You probably don't have enough memory to run it without interruption. Are you on dial up?

Trin

I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but mine will do that if my cable internet is slow at the time.

Shirley

I have cable and if it's because it's slow, then it is always slow. I don't know when this started because I really don't do videos often, but it has been a long time.

Is there a way to see if I am short on memory (the computer.)

Mine does the same thing, I have a hard time with any video. My computer has only 265kb memory which makes it a dinosaur these days. I have Windows 2000 operating system but the computer itself is a few years older than that.

Anne

It's probably "buffering". It's essentially stopping to get more info and then play a preset amount. You can adjust some of the settings in your media player and it might help.

Other things is to turn off programs running in the background that aren't needed, especially ones that, for instance monitor email, instant messengers and the like.

You could have malware on the computer. Run Spybot, Malwarebytes, A-squared, SuperAntiSpyware or something like that to check for issues.

You should have 512mb of RAM minimum (756-1Gb is far preferable) to run XP efficiently. Cheap computers cheated people on RAM and not knowing what you have, it's hard to guess how much you may have. Press the WinKey, hold it down, then press the Pause/Break key, then let off them both. Down toward the bottom of the System Properties page that will come up it should give you your processor info and RAM. Keep in mind, RAM does NOT speed a machine up, it gives it more elbow room to work so it can work more efficiently so if it's being overtaxed in other ways, it's not going to solve everything, just can help with some issues. FWIW, my XP machine came with the "recommended minimum" of 256 mb and I knew quickly that wasn't going to work so I added 512mb immediately and there was a world of difference. As time went on I upped it again to 1.5gb of RAM and while I noticed certain improvements, it wasn't nearly as dramatic as the first increase.

I like Media Player Classic as the best media player that uses the least resources. I've used that on dialup too and it's very efficient.

Sometimes there's just a logjam on the internet. For instance certain videos that just go up and are publicized on the news will receive a massive amount of hits and their bandwidth isn't adequate to handle the load.

Do you have a lot of programs open all the time? Have you tried rebooting and tried again? If you have dialup, try a different dialup number and even try a different phone cord and phone jack.

There's a lot of reasons for it. The internet is getting to be a busy place!

Just noticed you have cable. You should have ample speed to play most anything. I'd try the other items mentioned and see how that goes. Post back in this thread with your results and we'll see where you're at.

Another option is to download the video first and then play it. That will eliminate streaming troubles.

One other thought. I have DSL and they have bandwidth limits and if I exceed them, they cut the speed until the download amounts are back under their maximums. You might check with the cable company and see if there's an issues like this. Also, they might just have an issue.

Do you have someone who could bring a notebook over and try and see if it's the cable or your computer. If they can play things fine and you can't, then it's your problem. If they can't, that highly suggests it's the cable's issue.

One other thought: Are you operating wireless? If so, try connecting with a cable. Also, if you are wireless, you you have it secured? There could be a neighbor sponging off your internet connection. That happens all the time.

Cynic,
That is a lot to chew on! I copied it and will go over all of it.

I have a question:
Can you give me a simple list in order of those sizes?
I'm thinking MB comes first
Does GB come next in size?
Is there a SIMPLE chart to show how those compare?

This is some info I found on my computer. Does it tell you if I have enough whatevers?

Windows XP
Media Center Edition
Pentium (R) D CPU 2.80GHz
2.79GHz,504MB of RAM

In the mean time I did some disk cleaning and Defrag and restart. It is loading faster but stil has breaks.
I better check that again.
Thanks for all that info. I knew I could count on you.

Your processor speed is fast enough.
You have minimal RAM (random access memory).
504 MB is about 1/2 Gigabyte. You would do well to take this up to at least 1GB, 2GB is netter.

If the video is a not full screen, but a small window, and you still have 'jerky' performance, it is because your internet connection is too slow to support 'real' time video. The playing speed is catching up to the input flow of data and then has to wait until more packets arrive before it can continue. The same effect will happen if you do not have enough memory to buffer up the input stream.

Ah yes, basic maintenance! Good for you Heyjud! I forgot to include a comment or two on that. A checkdsk might also help if you have some disk problems. Also, if your hard drive is getting full, Windows swap file won't work right. You need at least 1/3 of your drive open for best performance. Open up My Computer and right click on the C drive and click properties. It should show you how much free space is on the drive.

OK, some quick history on RAM sizes. KB (kilo - 100) is the smaller, MB (mega is next larger - 1000) then GB (giga), then comes Tera but that's ahead of us. Way back when, there was 1/4 meg, 1/2 meg, then came 1 meg, 2 meg, 4 meg, and 8 meg. Do you see the pattern developing? ;) Then continuing comes 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 and 512mb. Then comes "1 gig" or more precisely 1024mb or 1.024 gb, and they continue to double.

