Help me fix my computer!

[Masao]

Hi everyone,

I built a PC in the summer of 2012.

I use two 3tb hard drives. They were both replaced in April 2014.

Now I'm having severe problems.

Basically, for about a week I couldn't use it because the screen wouldn't get any signal. It said "no signal" and there didn't seem to be anything to be done.

Then at some point the screen did get a signal, but when I got to the desktop it was full of graphical glitches and I couldn't see any icons. I got a blue screen shortly after. I was able to start it a few times but I can only use it a few minutes before it glitches and crashses

Here is what I have:

Hard drives: WD 3tb (x2) (used to be seagate before they died)
Power: corsair ax1200 1200w
CD: lite on 12x blu ray burner
Sound card: asus xonar essence stx 7.1
RAM: corsair dominator dd3 8gb (x4)
Motherboard: asus sabertooth x79 tuf motherboard
CPU: Intel Core i7 3960 x extreme edition
CPU cooler: corsair hydro h100 cpu liquid cooler
Video cards: xfx radeon hd 7950 double d black edition (x2)

All of those have been there since July 2012 except the hard drives

Is there a good way to know if any of those are starting to fail? Or better yet, does anyone have any advice about the "life expectancy" of everything?

I think I have a hardware problem because I have a clean windows install on a brand new hard drive and my computer is bugging as hell even with that

Thanks so much for any help

Click to read more...

 

[SniperHF]

Since you have two graphics cards, you could uninstall one and try them each individually. While you're doing that make sure all the heatsinks are free of dust and the fans can move freely.

It also could be the monitor itself though again the only way to really test that would be trying another one, or your TV.

Same for the monitor cable.

It's most likely not the other components. Far as life span goes, All that stuff should be running just fine though there is a failure rate for everything it's in the single digits.

 

[Osprey]

Definitely try the graphics cards individually. Remove one, test, put it back in, remove the other and test again. I would bet that one of them is failing or overheating. When you identify which it is, you can do as SniperHF suggested and try cleaning out the fan and/or heatsink. If you can't fix it, at least you have the other video card to use and don't necessarily need to buy a new one.

 

[nameless1]

I actually have similar issues as the OP.
When my computer is turned on...
It loads...
But it is full of graphics glitches...
With a lot of weird lines...
And it immediately turns into a blue screen.
Sometimes...
I can get into the OS if I restart it into safe mode...
But the weird lines will still be there.

With a couple of restarts...
The graphics may return back to normal...
And then it runs perfectly fine.
However...
If I turn it off...
The problems return.

Now...
I suspect that I have a hard drive issue...
And I just wonder if the OP's issue is the same as mine.
If he can...
Along with the graphics card test...
Perhaps he can also test his hard drive with the OS on it...
Just to rule out everything.

 

[nameless1]

I did a more thorough check...
And it turns out that my hard drive is fine.

I uninstalled my video card drivers...
And the graphics glitches have all but disappeared.
Apparently...
It was my graphic card all along...

So I believe that SniperHF and Osprey are definitely correct with their initial assessment.

Unfortunately...
A myriad of problems has now appeared...
And I am tempted to just abandon ship.

 

[nameless1]

After I uninstalled the video card drivers...
Things were back to normal for a while...
But the lines have returned.

I checked my hard drive...
Which turned out to be normal...
And my monitor is fine...
As I use the same monitor for my XBox...
And it looks fine.
What do you guys think is the problem?
Do you think it may be the motherboard?

 

[Masao]

Hey thanks for the help guys

I was able to restart the computer last week but I can only keep it in lower resolutions (like 1152 x 648). If I go any higher it seems like the strain on the video card gets too high and it just glitches and crashes. I still get graphical glitches at that resolution (like the name of a folder on the desktop can be unreadable) but much less.

Also, I can't open any videos like youtube or run a game or else it crashes. If I go to cnn.com for example, it's fine, but as soon as I click on a page where there's a video, it crashes.

One of my video cards won't run at all so I connected to the other one and removed the crossfire thing. So it runs, but barely, like I described.

