video problems after laptop has been on all night

[shokan22]

Over the past year, and trying different fixes, I still have problems playing videos of any format on any player. I mainly use TheKMPlayer (has its own codecs), but any player has problems. The symptoms are: the video playing in slo-mo (audio OK) or jerky motion. This is especially true if the Dell M1530 has been on for a long time, such as overnight. I restart it and everything plays fine.

When it's at its worst, when the video is playing very slowly, the cursor moves very slowly and unresponsively. So much so, that it takes me a while to hit the 'X' to close the player. Sometimes reducing the player window size then resizing it by dragging out to just shy of full size instantly corrects the problem, which is odd.

Another symptom is that any kind of Flash video or Flash component on a webpage slows down TabletPC handwriting on Win 7. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Flash several times, problem remains. Don't know if this problem has any relation to the video problems.

The onboard GPU for this laptop is notoriously bad. Other laptop brands using it had problems with it, not just Dell.

Any ideas? Can this GPU get "tired" if the machine has been on a long time? Or, any other possibility?

[aedipuss]

first i'd check task manager while a video is playing poorly. start task manager before trying a video, right click on task bar "start task manager" open the performance tab to see how much ram and cpu is being used. the get something to check the temps of the cpu and gpu. something like cpuid hardware monitor should work.

[shokan22]

first i'd check task manager while a video is playing poorly. start task manager before trying a video, right click on task bar "start task manager" open the performance tab to see how much ram and cpu is being used. the get something to check the temps of the cpu and gpu. something like cpuid hardware monitor should work.

Speedfan: GPU 59°C , Temp1 47°C, Core 0 46C, Core 1 47C. This GPUs main problem, as widely reported, is it getting VERY hot. 59°C at the moment is low. But, videos have played badly at both 59°C and at 85°C (about the hottest it gets such as during video conversion).

Task Manager (with only Firefox open to this page): CPU about 12%. RAM 47%. I have 4G RAM.

At the moment, videos running OK because I just restarted about an hour ago. I will have to wait half a day for problems to reappear probably.

[sanlyn]

Do you leave your laptop turned on all the time? Turning it off when not in use will restore RAM from all the memory leaks that usually occur with video playback and processing, and with other apps. Restarting will accomplish pretty much the same thing. You likely have antivirus system scanners running automatically in the background, other auto stuff like Windows Update, etc., etc., which often slow down all operations.

Yes. Intel runs hot. You can't have multi-core and speed without heat, especially with the cramped space and tiny cooling fans common to laptops. Get one of those laptops stands that gives your laptop some breathing room underneath.

[shokan22]

Do you leave your laptop turned on all the time? Turning it off when not in use will restore RAM from all the memory leaks that usually occur with video playback and processing, and with other apps. Restarting will accomplish pretty much the same thing. You likely have antivirus system scanners running automatically in the background, other auto stuff like Windows Update, etc., etc., which often slow down all operations.

Yes. Intel runs hot. You can't have multi-core and speed without heat, especially with the cramped space and tiny cooling fans common to laptops. Get one of those laptops stands that gives your laptop some breathing room underneath.

My laptop sits on a cardboard box with the top cut out. Inside is a household fan blowing directly into the vents under the machine. Ordinary laptop coolers, even a super duper one with 3 large fans, could not keep this laptop cool. The temps mentioned in my last post are the coolest it ever gets even with my special arrangement.

[shokan22]

For your entertainment, this is what that wacky arrangement looks like (14" fan in there, blowing up at medium high speed):

[sanlyn]

Cool (pun intended). I read elsewhere that 50 to 80 C is not unusual for later generation intels, so you're not seeing anything unusual. What's unusual is that you wait so long to power down or reboot to refresh memory. When I work with video all day I reboot several times. Especially when the mouse starts stuttering.

[aedipuss]

lol. wow. if it were mine i'd take the bottom off it and vacuum out the heat sinks. if it still misbehaved i would remove the hsfs off both cpu and gpu and clean then replace the thermal compound.

[shokan22]

lol. wow. if it were mine i'd take the bottom off it and vacuum out the heat sinks. if it still misbehaved i would remove the hsfs off both cpu and gpu and clean then replace the thermal compound.

Reply to the two posts above:
The video problems happen most if the machine has been on a long time. But, they can happen also after just starting up, or at any time, irrespective of temps.

A complete redo of compound for CPU/GPU was one of the first things I did a year ago (with the good stuff). Inside is clean. Very.

[sanlyn]

Then turn on task manager and see what's running when you start up. You could also try a scan with Malwarbytes, but you might have done that already.

[shokan22]

Then turn on task manager and see what's running when you start up. You could also try a scan with Malwarbytes, but you might have done that already.

Done both. As I say, sometimes videos run fine after starting, sometimes not... with the same startup processes for each time. Anti-virus fine.

Some months ago, I had no problems, btw.

[shokan22]

first i'd check task manager while a video is playing poorly. start task manager before trying a video, right click on task bar "start task manager" open the performance tab to see how much ram and cpu is being used. the get something to check the temps of the cpu and gpu. something like cpuid hardware monitor should work.

