After watching a 1080p video, massive graphics lag

[kElevrA]

So there's a possibility that I'm posting in the wrong section but I'm 90% sure this is a graphics card problem.

I'm using a dell studio 17, running windows 7 with an i7 processor and 6GB RAM with a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 graphics card. The problem is that after viewing a 1080p clip that is about 5 minutes long in VLC Media Player, things go very wrong.

Sometimes the whole monitor goes black and the audio lags or just comes to a complete halt. Other times the video plays out but is very laggy with out of sync audio. After closing VLC the lag persists. Task manager tells me that the CPU is only running at 5%; there aren't a lot of programs running simultaneously and yet anything I do will present itself in a jumpy fashion i.e. if I open a program, it will open promptly but with stutter across the screen as it enlarges itself.

I definitely have the latest driver software and restarting seems to solve the problem but I really want to be able to watch HD videos without this problem. Thanks in advance for your time.

EDIT: Tried watching the video again and it seemed to work ok except that I noticed by the end of it my pointer was massive. At least 5 times as big as normal. Rebooting/Hibernating/Sleep fixes this.

EDIT: Tried using windows media player and it worked! (Apart from the big pointer which still occurred) What I don't understand is why my computer continues to lag after I've closed VLC. Any questions? Comments?

 

[Tmagic650]

VLC Media Player might not be compatible with your computer. Are you really using on-board video? If so, that's the problem. You could use a good quality add-on graphics card

 

[kElevrA]

I'm sorry, I'm relatively computer illiterate. What's on-board video? I googled it but I couldnt find an accessible answer.

I'm pretty sure VLC isn't the issue though because I've been using since I first got this computer. Although, that said, I've never used it to play an mp4 video.

 

[DarKSeeD]

The system is OK in every aspect and capable to play 1080p video. I think it's related to VLC, do you use the latest VLC or have you tried Media Player Classic or any other player besides VLC and WMP?
I use VLC 1.05 (latest version at the time of posting) and sometimes I get errors when watching certain video files but in MPC they work without a problem.

 

[kElevrA]

I am also using VLC 1.05 but I think your right and it is a VLC problem. It's just so weird that it can continue to cause a problem after it has been closed. I think in the future I'll just have to avoid using VLC for HD videos.

 

[Tmagic650]

On-board video is video built into the motherboard. You will see a video connector directly attached the motherboard... An add-on video card can give you much better quality video

 

[DarKSeeD]

On-board video is video built into the motherboard. You will see a video connector directly attached the motherboard... An add-on video card can give you much better quality video

He's using a laptop - Dell Studio 17!

 

[kElevrA]

So I just tried it watching a different HD video and an error message came up this time saying my graphics driver crashed but successfully restarted. However, it's not so successful since the massive lag is back e.g. as I'm typing this, the letters appear at a staggered rate. Im sure restarting will solve the issue, but does this information help anyone pin point the problem?

 

[slh28]

Try installing the latest driver for your graphics card:[link]

 

[kElevrA]

Hmmm, I tried that and even installed the latest beta version after that didn't solve the problem.

Although I guess I might have done it wrong because I didn't uninstall the driver first (I just assumed the newest version would overwrite the older version if that was the case). Is there any way to confirm what driver version I have? I've attached a screenshot of where I think it might say so...

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Ok, I uninstalled then reinstalled, just in case. But after the reinstall I wasn't prompted to restart my comp. Does this mean I did it wrong? Can anyone recommend whether I should be downloading just the display driver or the whole 'Full Software Suite'?

EDIT: I completely forgot about checking device manager. Windows says that my driver is 8.650.0.0 and it is the latest version. Can someone confirm this? Whenever I install either the software suite or the display driver and do a custom install the only options are:

- Free Lord of the Rings Online Trial
- ATI Catalyst install manager
- AP Audio Driver
- Microsoft C++ Redis
- Catalyst Registration
- AMD Drag and Drop

Is it ok that there is nothing that says display driver/chipset driver etc.? Also how come the driver is version 8.650.0.0 when the site says version 10.2 or am I getting hardware and software mixed up?

Incidentally what are people's opinion on ATI? This graphics problem has been giving me so much grief lately it's seriously put me off them. Looking around on the internet I see that it's not that uncommon. Is there a better make out there I can recommend to people in the future?

 

[slh28]

The latest driver version is 8.702.0.0, corresponding to Catalyst version 10.2 (which is why the numberings are different). You don't need to uninstall the previous versions or anything, but make sure you downloaded the correct one for your operating system. The display driver is automatically installed, in addition to any of those check boxes you listed above.

You might also want to try reinstalling VLC to see if that helps.

 

[kElevrA]

Agh, this is really starting to annoy me. I have tried to update the driver several times, definitely choosing windows 7 64bit driver but it says all the components are installed. So I've uninstalled them and reinstalled them (with reboots in between) about a gazillion times and yet my driver is still only 8.650.0.0 (see attachment)

What am I doing wrong?

 

[tweakboy]

You need a video card, Your computer is a major bottleneck,,,,

You need a GTX 260 or AMD 4890 or 5770

They rip you off with the PC dell dell go to hell. and they throw the cheapest crappiest video card there is in there on board or not. I bet the PSU blows too,, soo your new video card might blow up lol jk... I think,,

 

[Tmagic650]

He's using a laptop - Dell Studio 17!

Thanks for the clarification

So this laptop does contain a upgradeable video card?

 

[DarKSeeD]

You need a video card, Your computer is a major bottleneck,,,,

You need a GTX 260 or AMD 4890 or 5770

They rip you off with the PC dell dell go to hell. and they throw the cheapest crappiest video card there is in there on board or not. I bet the PSU blows too,, soo your new video card might blow up lol jk... I think,,

Again, he's using a laptop!

http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/studio-1747/pd.aspx?refid=studio-1747&cs=19&s=dhs

 

[DarKSeeD]

Agh, this is really starting to annoy me. I have tried to update the driver several times, definitely choosing windows 7 64bit driver but it says all the components are installed. So I've uninstalled them and reinstalled them (with reboots in between) about a gazillion times and yet my driver is still only 8.650.0.0 (see attachment)

What am I doing wrong?

Boot in Safe mode, uninstall driver, reboot. Boot again in Safe mode and use a driver cleaner to clear Ati registry keys-files, reboot.
Boot normally and don't let windows to automatically install the drivers. Use Ati setup to install the new drivers, reboot.
Do you have the dotnetfx installed? Because Ati CC panel needs dotnetfx to function properly.
Also try another player as I stated before.

 

[tipstir]

Get the driver from Guru 3D for ATI 64-bit. I use that and no issues with onboard AMD HD graphics. I have my quad-core connected to Sharp 46" 1080P HDTV another quad-core connected to 23" 1080P HD Monitor same setup but a computer montior. I don't use VLC on 7 though.

 

[Tmagic650]

"Do you have the dotnetfx installed? Because Ati CC panel needs dotnetfx to function properly"...

That's .NET Framework available under Windows Updates, or from AMD/ATI directly... and some laptops have removable/upgradeable video cards installed

 

[kElevrA]

Hmm, I think I'm just gonna have to call it quits on this one. Ill just avoid using VLC for HD and avoid ATI all together in the future. Thanks for everyone's help. I really appreciate it.

 

[Tmagic650]

Next time try a hi-end Nvidia card

 

[nismo91]

my friend has a problem (not similar though) with VLC. he is running MSI laptop with 9600M GT card. he claims that VLC sometimes causes crashes between their own codec and other codec. perhaps you may want to use other software? (such as k-lite codec pack).