Computer freezes when trying to view video in full screen.

[beanhead07]

Hey guys, I'm not sure if this is a hardware issue or not, but I decided to put this thread here. Just recently I sold one of my spare computers to a friend of mine. The computer worked fine when I had it (and still works fine apart from this issue) but I just got an email from my friend telling me that whenever he tries to view a video on youtube in full screen it freezes the computer and he has to restart it. (by holding down the power button, ctrl, alt, delete doesn't work.) Any ideas of what might be causing this?

The PC specs are:
2.8GHz Pentium 4
2 GHZ DDR RAM
120 GB hard drive
GeForce 7300 (i believe)
Windows XP w/ SP2

Let me know if I'm forgetting any specs or anything. Thanks guys!

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

What browser is being used, what version, and if the problem persists in both IE and Firefox.

[beanhead07]

The browser is Internet Explorer 7. He doesn't have firefox installed I don't think.

[Ramenma]

here's what i found that helped me when i had the exact same issue.

Right click the video player when its paused or in small mode and go to settings, from there uncheck the "Enable Hardware Acceleration" check box, to where it is turned off. 

that simple procedure has saved me a lot of time and frustrations.

[patio]

Since the machine has been moved have him re-seat the vid card and the RAM sticks...
As always when working inside the case remove all power sources and take anti-static precautions...

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

March 08

[patio]

Nice catch...i'd still like to know why you would want to turn off hardware accelleration...

[Ramenma]

Nice catch...i'd still like to know why you would want to turn off hardware accelleration...

the hardware acceleration is what was causing the videos to freeze/glitch, the videos are not DVD style videos and thus can not be accerlerated when in full screen video properly.

 my computer when i first install my new graphics card and then i went to watch some shows i watch streaming, it would freeze/crash every time i would put it in full screen.  i did some digging and did some 'exploratory surgery' on my add-ons and extensions for my IE & my Firefox and after about 30 mins of screwing around and not getting the job done i tried the simplest of ideas, the video players settings.  and as soon as i turned off the acceleration it ran smoothly and without a problem.  Like i was still using my built in graphics card (but not, it's completely disabled).

[patio]

This still makes no sense but i'm glad it worked in your case...

The type of video format has nothing to do with whether hardware acceleration works or not...hardware acceleration uses available resources to run hardware properly.

[Ramenma]

This still makes no sense but i'm glad it worked in your case...

The type of video format has nothing to do with whether hardware acceleration works or not...hardware acceleration uses available resources to run hardware properly.

Your right it shouldn't make a difference, but before the new graphics card i had hardware acceleration for the streaming videos, and after the new video card i had to turn that function off.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact I'm currently using a nVidia 8400gs, I heard there was some issues with the 8000 series, but in my little neck of the woods here it was all i could find for under $130, and i refuse to order anything online with my credit card.  had it 'stolen' once and not making that mistake ever again.

[Geek-9pm]

CO2 said:

March 08 Shocked

His first post was:

« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2008, 09:30:22 AM »

When you get this figured out, I will be back about six weeks ago. This time-travel has me more goofy than usual.