DVDs on my laptop

[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]

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]

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 :D

[dean_shan]

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 :D

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/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&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]

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. ;-)

...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.

[milkman dan]

???? every XP instalation I have ever done has booted for the first time with XP's firewall already enabled :? XP's firewall doesn't patch up any of the RPC holes anyways, so I don't see what difference it would really make. My best suggestion is throw SP1 on a CD, then patch up to at least sp1 before plugging into the internet. Oh, and the 240 megs not being much, well, no, it really isnt (ive got 2 gigs in my box), but to play a DVD in XP, 128 megs is more then enough for a system that isn't bogged down with adware or a virus. DVD playback doesn't much in the way of RAM, and doesn't use any space from the swapfile that I am aware of, even if you are really short on ram. Heh, one more option we are forgetting, is there could be a scratch on the DVD, or his lens could need cleaning :D

[Jason Dunn]

???? every XP instalation I have ever done has booted for the first time with XP's firewall already enabled

Interesting....every install I've seen/heard of hasn't had it activated. I wonder why you're seeing it and I'm not? Hmm.

[Janak Parekh]

???? every XP instalation I have ever done has booted for the first time with XP's firewall already enabled :?
I've done about 10-15 in the last month, fresh installs from CD, and it absolutely did not. I don't know what kind of XP install you're using, but it's not the standard one as far as I can tell.

XP's firewall doesn't patch up any of the RPC holes anyways, so I don't see what difference it would really make.
It prevents outside connections to the RPC ports. I can tell you with 100% certainty that if you throw a ICF-enabled XP box on the Internet, it won't get hacked by a worm. (IE vulnerabilities are an issue, on the other hand, so the ICF is useful to enable you to run Windows Update.) Perhaps you're thinking of a different firewall, because the one built into XP certainly does what it advertises.

My best suggestion is throw SP1 on a CD, then patch up to at least sp1 before plugging into the internet.
This is no longer sufficient. There are patches post-SP1 that must be installed to avoid the latest worms.

Oh, and the 240 megs not being much, well, no, it really isnt (ive got 2 gigs in my box), but to play a DVD in XP, 128 megs is more then enough for a system that isn't bogged down with adware or a virus.
... or most anything running in startup. If one is comfortable enough, running "msconfig" is a useful debugging step. :)

--janak

[milkman dan]

wow, that is insane. I have onstalled 90% of my XP instalations from an oem preinstall, which could account for 90% of the systems, but one of the first things I do on a personal machine after loading a system on XP is disable the firewall. As far as xp's firewall blocking the RPC ports, I don't understand that becuase last time I reloaded my main PC I got blaster half way through downloading sp1 while the firewall was enabled :(

[Janak Parekh]

wow, that is insane. I have onstalled 90% of my XP instalations from an oem preinstall, which could account for 90% of the systems, but one of the first things I do on a personal machine after loading a system on XP is disable the firewall. As far as xp's firewall blocking the RPC ports, I don't understand that becuase last time I reloaded my main PC I got blaster half way through downloading sp1 while the firewall was enabled :(
Something is very wrong with your setup, then. It sounds like the firewall is off, but "checked" anyway... or something. We literally just reinstalled a bunch of Dells here, and firewalled each of them, plugged them in (public IP network), and off they went to Windows Update with nary a Blaster infection. My boss was the only one who forgot when she was installing a PC of hers, and it was promptly infected.

(FWIW, this was not an OEM install -- we blew those away and used our own XP Volume License.)

--janak

[milkman dan]

in the words of beavis....
"well I'll be damned"