I cleaned them as best I could with compressed air but it doesn't seem to change anything. I got the newest drivers but that didn't do anything either.

Anyway I cloned my hard drives to a couple of brand new hgst drives. My HDs were having some trouble - there was some corrupted data, bad sectors, some folders that I couldn't access, occasional clicking sounds, etc. And it was bugging me to do chkdsk on startup every time. This cloning thing pretty much took all weekend but its done (apparently I should never buy seagate barracuda - last time I had those they lasted like two months).

Right now I'm leaning towards buying a new graphics card.

 

[Rogie]

Could anyone help me with computer problems

I posted the following in a sticky and then realized I should just go ahead and start a thread and ask for help here.

I basically just post on the Leafs board.

Sorry, but, I have some computer questions about improving performance and watching gamecentre streaming.

Would this be a thread where I would be welcome to ask questions and get some help, or, perhaps there is another place on HF boards someone could direct me to.

My questions are about how to improve my nhl stream so it doesn't buffer and basically just runs smoother.

My problem is the game center stream does not stream smoothly. I hardly ever (pretty much never ) stops or buffers, but, it just lags and gets very sticky like (can't explain it).

My computer is a HP with 4 gig ram, Windows 7 pro, the graphics (don't understand very well) is built in or something, so I tried to add a graphics card but it didn't work.

My internet speed (S. Korea) is the fastest package I can get. It's not 100 mpbs FTT..something something else, but, its called giga internet and is supposedly 5 stars, whereas the 100 mps package is rated 1 star or something.

When I run speed tests (just did one a few minutes ago) they come out at anywhere from 20 to 60 mbps on the download test speed.

I don't know what other information is important.

When I run the task manager, (while streaming the games) sometimes the usage just says 50% or 60%, but, the game is still lagging. So, I don't know if it's a computer speed problem, a ram problem, a graphics problem or something else.

Look forward to any help. Thanks so much

 

[Clock]

It sounds like your bandwidth should be fine. If your CPU usage is at 50% pretty consistently that could potentially be an issue. To get that down, you'd want to probably start by cleaning your computer. There are tons of guides and tools that will help with this, I'd start with something simple like this: http://www.howtogeek.com/228570/10-quick-ways-to-speed-up-a-slow-windows-pc/

I don't know where you're getting your streams from, but something to keep in mind is that although your bandwidth might be fine, there could be bandwidth issues elsewhere that are limiting your speed. Know how sometimes you can get to a particular website really quickly but you can go to a different one at the same time that's really slow? Same concept.

Slightly unrelated - your bandwidth should be than enough for a simple stream, but if you're being sold "giga" internet, that would imply you're getting 1000 down. Only getting 20-60 seems off.

 

[Rogie]

It sounds like your bandwidth should be fine. If your CPU usage is at 50% pretty consistently that could potentially be an issue. To get that down, you'd want to probably start by cleaning your computer. There are tons of guides and tools that will help with this, I'd start with something simple like this: http://www.howtogeek.com/228570/10-quick-ways-to-speed-up-a-slow-windows-pc/

I don't know where you're getting your streams from, but something to keep in mind is that although your bandwidth might be fine, there could be bandwidth issues elsewhere that are limiting your speed. Know how sometimes you can get to a particular website really quickly but you can go to a different one at the same time that's really slow? Same concept.

Slightly unrelated - your bandwidth should be than enough for a simple stream, but if you're being sold "giga" internet, that would imply you're getting 1000 down. Only getting 20-60 seems off.

Firstly, thank you very much for helping me with this.

Um, I just checked opened my game centre and checked the exhibition game Leafs/Sens - so, now, my task manager says the cpu usage is running around 90% and the number jumps around. Strangely, I watched for a few minutes and the stream was pretty smooth, but, it's usually not smooth, it lags (or whatever, don't actually know what it's called).

So, I will try the cleaning thing and the site you suggest. I think I did these kinds of things last year, but, I'll try again. It was things like changing the desktop display to windows basic in order to save resources and other things - turning off all program that run at start-up etc etc.

