Youtube videos getting laggy

Comp Specs:

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo
Western Digital 600GB SATA 7200rpm 32MB cache hard drive
AMD Barton 3200+ 2.4ghz 400fsb cpu
ATI Radeon 9600XT graphics card
3x 1GB sticks of 400mhz DDR1 RAM (Corsair)

if you need to know anything else let me know

Background Info:
Lately my computer just isn't running like it use to. I used to do a lot of gaming, but now it's mostly browsing. I started getting problems loading web pages and switching tabs in Firefox. The problem became consistently worse until I switched to Google Chrome; however given the power of my system I shouldn't have had to switch. Unless there's something wrong with Firefox. The problem has nothing to do with my internet connection as I have a 30mbit/s download speed and 1mbit/s upload speed. My only conclusion was that my processor is getting old and can't process the way it use to. Also for some reason Firefox was taking up like 200mb of ram even when freshly started. I don't know but I'm getting kind of off topic here. The point I'm trying to get at is that I think my processor and video card are dying and I'm wondering if I should bother to do anything about it. I recently added the 3GB of RAM replacing the 1 GB I had and the hard drive is also new (both less than 1 year old). The graphics card is about 4 or so years old I got it off eBay as I had to replace my original graphics card (9800SE) and the processor and mobo are from when I first built the computer almost 8 years ago.


The Problem:
Now it seems I can't even really play a Youtube video without the video lagging like crazy. The video itself is fully loaded. I noticed that the problem got worse with the latest update of flash a few weeks ago from 9.x something to 10.x something. I have no real lag problems when watching divx or avi videos with VLC media player; however something recorded at a really high resolution like 1280x720 would be unplayable due to lag, even in VLC. I've used programs to re-encode the videos at a lower resolution to test that they work and have no problems playing videos as high as 720x480. I don't know if the lag from high resolution videos and the lag from Youtube have anything to do with one another, but Youtube videos are virtually unwatchable; especially since the latest flash update.

This problem is persistent with other video playing websites like Daily Motion, Nate, Google Video, etc. The severity of the lag seems to depend on the speed of the movement in the video. For example, a video of someone drumming really quickly would lag more than a news blog or documentary.

The problem itself also seems to be very inconsistent. Sometimes I will load a video and have it lag a lot. Try closing down the browser and all background processes and restarting the video with the same problem or sometimes worse. And then I can be doing something like writing this post and testing video on other websites and go back to the same video and it runs significantly smoother; however not without a severe degree of lag.

Sometimes the lag seems to be tied with processor use. For example if a web page is loading in a new tab and I switch over to the video it will be more laggy as the web page is loading but once the web page is fully loaded the lag resumes to the same level it was when the video started. Mind you, the videos are always laggy on youtube. Again I experience absolutely no video lag when watching videos in VLC media player. And all videos are fully streamed or loaded.

What I'm wondering:
Is this a software or hardware problem? I've been meaning to reformat again (which I do semi-annually depending on how computer problems arise) but haven't gotten around to it. I have a lot of file organization and backup to do; or can I fix the problem by changing some computer settings? As near as I can tell there is no way to change how YouTube videos run on the computer.

If it's a hardware problem, is it worth shelling out $150 or so for a new AGP card or is it my processor and I'm screwed?

Any help is appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read.

Thanks,
Steve

If the problem is hardware related, the way to find out is swap out the hardware. Start with he 9600XT. Also, why 3 x 1GB in single channel? Use 2 x 1GB is dual channel with the 3200 Barton and NF2 MB. I have the identical ASUS socket A MB with the AMD 3200 Barton. Beyond the 9600XT being faulty or overheated, RAM is often the cause of system failure when loading software. Perhaps run memtest and check for defective RAM. If the hardrive is an old IDE model in service for a long period like a decade, it is supect to failure too. I just had an old IDE WD drive fail after ten years. I should have realized the drive was going bad when the system seemed 'sluggish'. Loading up a SATA drive on the ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe requires advanced knowledge of the board. I can help with the installation of a SATA drive. You would need to create a floppy SATA driver from scratch to load at the F6 prompt and be able to use the SATA interface preinstaled on the board. Anyway, the board/video card run hot by nature. A check of the 9600GT's fan as well as the CPU fan couldn't hurt. Use a can of compressed air to clean out any accumilated dust from the system fans.

