Video is jerky

[arnie22112000]

I have AMD 450Mhz PC with 256mb RAM and an AGP 2.0 32mb video card and a 7200rpm 10gb drive. All the video I've tried (youtube .avi's, quicktime) is jerky (sound works fine). I've had other PC with lesser parts perform better. What could this be?

[poisondeathray]

Probably not be enough ram for an XP system, and the OS is swapping with the tiny HD, which probably is full or fragmented. If you are streaming live, it could be the internet connection.

You could disable unused services and tweak your configuration to optomize ram, and try defragging your HD

[redwudz]

Check your Task Manager and see how much CPU % and how much memory you are using. With the small amount of RAM you have and a small hard drive, you computer may be using your hard drive for extra memory. If you aren't using that much CPU or RAM and your hard drive light isn't flickering all the time during playback, then it's another problem.

What program are you using for playback? Some players need more resources. Media Player Classic has fairly low resource needs.

Next, try updating your video card driver. Sometimes it get corrupted or they have newer or better drivers available.

Defrag your hard drive. I would consider doing that at least once a month. It will generally improve performance. With that small of drive, you also want to keep about 20% or more free by dumping unneeded files to DVD or CD.

[arnie22112000]

I don't know which services to disable to free up RAM and CPU power. I do use MPC (latest version) and Quicktime to watch trailers. I'll do the videocard driver update and get back to you on that. I have defraged but I'll do an offline defrag too.

Also when I reset I get 1 long beep and 3 short beeps. Looking these up with my Award BIOS, these mean something is wrong with the RAM. This could also be slowing things.

[redwudz]

If you think it may be a RAM problem, first turn off and unplug the computer, then remove and replace the RAM modules, making sure they are properly seated.

Then try running Memtest86 for a couple of hours to do a test of your memory. http://www.memtest86.com/ There's a free version available.

Also, if you have two sticks or more of RAM, remove one and try it, then substitute the other, or better yet, a known good stick from another computer. Bad RAM can cause all sorts of odd problems.

If you can afford it, consider doubling the amount of RAM. 512MB is much better for XP.

[arnie22112000]

It turned out to be the video card I had installed. I don't think the mobo could handle it so I replaced it with a 4mb ATI Rage IIC card and all is well.