hi! i have a friend who i chat with on yahoo messenger and shes having problems viewing 
videos online or even saved to her hard drive due to very low h.d space. 
 she's got a pretty old computer that was custom built and isnt one specific brand 
at all, far from it.
i've helped her locate her video adapter graphic controller drivers and reinstall 
them due to her pictures being messed up, looking (grainy, and black and white) she 
now has all her color back at 16 bits so i know she doesnt need to update that.
here is the sad part :(
 she only has a maximum capacity of 1.96 gb on her h.d and only 192 mb left to use. 
i know, thats really low. her ram is 92 mb but im thinking thats not that bad, i 
used to run a computer when my good ones hard drive went out that only had 64 mb 
ram and i could watch videos fine. 
so im thinking that her skipping video is due to the low space alone, am i right?
 i know that the operating sytem alone takes up alot of her space that is gone but 
would it be that much? almost the full 2 gb's?
she doesnt have many things on her computer like extra programs and personal files 
so im thinking all the space is for system files for the o.s.
 does anyone know any way to get her videos to work without constant skipping or 
is it just impossible? i told her she needs to buy a better computer already and 
she knows its true. :p thanks for any help in advance

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi Ron.

It depends on what is being used to drive these video's. Whether its Windows Media 
Player which she can update to version 9.0 of 

Microsoft

A lot of web pages use Shockwave Flash which she can download different versions 
at

Oldversion

You say she doesn't have a lot of applications running that she doesn't need. How 
do you know this?

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

thnx for the reply keith. she is using windows media player to play videos. not sure 
which version though. 
we found out about her videos skipping after i asked her to check something out on 
youtube or something (uses flash). i doubt updating either program would solve her 
issue as i don't think it's isolated to one program.
i know she doesnt have many programs because i have seen screenshots from when we 
updated her graphics drivers, her desktop was bare (most programs create shortcuts). 
i also had her list all things in add/remove programs, wasnt a very long list. shes 
not very technical and doesnt know much about computers so i asked her to send me 
screen shots of certain locations so she didnt have to describe what she was seeing.
thanks again keith.







On Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 12:14 pm, Keith Stanier wrote:

>Hi Ron.

>

>It depends on what is being used to drive these video's. Whether its Windows Media 

>Player which she can update to version 9.0 of 

>

>Microsoft

>

>A lot of web pages use Shockwave Flash which she can download different versions 

>at

>

>Oldversion

>

>You say she doesn't have a lot of applications running that she doesn't need. How 

>do you know this? 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Are both of you running WinME?

Well its easy enough to find the version number of Windows Media Player. Just go 
to Program Files\Windows Media Player and check the properties of wmplayer.exe. I'm 
using version 9.0 so my version properties are 9.00.00.2980.

If you both using the same applications to run this video and yours runs ok then 
just compare version numbers.

As for Macromedia Shockwave go to Windows\System\Macromed\Flash and see whats the 
newest ocx that is in there. I have 4 because I've updated a few times, Flash.ocx, 
Flash9c.ocx, Flash9d.ocx and SWFlash.ocx and I program.

As for telling what is running in the background you can count the icons showing 
next to the clock. You can also do a Ctrl+Atl+Del and count the items in Task Manager. 
When the computer first starts up and you can only see your DeskTop if you do a Ctrl+Atl+Del 
then you should only need two items running that Systray and Explorer. Anything else 
is just superficial and isn't needed.

When you say she has 92 mb of RAM that doesn't seem much to me. Don't forget every 
application that is running is using system resources (memory) so if you not using 
it, don't have it running. You will find that people have Virus Checkers running 
all the time and they use a lot of resources.

By the way I'm using Win98se which is very close to WinME.

You say her HD maximum capacity is 1.96 gb and 192 mb left to use. What the size 
of her HD?

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

i know she isnt big on updating and keeping up with new versions of programs, lol. 
i would imagine shes still using windows media player 7. as for flash, i have no 
idea except its probably pretty old.
looking in the task managers processes tab would be  helpful if i didnt know what 
programs could "possibly" be running, but i know every program she has already. also 
i noted the icons in the system tray and there were only yahoo messenger at the time 
we was chatting, aside the volume control and network icon.
anti-virus programs can really make a computer crawl but she doesnt have one installed 
or running.
btw i am not on windows me im on xp sp1.
92 mb of ram is indeed not alot. dont forget tho i was running a pc with only 68 
mb ram and 4 gb max hd with about 2.5 free and i could still multi-task and watch 
videos with little or no lagg.
her hard drive size? not sure what you mean there unless you mean maximum capacity 
which is 1.96. if you mean physical deminsions tho i couldnt tell you.
thanks again for replying.






On Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 3:37 pm, Keith Stanier wrote:

>Are both of you running WinME?

