z70va Internet video watching (Hulu) keeps stalling and jumping

I know it is long time for me to get a new notebook but noting has shown up yet that I;m in love with.

In the meantime -- recently -- when I watch TV shows through Hulu == the seem to go stop action and frequently stall. As it is just recent -- I am wondering if I did something to a driver or something like that.

I have an ATI Mobility Radeon X700 Display adapter that came with the Asus. Any suggestions?

 

Hi Justitia, long time no see

I'd suggest updating your flash to 10.1 and see if enabling hardware acceleration helps with the stalling/stuttering issue on hulu.

 

Hi! David! I am not quite sure how to do the above, I am a little nervous re: Flash 10.1 as it is in pre-release -- and I don't have the skills (nor the time) to cope with any problems.

Also I have no idea about enabling hardware acceleration -- what that means or how to do it.

Can you give some guidance?

 

Although Flash 10.1 is a beta version, it works perfectly just like any of the older versions. The difference is that 10.1 allows some of the workload to divert from the CPU to GPU, and this helps provide a better/smoother video playback experience (especially on systems with weaker CPUs and a dedicated GPU). You can always uninstall 10.1 and install your previous version if you find it not to your liking.

Enabling hardware acceleration is exactly what I just said above. It allows the workload to be split between your CPU and GPU. To enable it, just right click on your hulu or youtube video, select "settings" and select Hardware Acceleration box.

 

Several Questions

1. I wanted to see if there was any update to my ATI Mobility Radeon X700 Graphics card.

I got here: ATI Catalyst? Legacy Display Driver

ATI Catalyst™ Display Driver which stated that the software was moved to a legacy driver support structure. I understand that means they are not providing any more updates. But I figure I could check to see if I had the last, latest version -- or perhaps do a fresh install. I could not figure out from that page what to do then. Where does one go to either update or do a fresh install?

2. I uninstalled my current version of Flash Player as the prerelease notes for 10.1 said to do.

But then there are a number of options for download which I could not understand which to pick or if to do more than one:

Flash Player 10.1

A. Download plug-in for Windows (EXE, 2.4 MB) or Download active-x for Windows (EXE, 2.5 MB) or both? (For the moment I downloaded the plug-in.

B. Download debugger build plug-in for Windows (EXE, 2.7 MB) or Download debugger build active-x for Windows (EXE, 2.7 MB) or both (if I download both on A. above.)

C. Download Memory Monitoring Component (ZIP, 6.8 KB) Would this be useful?

I'm willing to learn....

 

Well I tried downloading Adobe Flash 10.1 plug in after uninstalling the existing Adobe flash on my laptop as per Adobe's instructions and using their uninstaller link.

When I first clicked on an IE8 screen, up came the message that Adobe was trying to download software I clicked OK. It seemed to help some. Adobe automatically enables Hardware acceleration.

Somewhat improved and not understanding whether the active x version was to supplement the plug in or to augment it, I added the active x version. That seemed to make things worse.

So I uninstalled everything, again using the Adobe link. and just loaded th plug in version. This time HULU stated that it couldn't work without adobe flash player and provided a link to the earlier, release, version.

So I uninstalled the plug in and installed the active x. Hulu then played but now it was as bad as before I started this.

So I uninstalled the plug in, used Revo Uninstaller to get rid of whatever bits remained and started from scratch. First I tried the plug in -- HULU said I needed the Flash Player. Then I uninstalled it including Revo uninstaller and I installed the active X version. Hulu played but with marginal improvement over before I started every thing.

I looked to see if I could do anything about the ATI mobility X 700 drivers which I linked to in my earlier post but I just couldn't understand what to do. It isn't even clear to me whether the "legacy software" that ATI relegated the drivers to would even work for ATI mobility X700 version -- it might be OEM.

I am open to any suggestions... anyone offer any ideas?

 

FYI: Flash 10.1 only enables hardware acceleration with more recent graphics cards (Nvidia 8000 series, ATI 2000 series and newer) so the x700 won't benefit from it.

Have you cleaned out the inside of your notebook recently? There may be dust buildup around your graphics card fan or heatsink that's causing it to overheat, which could cause the kind of stuttering you're seeing.