Fixing Problems with Streaming Audio/Video

[Logan]

About a month ago, I had some major spyware problems that slowed my laptop to a crawl. Opening up Firefox took about a minute, going to a webpage took 30 seconds, even minimizing windows would take forever. Thanks to the good people at the Spywareinfo forums, some problems were fixed and speed improved, even if it wasn't at the point of where it used to be before everything started.

One thing that hasn't been fixed is choppiness when it comes to streaming audio and video. I used to be able to watch MLB.tv as if it was a regular TV/cable connection, but now the audio will run for a few seconds, pause, restart for a few, pause, etc and the video will just show frame by frame. My XM online player is pretty much useless...frequent starting and stopping. The guy who helped me before said it's not a spyware issue, so he doesn't know what else can be done.

Anybody have an idea of how to fix this sort of thing? Would be very much appreciated.

[Antmeister]

Well it may be just bandwith. Do a google search for 'bandwith testers' to see if you are getting the bandwith you are paying for. There have been instances where a provider has tried to rip people off, but I am not sure if this is the case

[Logan]

Found a test through CNet, and my connection speed is 1242.4 kbps.

Don't think that's the problem though, as another computer on the same network is working fine.

[Antmeister]

I going to ask the usual, but have you tried running it without firewalls or antivirus programs running to see how it runs? Have you also tried reinstalling those streaming applications? And have you went into Network Connections (if you are using Windows XP) right-clicked and selected 'Repair'? If none of those help...I got nothing.

[Logan]

I'll give the firewall/anti-virus stuff a shot. With the streaming apps, I don't think any software was ever installed, but I'll double-check that. Thanks again for the help.

If things don't get better, I'm thinking it may be best to just wipe everything out and start over. I have all my files backed-up so that won't be a concern, and I don't have much software on here that I'd need to re-download. Is there a site that would give some instructions on how to basically reset a machine so I don't mess anything up?