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...video (Youtube, etc) playback?
Getting slightly sluggish/ choppy video playback. I can't tell what the problem is. I ran speed & ping tests & all seemed fine there.
I *did* install (& the uninstall) the latest Adobe Flash. Now I'm back to 10.3...but it's still acting up.
What to do?
Discussion is locked
Why it matters is that XP machines suffer what some call the DMA bug. The next link tells you it can affect playback.
http://winhlp.com/node/10
Bob
Dell i6000, service pack 3, XP Professional, 2GB RAM.
Was ok before this Adobe business, but I'll check out the link above...
But given this is likely to be over 5 years old, you have other areas to explore. Let's make a list.
1. The old XP DMA bug.
2. Heat. You'll want to start with the usual cleaning such as you read at
http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6122_102-569818/getting-ready-to/?tag=contentBody;threadListing
3. Also at this age machine you find the heatsink compound to often be dry, cracked or just not there.
4. The HDD may be failing. As most hard drives have a lot of error correction capability you can see the failing HDD slow and if you are very lucky, there are clues in the SMART HDD reports.
5. Software, trojans and more. An old issue is toxic combinations such as McAfee and Teatimer. The list is almost endless and your new to this owner will exclaim they didn't change a thing. The truth is that with updates from MSFT, your AV supplier and other apps, what used to be fine, no longer is.
Bob
But I'm sure you have at least 10 or more GB free but didn't tell. There is another slowdown effect when folders (directories) collect a few thousand files. It's an old issue and easy to correct. How? Don't have folders with thousands of files in them.
Bob
If you want to see if fly, replace it with some 7200 RPM compatible.
that's not a lot of free space.
If it were mine ....I'd try Bob's advice 'Too many i6000's' and see where it goes from there.
VAPCMD
While trying to solve this problem, I figured it's def' time to bite the bullet & just get a new laptop. Looking at an hp dvt4-5100. (& I did my homework big time for this one, so I best not hear anything negative about it online *After* I get it.) 
Thank you both for the time & advice. You really did help.
(& oddly enough, the video issue seems to've resolved itself.)
It was a 3 month old G62. I discovered a bug in the BIOS that caused it to not boot when a smart phone was plugged in. I called it in and let HP do anything they wanted and finally after 8+ hours on the phone letting try and try, they shipped a box for it to be returned for repair.
That was the last day that laptop worked for me.
They service swapped motherboards, and the unit on return would lock up in minutes. More calls and HP responded with "that's all we can do."
Left with a dead laptop, I share my story from time to time. 9 months later a HP Social rep noticed this and asked for details which I gladly supplied. Timing was a bit late since a few weeks earlier I cleaned out the closet and disposed of the dead machine.
HP may be making laptops but none I can use because of their failed services.
--> What else came out of this is that if you find a bug like this, HP can't fix it because they "buy" the BIOS. Since they buy it, they can't correct issues.
For me, that's 2 strikes and I won't wait for strike 3.
Bob
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