I don't understand, 'where do i get my streams from'. I'm just wanting to improve the nhl.com gamecentre hockey stream. So, is that what you mean?

My internet provider (S. Korea) is SK telecom (i think) and like you suggested, why would the speed tests be so low if I have giga internet. If gigainternet is 1000 mbps or so, then, hmmm, I don't know.

I'll run a couple more speed tests now and give the results, just a moment.

Okay, somethings seems different, there are many speed test sites. I used the site www. speedtest . net and it gave me download readings of 320 mbps - that sounds more normal.

When I use the site testmy . net/results - I just got a reading of 12 mbps, hmmm, this is the site i used before and got readings of 30 mbps.

I just tried speedtest . shaw . ca (canadian site) and I get 107 mbps down and 14 mbps up.

So, I see there seems to be a lot of difference depending on sites - i don't know why or if it's important.

 

[Rogie]

Thanks for the response CLOCK.

It's late here in Korea, and, I have early class tomorrow.

I will check in tomorrow to continue, hopefully, to solve this problem and check other responses.

But, i'm off to bed now, so, I don't mean to be rude and disappear, so, please don't think "where did that guy go after he just asked for help"?

Thanks again Clock.

 

[Kestrel]

For the speed tests, it's best to use a site that is geographically near you - using a site fare from you can really alter the result. ie - if 2 or 3 of the network locations between you and the speed site have problems, that can really impact the score, without your internet connection being a problem.

That said, I'm assuming that the NHL game center servers are in the US - so it's possible that network traffic between you and them is causing a problem.

 

[SniperHF]

Along the same lines as checking your CPU, what's your RAM usage while you're streaming?

My questions are about how to improve my nhl stream so it doesn't buffer and basically just runs smoother.

Have you tried using a different browser?

My problem is the game center stream does not stream smoothly. I hardly ever (pretty much never ) stops or buffers, but, it just lags and gets very sticky like (can't explain it).

My computer is a HP with 4 gig ram, Windows 7 pro, the graphics (don't understand very well) is built in or something, so I tried to add a graphics card but it didn't work.

Most likely you need a power supply upgrade if the video card upgrade didn't work - unless you lack a PCIe slot or something. Need more information if you want help with this one. Model of the system, model of the video card to start.

My internet speed (S. Korea) is the fastest package I can get. It's not 100 mpbs FTT..something something else, but, its called giga internet and is supposedly 5 stars, whereas the 100 mps package is rated 1 star or something.

When I run speed tests (just did one a few minutes ago) they come out at anywhere from 20 to 60 mbps on the download test speed.

Open task manager and go to the networking tab. On the bottom will be a few columns one of them called "link speed". What does it say the link speed is?

 

[Osprey]

Because it has 4GB of RAM and Windows 7, I'm guessing that your computer is over 5 years old. Such computers are going to struggle with HD content, especially if using the built-in graphics from that time, as you said that you're doing. I think that your hardware just isn't up to par.

Gamecenter can decrease the quality of the video so that it runs on old hardware such as yours, but there may be a problem with the auto detection. For example, it may think that you can handle high quality because your internet speed is good, whereas your hardware actually can't. What I would try doing is, if the setting exists, turn off "Auto" quality in Gamecenter and manually choose the quality that you want. Start low (ex. at 800Kbps) and keep increasing to see how high you can go before you start having problems.

It's possible that you could upgrade parts of your computer in order to stream well at the higher video qualities--adding a video card and power supply would probably be easiest--but there's no guarantee that another part won't still bottleneck you. The only real guarantee is to upgrade all core components at once or just replace the computer.

 

[Rogie]

Okay, super, great, thank so much.

Lots of help being offered.

Just got home from hard day of work, so, I'll post on and off tonight to try to provide more update and maybe I can give more details and specs on my computer.

So, first, on the speed tests, as Kestral suggested, use a service close to me. I'm not sure what that means, but, I'll try again and provide details:

1. fast.com site gives down speeds of (ONLY) 36, then 38, then 39, and in that range. Apparently the speed is calculated on speeds from Netflix servers.

