Computer very slow. Choppy video and audio playback from browsers

[dennis pengelly]

When I am playing a video with any browser it is very choppy (sound and video).
Even Window sounds are choppy. It seems like if I move the mouse it gets worse.

Computer is very slow to open programs, even though the system idle process
is at 99% before starting another progam. This happens even when no browser is open and the
anti-virus software is disabled.

I don't know is this is a software or hardware issue.

 

[Tmagic650]

Post this here:
https://www.techspot.com/community/forums/virus-and-malware-removal.28/
See if they can help with this problem

 

[dennis pengelly]

Thank you for your reply.

I have already been through that forum for a different reason. Please see:
Multiple iexplore processes

Broni solved that issue and pronounced my system clean. He suggested I try this forum for my current issues. As I said above, I don't know if they are software or hardware related. I have tried quite a few things myself after reading about this problem on the internet, but nothing resolves the issues.

 

[bazz2004]

Post details of the computer and what you have tried. Somebody might then be able to make some suggestions.

 

[dennis pengelly]

Computer Details:

Dell Dimension 8300 (10 years old)

3 Ghz Pentium 4 Processor with 1 GB Ram
Windows XP Home Edition with SP3
120 GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio
Radeon X800 Pro Display Adaptor with Samsung Syncmaster 953BW
JLMS DVD-ROM XJ-HD166
_NEC DVD+RW ND-2100AD
Linksys EG1032 v3 Instant Gigabit Desktop Network Adaptor
Logitech C210 Webcam

Reloaded:
Flash Player
Sound Drivers
Display Driver

Disabled:
Avast Antivirus
Hardware Acceleration
Windows Firewall

Using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox (not Internet Explorer)

Thanks for any suggestions

 

[bazz2004]

Well it's a pretty old computer by present day standards and you could do with doubling the ram to at least 2Gb. It has probably got the original graphics card which could be upgraded. You'll need to be careful about that or you may buy something that won't suit but I'm sure that you could get a worthwhile performance boost for not much expenditure. Switching from Avast to something using less resources might help too. Microsoft Security Essentials isn't the greatest but it does the job. Are you sure that you wouldn't prefer to buy a new computer because Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft.

 

[dennis pengelly]

I know my system is old, but I think there is something wrong with either the software or hardware. This is a benchmark that I just ran:

12/1/2014 PC Test Results - UserBenchmark
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/97883 1/3
BENCHMARK YOUR PC
Health: 14%
VERY POOR ? (Compared to identical PCs)
Speed: 11%
TREE TRUNK ? (Compared to all PCs)
"I just benched my build..."
Processor 21.7% is a relatively low CPU score. This system will struggle to
handle much more than email, web surfing and audio/video playback.
Boot Drive
The boot partition is located on a mechanical or hybrid drive. Moving
the system to an SSD will yield a significantly snappier user
experience.
Memory 1GB is enough RAM to run any version of Windows comfortably.
OS
Version
Windows XP is considerably out of date. This system has enough RAM
(1GB) and should be upgraded to at least Windows 7 and preferably
Windows 8.1.
COMPONENT SCORES
The graphs show user score (x) vs frequency (y).
System Dell Dimension 8300
Motherboard Dell 0W2562
Memory 0.6 GB free of 1 GB @ 0.4 GHz
Display 1440 x 900 - 32 Bit colors,
OS Windows XP
BIOS Date 20040223
Uptime 0 Days
Run Date Dec 01 '14 at 14:58
Run Duration 334 Seconds
Run User USA-User
Ambient CPU 23%
!!High ambient CPU load - an idle system
improves benchmark accuracy.
All CPUs
Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz
Microprocessor, 1 CPU, 1 cores, 1 threads.
101 User results - Rank 664 - 25.1%
Base clock 3 GHz
Performance health: 24 % ?
PC Test Results
User System
Processor Speed
? Single core ? Dual core ? Multi core ?
Rank 704
21.7%
SC Int 37.7
SC Float 27.9
SC Mixed 29.6
30% 31.7 Pts
DC Int 39.9
DC Float 25.3
DC Mixed 28
15% 31.1 Pts
MC Int 37.4
MC Float 29.4
MC Mixed 33.6
6% 33.5 Pts
Drive Speed
? Sequential ? Random 4k ? Deep queue 4k ?
Read 3.16
Write 3.34
4K Read 0.41
4K Write 0.94
Worst: 6% ↑
21.7%
Best: 32%
UserBenchmark USA-User US Product
USB SSD CPU HDD GPU Compare Download
12/1/2014 PC Test Results - UserBenchmark
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/97883 2/3
All HDDs
Seagate ST3120026AS 120GB-$19
54GB free
28 User results - Rank 806 - 30.9%
Max speed: SATA 1.0 150 MB/s
SYSTEM !4KALIGNED
Performance health: 4 % ?
Share this page
Rank 869
2.61%
Mixed 3.03
2% 3.18 MB/s
4K Mixed 0.3
68% 0.55 MB/s
Take a copy of these results
MORE SAMPLES
Please help us grow by sharing your results on forums, deal sites and social media ↘
The Best.
USB SSD CPU HDD GPU
SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0
16GB
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB AMD FX-8350 Seagate Desktop SSHD 1TB Nvidia GTX 970
SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0
32GB
Samsung 840 Evo 250GB AMD FX-6300 Seagate Barracuda 7200.14
2TB
Nvidia GTX 980
Adata DashDrive Elite UE700
USB 3.0 64GB
Samsung 850 Pro 256GB Intel Core i5-4690 Seagate Barracuda 7200.14
1TB
AMD R9 280
Benchmark your PC
About • Email • Privacy
S.M.A.R.T
Worst: 3% ↑
2.61%
Best: 41%
12/1/2014 PC Test Results - UserBenchmark
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/97883 3/3

 

[bazz2004]

I'm just an everyday computer user but I disagree that 1Gb of ram is enough to run any version of Windows. My rather old P4 3.4 Ghz desktop has 2.5Gb of ram. It's pretty fast and also running XP. Originally, XP computers typically had 512 Mhz of ram but as the OS inflated more ram was needed. SP3 is much larger and demanding than the original XP OS. No mention made on the possibility of upgrading the graphics card. I hope that the assessment was free. Yes, as anybody can confirm an SSD drive would considerably boost performance but it is a big outlay for such an old system. Hopefully, you have defragmented the hard drive recently because a badly fragmented drive will always slow things down considerably. CCleaner is also a free useful utility you may not be aware of - worth trying. Best of luck with whatever you decide.

 

[Tmagic650]

The benchmark does tell the story...

 

[bazz2004]

The benchmark shows that it's not a great set up but it should be able to stream video without all those problems. The only upgrades to my Pentium 4 desktop have been a massive ram upgrade and a 1Tb replacement hard drive because I'd filled the original. No way would I splash out on an SSD for it or upgrade the OS. The reason is that I know that some of the hardware like the sound card would also have to be changed because there are no drivers available for Windows versions more recent than XP. Even ram can work out expensive and only graphics cards come cheap at the entry level. Myself, I'd buy a new computer rather than struggle for improvements.