Problems with audio/video

[jflex237]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum, so bear with me. If this question needs to go to another subtopic, please let me know.
I'm on a dell computer, running on windows xp.

I've noticed w/in the last couple of months that my computer has been having an audio/video problem. Meaning, for instance, say I go to youtube I can watch a video on there for about 30 seconds to a minute but then the audio and video will just stop. My computer doesn't crash or anything like that, I just can't play the video any longer. It happens everytime I try to play a video. And if I want to listen to a song online, I can play it for about 30 seconds but then it will stop.
Now I'm in an irc chatroom and I can talk in there for about 2 minutes and the screen will move and I see people chatting, but then after 2 minutes it stops. And say about 5 minutes goes by and then the chatroom screen will quickly scroll through everything everyone has said in the time will my screen was just sitting there.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

I thought it was a flash player problem, I have most recent version of it. So, un-installed it and then installed it again, but it's still happening.

thanks all for any solution you might have.

[neljan]

Hi Jflex, welcome to the forum

Are you experiencing any playback problems with files stored on your hardrive or is it just while you're online?

Which browser do you use & how is your security?

[mr_skipper24]

Do you have the same problem if your playing a DVD movie or music CD on the computer? you may try it 1st. because if you do have the problem then its a problem on the drivers of the notebook. But if it works fine then its a problem on the connection. Do  you have router?

[jflex237]

Hi Jflex, welcome to the forum

Are you experiencing any playback problems with files stored on your hardrive or is it just while you're online?

Which browser do you use & how is your security?

Thanks for the welcome, much appreciated!

No, I'm not experiencing any playback problems with files stored on my hard drive, looks like it's just happpening on videos and audio clips I try to use online.

I use internet explorer. My security is minimum, windows firewall, pop-up ad blocker.
I had McAfee for my security but that has expired and I couldn't afford to renew it at this time.

[jflex237]

Do you have the same problem if your playing a DVD movie or music CD on the computer? you may try it 1st. because if you do have the problem then its a problem on the drivers of the notebook. But if it works fine then its a problem on the connection. Do  you have router?

Yeah, I think it's a problem with the connection.
I do have a router, but it's only being used to hook up my internet to my directv receiver. Now that you mention that I think that's when I started having the problem, when I bought the router and hooked it up to my modem to connect to the directv receiver. Hmm...but what is a solution for that, I still want the router connected to the directv receiver, so I don't want to disconnect it.

[mr_skipper24]

All you need to do is disable the firewall / NAT and open a port on the router. call the router manufacturer on configuring the router for port and NAT firewall

[jflex237]

All you need to do is disable the firewall / NAT and open a port on the router. call the router manufacturer on configuring the router for port and NAT firewall

Thank you very much for your help. Guess what, it looks like all I needed to do was update my router's firmware and the problem seems to be solved. At least so far things are running ok.

[mr_skipper24]

Thats great! 

[Soviet_Genius]

I use internet explorer. My security is minimum, windows firewall, pop-up ad blocker.
I had McAfee for my security but that has expired and I couldn't afford to renew it at this time.

   That's not good. You need security software. There are some great free programs you can get. Try AVG free for anti-virus, Comodo for firewall, and SUPERantispyware for spyware.

[jflex237]

I use internet explorer. My security is minimum, windows firewall, pop-up ad blocker.
I had McAfee for my security but that has expired and I couldn't afford to renew it at this time.

   That's not good. You need security software. There are some great free programs you can get. Try AVG free for anti-virus, Comodo for firewall, and SUPERantispyware for spyware.

Thank you very much, I will try all of those that you named.

Will any of those interfere with any of the programs I have installed on my computer?

[neljan]

No, just make sure that you choose only one anti Virus program, two will cause problems.

Remember that anti-Spyware & anti-virus are two different things (you can have as many anti-Spyware programs installed as you like, accompanied with one anti-virus program).

I recommend that you read this (scroll down to 2nd post).

Glad that your problems fixed, but get secure