Firefox and I.E. is slow

[katz]

Old clunker here -

Win XP Pro, 2.8 GHZ dual core, 2 GB ram. System runs fast (well, for xp anyway), programs open quickly and respond well.

The main issue is with the internet. Browsing is "jerky", youtube vids "jerky", out of sync. All software needed for video such as flash, etc., is updated to latest.

Doesn't matter whether I use wired Ethernet or wireless adapter, still slow/jerky browsing/video.

The speedtests run a ping of 100 or lower, and downloads will go as high as 25 Mbps. When running speed tests the needle jumps around a bit as we've all seen before.

I did create a new user acct., deleted the old, thought maybe things would improve with that, but still no better.

This is a refurb system, hasn't ever been on the internet (was elderly parent's, now handed down to grandkids) - so all scans come up clean. When I go back onsite I will disable AV to see if that makes a difference (Free AVG) but I have my doubts, as I used free AVG a lot & don't experience these types of issues.

Not sure how to approach this; when onsite with my laptop surfing runs great, so I've ruled out faulty internet connection. I suppose I can run a Linux cd to see if it occurs outside of windows.

EDIT - Forgot to mention, it exhibits this same issue in my shop as well, and my connection is a rock-solid 25-30 Mbps.

Any other ideas/suggestions welcome!

 

[Vicenarian]

Other than a hardware issue (NIC), try resetting IP via netsh and checking for any configured proxies, etc. in IE settings.

 

[JustInspired]

What graphics hardware is being used, and what drivers?

Is this a clean install of Windows with the latest drivers available?

Any swollen caps?

PSU producing good voltages?

You said you will try disabling AVG. To completely eliminate that being a problem, try uninstalling it completely.

 

[PC Ops]

Try disabling hardware acceleration in the browsers. Seen h.a. cause those issues.

Also uninstall Flash and Java (if any) and then reinstall the latest versions.

Edit: ignore the Flash/Java comment. Just re-read the OP

 

[katz]

What graphics hardware is being used, and what drivers?

Is this a clean install of Windows with the latest drivers available?

Any swollen caps?

PSU producing good voltages?

You said you will try disabling AVG. To completely eliminate that being a problem, try uninstalling it completely.

Onboard graphics, nVida of some sort...latest driver release is probably '08 or so, since this is an old pc...I'll have to check on that. I understand where you are going with that, but I've had same era or even older pc's w/ onboard mediocre graphics perform well w/ browsing/vids.

Not a clean install, but all latest drivers/updates. Not sure if an old install would really just affect internet issues though...I would think an old, faulty install would cause system wide problems.

No swollen caps.

Try disabling hardware acceleration in one or both browsers. Seen h.a. cause those issues.

Good idea, I will check on that.

I did notice something else - Running Task Manager, I see that the CPU is running high, 90-100% while on the net, trying to browse or play vids.

Perhaps a PS issue as suggested previously?

 

[FremontPC]

Try downloading a video in FLV format, then play it. How does it work with other formats?

Codec problem, perhaps?

 

[katz]

Try downloading a video in FLV format, then play it. How does it work with other formats?

Codec problem, perhaps?

Not sure about that - would a codec issue cause a "jerky/jumpy" speedtest? Like when you go to speakeasy/bandwidthplace, etc., the needle bounces all around when doing the test...

 

[FremontPC]

No, I wouldn't think that it would cause an issue with speedtest, esp. if another computer on the same router doesn't have a problem.

 

[katz]

I checked my records for the specs on this PC.

It is a Compac Presario SR1033WM which is pretty limited in the upgrade department. Still, I'd like to improve things for the grandkids if I can. I'm thinking of replacing the onboard video with a higher end card - unfortunately this pc only has (3) PCI slots.

I have a bunch of old PCI vid cards lying around, I could pop one in to see if things improve at all. Before I do that, I wanted to address the issue of the CPU maxing out while playing the vids. Does anyone feel the two are related?

That is, the mediocre onboard video causing the CPU to spike when attempting to watch videos? I'm trying to draw a correlation here, maybe that the CPU is trying to make up the difference of the low performing onboard graphics?