Your machine has Pentium (R) D CPU 2.80GHz
2.79GHz, 504MB of RAM

Your CPU is a 2.8GHz and you have 512 mb of ram. The lower number would take a while to explain, suffice to say it's "Windows' interpretation" of RAM so it goes with a "close" number. Now, just a comment... IMO that size processor if I built the machine, especially being a "media" machine, would have had more RAM from the start. But I'm guessing you probably got it from a big box store? Just a guess and they specially configure them to be as cheap as possible.

With what you have, you should have bare minimum to run efficiently. The problem with adding RAM to your machine is that it's age will probably require older, harder to get type of RAM. Which translates to more expensive. However, there's other options. Assuming you have a brand name machine, go to Crucial.com and look up your make and model and it'll tell you the type of RAM you'll need and it'll also give you their price, but their prices are always hideously high. I have failed to find other sources substantially cheaper than Crucial, but they have a good site to get info on what you need. You could get some used. I might even have something in stock and if I do I'd give it to you.

Hope that helps!

Jemdandy,
When I bring up the defrag, this is the amounts it says I have:
Capacity 69.82 GB
free space 56.84GB - 81%

Does that sound better?

Cynic,
I found a chart with the sizes. I finally figured out what to call it for a search.

My Computer was bought directly from Dell. My son ordered it for me. Remember when those cute slimline Dells came out, well that is what I ordered, so it would take less room on the desk. Well when the order arrived, I received this Humungous small business machine. I'm thinking that some business somewhere was disappointed with their order! DS said keep it, it's too much hassle to exchange. This thing takes twice as much room on my desk and I'm sure it has all kinds of possibilities in it, if I knew what to do with it. It has been a good computer. I have had it for 3 years.

From the info above, does it sound like I have enough space?

In the past I have been doing the Dfrag every couple weeks, but I never used the Disk cleanup. It took a while to complete. "If I only had a brain..."

OOPS! I meant to say I have NEVER failed to find cheaper places than Crucial!

You have 81% free space on your drive. For all practical purposes you have an empty drive! You must not do a lot of downloading!

The one other thing to do is a checkdsk. Go into tools, same as for defrag and select disk checking. Check both boxes on the options, something like check each sector and something else. It'll give you a warning that it can't do it right then, which is fine, just shut your computer down and reboot and it will automatically do it when it reboots. It can take hours to complete so do it at a time you don't need it for a while. When it finishes it'll quickly give a recap but you'll probably miss it which is no big deal and it'll reboot.

Pat yourself on the back! Sounds to me like you take pretty darn good care of that baby. Quite rare. Glad you're not afraid of it!

What do you mean -- I'm not afraid of it!!! LOL
I am afraid of it - that's why I don't download anything!

The last time I clicked on "Download" this "baby" was possesed with 13 virus and 9 trogans, most of which were most likely lying dormant for a while, according to what the $280 bill collector told me.

It's been over 10 years since I got my first computer (this is the second) and I'm still illiterate and "chicken." BUT, thank you for the compliment!

I tried another video and it works the same. Our cable account was the highest speed until they came up with a higher one, but I can't justify the cost of it.

Everything else is working better -- so I don't need those videos, or I'll just watch them in pieces!

Thank you everyone. I am going to keep these notes and hopefully use them more often to keep things working.

I'm late, but I'll chime in with my bet that it's the RAM. I had that happen all the time, and when I bought my new laptop a few months ago, I researched to figure out what was causing it so I could avoid it. (One of the things I wanted the new laptop to do was to allow me to stream movies and television shows.) Everything I read said that RAM seemed to be the key for smooth-running video. (As long as your processor was a reasonable speed, which yours is. It's faster than mine.)

I bought a laptop made with 4G of RAM, and everything runs beautifully. No problem with video any more.

Seriously Judy, you should feel good that you're doing defrag and stuff. It does help. I understand why you're gunshy about downloading, but just be careful where you download and just have a good antivirus, malware program and firewall to help filter out the gremlins. Just clicking on the wrong website can give you what's called "drive by downloads" that can be infected. Hence the need for maintenance. It's like life. Living, you can catch something, be murdered, have a safe fall on you while walking down the street, get food poisoning by eating or drinking something, catch a cold, flu or something else or any other number of problems just by existing. But, if you take reasonable precautions, you can have a great time and stay pretty darn safe.

Get thee protected, keep up the maintenance and have some fun! Viruses, malware and the like are a fact of life but not that tough to deal with. And I know you well enough to know that when you set your mind to something, you'll do it right!! :)