>

>Well its easy enough to find the version number of Windows Media Player. Just go 

>to Program Files\Windows Media Player and check the properties of wmplayer.exe. 
I'm 

>using version 9.0 so my version properties are 9.00.00.2980.

>

>If you both using the same applications to run this video and yours runs ok then 

>just compare version numbers.

>

>As for Macromedia Shockwave go to Windows\System\Macromed\Flash and see whats the 

>newest ocx that is in there. I have 4 because I've updated a few times, Flash.ocx, 

>Flash9c.ocx, Flash9d.ocx and SWFlash.ocx and I program.

>

>As for telling what is running in the background you can count the icons showing 

>next to the clock. You can also do a Ctrl+Atl+Del and count the items in Task Manager. 

>When the computer first starts up and you can only see your DeskTop if you do a 
Ctrl+Atl+Del 

>then you should only need two items running that Systray and Explorer. Anything 
else 

>is just superficial and isn't needed.

>

>When you say she has 92 mb of RAM that doesn't seem much to me. Don't forget every 

>application that is running is using system resources (memory) so if you not using 

>it, don't have it running. You will find that people have Virus Checkers running 

>all the time and they use a lot of resources.

>

>By the way I'm using Win98se which is very close to WinME.

>

>You say her HD maximum capacity is 1.96 gb and 192 mb left to use. What the size 

>of her HD? 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Well if she has a maximum capacity of 1.96gb then its only a 2gb drive. I think she 
needs to invest in a new drive. If its a very old computer which it sounds like with 
a drive of that size then she would need to check the BIOS to see if it will accept 
a larger drive. A good web search for BIOS make and model should tell her these details. 
Just open up My Computer and it will tell her the Total Size in GB and the Free Space. 
Its the 192mb left to use thats the problem. Windows uses a swap file Win386.swp 
mine is 100mb at the moment. So the size of this file will vary according to what 
is being used. So if she only has 192mb left its topping out.

Mine is a 9 years old computer and that came initially with a 6.4gb HD and 64mb of 
RAM and Win95.

I updated the RAM to 256mb and installed Win98se 7 years ago. A couple of years ago 
I bought a 20gb HD and increased the RAM to 500mb.

I bought Win2k 4 years ago, installed it, I didn't like it so Win98 went back. I 
also bought WinXP a 3 years ago. I installed it and ran it for a week didn't like 
it so I out Win98 back. Last year I decided that I must put WinXP back and get used 
to it. This time it wouldn't install I just get the blue screen of death in initialization. 
Why would it go in 3 years ago and not now, nothing as changed hardware wise. I've 
posted this problem on here and other windows forums but no one can help.

Anyway I'm moving of your point. She has to decided whether she tries to fit a larger 
HD and more RAM or she buys a new computer. The cost of computers and internal part 
is coming down all the time.

I presume you are both living in the States?

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

If you need hard drive space to view a video, that is the problem.  I mean space 
beyond that needed to store the video file, typically a few tens of Megs for one 
file.  (At least that is the size of my downloaded YouTube files.)

For maximum performance, a program and data should fit into RAM, since that is far 
faster than any hard drive.  If the RAM is too small, Windows will start using swap 
space on disk, or "virtual" memory.

I once had a win95 PC that stumbled when opening/viewing WORD95 files that contained 
JPG images.  I checked the RAM usage and all 16 Meg were being used, and then it 
was then trying to use the virtual memory (hard drive).  I could hear the hard drive 
chirping.

I increased the RAM to 80 Meg and the same DOC file loaded and displayed almost instantaneously. 
 However, I could easily make a larger DOC file that caused the problem.





On a win98 PC with 128 Meg RAM I had a similar issue with image-editting software. 
 Once again, increasing RAM fixed the problem.

Thus, I suggest increasing RAM, or decreasing the size of videos viewed.  Hard drive 
space should not be an issue for viewing one file.

That said, under 200 Meg is getting pretty tight, given that winME makes restore 
points and otherwise can fill disk space fairly fast.  Getting a larger hard drive 
sounds like an obvious solution to an impending problem.  Any PC store should be 
able to install a larger drive and also transfer all files.  Or, you could do it 
with GHOST, TueImage, etc.  Be sured to request FAT32 format, instead of FAT16, which 
you might currently have.  FAT16 is limited to 2 Gig paritions, whereas FAT32 to 
go far larger.







On Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 7:56 pm, Ron wrote:

>hi! i have a friend who i chat with on yahoo messenger and shes having problems 
viewing 

>videos online or even saved to her hard drive due to very low h.d space. 

> she's got a pretty old computer that was custom built and isnt one specific brand 

>at all, far from it.

>i've helped her locate her video adapter graphic controller drivers and reinstall 

>them due to her pictures being messed up, looking (grainy, and black and white) 
she 

>now has all her color back at 16 bits so i know she doesnt need to update that.

