[mckeaney]

I have a Toshiba Laptop 3 yrs old...when I play movies on it the seem to drag every once in a while...can anyone help?

[mckeaney]

I have a Toshiba Laptop 3 yrs old...when I play movies on it the seem to drag every once in a while...can anyone help?

[tanalasta]

Hard to say without knowing more. What processor/RAM/graphics card are you running?

And has it always been like this?

If your laptop is 3 years old, it may not have the capacity to view DVD quality video. My Pentium 433 struggled with even DivX files. It should, however, work fine with VCD disks.

[mckeaney]

Celleron Prossesor/ 240 RAM It's worked before...a guy I work w/ said to clean out the Cookies and temp folder??? Any help would be appriciated

[dean_shan]

Originally Posted by mckeaney

Celleron Prossesor/ 240 RAM It's worked before...a guy I work w/ said to clean out the Cookies and temp folder??? Any help would be appriciated

Cookies and the temp folder have to do with Internet browsing. Clear the cookies won't help any but getting rid of your temperary internet files might help due to a less full hard disk.

[Jason Dunn]

You might also want to try defragmenting the hard drive and shutting down other applications that are running at the same time (especially anti-virus scanners).

[delfuhd]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

You might also want to try defragmenting the hard drive and shutting down other applications that are running at the same time (especially anti-virus scanners).

What exactley does defragmenting the hard drive do? I've seen the little button, but I was never brave enough to click it. Am I at risk of losing files if I defrag a hard drive? Is it like reformatting it?
thanks

[dean_shan]

Originally Posted by delfuhd

What exactley does defragmenting the hard drive do? I've seen the little button, but I was never brave enough to click it. Am I at risk of losing files if I defrag a hard drive? Is it like reformatting it?
thanks

Here is a dictionary definition of disk fragmentation.

As modern file systems are used and files are deleted and created, the total free space becomes split into smaller non-contiguous blocks (composed of "clusters" or "sectors" or some other unit of allocation). Eventually new files being created, and old files being extended, cannot be stored each in a single contiguous block but become scattered across the file system. This degrades performance as multiple seek operations are required to access a single fragmented file.

Defragmenting consolidates each existing file and the free space into a continuous group of sectors. Access speed will be improved due to reduced seeking.

Laymans term: Puts all the free space together thus making your HD spin less to access data.

[milkman dan]

hes running DVD's, verry little to do with the HDD if you have 240MB ram, thats plenty more than a buffer would need from a dvd. I am willing to bet your problem is adware. Download and run this program

http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10...age&tag=button

If that doesn't solve your problem, back up what you need from your laptop, and run the recovery cd's that came with your laptop, but make sure to go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com the SECOND you plug that sucker into the internet, becuase 3 years ago was before things like the blaster worm so your computer will be vulnerable untill you patch that sucker.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by milkman dan

hes running DVD's, verry little to do with the HDD if you have 240MB ram, thats plenty more than a buffer would need from a dvd.

240 MB of available RAM isn't all that much - Windows XP will take up almost that much. But your right, the defrag might not fix anything. ;-)

Originally Posted by milkman dan

...but make sure to go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com the SECOND you plug that sucker into the internet, becuase 3 years ago was before things like the blaster worm so your computer will be vulnerable untill you patch that sucker.

I'll have to suggest a different tactic here - I've had three instances lately with people I know that have been infected with viruses within minutes of being connected without a firewall, and it will take 10+ minutes to download/install SP1, and you're completely vulnerable until then. The only solution is to disconnect the computer from the 'Net, turn on the XP firewall, then re-connect. The Windows Update "right away" trick doesn't work any more. :-(

[ignar]

Which software are you using to play DVD? Consider trying a different programs. Some DVD players take much more resources than others.