Choppy video playback - HELP!

H

HPtallman

New Member
I have a month old Dell Latitude 610 notebook. I just noticed that any video playback on this computer is choppy. This includes DVD and streaming video from the internet. The Choppiness is very systematic too. It plays for 3 seconds and skips for 1 second. Its really wierd. In fact my entire system seems to be doing this. Its like teh processor has to buffer or something. Any help is appreciated!
 
has it been doing that when you got it? or just recently after that 1 month?

that can be your video driver, codecs for the files, and your connection when you stream..

as for your system, it can be programs running in the background, and probably even some virus/spyware issues.

is that happening constantly? the choppiness? or just to a certain point and it runs smooth after that?

n any mods to the notebook? or still same as you got it?
 
It ran fine when I first got it. Now it is perfectly choppy all the time. It is constant and perfectly timed. I am 95% sure that its not spyware. I think it is probably the video driver. How should I go about reinstalling the driver? Also, what are the codecs? And How do I fix it.
 
Do you know the video card's developer (Nvidia, ATI, Intel Extreme Graphics (a.k.a. onboard))? If it's Nvidia then you have it real easy (go to Nvidia.com go to the download section, select video card drivers, select your card's series, then your operating system. DL, install. Bang.)

A codec (codec=coder decoder) is a tool your system uses to decode various video formats. They're also used for decoding audio files (mp3, wma, ogg, m4a, aa, etc.). Without the proper decoder your system won't be able to figure out what to do with the stream of data that the video file is vomiting in it's general direction.

If it does this outside of video files as well I'd look towards the video card drivers (for a while my computer was doing a similar choppy-bit, and completely denying the existance of any video card. New drivers fixed it.). If that does nothing you might want to pick up a codec pack (I recommend this one http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm). Beyond that I haven't the foggiest. Maybe overheating?

Good luck, let us know how it goes.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for teh reply. I tried the new Codec pack and still no luck. I have an ATI X600 card. The choppyness takes place constantly, even just on the desktop or word proccessinng! I have the latest driver installed for teh graphics card. The whole system seems to be jumping but I know it is just the video becasue Audio playback is fine. Its just my display theat is jumping. My computer is new and clean, so this problem has really stumped me. Any help is greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!
 
Hmm...That still sounds like the exact same issue I was having. (Since it's new I'm fairly confident in the assumption that you're running XP) Try this: Right click on My Computer and go down to properties. Click on the hardware tab, then on device manager. Expand the tab that says "display adapters" and make sure that it says "ATI x600" (or something to that effect).

You could also just check under properties on the desktop, and look at the display tab. If it's running it without utilizing the drivers properly it won't mention what kind of card it is.

I apologize for seeming so insistent, but I had the exact same problem when I first put XP on my machine, so I'm about 95% sure it's a driver issue.

Ah, that reminds me, has it been doing this since you got it? If not, did you install anything just prior to it's acting up?
 
Thanks for the reply. I did what you said and my card reads correctly in the device manager. It says ATI X300 - and it is "working properly". I tried to search for new drivers anyway and it said that I had the latest one and I can't roll back because its the first one I've had on there. It did not have this choppyness when I first got it. I jsut noticed it a week or so ago when I tried to play a DVD (which had worked fine before). Then I noticed that it was not just DVD playback - but the entire display system. I can't think of anything that I installed that could have caused this.
Is there A way that mabey I could uninstall my video driver and reinstall it without messing my system up?
 
Yes go into your control panel then add/Remove programs. You will be able to remove your video driver here. Goto ATi's website beforehand and download the latest driver from there.
 
OK - I uninstalled my driver and still the same problem. I think it may be something with the system (processor,???) In the Task Manager, my CPU Usage with nothing running jumps from 4% to 50% in an instant and then back down to 4%. All the CPU usage is being taken up by the processes "System", "windlogon", and "system Idle Process". They all just jump around to high cpu usages constantly. Thanks in advance for any and all help!
 
What programs have you installed recently that might have contributed to the problem? Assuming that you scanned for virus's and spy ware and did a de-frag of your hard drives (regular maintenance) then you might want to just take the plunge and install windows again. You'll find that in many cases this fix's many annoying problems in less then an hour rather then spend days looking for the fix.
 
HPtallman said:
Is there any way to reinstall windows without completely formating and wiping out my hard drive?
Click to expand...
Yes. You can just install right over the old copy (but it can be a bit messy, so it's still best to do a clean install, however it doesn't really hurt anything). You just pop in the XP cd and go along with the instructions. Eventually it'll let you know that there's a previous installation of XP on the disc, and it'll ask you what you want it to do (write over it, select a different drive, or cancel setup).

I wouldn't recommend reinstalling Windows as it doesn't sound like an OS based issue, but if you want to try it, go for it. I couldn't see it actually harming anything.

BTW, in the task manager the system on any given XP setup will have it's resources divided between several system processes (maybe a couple user apps) and the rest should appear in the "system idle process" (not memory, mind you, just the CPU).
 
I have a month old Dell Latitude 610 notebook. I just noticed that any video playback on this computer is choppy. This includes DVD and streaming video from the internet. The Choppiness is very systematic too. It plays for 3 seconds and skips for 1 second. Its really wierd. In fact my entire system seems to be doing this. Its like teh processor has to buffer or something. Any help is appreciated!
Click to expand...
Could this be throttling?
 
HPtallman said:
I have an ATI X600 card.
Click to expand...
HPtallman said:
my card reads correctly in the device manager. It says ATI X300 - and it is "working properly"
Click to expand...
You sure you have an X600? Seems odd that XP would recognize an X600 as an X300. Was that a typo (the X600 bit, because if it wasn't then that would be reasonable cause for suspicion)?

Additionally, does it do the skippy bit right from the get-go, or does it take a few minutes to kick in after it boots up?
 
Sorry that was a typo. I have an X300 and it is recognized as that. It does do the systematic choppyness right away as soon as the desktop loads.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top