How do I get online videos to stream smoothly?

I'm on an Acer One netbook, and whenever I try watching videos on Hulu, Nick.com, YouTube, etc, the videos play fine for a few seconds, then freeze with the audio playing for a few seconds, then go back to playing-- and they do this over and over throughout the duration of the video. It does this with every video, regardless of the host site, and it's very frustrating. I tried defragging, but memory doesn't seem to be the issue-- the netbook's new, so I have 90% free memory.

..help, please?

inukjuak902010-06-15T03:59:29Z

Favorite Answer

The cause of your problem is simple: your "cache"
memory & "temporary internet files'' are nearly full.
This is especially true if you've been watching lots
of videos or playing a lot of games/music.

If you are experiencing either: A) slugglish loading
and buffering, B) "choppy" videos which frequently
start/stop/start/stop, C) the YouTube dotted circle
looking like it might spin for ever, or D) videos that
will sometimes come to a sudden "stop" or freeze,
that is often a sign that your cache/memory is full
and cannot take anymore.

Exit out of YouTube (but not your browser) and do
one of the sequences below. Afterward, shutdown
& reboot. Not only will this 'free up' your computer
memory, everything will be ''fresh'', and load faster:

Internet Explorer 6:
→ Tools → Internet Options
→ Delete Cookies → OK
→ Delete Files → OK
→ Clear History → Yes
→ OK

Internet Explorer 7:
→ Tools → Internet Options → Delete...
→ Delete files → Yes
→ Delete cookies → OK
→ Delete history → OK
→ Close (browsing history window)
→ OK

Internet Explorer 8:
→ Tools → Delete Browsing History
[. ] Preserve Favorites (leave blank)
[x] Temporary Internet files
[x] Cookies
[x] History
→ Delete

Mozilla Firefox 3:
→ Tools → Clear Private Data
[x] Browsing History
[x] Download History
[x] Saved Form and Search History
[x] Cache
[x] Cookies
→ Clear Private Data Now

Mozilla Firefox 3.5/3.6:
→ Tools → Clear Recent History
Time range to clear: → Everything
▼ Details
[x] Browsing & Download History
[x] Saved Form and Search History
[x] Cookies
[x] Cache
→ Clear Now

Apple Safari 3:
→ Edit → Preferences
→ Security (tab) → Show Cookies
→ Remove All → Done
after that:
→ Safari → Empty Cache → Empty
after that:
→ History → Clear History

Apple Safari 4:
→ Safari → Reset Safari
[x] Clear history
[x] Empty the cache
[x] Clear the downloads window
[x] Remove all cookies
→ Reset

Google Chrome:
→ Tools (wrench) → Clear browsing data...
[x] Clear browsing history
[x] Clear download history
[x] Empty the cache
[x] Delete cookies
Clear data from this period: → Everything
→ Clear Browsing Data

DON'T FORGET TO SHUT DOWN AND REBOOT
AFTER DOING ONE OF THE ABOVE.

If you have other applications which are running at
the same time, those will slow down YouTube too.
If you have "Torrents", you might want to consider
closing or uninstalling them. A couple people who
chose me as "Best Answer" wrote that everything
worked great after they'd uninstalled their Torrents.
For some reason, simply closing them didn't work.

Also, "Adblock Plus", various Instant Messengers
and literally every "stupid video accelerator" under
the sun is known to interfere with YouTube.

Another thing you may want to consider is turning
off your anti-virus -- but only momentarily. As long
as you remain on YouTube (and do not wander off
to other websites), you will be okay, because you
cannot get a virus from YouTube.

And lastly, you can easily check your speed here:
http://www.youtube.com/my_speed

?2017-01-14T16:16:03Z

Online Video Not Playing

Jennifer2016-03-02T02:16:59Z

You need a faster internet connection at least 5mbps download speed minimum. You have a lag on the buffer under run between the player and the video file. If the connection is fast then it will stream smoothly due to real time synchronization.

Anonymous2010-06-13T22:06:30Z

Add RAM
Good Internet connection
and Use a good PC optimizer and Registry cleaner such as Reginout to make your computer faster

?2017-02-03T10:21:22Z

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