I am going to punch my computer in the face...

...if it had one. Two problems I am having:

1) So it seems whenever I try to watch something, like on youtube or on someones facebook page or hulu or other sites, it stutters even if the whole video is buffered. I was wondering if anyone knew how to fix this. Maybe increasing a video cache or something. My rig is in the sig, and my connection is wireless cable modem plugged into the modem. It does the same thing whether I use FF or IE, but FF is my main browser.

2) And this is the worse problem. I tried plugging in an old hard drive that worked fine on my previous computers. However somehow it messed up my system now. It made Windows Explorer stall out and not work. So I restarted the program. Now my desktop is disappeared, my Quick Launch is hiding anymore than 3 buttons (I unlocked the taskbar, spread it to view all 5, then locked the taskbar. still does it.), Avast is not working, and windows update is not working properly. I just got this laptop. Is there anything I can try to do short of reinstalling Vista?

Thanks. My computer's face thanks you too.

 

Well, first of all, plugging in an old HDD from a different computer shouldn't work or must lead to trouble de to different drivers.

Your originl problem could be due to Flash Player or maybe your internet connection.

I had some Youtube trouble on a UK connection on videos that worked fine on a faster German connection.

Another question: Is it "normal Youtube" or "Youtube HD"?

And lastly:
Don't use violence againstyour laptop, it would only make matters worse and will not solve your problem.

 

Well, I'm inclined to say, maybe you've got some type of virus/spyware on your hands here. I'd suggest working on gettin avast to work (or downloading a different AV, like avg, which is free also) and running a scan. Along with that, maybe download and run spybot S&D (also free, and the best of the best among anti-spyware).

Just saying this because it's possible (though I think unlikely) there was something on that hard drive you plugged in, and then possibly ran by accident.

 

Try downloading the video and play it in VLC. Make sure it plays fine outside the browser. I'm pretty sure it's the Flash player that is bugging out. If I got a quarter for everytime I see Flash bug out..........

Flash + Firefox have known issues with the stuttering. You should google and try the different solutions. I would suggest some, but there are so many issues.

I have no idea why Explorer bugs out on you. I'm assuming it's an external harddrive. Try plugging it into a different computer to make sure the issue is not related to the external harddrive. It's unlikely it is.

Then try pluggin it in safe mode to make sure it isn't the USB drivers. It's unlikely it is.

Next, make sure Autoplay is off and try that. Unfortunately, it has to be still complicated, since an error like this isn't common and so we have to go down the whole checklist.

Next I would turn off each startup program and try it.

I hope that works out.

 

Ok, so I am in the process of running the suggestions in the Vista tips and tweaks thread. However, I have unplugged the external and it looks like that may have been the problem I will not know until i reboot after this is complete. One of the drives on the EHDD was not being recognized for some reason. Not sure how to fix that. Ill check back in after all that is complete, thanks for the responses.

Edit: The Flash + Firefox problem still exits, just maybe not problem 2. The problem is with normal Youtube and Flash. It does not happen all the time, just most though.

 

Normal Youtube should normally work fine.

Just to be on the safe side - go through the motions and do the virus scans Surfasb suggested.

It means we can hopefully safely rule out one thing.

 

You can also use Sysinternals or Task Manager to monitor which processes are taking up the most CPU time. This is a potentially quick solution at your disposal.

 

I knew I'd seen this somewhere before - here's the fix for your Youtube stuttering on Lifehacker

 

Ran Spybot, it found two things, running Avast right now. Everything else seems to have went back to normal. Even Youtube is back to working normally. Hope everything is back to normal now. Thanks everyone for your support.

 

It's the flash player. Or update your video driver.