![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Hey kids, I figured at least one of you might have some ideas...
I have a Sony VAIO laptop around 3 years old, which is currently my main resource for playing DVDs, until the TV is back from the repair shop.
When I first got it, DVD playback was fine, in either of the programs that came with it: Windows Media Player and InterVideo's WinDVD 4 (which I prefer). Some DVD or another installed the InterActual player at some point & I assume playback was OK there, too, though I'm not sure I ever used it.
I used to have no trouble with DVD playback, but lately, when I try to run one, it occasionally slows down, then starts playing jerkily. This happens no matter which program I'm using. It doesn't happen consistently on given DVDs - one DVD that wouldn't play one night played with no trouble a few weeks later. It doesn't matter whether it's a recent release from the video store, or a very obscure instructional DVD from the library. (So, I don't think it's caused by copy protection on newer releases.)
Sometimes the DVDs will shudder completely to a halt over the period of a few minutes, other times they will catch up to speed, play well for a few minutes, and then start "stuttering" again, catch up after a few minutes, but get worse and worse throughout the course of the DVD. If the DVD is going to play well at all, it usually does so in its first 10 minutes, before it starts having problems. No DVD has started off with problems and then started playing smoothly after a few minutes and continuing smoothly through the rest of the program.
I have tried: disabling screen savers (when I realized one was enabled, I thought, "Aha! That will take care of it!" - but it didn't), deleting the InterActual player that I don't like and don't use, cleaning up my desktop, disabling all programs that have icons in the system tray (stickies, Winamp, Quicktime), turning off the anti-virus scanner... none of this seems to help.
I have not tried: defragging the hard drive, using CCleaner on the registry again, or cleaning the lens on the CD-RW drive. (If it's probably the latter, I need to know how to do that safely. Also, I have been having problems with copying CDs lately, but I just assumed that the CD in question had copy protection on it, and that's why a failed copy was the result.)
It could be: I run a fan panel under the laptop, because this model of VAIO tends to overheat. The fan could be making playback unstable, like how a cd skips when you go over bumps in a car. However, I think this is unlikely, because if I put a music disc in the drive, it plays perfectly.
Any more ideas?
Edited to add: I tried defragging the hard disk, as well. Analysis said I did not need to defragment, but I went ahead and did it anyway... it had no effect.
I have a Sony VAIO laptop around 3 years old, which is currently my main resource for playing DVDs, until the TV is back from the repair shop.
When I first got it, DVD playback was fine, in either of the programs that came with it: Windows Media Player and InterVideo's WinDVD 4 (which I prefer). Some DVD or another installed the InterActual player at some point & I assume playback was OK there, too, though I'm not sure I ever used it.
I used to have no trouble with DVD playback, but lately, when I try to run one, it occasionally slows down, then starts playing jerkily. This happens no matter which program I'm using. It doesn't happen consistently on given DVDs - one DVD that wouldn't play one night played with no trouble a few weeks later. It doesn't matter whether it's a recent release from the video store, or a very obscure instructional DVD from the library. (So, I don't think it's caused by copy protection on newer releases.)
Sometimes the DVDs will shudder completely to a halt over the period of a few minutes, other times they will catch up to speed, play well for a few minutes, and then start "stuttering" again, catch up after a few minutes, but get worse and worse throughout the course of the DVD. If the DVD is going to play well at all, it usually does so in its first 10 minutes, before it starts having problems. No DVD has started off with problems and then started playing smoothly after a few minutes and continuing smoothly through the rest of the program.
I have tried: disabling screen savers (when I realized one was enabled, I thought, "Aha! That will take care of it!" - but it didn't), deleting the InterActual player that I don't like and don't use, cleaning up my desktop, disabling all programs that have icons in the system tray (stickies, Winamp, Quicktime), turning off the anti-virus scanner... none of this seems to help.
I have not tried: defragging the hard drive, using CCleaner on the registry again, or cleaning the lens on the CD-RW drive. (If it's probably the latter, I need to know how to do that safely. Also, I have been having problems with copying CDs lately, but I just assumed that the CD in question had copy protection on it, and that's why a failed copy was the result.)
It could be: I run a fan panel under the laptop, because this model of VAIO tends to overheat. The fan could be making playback unstable, like how a cd skips when you go over bumps in a car. However, I think this is unlikely, because if I put a music disc in the drive, it plays perfectly.
Any more ideas?
Edited to add: I tried defragging the hard disk, as well. Analysis said I did not need to defragment, but I went ahead and did it anyway... it had no effect.