Half an hour ago when I reported CPU and RAM usage and temps, videos were running fine. Just now, I checked a video and the problem is back (slo-mo video, ridiculously slow uncontrollable cursor). The temps and CPU-RAM usage the same approx as 1/2 hour ago.

edit: KMPlayer started minimized to about 95% screen size and the problem happening. I clicked maximize and the video starts playing fine. Btw, same sort of problems with KMPlayer before and after re-install of latest. Problems with all other players as well. Mystery.

[shokan22]

Ten minutes later, same video, runs fine. So, problem is intermittent with no change in what's running besides the player.

[aedipuss]

where is the video being played from? hard drive, net, wireless nas, etc?

[shokan22]

where is the video being played from? hard drive, net, wireless nas, etc?

Desktop in this case but the problem seems to be on any drive or location and not predictable as to when or under what circumstances. Even the "after being on all night" may be irrelevant.

[aedipuss]

could be something like an overaggressive antivirus scanner hogging resources or scanning the drive.

[El Heggunte]

The actual problem might be KMplayer itself (no kidding this time).
By definition GUIs are resource hogs, even though some of them are faster than the others.
On my oldest machine, I use Mplayer whenever Potplayer or MPC-HC cannot do their job very-well.

[shokan22]

The actual problem might be KMplayer itself (no kidding this time).
By definition GUIs are resource hogs, even though some of them are faster than the others.
On my oldest machine, I use Mplayer whenever Potplayer or MPC-HC cannot do their job very-well.

Tried the same video in KMPlayer VLC, WMP, and Media Player Classic. In all, either it was the slo-mo thing (cursor almost non-functional), or it's playing in one-second spurts with five seconds frozen between each, or, in the case of VLC, plays one or two seconds then freezes permanently. This file btw was MKV. AVIs seem Ok right now and can't recall if AVIs have always been Ok. MP4s Ok right now, can't remember if they've ever given problems. Same with the rest but I think it's been all formats at different times. About KMP console, video bad with console occupying 95% of laptop screen, then video instantaneously fixed when maxing console to full laptop screen. KMP has its own codecs. Also, my problem is for all players.

I think the real solution is to put this old machine in the closet for emergency times and get something more current. So, unless anyone has any other suggestions, I'm calling it a day for this mysterious problem. Many thanks in any case.

[Bjs]

A bios update may help but unfortunately the M1530 gpu material is noted as inadequate when running at high temperatures.

Change the thermal paste for both cpu and gpu with artic sliver 5 will help some.

There was also a replacement heatsink used by dell technicians which helped but finding one of these will be difficult.

[shokan22]

A bios update may help but unfortunately the M1530 gpu material is noted as inadequate when running at high temperatures.

Change the thermal paste for both cpu and gpu with artic sliver 5 will help some.

There was also a replacement heatsink used by dell technicians which helped but finding one of these will be difficult.

I think the solution below may be even better. Haven't done it, but may try it. Honestly though, I get the temps down low enough with the fan setup shown in the pic above. And, all videos ran fine whether the laptop was hot or cool (ish) up until recently. No idea what happened. The thermal paste you mentioned I think is the same one I used btw. I don't think temperature is the problem especially since I can sometimes instantly fix video playback simply by maximizing the player console.

I have BI0S REV A12.

The braided wire mod is from:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19259944.aspx?PageIndex=3

[aedipuss]

if you go through the trouble of that mod i'd recommend getting some antec thermal 7 diamond compound also. i switched to it a couple years ago and won't go back to artic 5. for ease of use warm the tube of 7 before trying to apply.

[shokan22]

if you go through the trouble of that mod i'd recommend getting some antec thermal 7 diamond compound also. i switched to it a couple years ago and won't go back to artic 5. for ease of use warm the tube of 7 before trying to apply.

Tried VOB videos on a DVD using Win 7 default player. Video lagging way behind sound, cursor practically uncontrollable.

Just a note: These problems, as far as I can recall, started at about the same time I installed Windows 7 Codec Pack. Any thoughts on an alternative?

[jan5678]

Did you try to uninstall this codec pack? The players you mentioned don't need it.
Sometimes codec packs do more harm then good.
I only install ffdshow and matroskasplitter and use VLC as player

[shokan22]

Did you try to uninstall this codec pack? The players you mentioned don't need it.
Sometimes codec packs do more harm then good.
I only install ffdshow and matroskasplitter and use VLC as player

Yes, others say the same about using a mish- mash of codecs. I'll try ffdshow again, see what happens. Anything special I should do to make sure Win 7 Codec Pack completely disappears?

[aedipuss]

hehe the codec pack wars here are legendary. i've given up trying to dissuade people from using them, but more than one person has had to format c: and re-install windows because of them.

[shokan22]

hehe the codec pack wars here are legendary. i've given up trying to dissuade people from using them, but more than one person has had to format c: and re-install windows because of them.

Thinking of doing that very thing, lol. One way of knowing for sure everything's from scratch, barring hardware issues.