (Edited)
Hi,
I'm half-decently computer saavy but I've been having a problem playing videos on my laptop lately. I run on vista and have 1 gig of ram and a 1.70 GHz processor. My laptop is fairly new and I run Norton Anti-Virus.

I'm using an Acer now that's replaced a Toshiba I was using before which sustained water damage. On my Toshiba (which I had for over a year) I could always watch videos fine online and through media player. With this Acer (I've had it since October), every time I try to run videos, whether they're already downloaded or streaming, there's a huge lag. The picture itself just freezes for about 30 seconds and the sound keeps going. Then the video speeds up very fast after the freeze to catch up with the sound.

I'm pretty stumped. Less than half my harddrive is full, I have Spyware/Virus protection, I ran a defrag, uninstalled some programs that I don't use, did error-checking and am running my firewall at all times.

What could be causing this lag? It only really affects my video performance but it's driving me crazy! I've been all over google and any advice would help me alot

Thanks

Edit: The laptop is an Aspire 5100 if that helps
processor is AMD Athlon(tm) 64X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-53
 
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#3 ·
I've had an issue with the performance of my video too. I googled "vista processes" and found out which services were not necessarily needed. I've also disabled the AERO(sp?) [which gives the 3D look to vista compared to XP] to free up more resources. Take a look at your computer and see what you can live without. i.e. gadgets, etc.

Actually, this is the reason I've signed up at this site.
 
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#4 ·
I looked in, I think, almost every forum concerning lag and never received an answer that helped. Ater eliminating all software or firmware possibilities, I discovered that my problem was the
VIDEO CARD. My HP is nearing 4 years old and had a very inadequete VID card. It was a standard VGA (64mb) card which it even said on the Vista upgrade case at least a 128mb is nessacary. Failure on my part to read the fine print. I am only posting this to help some other poor soul out there that might be having the same problem. Once I purchased a new NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 (256mb), I had no problems at all. It put me out about $60, but you can get one cheaper online. Remember thatif you are running an older PC, you probably will not have the PCI Express slot, and will only have the original PCI and AGB connectors. Keep that in mind when shopping for a new card. Good luck with yor problem.

Jason



Windows Media Player lag lagging AVI DIVX lag Quicktime WMV Video lag after Vista Upgrade slow
 
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#5 ·
A dedicated video card is a must for Vista. 2G of RAM is minimum. 3g is better for gamers.

I just installed a VisionTek, 512M, ATI video card on a friends Gateway, quadcore, Vista desktop. I always worry about working on new technology for the first time. But this installation was a piece of cake.
 
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#6 ·
I hope this helps all who are having this issue. I did 2 things that have completely cleared up my lag issues. First I uninstalled quicktime. THen I uninstalled Blaze media converter. I am guessing that one of these programs overwrote or installed an incompatable codec or somehow messed up the DirectX installation. Whatever the case, when I uninstalled them the problem ceased. Good Luck. :rolleyes:
 
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