2. speedtest.net by Ookla - this site gives (today at least) downspeeds consistently over 400 (says selecting best server based on ping, and then when test begins, it says Seoul hosted by Ookla - is Seoul the server - I don't know?)

3. speedtest.shaw.ca - gives me speeds of 74 down 14 up, 87d 11u, and then 60down 15up (says server location is Vancouver BC)

Sniper - asks for what looks like important info.
In the task manager, (with a hockey game running full screen and task manager overlayed on the game), under the column headed Link speed, it says 1 Gbps, next column status says connected, network utilization jumps up and down from 0 to strange numbers like 1.75% or 1.59% etc etc and then it goes back to 0%.

Maybe more telling is CPU usage is running from 70% and going as high as 95%.

Sniper also asked for Ram usage (had to google to find this), under task manager windows 7, it's called Physical Memory I guess. With a game running, it says Total 3071, Cached 1351, Available 1414, Free 95 - the numbers jump up and down a bit. (Kernel memory, paged 228, nonpaged 34?? in case important!)



But, I should of provided more computer details to start with:
HP pro 2000 microtower PC
Processor: Pentium dual core CPU [email protected] Ghz
Ram: 4 GB (3.00 GB usuable)
32 bit operating system
Windows 7 Profession - Service Pack 1

Clock - yes, thanks for that site - I did in fact do a bunch of those things to free up resources, I'm even still using a basic desktop display that is plain blue - have gotten used to the spartan look - anyways, its almost Leafs blue so it's fine.
But, I still suspect it's like Osprey says, CAN'T GET ENOUGH POWER SCOTTY.

So, yes, Osprey, that seems to be the case. There is the high, medium, low function to choose for streaming on the nhl gamecentre consul. It's an icon on the bottom, but, i open the icon and i can choose the low level (which is depicted by a smaller number of those bars) or the medium choice, but, (even if I leave it for 5 minutes), nothing changes, it seems to stay on the high level (full bars). In the old days, that function was marked, 400, 800,1600, and I think the highest was 3000. I guess that was before HD or something. I think (if i'm not mistaken) the high stream now is 4000. And, I think regardless of what I choose, it seems like that is what my stream stays on. In the old days if I choose 800, the picture gets a little blurrier (not so sharp) but if it was lagging, it would stop lagging.

And when you mention the HD Osprey it reminds me that, oh, 5 or 6 years ago, when I had a much older computer system (wasn't even a very good system), and I think the nhl feeds were not HD perhaps, my streams were really excellent then, (sure, NOT HD, but, I would use my tv as a computer monitor and the quality was just like watching tv in the old days), course, Korea has always had good internet speeds as well. JUST A THOUGHT!

That'll bring me to another question about upgrading. I can get a new system (online shpping easy in korea and fast, i'd have it delivered in 3 days or so). I don't even mind spending 400 to 600 bucks or so on the computer if that's what it takes. I'd just be dissappointed to get an upgrade and have the same problem.

 

[LickTheEnvelope]

Hey thanks for the help guys

I was able to restart the computer last week but I can only keep it in lower resolutions (like 1152 x 648). If I go any higher it seems like the strain on the video card gets too high and it just glitches and crashes. I still get graphical glitches at that resolution (like the name of a folder on the desktop can be unreadable) but much less.

Also, I can't open any videos like youtube or run a game or else it crashes. If I go to cnn.com for example, it's fine, but as soon as I click on a page where there's a video, it crashes.

One of my video cards won't run at all so I connected to the other one and removed the crossfire thing. So it runs, but barely, like I described.

I cleaned them as best I could with compressed air but it doesn't seem to change anything. I got the newest drivers but that didn't do anything either.

Anyway I cloned my hard drives to a couple of brand new hgst drives. My HDs were having some trouble - there was some corrupted data, bad sectors, some folders that I couldn't access, occasional clicking sounds, etc. And it was bugging me to do chkdsk on startup every time. This cloning thing pretty much took all weekend but its done (apparently I should never buy seagate barracuda - last time I had those they lasted like two months).

Right now I'm leaning towards buying a new graphics card.