Thoughts?

 

[nhicktrush]

Try disabling the HTML5 player in youtube and switch back to flash player..

 

[katz]

Try disabling the HTML5 player in youtube and switch back to flash player..

I believe the HTML5 player is something you have to enable by choice, which we didn't do, so in that case I think we are using the flash player by default.

 

[Altster]

When was the last time that a defrag was ran on the hard drive? Sounds more like this could be a severly fragmented drive - OR - a drive that is about to bite the dust.

 

[katz]

When was the last time that a defrag was ran on the hard drive? Sounds more like this could be a severly fragmented drive - OR - a drive that is about to bite the dust.

HD tested good, and just ran defrag. I have gone over this pc w/ a comb & cannot really uncover anything that should be causing this, aside from outdated hardware.

I have two comparable systems here in the shop that exhibit the same issues as well - choppy playback, out of sync youtube.

Disabled hardware acceleration in the flash settings, no change. The main thing I notice when the choppiness occurs is that he CPU maxes out - and this happens on all three systems I am comparing/working with.

This is NOT happening with my bench system, which is Win XP/ P4 Dual Core 3.20 GHZ/ 2 GB Ram.

 

[mm201]

Disabled hardware acceleration in the flash settings, no change.

In Firefox hardware acceleration is disabled from the Tools-> Options menu on the advanced tab.

 

[katz]

mm201,

Thanks for that - I will give that a try later today & report back. Also, is there a way to disable it in IE 8? I cannot find anything on that... I see how to disable it in IE 9 & later...

EDIT - Scratch that bold part - I just found this on Toms Hardware -

IE8 has no hardware acceleration or HTML5 capabilities and therefore not important to Microsoft from platform point of view.

 

[HFultzjr]

Old clunker here -

Win XP Pro, 2.8 GHZ dual core, 2 GB ram. System runs fast (well, for xp anyway), programs open quickly and respond well.

The main issue is with the internet. Browsing is "jerky", youtube vids "jerky", out of sync. All software needed for video such as flash, etc., is updated to latest.

Doesn't matter whether I use wired Ethernet or wireless adapter, still slow/jerky browsing/video.

The speedtests run a ping of 100 or lower, and downloads will go as high as 25 Mbps. When running speed tests the needle jumps around a bit as we've all seen before.

I did create a new user acct., deleted the old, thought maybe things would improve with that, but still no better.

This is a refurb system, hasn't ever been on the internet (was elderly parent's, now handed down to grandkids) - so all scans come up clean. When I go back onsite I will disable AV to see if that makes a difference (Free AVG) but I have my doubts, as I used free AVG a lot & don't experience these types of issues.

Not sure how to approach this; when onsite with my laptop surfing runs great, so I've ruled out faulty internet connection. I suppose I can run a Linux cd to see if it occurs outside of windows.

EDIT - Forgot to mention, it exhibits this same issue in my shop as well, and my connection is a rock-solid 25-30 Mbps.

Any other ideas/suggestions welcome!

Have you tried surfing/viewing from a live cd? May shed some more light on where to look for issues.

 

[katz]

I believe I have solved this one!

I started looking more closely at the process & what seems to be eating up a lot of resources during video playback, and that led me to plugin-container.exe.

Disabled it "system-wide" following the instructions in the link, and vid playback using ff or ie is fine now. No more choppy speedtest results either!

Here are the instructions;

1. Right click on your computer icon on the desktop and click properties.
2. Go to Advance system settings.
3. Click the button called "Environment Variables".
4. Click the “New” button under User variables or System variables depending if you want the change to affect all the users on the system or just the one you are currently logged in as.
5. Set its Variable name to MOZ_DISABLE_OOP_PLUGINS and its values to 1.

http://www.fluxbytes.com/software-tips/how-to-disable-plugin-container-exe/

I hope this info. will assist others who may have this issue. Googling turns up quite a few hits with pc's that are affected by this.

Many thanks to all fellow techs who contributed to this thread. It is good to have several different ideas/avenues to explore when trying to chase something like this down.