Question about Lesson/Song Video

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frybaby
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Sat Jun 27, 2009 9:26 pm

Dear Forum Folks,
Came late to computer around year 1998 as I recall, so my knowledge about how the infernal machines work is quite limited and so my question may seem a bit elementary.
But nonetheless, I need the answer as the problem I am encountering is one of the things holding me back from TARGET membership.
The question:
When I am watching the free videos they stop every few seconds, a little spinning wheel pops up in mid screen spins for a while,then disappears. The video starts up again up in a few seconds the problem repeats, by then the video and sound track are out of sink.
I am guessing it has something to do with RAM ( so I have been told). Cant afford a new computer. So other that that or replacing RAM, is there something I can do to fix this problem?

Thank in advance

Frybaby


Chasplaya
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Sun Jun 28, 2009 12:34 am

Hi frybaby, without knowing the specs of your pc its difficult to give an absolute correct answer, it may depend on your Internet connection i.e. Dial up vs Broadband and the speed of your connection. It can also be your pc i.e. RAM etc but I guess more likely your Internet connection, it can also be external telecomm exchange issues whether they have got copper or fibre optic wires/cable. Any consolation, I get he same problem at different times.


BigBear
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Sun Jun 28, 2009 1:40 am

Frybaby- what you are experiencing is called "buffering", a fancy way of saying your computer is loading the bit stream of info being sent by your internet provider. If your computer plays the video faster than it can receive the bitstream it has to pause and wait for the buffer to fill up again. It can be very frustrating.

The easiest "fix" (which isn't really a fix) is when you watch a video press "play" and then immediately push "pause". You should see a gray bar begin moving to the right. When the bar gets out a little ways you can press "play" again. The bar is telling you how much info is buffered. You may need to experiment a little to see how long you have to wait in order to make it through the whole video without having to wait for more buffering.

Of course you could always buy a new computer or invest in a much faster internet connection but my solution is by far the cheapest!! ;-)

Good luck and happy playin'


RicksPick
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Sun Jun 28, 2009 2:12 am

Hi Frybaby

Good answer chas, I second chas reply very knowledgeable.
The adverts that claim that the latest fastest computer will make the internet faster
totally wind me up cos that's rubbish!. How fast is your internet line? if you have a 2 megabyte download speed ( you rarely achieve that), or a 10mb line?
A wireless modem (g model) has a max speed of 54mb,again you never reach that speed, but it's more than able to deliver the internet. I could go on and on, so I will (lol)

I have one of these newish netbooks, the little tiny things, very low spec almost like a old 5 year + computer, only difference is there's not much on it (programs),best to keep them uncluttered
This PC has no problem with the site.

Yes ram is a good upgrade, it can make a pc fly especially a cluttered one, it can make it seem like a new PC, Its also the most cost effective upgrade.
But not necessarily the answer.

So give us some details and we will try to help
Check the other posts as many have found remedies here, similar to yours.

The tech guys on support are fantastic and give quick responses, so don't be frustrated, there is light as they say.

Good luck

RicksPick


AndyT
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Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:52 am

Yes, its called 'Buffering' that is correct.

There are a few things you can do that will make your computer faster. RAM is always a good choice and one of the first things you should do. If you do not know how to do it, then pay a Geek $50 to do it for you. your machine can only hold so much RAM anyway and you might already be at your limit.

Second, start un-installing all those old programs you never really use. If you don't use it at least once a month regularly, then get rid of it. Its wasting space and CPU cycles. Be sure and remove the empty folders left behind by the uninstall process.

After that you should invest in a quality defragger and a maintenance program. It just so happens I can point you to one that is FREE and works very well. got to;
www.iobit.com
When you get there, get these three;
Advanced System Care (ASC) (you can get FREE but the Pro version is better)
Smart Defrag (Free as far as I know)
Gamebooster (Free)

Load all three of these into your system.

Run ASC and let it clean up everything it finds.
Then empty your trash can.
Then run Smart Defrag and have it do a deep optimize. This can take quite a while, so do it before going to bed and let it run all night.

Reboot the machine
Run Gamebooster and make sure you uncheck 'Print Spooler' and if you are sharing a printer on a home network, then also uncheck 'Server'.

Now try TG again and see what happens. The machine should be faster and more responsive. What you just did is a simple level of cleaning and optimization and it should get you about 30% to 60% speed increase.

After doing all that, let us know how you are getting along.


haoli25
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Sun Jun 28, 2009 3:09 pm

All good advice.

You might also check your STARTUP programs. Some programs
(Adobe, etc.) begin at startup and run in the background.
All they are doing is wasting your resources. Find a local
GEEK to change the properties on those programs and perform
the other computer checks mentioned above.


Haoli


frybaby
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Sun Jun 28, 2009 5:09 pm

Thanks to all,
Working through some solutions as suggested. So far, deleted all non essential files and folders, defraged my hard drive, and tried Big Bears suggestion to start and stop the video to let the thing buffer, but alas no success.
Perhaps as requested more detail about my system.
256 MG RAM
9.6. gig hardrive but only 900 mg free space
using AT&T DSL basic, not sure about the speed and all that or how to find out.
That all I know for right now.

Much obliged to all,


BigBear
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Sun Jun 28, 2009 5:20 pm

Frybaby- You don't mention what operating system you are running but if it is XP or Vista, I think you are way light on RAM memory. Just my opinion and others may disagree, but I wouldn't run either system with less than 1GB (4x what you have now) and I'd go 2-3GB for Vista which is a resource hog.

You have a certain amount of what the computer geeks call "overhead" which is all the junk that loads automatically when you turn on your computer. With that little RAM your computer is probably swapping memory constantly which REALLY slows down your system. You may not have anough RAM left to load the buffering.

I'd recommend, depending on how old your computer is, upgrading your memory to a minimum of 1GB and more if it makes economic sense. You can never have too much memory.

Good luck!


frybaby
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Sun Jun 28, 2009 5:40 pm

BigBear, thank for the intrest, I am running XP


BigBear
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Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:09 pm

frybaby wrote:
BigBear, thank for the intrest, I am running XP
I've got 1GB on my old laptop (running XP) and it is just barely enough if I keep my Start up Programs well controlled.


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