Sounds like it's a problem with either the graphics cards or the PCI slots on the MB. Did you try each card individually?

 

[LickTheEnvelope]

I think NHL GameCenter Recently changed to Rogers from another company...

For reference I found what I think are the old Minimum Requirements for GameCenter:

Internet Connection Requirements

Broadband internet connection (DSL/cable or higher) of 750 kbps or higher
Recommended: If you have an internet connection speed of 2.0 Mbps or higher and your computer meets the other requirements below, you will be able to enjoy NHL GameCenter LIVEâ„¢ at its highest video quality


Minimum Windows Requirements

Intel Pentium 4 2.33GHz or higher or equivalent AMD processor with a minimum of 512MB of memory and 64MB of video RAM.
One of the following operating systems: Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows Media Center Edition
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 with Service Pack 2 or above, or Firefox v1.5 or above:
- IE: http://www.microsoft.com/ie
- Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox
Macromedia Flash Player 10.1: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/
Video adapter and monitor: Super VGA (1024x768) or higher.

https://neulion.hs.llnwd.net/e1/nhl/player/nhlgc2/help.htm

I think this might be old so i'm not sure if it applies now.

 

[Osprey]

So, yes, Osprey, that seems to be the case. There is the high, medium, low function to choose for streaming on the nhl gamecentre consul. It's an icon on the bottom, but, i open the icon and i can choose the low level (which is depicted by a smaller number of those bars) or the medium choice, but, (even if I leave it for 5 minutes), nothing changes, it seems to stay on the high level (full bars). In the old days, that function was marked, 400, 800,1600, and I think the highest was 3000. I guess that was before HD or something. I think (if i'm not mistaken) the high stream now is 4000. And, I think regardless of what I choose, it seems like that is what my stream stays on. In the old days if I choose 800, the picture gets a little blurrier (not so sharp) but if it was lagging, it would stop lagging.

If there's a settings section in the app/website, try setting your quality there, rather than using the controls at the bottom when video is streaming. If there's no setting for quality, there may be a setting for internet connection speed. You can try lowering that. If the player believes that you have a slower connection speed, it should reduce the quality to compensate.

And when you mention the HD Osprey it reminds me that, oh, 5 or 6 years ago, when I had a much older computer system (wasn't even a very good system), and I think the nhl feeds were not HD perhaps, my streams were really excellent then, (sure, NOT HD, but, I would use my tv as a computer monitor and the quality was just like watching tv in the old days), course, Korea has always had good internet speeds as well. JUST A THOUGHT!

That's not surprising. Generally speaking, computers from around 2000 to 2010 were designed to be able to handle DVD quality video. 5 or 6 years ago (near the end of that period), just about all video content online was DVD quality, so even really old computers (like yours) at the time would've handled it just fine. Starting in 2010 or so, HD became the common quality and computers since then have been designed to handle HD quality. There's a pretty big bump in hardware requirements between DVD and HD, though, especially going from DVD (480p) to 1080p HD. That's why computers from the 2000s, which were designed with DVD as the baseline, are not, as a general rule, going to handle HD terribly well.

That'll bring me to another question about upgrading. I can get a new system (online shpping easy in korea and fast, i'd have it delivered in 3 days or so). I don't even mind spending 400 to 600 bucks or so on the computer if that's what it takes. I'd just be dissappointed to get an upgrade and have the same problem.

I really doubt that you'd have the same problem with a newer computer.

That said, one more thought: if you happen to be using WiFi, connect your computer directly to your router with an ethernet cable to try to rule out that the WiFi connection is the problem.

 

[Devourers]

For Masao, if you have the $ just buy a 1080 If for some reason it's still bugged to ****, it's probably your motherboard because a brand new 1080 should run just fine, your CPU/ram/etc is still top notch IMO. Then again, could be your drivers rather than the cards themselves, try uninstalling them and going to a previous ver, maybe the new ones done ****ed up your system... idk.

The PSU should be providing plenty of power for that system so I doubt it's the issue even if it's not running at 100%. Maybe if you can, borrow a GPU from a friend to see if it works better.