>here is the sad part :(

> she only has a maximum capacity of 1.96 gb on her h.d and only 192 mb left to use. 

>i know, thats really low. her ram is 92 mb but im thinking thats not that bad, i 

>used to run a computer when my good ones hard drive went out that only had 64 mb 

>ram and i could watch videos fine. 

>so im thinking that her skipping video is due to the low space alone, am i right?

> i know that the operating sytem alone takes up alot of her space that is gone but 

>would it be that much? almost the full 2 gb's?

>she doesnt have many things on her computer like extra programs and personal files 

>so im thinking all the space is for system files for the o.s.

> does anyone know any way to get her videos to work without constant skipping or 

>is it just impossible? i told her she needs to buy a better computer already and 

>she knows its true. :p thanks for any help in advance 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

never thought about having her turn system restore off before. im just gonna tell 
her she needs to get a new hard drive or a better pc altogether. thanks richard for 
replying and thanks keith for your consistancy :) i appreciate both your help.






On Sunday, October 28, 2007 at 8:13 am, Richard Harris wrote:

>If you need hard drive space to view a video, that is the problem.  I mean space 

>beyond that needed to store the video file, typically a few tens of Megs for one 

>file.  (At least that is the size of my downloaded YouTube files.)

>

>For maximum performance, a program and data should fit into RAM, since that is far 

>faster than any hard drive.  If the RAM is too small, Windows will start using swap 

>space on disk, or "virtual" memory.

>

>I once had a win95 PC that stumbled when opening/viewing WORD95 files that contained 

>JPG images.  I checked the RAM usage and all 16 Meg were being used, and then it 

>was then trying to use the virtual memory (hard drive).  I could hear the hard drive 

>chirping.

>

>I increased the RAM to 80 Meg and the same DOC file loaded and displayed almost 
instantaneously. 

> However, I could easily make a larger DOC file that caused the problem.

>
 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Your friend's problem arises from the fact that video files are not stored as uncompressed video footage, but are in fact compressed, using a variety of technical tricks, in order to save disk space, or in order to make it possible to stream them over a broadband link in real-time (by making the file small enough - per second - to transmit a reduced data rate across the link).

The file must be decompressed in order to play it. Video codecs (the files which interpret the video file and decompress it in order to display it on the screen) put a big load on the PC's processor (the CPU chip). Certain types of the latest video codecs, such a XviD and DivX codecs, take an awful lot of processing, much more than older types.

And video files on YouTube are often huge, since any size of file up to 100 MB can be uploaded there.

The result of a huge video file that uses a decompression codec which requires a lot of processing will inevitably put a strain on an older CPU and RAM. We here naturally have older CPUs and smaller amounts of RAM than are found on WinXP machines, for example.

Often, increasing the amount of RAM to, say, 256 MB (which is well within the capacity of a WinME motherboard) will help enormously. It takes the storeage of the file off the hard disk, and puts it entirely into RAM memory, at least if the file is streamed rather than downloaded.

Any system which attempts to play a file that is larger than the amount of RAM memory in the computer will naturally struggle. The load on the CPU will just make the problem worse. Fitting more RAM memory is an effective solution in many cases.

As I say, this problem was not experienced years ago, when the codecs for decompressing video files were not nearly so processor-intensive, and the video files themselves were very much smaller.

A further step is to acquire (download) a user-friendly video player program, such as the free Media Player Classic: Media Player Classic

Do not use Micro$oft programs to play video files. In my opinion, Micro$oft's later versions of Windows Media Player are bloatware: the processor has enough to do to play a big video file, it doesn't need the additional handicap of the massive overhead imposed by running Windows Media Player as well.

Ed




On Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 7:56 pm, Ron wrote:
>hi! i have a friend who i chat with on yahoo messenger and shes having problems viewing
>videos online or even saved to her hard drive due to very low h.d space.
> she's got a pretty old computer that was custom built and isnt one specific brand
>at all, far from it.
>i've helped her locate her video adapter graphic controller drivers and reinstall
>them due to her pictures being messed up, looking (grainy, and black and white) she
>now has all her color back at 16 bits so i know she doesnt need to update that.
>here is the sad part :(
> she only has a maximum capacity of 1.96 gb on her h.d and only 192 mb left to use.
>i know, thats really low. her ram is 92 mb but im thinking thats not that bad, i
>used to run a computer when my good ones hard drive went out that only had 64 mb
>ram and i could watch videos fine.
>so im thinking that her skipping video is due to the low space alone, am i right?
> i know that the operating sytem alone takes up alot of her space that is gone but
>would it be that much? almost the full 2 gb's?
>she doesnt have many things on her computer like extra programs and personal files
>so im thinking all the space is for system files for the o.s.
> does anyone know any way to get her videos to work without constant skipping or
>is it just impossible? i told her she needs to buy a better computer already and
>she knows its true. :p thanks for any help in advance

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