WMV HD stutters on my system , Since Recently Only ?

plainman007 · 03-20-2009, 02:08 PM

Hi,

Suddenly my laptop seems to stutter with the standard wmv hd clips that you get from Microsoft's Site. The standard "Into The Blue" and "Terminator" Clips Etc, all 720p. Just to clarify things. My laptop used to play these clips without a glitch (even 1080p ones) until a month back. Ive tried all sorts of things. Even just a fresh reload of windows and it still stutters and just plays as a series of images (severe stutter). Ive tried numerous settings and nothing helps. Ive tried wiping the system clean with a slow format and reloaded just windows and drivers. It will then play for sometime. If i shut down and reboot hell breaks loose. If i dont reboot it plays a couple of times perfectly. Just a couple of times. The next day it wouldnt play. A reboot will again enable a few playbacks but not more. Any ideas what might be wrong. Please note the system is supposed to be hardware capable of playing back these videos as wmv HD playback capability is printed on the carton which the laptop was shipped in. Also i have played the same clips time and time again over about 3 years without a problem until about a month ago. Its a compaq 1.8 ghz centrino. 512mb ram. 2mb L2 Cache. What must be going wrong ? Does system hardware actually grow old and slowdown over time ?

wonderwrench · 03-20-2009, 02:58 PM

I'd guess its time to add more RAM. 512 megs just is not enough today as every program and even windows it self is more of a hog than it was 3 years ago.

**ctal** · 03-20-2009, 09:47 PM

Hi Plainman,

Just some guesses:

-- Is it possible that something in the bios got changed or corrupted? Take a look at the bios settings, particularly those related to the hard drive, and the memory if there are any.

-- One way in which hardware could slow down after several years is if a lot of dust built up in the internal passages that circulate cooling air over the cpu and its heatsink. If the air got mostly or entirely blocked, the cpu might throttle down its speed in order to protect itself from overheating. Unfortunately, to gain complete access to those passages you might have to remove the heat sink from the cpu, and then reapply it after reapplying thermal compound. But perhaps you can just make a judgment based on how much air seems to be coming out of the exhaust vents, how hot it seems, and how often and how loudly the fan runs.

Regards,
-- Al

plainman007 · 03-21-2009, 02:43 PM

Hi Ctal,

I will check the bios. But i recently had a fan problem. YES. My laptop fan started getting too noisy and then stopped working entirely over a period of a month. I got the fan replaced with a new one. But im noticing 1 thing. I just now jumped to an earlier image (thanks to our serious discussions and your help on backing up/imaging). The image i took with just the OS and the drivers installed. That version seems to play the hd clips fine. So this means it rules out a hardware issue im assuming ?.... Hope to hear your POV.

Thanks

Wonderwrench > Thanks for your input. I do know that 512 is on the lower side. But the point to keep in mind is that the system ran these clips fine over 2 years.

. How can it suddenly stop and stutter even under fresh OS installs. Im suspecting some software conflict or maybe a heatsink and hence throttling issue as Ctal has suggested. So im going to run the system non stop under this working image version and see if the problems develop again under stress. Im sure we'll crack this one soon.

**ctal** · 03-21-2009, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plainman007

The image i took with just the OS and the drivers installed. That version seems to play the hd clips fine. So this means it rules out a hardware issue im assuming ?

Not sure. Let's give it some more time and see if that continues to be the case. And it's always possible that two things are going on -- a hardware marginality, perhaps related to running the thing for a month without a fan, combined with fragmentation or some other software-related thing that gradually evolves and eventually puts the hardware marginality over the edge.

Regards,
-- Al

plainman007 · 03-23-2009, 03:56 PM

Hi Ctal,

I did a fresh reinstall of XP Home. Checked the BIOS. But ud be surprised there was hardly anything inside it for you to customize. Very minimalistic.