Yes. The RAM would then be in dual channel mode and have more bandwidth and be capable of greater GB/sec. data transfer rates to the CPU. Two channels would be more attuned to multitasking also.

You would need a second known working card to install to rule out 9600XT failure. Download GPUZ and see if any GPU/GDDR3 temps are available with the software. If the video memory is overheating it can cause problems. GPUZ may offer the card's fan speed also.

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

The everest temps look good. My 3200 Barton runs a little hot too.

Download CPUZ and check the CPU and RAM speed/specs.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

As far as software causing the problem, a few suggestions.

-Download and install Internet exploer 8

-Download and install Google Chrome browser, much faster than IE8 on many speed related tests

-Also Firefox and Opera browsers are available for free download to test with.

-Adobe.com has the latest Adobe Flash Player free download. Youtube uses Adobe Flash Player for their videos.

-Also try updating to the latest version of JAVA at Java.com

EDIT I had to go back and reread your message to see you have tried other browsers. It's a long message and hard to remember everything you wrote with the schedule I have.

I keep this card PCI interface (not PCIE) around to test with. In fact, it worked great when I installed it in my A7N8X-E Deluxe.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/ind [...] 30pscb4634

Yeah, there is aproblem with this. The CPU is not running at 2.2GHz like it should. You could try resetting the CMOS jumper to default the BIOS and see if that gives you full speed with the 3200. This kind of thing happens when the processor is not recogniized properly in BIOS. I have to trvavel today and my 3200 system is home. I can reference that system if need be, but try defaulting the BIOS. Unplug the system, remove the battery and reset the jumper. Instructions in the MB manual.

Also, to your initial question about Youtube video lagging, you can try downloading the videos to the hard drive and playing them from there. Use a software like this and try it. No streaming video involved with this.

http://atube-catcher.dsnetwb.com/g [...] -Page.html

Note. That processor/RAM speed is wrong and is certainly a problem. Try defaulting the BIOS first.

The more software you load, the more the video will lag, and that includes loading microsoft updates.
Cut down the number of applications to minimum and the lag will be less.
Chrome does not run worth a crap in an XP system. That's one thing that you should delete.
It's not the video card, it's that your processor cache is full, and every time it reaches 100%, that's when the video lags or stops.
Change to a quad core processor motherboard and you will get the results that you want, but upgrading what you have now won't do much of anything. Dump all but the most needed applications (1 web browser, 1 media player, etc... 1 all in one security application) and you will improve some.

I run very minimal processes in the background. Never had a microsoft update. As a matter of fact I've shut off about 60% of the microsoft services that run in the background by svchost.exe that I don't use. The total memory used by all 5 of my svchost.exe processes it less than 35MB. Other than that the only other stuff running is the typical csrss.exe, explorer.exe lsass.exe, rundll32.exe, services.exe, smss.exe, spoolsv.exe, winlogon.exe, system, and system idle process.

Other than that the only other thing that runs is uTorrent or media monkey if I listen to music. And my Video drivers. I don't even let java or adobe update run on start up. I only ever run them manually. I don't even use any kind of security on my system. Never had for 8 years and never had any virus/spyware related problems.

The reason I switched to google chrome is because it runs a lot smoother than Firefox. However the problems with Firefox cropped up at the same time as my YouTube problems. Even after clearing all my cache, private data, etc. from Firefox it uses about 150MB of memory from the second I start it. And after maybe 30 minutes of use it almost doubles that. I've always loved firefox but my system just seems to reject it in the recent months.

The solution to just switch to a quad core processor and mobo is kinda nil and half-cocked don't you think? That's like saying, instead of troubling-shooting the problem just buy a new system. I'm not going to buy a whole new system for almost $1000 when all I do with this one is torrent and browse the web. That doesn't seem too intelligent does it? Especially if the problem is solved by replacing one piece of hardware for $50.