For the other dude (Rogie) your internet is fine, if speedtest.net says you're getting 400mbit/s that's half a gigabit. Not as advertised but certainly good enough. The lack of the other 450~ could be a ****** router imo, or a ****** wireless card/adapter. You could try replacing either of those, but honestly it could even be your distance to the gamecenter servers since like you said shaw speedtest shows you're much slower, but even at 50mbit/s you should be okay to stream.

Could be intermittent issues with your router/wireless adapter, could be the fact that your PC is hella old (Core 2 duo + 4gb ram on w7? That's terrible, if you have the money even for an i3 with 8gb of ram and a GTX 960~ type card upgrade immediately)

With a system that old and being so far away it could be any number of issues. I'm not saying your PC guaranteed can't handle HD streaming, I mean maybe if you cleaned it up a little bit and freed up some resources it could, but judging from the issues you're having sounds like it can't handle it well.

The way you describe it, it isn't buffering or freezing, it's just straight up skipping/lagging and to me that sounds like an issue with your overall PC performance, but unfortunately it could be any number of things with hardware that old, like I said maybe it's an intermittent issue with your speed dipping or your wireless having a ton of distortion. In my building for example, 2.4ghz runs like ass on every single channel, so I use powerline.

 

[Rogie]

If there's a settings section in the app/website, try setting your quality there, rather than using the controls at the bottom when video is streaming. If there's no setting for quality, there may be a setting for internet connection speed. You can try lowering that. If the player believes that you have a slower connection speed, it should reduce the quality to compensate.



That's not surprising. Generally speaking, computers from around 2000 to 2010 were designed to be able to handle DVD quality video. 5 or 6 years ago (near the end of that period), just about all video content online was DVD quality, so even really old computers (like yours) at the time would've handled it just fine. Starting in 2010 or so, HD became the common quality and computers since then have been designed to handle HD quality. There's a pretty big bump in hardware requirements between DVD and HD, though, especially going from DVD (480p) to 1080p HD. That's why computers from the 2000s, which were designed with DVD as the baseline, are not, as a general rule, going to handle HD terribly well.



I really doubt that you'd have the same problem with a newer computer.

That said, one more thought: if you happen to be using WiFi, connect your computer directly to your router with an ethernet cable to try to rule out that the WiFi connection is the problem.

Thanks for this Osprey- and thanks to all for valuable information.

I never use wifi at home, just a line connection.
I searched through nhl gamecentre thoroughly (i think) and i just can't find anywhere to change the settings for the connection speeds. Again, there is just the menu that has high/medium/low and are represented by more bars. All you can do is click on one of the three to change the stream, but, I don't see anything happen to my screen or the stream when I change the setting. They used (old days) on the lower settings, the picture got much less sharp - lower resolution, however you describe it not sure, the stream was smooth, but, it, well, reduced the sharpness a whole bunch. Now, nothing happens. So, I can put it on low stream, and it'll still lag or the players look almost like they are moving slower - BUT THE PICTURE IS HD LEVEL - still very crisp and sharp.
And, there is a place on the nhl site that mentions, if you have a connection less than 3000, you will receive the standard level stream (which I assume is the medium button on the menu I'm mentioning- not sure??). And if you have over 5000, you should get the HD stream. So, my guess is my connection speed, and link speed, and from those tests as well, well, I'm pretty sure, (as you;ve alluded to) the site is seeing my connection speed as fairly good or fast and thus I'm getting HD 5000 stream (or whatever the speed of the stream is and my computer ram and graphics just aren't enough.

And again, it falls back (i imagine) to my weak computer, 4 gig of ram (3 usuable) and graphics that are built-in and the set-up won't allow or take a plug in graphics card. I had the computer to a service centre at the end of last year, and the guy put in a card and it made no difference. It just didn't seem to offload the stream onto the graphics card (or something like that) the way a newer computer would (so the guy said).

So, I'll browse and start shopping and think about buying/upgrading my computer. Perhaps I'll ask for advice about a computer i pick out before I purchase it. Gets some feedback if you think it would be a good choice or at least, a seemingly safe choice to get good clear streams.