But the result was that this time i didnt install norton ghost. Just XP, Original Drivers & Norton Antivirus. Then ive been running the same HD clips over and over and theyve not stuttered. Then after a few hours i decided to tax the system more and i ran a Virus Scan. Which i guess is pretty memory intensive and a HDD hog. I was surprised that the HD videos seemed to play fine simultaneously as the scan went through at its usual speed of skimming thru files. Now im more perplexed.

Im also very apprehensive about Norton Ghost. It always runs in the task bar and has no task bar deactivate feature. Why should an imaging program run in the background when not required ? In fact i was browsing through its user manual pages and it mentions real time disk monitoring and scanning to speed up incremental backups etc.

Thanks

**ctal** · 03-23-2009, 04:40 PM

That's really striking to me that it was able to play smoothly while doing an av scan. In fact, it's downright amazing for a not particularly new laptop with 512 mB RAM.

Yes, if Ghost is running a background process it figures to be related to supporting incremental backups. I have no experience with that kind of imaging program, but why don't you turn it off with either msconfig (if it appears there under "Startup"), or else under Start/Control Panel/Performance&Maintenance/AdminstrativeTools/Services (ignore "Performance&Maintenance" if your control panel is set up to display icons instead of text on a blue background).

You can always turn it back on later, but it would be interesting to know definitively if having that process running correlates with the stuttering problem.

Regards,
-- Al

plainman007 · 03-24-2009, 12:07 PM

Hi Ctal >

Your right i was impressed that my system could do a AV scan and run HD simultaneously. I was about to trash this laptop. But it seems its a pretty fine piece of work now.

Yes, it would be good to know defintively that norton ghost is creating the issue. Im not sure though. Im gonna try the Ms Config tweak you suggested. Will report tomorrow.

Thanks...

03-20-2009, 02:08 PM	#1
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 377	WMV HD stutters on my system , Since Recently Only ? Hi, Suddenly my laptop seems to stutter with the standard wmv hd clips that you get from Microsoft's Site. The standard "Into The Blue" and "Terminator" Clips Etc, all 720p. Just to clarify things. My laptop used to play these clips without a glitch (even 1080p ones) until a month back. Ive tried all sorts of things. Even just a fresh reload of windows and it still stutters and just plays as a series of images (severe stutter). Ive tried numerous settings and nothing helps. Ive tried wiping the system clean with a slow format and reloaded just windows and drivers. It will then play for sometime. If i shut down and reboot hell breaks loose. If i dont reboot it plays a couple of times perfectly. Just a couple of times. The next day it wouldnt play. A reboot will again enable a few playbacks but not more. Any ideas what might be wrong. Please note the system is supposed to be hardware capable of playing back these videos as wmv HD playback capability is printed on the carton which the laptop was shipped in. Also i have played the same clips time and time again over about 3 years without a problem until about a month ago. Its a compaq 1.8 ghz centrino. 512mb ram. 2mb L2 Cache. What must be going wrong ? Does system hardware actually grow old and slowdown over time ?
(Offline)

03-20-2009, 02:58 PM	#2
wonderwrench ABXpert Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Mpls MN Posts: 1,728	Re: WMV HD stutters on my system , Since Recently Only ? I'd guess its time to add more RAM. 512 megs just is not enough today as every program and even windows it self is more of a hog than it was 3 years ago. __________________ C2Q Q6600 @ 3 GhzMSI P35 Neo2-FR bios 1.104 x 2 gig Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 ramEvga 8800GT SSC SATA HD's 1 Seagate 320 gig, 1 Samsung 320 gig LiteOn sohw-1693sPlextor PX 716aTeac FloppyOCZ 700GXSSLI PSU* Rosewill R6AR6-BK case* Windows 7 pro 64 bit Good judgment comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgment.
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03-20-2009, 09:47 PM	#3
ctal Eschews Obfuscation Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Connecticut, USA Posts: 1,903	Re: WMV HD stutters on my system , Since Recently Only ? Hi Plainman, Just some guesses: -- Is it possible that something in the bios got changed or corrupted? Take a look at the bios settings, particularly those related to the hard drive, and the memory if there are any. -- One way in which hardware could slow down after several years is if a lot of dust built up in the internal passages that circulate cooling air over the cpu and its heatsink. If the air got mostly or entirely blocked, the cpu might throttle down its speed in order to protect itself from overheating. Unfortunately, to gain complete access to those passages you might have to remove the heat sink from the cpu, and then reapply it after reapplying thermal compound. But perhaps you can just make a judgment based on how much air seems to be coming out of the exhaust vents, how hot it seems, and how often and how loudly the fan runs. Regards, -- Al __________________ "I didn't say I didn't say it. I said that I didn't say that I said it. I want to make that very clear." -- George Romney, in 1968, while campaigning for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.
(Offline)

