(no subject)

[deckardcanine]

Twice on the weekend, my home PC monitor suddenly went into sleep mode and wouldn't wake up. Nothing I tried worked, so I settled for an emergency shutdown via the power button.

Both times, it happened right after I tried scrolling ahead in a YouTube video (a different video each time, and not a problem with videos I let play from the start). I could still get the audio just fine. I sure hope that's what triggered the blackout so I know to avoid it.

I suspect that it has something to do with a feature I added to Chrome and then (I thought) deleted because it was messing up my YouTube experience, albeit to a lesser degree. Either that or malware has circumvented my expensive defenses. I could resume using Firefox, but at home, that hasn't been able to show videos at all for a while.

My pattern has been a new PC every 4 years. This one is 3 years and 8 months old. Maybe I should stick with it just a little longer.

Comments

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

I use Microsoft Security Essentials, it's free and seems to protect me from viruses and malware effectively. You might want to give it a run, see if it spots anything your anti-virus missed: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials

How do your videos run in IE? If you're having video problems everywhere, you might need to upgrade your video card drivers.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Security Essentials recommends disabling other antivirus software to avoid conflicts. I paid for ESET and don't want to toss it that casually.

I no longer have shortcuts for IE since I got Chrome. A typed search tells me it's still on the computer, but I'm disinclined to return to it after all these years.

[stevenroy.livejournal.com]

Malware would not do this, not without doing other things too.

It's probably either failing hardware or a driver problem. It could be, for example, something as simple as your monitor giving out, or your video card becoming flaky when it overheats.

More likely, though, it could be an incompatibility between your video drivers and the way newer Flash versions (hooray for auto-updates) use hardware acceleration when playing video. There's possible workarounds if this is the case: First, try to find updated drivers for your video card. If that doesn't help, you can right-click any Flash object to access Flash's settings, in which there will be an "enable hardware acceleration" checkbox. Try turning that off to get improved compatibility.

Good luck!

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Someone who had a similar problem suggested updating Java, which I hadn't done in a long time. If that doesn't work, I'll take your suggestion.

[stevenroy.livejournal.com]

Well, Java is definitely one of those things that you should keep updated... but Java and Flash are entirely separate components and YouTube doesn't use Java at all. So, this probably won't help with your specific problem, but it's still a good idea!

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

You were right: Updating Java wasn't enough. Now it turns out that I don't have to scroll ahead in a video to get a black screen; last time I merely scrolled down the page. And my home Firefox still can't access videos at all anymore.

Before I can find updated drivers, I need a reminder of how to find out which video card I have. In the meantime, I can disable hardware acceleration, but it looks like I have to do that for each video separately.

[stevenroy.livejournal.com]

The hardware acceleration setting should be a global one! If that's not getting saved, something might be wrong there...

As for finding out what card you have: Right-click the "My Computer" icon, either on the desktop or in the Start menu, and then choose "Manage" from the menu. When the "Management Console" comes up, click "Device Manager" in the menu on the left, and then you should be able to find "Display adapters" on the right. From there you can view the details of your video card, including the current driver version information so you can see just how old the current drivers are.

You have ruled out a loose cable, right?

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what cable to check.

I did find that I have an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT, tho not from the exact path you stated (I'm on Vista). Alas, finding a driver update is not as easy as I thought. One site had it for a different computer; another triggered an alarm from ESET Smart Security.

[stevenroy.livejournal.com]

It helps to remember that ATI is part of AMD now. Drivers for ATI cards can be found on the [AMD support page].

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

I think it worked! I tested several YT videos, including one that had problems earlier. Still can't view anything on Firefox, but I don't care. Thank you!

[stevenroy.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear it!

Should we tackle the Firefox issue now?

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

It's not a high priority, but if for some reason Chrome has problems that don't extend to Firefox, I could use a backup.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Bad news: I still get the problem sometimes. At this point, I think I'll just avoid YouTube at home until I get a new PC.

[stevenroy.livejournal.com]

Yup, back to suspecting the hardware again...

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

In desperation, I resurrected Internet Explorer. This actually appears to work: I've played several videos on it without error.