[passingthru]

Not sure where this goes so I'm posting it here.

Lately, I've been having trouble watching YouTube videos. You know how one little bar moves across the bottom of the video while the other bar follows it while it's playing until it reaches the end? Well, the first bar always goes a short distance, then gets stuck. When the second bar reaches it, the video freezes. I have to refresh the page to start it again. Sometimes, when I do, it starts at the point where it left off. Sometimes, it just starts from the beginning again. Other times the video seems just fine when suddenly it goes black with a lot of static and says, "An error occurred, please try again later."

But it happens A LOT. Usually, I just figure it's YouTube and it'll go away after awhile, but not this time. It keeps happening.

What's going on?

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What browser are you using? Try to see if there is a recent upgrade for your browser.

If you have another browser try that one to see if it happens.

Clear cache and cookies, try a good free program called CCleaner. CCleaner

Try updating plug-in for Adobe flash player in browser, most videos use this.

Enable java script in your browser may help,usually found in settings of the browser.

Could be problems with your internet connection also.

Try different video quality settings on the youtube video usually a gear icon on bottom right corner ,lower the resolution 240p,360p.

Edited by jds63, 27 December 2013 - 04:59 PM.

[jds63]

What browser are you using? Try to see if there is a recent upgrade for your browser.

If you have another browser try that one to see if it happens.

Clear cache and cookies, try a good free program called CCleaner. CCleaner

Try updating plug-in for Adobe flash player in browser, most videos use this.

Enable java script in your browser may help,usually found in settings of the browser.

Could be problems with your internet connection also.

Try different video quality settings on the youtube video usually a gear icon on bottom right corner ,lower the resolution 240p,360p.

Edited by jds63, 27 December 2013 - 04:59 PM.

[passingthru]

What browser are you using? Try to see if there is a recent upgrade for your browser.

If you have another browser try that one to see if it happens.

Clear cache and cookies, try a good free program called CCleaner. CCleaner

Try updating plug-in for Adobe flash player in browser, most videos use this.

Enable java script in your browser may help,usually found in settings of the browser.

Could be problems with your internet connection also.

Try different video quality settings on the youtube video usually a gear icon on bottom right corner ,lower the resolution 240p,360p.

Sorry for the delay, I tried watching the videos in internet explorer(which I do not like to use) and they work just fine so it's definitely something in FireFox. I have FireFox 26, so it's definitely up to date. I use the "noscript" add-on in Firefox(as well as adblock) because I was told on this website that javascript is used by many hackers to attack your PC. However, I told noscript to temporarily allow the youtube page with the video and it still didn't make any difference. I lowered it to 144p and it didn't help either.

I was told by many people on this website to avoid tweaking programs like CCleaner and Advanced Systemscare because it often does more harm than good to your PC and it also tends to bring foistware that does stuff like hijack your browser's homepage and send it to the yahoo searchpage. If I needed to fix disk errors and junk files, I was given instructions to:

"Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup and click OK

For the Drive errors Right click on C drive go to Properties > Tools and click on the Check now radio button in the option for checking drive errors."

Do you want me to do that?


I don't see Adobe flash player listed in my add-ons in Firefox, but it must be on my PC or else it wouldn't play videos at all right? Where do I find it in Firefox and how do I update it?

[jds63]

No Problem, I meant to use CCleaner just to clean out cache and temp files it is very good at this, not to use it for registry cleaning, although it is one of the safest to use for that too,plus it makes a backup for the registry in case.
I would never use other Registry cleaner or these system care ones , true they will make matters worse, you really need to know what you are changing when you use any software like this, tread lightly.

Yes doing clean up through Windows is pretty efficient although i find CCleaner better,IMO.

IMO youtube can have maleware,spyware and viruses, then to worry more about getting hacked from it.

Chkdsk would be better done through run as Administrator command prompt ,at a command prompt chkdsk /f /r

Then you can run a sfc /scannnow at admin command prompt also.

Do not think this is your problem, but is good to run every so often so you can do it way i explained it is more efficient this way.

After you do a chkdsk there is a way to see the report, click start and select run, type powershell.exe

In PowerShell, copy and paste the command below, and press Enter.

get-winevent -FilterHashTable @{logname="Application"; id="1001"}| ?{$_.providername –match "wininit"} | fl timecreated, message | out-file Desktop\CHKDSKResults.txt

This will give you a report on your desktop of the previous chkdsk.

In firefox under tools, select add-ons ,then select plugins on the right, in blue highlight it says "Check to see if your plug-ins are up to date".
From there it will let you know which ones are up to date, you should see Adobe Flash there.

Try a scandisk ,chkdsk and update the plug-ins on browser see what happens , too many addon ons may slow performance on browser i feel.

Edited by jds63, 30 December 2013 - 09:13 PM.

[passingthru]

When I look in the add-ons, it says I have Shockwave Flash 11.9.900.170, so I guess my Adobe is up to date. However, there seems to be a lot of Realplayer add-ons in there that I don't think I even use. They're all related to the RealPlayer Downloader feature I used to download videos off of YouTube. However, there was something in downloader that messed with my USB thumbdrive whenever I stuck it in my computer. When I tried to remove it and waited for the window that says "you can now safely remove hardware", I would get a window saying "file still in use". I had to disable realplayer downloader and start using another add-on (not related to realplayer) called "downloadhelper" instead. RealPlayer Downloader was just one feature, I don't know why I have so many real Downloader plug-ins stuck in there. It's weird! And I don't even use them. Could that be what's causing the problem?

Next to the real plugins there's a box giving me the option to "always activate" (which is what it seems to be set to now), "ask to activate" and "never activate". Should I set them to "never activate"?

