Choppy video

Mark Fuller

Posts: 615   +106
I don't know if this post belongs in software or hardware. I have a problem with video playback being choppy whether on battery or ac power. It is choppy both being played from hdd and a dvd player and with all software(windows media player, vlc, cyberlink power dvd and media suite and also Nero media home). I also have an internal and external dvd player. I have an old dell latitude d630 with a w10 upgrade that other than the choppy video works great. The dvd's are the internal dell and an LG BD/DVDRW. I have a 2.0 ghz intel processor dual core with 4gb ram. I have increased the page file and changed hardware acceleration several ways and adjusted the display adapter settings according to intel's recommendations. Also I uninstalled/updated the display adapter and BIOS to latest version still available and changed the power settings. I am thinking of adding RAM to see if that will help.
 
Use your Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) to see which...if any resources are constrained when the choppy video occurs.
 
If it's a properly old D630, it will be using a Mobile Intel GMA X1300 for graphics and video processing. It had a reputation for being poor at just about everything, but it should be able to handle basic DVD playback from an internal drive. While 4 GB of RAM isn't a lot, by today's standards, adding more won't resolve this particular issue, unless you're running a lot of other applications at the same time as the DVD software is running.

One thing to check is the transfer mode that the HDD and internal DVD drive are using. Press Windows key and X together, and then select Device Manager. Look for IDE controllers, open that branch, and double click on anything that says IDE channel. Hopefully, it will display an Advanced Settings tab where you can see what the transfer mode is.
 
I tried the task manager approach, although it does seem to help it didn't eliminate the problem completely. I notice it mostly happens after a long period of playing video files or on some very large video files. Maybe processor heat is an issue after a while. I think maybe I'll check the fan and processor vents to see if they are clean.
 
The Task Manager can show you which part of your computer is 100% busy...I am thinking CPU or HDD? It could also be too little RAM and your computer is trying to create the RAM it needs on the HDD and that is what the problem is.
 
Ahh ....so when the CPU hits 100% with streaming video I would imagine at those moments when you would feel the choppiness. In my opinion it is time to look for a replacement PC. To insure you are buying a faster CPU than you have now, you need to know a little about CPU speeds and performance. Going by the Gigahertz clock speed is not the only way to measure performance. One of my favorite ways to check out CPUs, is to Google the exact CPU make and model and click on CPUbenchmark. Example Google > Ryzen 4500u:


That score is a number given to the CPU after people have run Passmark's Performance Test on the machine. The single thread number is important to gamers and the margin for error indicates how many samples they have seen. So the performance number changes slightly with each test that is run. If you know the number that your current CPU scores you can more easily determine the increase in performance you will get if you know the score of the CPU in the replacement machine. =)
 
I also have an hp omen. I got this pc from a guy who didn't want it back and was just trying to patch it up. I works great with Microsoft office apps etc.
 
Ahh well nothing to lose then. Worse case scenario that's what it can be used for. Some light office duty.
 
I came to find out there is a setting in the BIOS under miscellaneous devices called eSATA when unchecked solves the problem. I think it has something to do with the fact that the earlier versions of windows, vista, 7 and xp had no provisions in the operating system for eSATA whereas the latter versions 8.1 and 10 probably do due to later manufacturing techniques. That's just a guess. I found this out doing some research on microsoft's website.
 
I came to find out there is a setting in the BIOS under miscellaneous devices called eSATA when unchecked solves the problem. I think it has something to do with the fact that the earlier versions of windows, vista, 7 and xp had no provisions in the operating system for eSATA whereas the latter versions 8.1 and 10 probably do due to later manufacturing techniques. That's just a guess. I found this out doing some research on microsoft's website.
That's nuts! Keep us informed if this "Fixed it". I will try to remember this tip =)
 
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