I'm not running a lot of high resource programs. You do seem to be right about the video lag having to do with the processor cache. When watching a YouTube video the browser takes up at least 70% of my CPU resources. I will try trouble-shooting with Opera and maybe another browser since you say chrome is no good with XP. I'm avidly against Internet Explorer and Firefox is just a lost cause it seems.

I will try the solution below to restore my CPU to it's original capacity and see if that fixes the problem because I never use to have lag when streaming videos online until recently. If it was my CPU cache, wouldn't I have always had this problem?

P.S. I see on my side tab here that you are one of the Top Experts, and an Audio Tech. Is that like building and EQing PA's and mixing for shows and stuff? In which case. Me too. How do you enjoy it? I've only been in the industry a couple years and I'm loving it. I'm interested in getting into doing my own studio recording soon as well; as I am a musician. Everyone is telling me that if you are going into any kind of multimedia design, then a MAC is the way to go. A large part of the reason I'm reluctant to buy a new PC is because I was thinking my next machine would be more practical to have a MAC if I'm going to be recording. What's your opinion on this as an Audio Tech?

UPDATE: So I went into my BIOS, low and behold all of the settings were as they should be. I didn't have to change a thing. Weirdest part is now my system is reading as having the the full 2.2 GHz of CPU frequency. Problem is that I didn't change anything...

Also my CPU-Z says:
2191.3 MHz core speed
199.2 MHz bus speed
398.4 MHz Rated FSB

is the 0.50% difference because of hardware deterioration over time or what?

So when I logged on and started posting this update there was no video improvement. I installed Opera and it was working better. I installed Safari and it was even better. I went back to Firefox to give it a try and it ran almost perfectly smooth. And now things are even working in Chrome. What did I do to make all the videos work again? Maybe it's that the computer is recognizing the CPU at full capacity again, but how did I fix that? Something weird is going on here guys... any idea what it is?

Yeah. I can't run HD videos without lag (720p) is that my video card? Is that PCI card you were talking about better than my current card?

So getting a new video card wouldn't help to run the HD videos, the CPU is the reason they are lagging?

Thanks for all the help. I know this is getting off topic now but any recommendation on what browser might run best on my system? I don't really care how it looks or what options it has as I can always customize those.

Firefox now seems to start at around 30MB if I clear all my cache and private data after every close. However it is very quick to jump up to hundreds of MB of memory usage.

Chrome on the other hand usually only uses 20-30mb of memory but runs a new instance of itself for every tab (plus one additional which I can only assume is a backup to help prevent crashing). This doesn't necessarily seem like a bad thing though as the resources are allocated tab by tab and therefore the slowness of one tab wouldn't affect the other tabs, am I right?

Opera starts off using 180MB of memory from a fresh install, and Safari uses 120MB. I haven't spent very much time with either of these two browsers (although when I was doing web design I was using Opera to make sure all my code was multi-browser compatible). Any suggestions? Or should I post a new topic in the appropriate thread for something like this?

Thanks for the browser info.

I'm still having this video problem. I've been away for a while so I haven't been watching a lot of Youtube, but I was checking out a trailer and about halfway through the video starts lagging like crazy. I checked my CPU and everything is reading fine. Full 2.2 GHz

Yes. I often do so and the lag occurs even when the video is fully loaded. I just ran a speed test at that site which reports 24.94 MBps download speed and 0.96 MBps upload speed.

I haven't had time to go back and read the entire thread, but here is the latest ATI graphics driver (Ver. 10.2) for the 9600XT. I use this driver on several of my older ATI cards. Also, I have installed the 9600XT in two systems in the past. The card should have plenty of power to run Youtube videos.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownl [...] ng=English

Yes. That was one of the first things you told me to do. It over-wrote some of my audio settings unfortuneatly, but I was able to tinker with stuff to get everything back in order.

Well, I have put my system back in it's box back into the closet stored away again . I suppose the data transfer rate using 400MHz. RAM with an AMD Athlon 3200 cajn be considered slow if compared with what is available today. I can't remember having any problem watching Youtube videos on my system, but I suppose a plan for a system upgrade may be the plan to solve the issue for you. You have plenty of RAM and a good video card, but it appears the system just can not transfer the data required to produce Youtube video withput the lag. Upgrading to a quad core system would likely make you happy as far as data transfer speeds upgrading goes