[jds63]

Yes that is the latest version of Adobe, you can find it in control panel and check for updates from there too, just let it notify you and not update without letting you know.

You can deactivate the plug-ins as you saw from a drop down box on the right of the plug-ins,but it is most likely the Real Player will not work then because it needs those plug-ins.

Did you in the settings of Real Player Downloader specify the USB as the place were the vidoes were to be saved to? Why you may get File in use, check settings in the Real Player.

I can not see a downloader to cause problems with playing youtube videos,the browser might not be set to optimal performance.

You can try to reset Firefox to default state, to see if this can help it, but then you will have to install back the ad-ons you added to it, plus update Adobe and any other plug-ins.

Under Help in Firefox select troubleshooting, on top right you will see reset, try this if you like.

Let me know what happens.

P.S. i find Tonec's Internet Download manager a very good downloader,fast and reliable,google it,take a look at it, though it is not a free one.

Edited by jds63, 31 December 2013 - 06:43 PM.

[passingthru]

I only need realplayer to play videos I download sometimes so it should be okay.

If I reset Firefox, will that erase my bookmarks and favorites settings? Is there any way to preserve that?

[jds63]

Read this it won't loose anything reset firefox

I am not too familiar with Real Player, but there are plenty of free players to be able to bet from the internet to play video files.VLC for one VLC Media Player

Edited by jds63, 01 January 2014 - 04:10 PM.

[passingthru]

Read this it won't loose anything reset firefox

I am not too familiar with Real Player, but there are plenty of free players to be able to bet from the internet to play video files.VLC for one VLC Media Player

Yes, I have VLC Player as well as Quicktime player. Between the three of them, I can usually play most videos.

I reset Firefox and am currently attempting to reinstall the addons. Noscript reinstalled suprisingly fast, but I'm not seeing the familiar noscript icon at the bottom right of the screen.

[passingthru]

Nevermind, it just got moved to the upper left. I'm done. Unfortunately, it's had zero effect on my video problem, it still does the same thing.

My brother says it might just be the speed at which my modem receives info from the internet, that and some of the videos I watch are pretty long. If I want it faster, he says I would have to pay more money.

I tried out google chrome and it only moves slightly faster there. Internet Explorer is the only one where the videos load fast and play just fine.

What's the deal with Firefox anyway? It's such a popular browser, but why? I always heard that it's supposed to have much better security than Internet Explorer or that it's more customisable or less "corporate" or something. What's the truth?

Edited by passingthru, 01 January 2014 - 07:47 PM.

[jds63]

I thought i had mentioned it could be due to your internet speed, but you said IE was working good.

Would of been one of my first thoughts, your internet service providers speed ,yes with a faster download speeds videos,Streaming and page loading will work better and faster.

I do not believe it is the length of the videos, more like the quality, HD.Sometimes it just could be the video your watching at times.

I have Fiber optics,Verizon FIOS 75 down/ 40 up.Check with your provider see what packages are available with prices.

To me i prefer Mozilla Firefox over IE, although IE is fast.I feel Firefox to me is more secure and a better browser, but others would disagree. U can't complain they are all free to download, chrome is suppose to be one of the best.

Yes firefox has alot of add-ons and customizations compared to IE.

Be careful with Quicktime, has some security risks and flaws to use.

If you do not mind to spend the money for better quality player for videos,i prefer Cyberlink PowerDVD and JRiver Media Center.

They are capable of playing many formats of videos.

Sometimes your PC itself may not be set to optimal performance with your network, which could cause some problems you notice.
Usually Windows sets itself for best performance.

Edited by jds63, 02 January 2014 - 08:15 PM.

[passingthru]

Sometimes your PC itself may not be set to optimal performance with your network, which could cause some problems you notice.
Usually Windows sets itself for best performance.

I've tried different performance settings to no avail and setting the videos to lower than 240p hadn't helped either. At this point, I've pretty much concluded that Firefox sucks when it comes to watching videos. Google Chrome and Internet Explorer are faster, I should begin using them, at least when it comes to watching vids anyway. I'll see if I can get no-script and adblock for them as well. Thank you for all your help, I appreciate it.

Since I reset Firefox, I guess I should delete the "old firefox data" file on my desktop for security. Does any old firefox data remain in your C drive after that's gone?

Be careful with Quicktime, has some security risks and flaws to use.

Well, I don't use any special features on it other than to play videos or Gifs that might not have played on my VLC or Realplayer.(Which means I don't use it often.) What security risks exactly?

[jds63]

I meant sometimes your network, internet connection is not optimized correctly through your PC.

Sometimes your internet provider has a website with tools to optimize or check your network connection.

As i said Windows usually does this itself, so there is usually no need, but you never know if there is or maybe an issue with your connection through the provider that gives it to you.

If you know what speeds you pay for, then you can check it through this site speedtest

See what you get and compare it to what you are suppose to receive from internet provider.

You should regularly clean cache and cookies from your PC at least weekly, can try this free program it is quite good ccleaner

I am not sure now what can be causing this problem with videos on youtube if chrome and IE work o.k. for it, your PC you must think of it in ways like a car, it to needs maintenance once and awhile,, should defrag. drives, cache and cookies cleaning, disk cleanup and chkdsk .

I have no problem with Firefox with videos on internet.

I have read they are always finding security holes in Quicktime player and then always applying new patches to fix it, plus with Quicktime player, whenever you open it, it is online, like a browser.
Well make sure you have a good security suite, anti-virus and firewall.

You are most welcome for the help i can provide to you,

Edited by jds63, 07 January 2014 - 09:05 PM.