Help my girlfriend and I be closer...with tech support!
September 4, 2010 6:59 PM Subscribe
Please to be helping my girlfriend's wonky computer?
My girlfriend has a Toshiba Satellite L505D-S5965 laptop with Vista installed. On several video sites (including Youtube, but not ALL video sites), the video will play for perhaps a couple seconds and then freeze. I've tried having her download various Flash patches, uninstall and reinstill flash entirely, download different versions for different browsers...nothing helps.
Now the problem seems to be getting more expansive. This gametracker app won't load for her beyond 7%. Seems like half the things I try to pass along to her (it's a long-distance relationship) won't work or won't load.
She has a reasonably reliable internet connection, so I don't think it's that. It's like she's missing some....I don't know, important codec or something. I'm not the world's greatest techie myself.
Anyone have any ideas?
My girlfriend has a Toshiba Satellite L505D-S5965 laptop with Vista installed. On several video sites (including Youtube, but not ALL video sites), the video will play for perhaps a couple seconds and then freeze. I've tried having her download various Flash patches, uninstall and reinstill flash entirely, download different versions for different browsers...nothing helps.
Now the problem seems to be getting more expansive. This gametracker app won't load for her beyond 7%. Seems like half the things I try to pass along to her (it's a long-distance relationship) won't work or won't load.
She has a reasonably reliable internet connection, so I don't think it's that. It's like she's missing some....I don't know, important codec or something. I'm not the world's greatest techie myself.
Anyone have any ideas?
Have you checked her system's event logs. Believe it or not, that behavior could be caused by drive issues as a caching out to virtual memory can run into a trouble spot on the drive.
The 7% load thing makes me lean towards that, too.
You can send me a MeFi mail if you need more help that you can't find anywhere else - I actually run a Remote Computer Support business but i have no problem pointing you to some free resources.
The big key is, that event log.. and maybe a memory diagnostic.. but i've seen HD problems manifest themselves like that more than once.
posted by darknemus at 7:09 PM on September 4, 2010
The 7% load thing makes me lean towards that, too.
You can send me a MeFi mail if you need more help that you can't find anywhere else - I actually run a Remote Computer Support business but i have no problem pointing you to some free resources.
The big key is, that event log.. and maybe a memory diagnostic.. but i've seen HD problems manifest themselves like that more than once.
posted by darknemus at 7:09 PM on September 4, 2010
Something you may just want to check is that she hasn't completely filled her hard drive. It has happened to me (when I partitioned my HD) so that I couldn't load any video on YouTube past a minute or two. Just something to look into.
posted by Isos at 7:20 PM on September 4, 2010
posted by Isos at 7:20 PM on September 4, 2010
Did she try just clearing the browser cache?
Because I have had this exact issue, Youtube videos loading for two seconds, no sound, then stopping and freezing. It is some kind of weirdness the browser gets stuck on, and I believe clearing cache, etc, and restarting browser fixed it.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:58 PM on September 4, 2010
Because I have had this exact issue, Youtube videos loading for two seconds, no sound, then stopping and freezing. It is some kind of weirdness the browser gets stuck on, and I believe clearing cache, etc, and restarting browser fixed it.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:58 PM on September 4, 2010
I have that same computer, I think, and have trouble if I use IE and have multiple tabs open. Often after a freeze, the Task Manager will show multiple processes still open even after I've completely closed out the program. Not sure what the solution is (other than not using IE).
posted by Sweetie Darling at 8:19 AM on September 5, 2010
posted by Sweetie Darling at 8:19 AM on September 5, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by flabdablet at 7:08 PM on September 4, 2010