Thanks so much everyone for you help.

 

[Kestrel]

When you're looking for advice on your new computer, you might want to post in the PC Building Guide thread (and maybe reference this thread) - you are likely to get a little more attention from guys who are willing to help you choose parts.

 

[Osprey]

I searched through nhl gamecentre thoroughly (i think) and i just can't find anywhere to change the settings for the connection speeds. Again, there is just the menu that has high/medium/low and are represented by more bars. All you can do is click on one of the three to change the stream, but, I don't see anything happen to my screen or the stream when I change the setting. They used (old days) on the lower settings, the picture got much less sharp - lower resolution, however you describe it not sure, the stream was smooth, but, it, well, reduced the sharpness a whole bunch. Now, nothing happens. So, I can put it on low stream, and it'll still lag or the players look almost like they are moving slower - BUT THE PICTURE IS HD LEVEL - still very crisp and sharp.

Make sure that you're giving it a little while after you switch settings. It's possible that the picture still looks high quality because that's what's already been buffered. It could take up to 10-20 seconds before it runs out of that and starts displaying what it's downloaded since you changed the setting (i.e. lower quality). It could take much, much longer if you're not watching live (ex. an archived game or you're not caught up in a live broadcast), since there's a whole lot more than it can buffer.

And again, it falls back (i imagine) to my weak computer, 4 gig of ram (3 usuable) and graphics that are built-in and the set-up won't allow or take a plug in graphics card. I had the computer to a service centre at the end of last year, and the guy put in a card and it made no difference. It just didn't seem to offload the stream onto the graphics card (or something like that) the way a newer computer would (so the guy said).

I find that a bit hard to believe. I imagine that the service guy didn't exactly know what he was doing.

 

[Rogie]

Make sure that you're giving it a little while after you switch settings. It's possible that the picture still looks high quality because that's what's already been buffered. It could take up to 10-20 seconds before it runs out of that and starts displaying what it's downloaded since you changed the setting (i.e. lower quality). It could take much, much longer if you're not watching live (ex. an archived game or you're not caught up in a live broadcast), since there's a whole lot more than it can buffer.



I find that a bit hard to believe. I imagine that the service guy didn't exactly know what he was doing.

Thanks for your help again.
Yes, you were right about waiting a while after changing the stream setting. And, yes, I pretty much never watch games live, almost always watch the replays. Games are on in the morning in Korea, so, I usually watch when i come home from work.

And, as you say, (i was very surprised) I changed the setting to the lowest setting (just to test) and i was watching a replay game, and I'd been watching for maybe 20 minutes or so and when the game was just about over, all of a sudden, the picture changed to the lowest level, very low resolution and fuzzy kind of (but smooth stream) and I was again surprised. So, i put it back to medium and in 10 seconds it changed to a clearer stream again. So, I've been watching the games on medium setting and they are now watchable. I have to wonder if nhl has changed something on their end as well, but, the end of last season games were lagging so bad i could barely watch. I think, on medium setting, it still is a tad slow, but, it's just almost hard to notice, (i suppose if i had another perfect stream beside it to compare, i could tell then), so, for now, things are okay. I'll still think about a new system, but, as long as things are reasonably watcheable, i'll stay with it for now.
Thanks again.

 

[sandman441]

Motherboard: asus Sabretooth x79 tuf motherboard

I also have a asus sabretooth, I will have to get the model number later as I don't have it at hand at the moment. Anytime I would legally rip a dvd that I own my computer would freeze right up and I would also once in awhile get a blue screen of death I even replaced a hard drive as I thought it died.

Well I don't believe the hard drive died the motherboard for some reason decided to randomly change the ram settings, not sure how or why it happened as I have no spyware or viruses on the computer. Anyway I searched around a bit after spending about $300 trying to get "pros" to figure out what was wrong as I was out of ideas, I found other people were having problems and it came about that quiet and cool was causing a few problems, Might be another option if you are still having the problems.

Not sure why but after I put my ram manually on what I have (it was set on auto) and also turning off the quiet and cool my computer runs amazingly right now.