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Bob Sutherton
20,160 PointsVideo playback>paranormal activity>call a priest?
Well, I have made several posts seeking advice for my video problems with some helpful advice but nothing addressing my problem. I am fairly confident it is something that is wrong with my computer. I know it is not the responsibility of people on this forum to troubleshoot my computer. However, any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!
The problem only seems to occur on Treehouse videos. This time I have a screen shot of the main problem, which is usually accompanied by freezing and stalling.
4 Answers
Eric Helm
2,623 PointsIt would help to know what troubleshooting steps you've already taken and under what conditions this occurs. What OS/browser are you using? What I can tell you is that certain parts of the image are garbled because somewhere along the line that information was lost or corrupted. Obviously that's not very helpful.
My recommendation for now is that if your using Firefox in windows and you have AMD/ATI GPU, then try google chrome in place of firefox or update your video driver. I've had this problem.
Also if this only happens once in a while and reloading the video fixes it, then that's totally normal and it probably is partially treehouses fault for using all HD videos with whatever their encoding is and whatever servers they can afford. They're not Google and they don't have multi-billion dollar servers. It's just the price you pay for streaming crisp HD quality on low bandwidth.
Eric Helm
2,623 PointsI'm assuming that 'refresh' means you did a factory reset or something. That would reset your drivers and it's quite likely that updating your drivers would fix the problem for firefox. Or you can just keep using IE.
Also, if you want to update your drivers, then you can do that on IBMs support website. Don't bother with pay-to-use driver manager software. You can also get the video drivers from nVidia or AMD (depending on which you have).
Bob Sutherton
20,160 PointsYeah, I think it was a kind of factory reset as you say. Wow, I bet you're right about the drivers. That was one of my initial suspicions although when I went to the Lenovo site it seemed to suggest my drivers were up-to-date. I am interested in exploring these other options you have mentioned.
IBM support nVidia AMD
I am not sure what these are or which one would be right for my computer. It is a Lenovo Ultrabook Ideapad.
You seem to recommend firefox as well. So maybe I will give it a try as I have never used it on this particular computer.
Anyway, thanks for your help.
Eric Helm
2,623 PointsWait, what browser were you originally using if it wasn't firefox, IE or chrome?
I'll assume that if you have IE, your on windows. I'll also assume that an Idea"Pad" is a tablet, thus windows 8.
You already went to IBM support is the Lenovo site, and you already went there. AMD and NvIdia are video chipset manufacturers and IBM uses both in different Lenovo models. Your best bet for the drivers on a newer model would still be the Lenovo site, they will update their drivers if AMD or Nvidia fixes the problem.
If you want to troubleshoot it further then you should probably take it to the Lenovo forums. Tell them which browsers you have the problem in and which you don't, as well as your model number (if you can find it). Also see if you get the same problem on youtube or vimeo and tell them what video format / codec treehouse uses.
Hey, what video codec do you guys use?
Bob Sutherton
20,160 PointsYes, it's windows 8. I was using Chrome. I will take your advice and post something on the Lenovo forum. Thanks for your help.
Bob Sutherton
20,160 PointsUpdate: I just realized that all I had to do was scroll down and click on the video download and I wouldn't have to stream it. It works fine that way. This is a great solution for me because my laptop is actually very fast. It pops right up into windows media player.
Treehouse is a great website that has really covered all of the bases.
Bob Sutherton
20,160 PointsBob Sutherton
20,160 PointsHey Eric, thanks for the reply. I began using Internet Explorer because it seemed to be the browser that would allow the playbar to disappear. Chrome was keeping the playbar up (as well as doing the freezing) all the time and that was too much of an obstruction.
One curious fact that might be helpful to note is that the problems didn't start until after I did a "refresh" on my laptop. I don't even remember why I did this because the laptop is very new. It is a Lenovo ideapad.
As for when it happens, it is pretty regular. Sometimes I am able to persevere through it but other times it is so much that I just have to turn it off and make one of these whiny posts.
I want to emphasize the point, though, that I did not have any problems in any browser until I did the laptop refresh. So I am thinking something important must have been deleted in that process. I am not very technical with the workings of the computer itself. My main troubleshooting steps have been to re-install chrome and finally switch to Internet Explorer.