100% CPU When Viewing Website-Based Flash Media

[Sa*ad159]

Dear Friends,

I have tried upgrading to different versions of Flash Player, tried different browsers such as Opera, Firefox, IE.

I have 2GB DDR2 RAM and 1.86GHz - Windows XP

Why does my CPU go to 100% when I view website based FLASH Media content like youtube.com or video.google.com?

I can get over 2 megabytes per second --- so speed is not an issue.

I am able to play HD content on my computer so - why in the world wouldn't I be able to play streaming flash content?

Can someone help?

Thank you so much

[krazyphire]

Is your computer a Dual-Core CPU? Does it have any unnecessary plug-ins being loaded? When you say flash do you mean youtube?

[Sa*ad159]

When I say Flash - I mean:

-Youtube
-Video.Google.com
- any other website that offers 'video' through a flash player

I do NOT have a Dual-Core CPU, but if my computer can run HD content with out any problems, why should it have any problem with FLV flash?

Thank You

THOUGH, Sorry I did forget one detail:

Whenever I listen to audio within a video or just simply audio, my "System" processe peaks to 20+%, then if I pause the audio or video, the "System" processe goes back to 0%

[Ayle]

Flash videos always tax the processor, there is nothing you can do about the high cpu usage. The only solution would be find a site that use something other than flv...

[Sa*ad159]

So, the best bet would be to download each flash video I'd like to watch?

Since, if I download them and play them off my harddrive, then the flash videos do not result in the same CPU spike.

[krazyphire]

Flash videos always tax the processor, there is nothing you can do about the high cpu usage. The only solution would be find a site that use something other than flv...

I'm not exactly sure about the part of taxing the processor because my undervolted T5300 cpu can browse/watch youtube at 800mhz. So I agree it is mostly CPU, but the other element would come down to the internet data transfer rate of the network card in which case the sites that are being visited might be high activity.

I'm no expert so I may just be talking of my own situation.

[krazyphire]

So, the best bet would be to download each flash video I'd like to watch?

Since, if I download them and play them off my harddrive, then the flash videos do not result in the same CPU spike.

(Sorry for double post)

Yeah playing off the hard drive would then shift the burden on to the HDD, and if you can play HD content I'm guessing that you should have no problems.

[InlawBiker]

If the flash was really using 100% of your CPU then it would do so playing directly off your hard drive as well.

I find it hard to believe a flash video could eat 100% of your CPU. It should use maybe 20%. I would try un-installing and re-installing Flash, upgrading to your latest video drivers, disabling things like virus scanners, etc., and trying again. Also make sure XP is fully patched up.

[InlawBiker]

(Sorry for double post)

Yeah playing off the hard drive would then shift the burden on to the HDD, and if you can play HD content I'm guessing that you should have no problems.

How so? The computer is receiving the data stream by the network adapter, which is caching the video to the hard drive and playing it in Flash. So it's still coming off the hard drive, with the very tiny overhead of the network adapter still receiving the data.

[krazyphire]

How so? Flash is receiving the data stream by the network adapter, which is caching the video to the hard drive and playing it. So it's still coming off the hard drive, with the very tiny overhead of the network adapter still receiving the data.

The TOS plans to download the videos and store them on the HDD. Then play them back. So the network card activity is no longer an issue.