03-21-2009, 02:43 PM	#4
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 377	Re: WMV HD stutters on my system , Since Recently Only ? Hi Ctal, I will check the bios. But i recently had a fan problem. YES. My laptop fan started getting too noisy and then stopped working entirely over a period of a month. I got the fan replaced with a new one. But im noticing 1 thing. I just now jumped to an earlier image (thanks to our serious discussions and your help on backing up/imaging). The image i took with just the OS and the drivers installed. That version seems to play the hd clips fine. So this means it rules out a hardware issue im assuming ?.... Hope to hear your POV. Thanks Wonderwrench > Thanks for your input. I do know that 512 is on the lower side. But the point to keep in mind is that the system ran these clips fine over 2 years. . How can it suddenly stop and stutter even under fresh OS installs. Im suspecting some software conflict or maybe a heatsink and hence throttling issue as Ctal has suggested. So im going to run the system non stop under this working image version and see if the problems develop again under stress. Im sure we'll crack this one soon.
(Offline)

03-23-2009, 03:56 PM	#6
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 377	Re: WMV HD stutters on my system , Since Recently Only ? Hi Ctal, I did a fresh reinstall of XP Home. Checked the BIOS. But ud be surprised there was hardly anything inside it for you to customize. Very minimalistic. But the result was that this time i didnt install norton ghost. Just XP, Original Drivers & Norton Antivirus. Then ive been running the same HD clips over and over and theyve not stuttered. Then after a few hours i decided to tax the system more and i ran a Virus Scan. Which i guess is pretty memory intensive and a HDD hog. I was surprised that the HD videos seemed to play fine simultaneously as the scan went through at its usual speed of skimming thru files. Now im more perplexed. Im also very apprehensive about Norton Ghost. It always runs in the task bar and has no task bar deactivate feature. Why should an imaging program run in the background when not required ? In fact i was browsing through its user manual pages and it mentions real time disk monitoring and scanning to speed up incremental backups etc. Thanks
(Offline)

03-23-2009, 04:40 PM	#7
ctal Eschews Obfuscation Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Connecticut, USA Posts: 1,903	Re: WMV HD stutters on my system , Since Recently Only ? That's really striking to me that it was able to play smoothly while doing an av scan. In fact, it's downright amazing for a not particularly new laptop with 512 mB RAM. Yes, if Ghost is running a background process it figures to be related to supporting incremental backups. I have no experience with that kind of imaging program, but why don't you turn it off with either msconfig (if it appears there under "Startup"), or else under Start/Control Panel/Performance&Maintenance/AdminstrativeTools/Services (ignore "Performance&Maintenance" if your control panel is set up to display icons instead of text on a blue background). You can always turn it back on later, but it would be interesting to know definitively if having that process running correlates with the stuttering problem. Regards, -- Al __________________ "I didn't say I didn't say it. I said that I didn't say that I said it. I want to make that very clear." -- George Romney, in 1968, while campaigning for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.
(Offline)

03-24-2009, 12:07 PM	#8
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 377	Re: WMV HD stutters on my system , Since Recently Only ? Hi Ctal > Your right i was impressed that my system could do a AV scan and run HD simultaneously. I was about to trash this laptop. But it seems its a pretty fine piece of work now. Yes, it would be good to know defintively that norton ghost is creating the issue. Im not sure though. Im gonna try the Ms Config tweak you suggested. Will report tomorrow. Thanks...
(Offline)

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