System Idle @ 99 in Task Manager

[dinkeye]

I have getting choppy/jittery audio and video when watching torrents.

In the windows task manager, it is showing the system idle process at 99 and I am guessing this is why I am having video/audio issues.... What would cause this?

Or I could be way off and maybe I need a new video card, more RAM, or maybe my processor is too slow. Maybe all of the above....

I have a P4 @ 2.8 G
1.5 GB of Ram
80 GB HD
128MB ATI Radeon 9800

[Quantum Tarantino]

System Idle means your processor is 99% Idle, or, virtually unused.

That is NOT causing the issue.

Now, you say "watching torrents" torrents dont get watched, video files do.

What format is the jittery file you are watching in.
What Media player are you using to watch said jittery file.

[wprager]

The Idle task is what runs when no other process needs the CPU. If it's running 99%, then this means (roughly speaking) that the CPU is only 1% busy. It's not your CPU.

[hugh]

Are you looking at task manager when the video is playing? I doubt your 99% idle when the video is playing

[heybirder]

That machine has more than enough power. What are you doing exactly? Watching a video that you are getting by torrent? Torrents break the file up into pieces that are sent in random order and you have to wait until it's 100% before it's viewable. Otherwise you'll get what you describe.

[39sfa]

google "media player classic" - free download
use that to play your video - guessing avi/divx/xvid?
It is a a very light player that carries the latest codecs.
WMP you might have to upgrade to codecs that aren't perfect match for your file.

[smnc]

Media Player Classic is great and I use it (especially for watching DVD's), but I also highly recommend Video Lan Player (VLC). I've found it to be the most flexible all around player and can play almost any kind of video file you throw at it.

[I_Want_My_HDTV]

I use VLC for a lot of things since it has very high quality video. If VLC won't play the file, I try Media Player Classic or MPlayer.

[dinkeye]

I always use VLC player to watch movies..... And it has worked great for months.

Would a better video card help??

[smnc]

Trust me, your hardware is FINE.
I can run perfectly smooth full screen mpeg video on my rig, and I have an ATI 9600SE 64mb on an Athlon XP 1700+ and only 512mb or ram.

And I doubt VLC is the problem.

It seems somthing is slowing things down.
Have you installed any new software lately?

Do you run an Anti-Virus and Anti-Spware tool regularly?

[dhardy123]

Not sure if this is your problem but it frequently is for me, especially when im watching video and downloading, etc. I follow the steps here and everything is back to normal for awhile:

http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm

[ASA]

but I also highly recommend Video Lan Player (VLC). I've found it to be the most flexible all around player and can play almost any kind of video file you throw at it.

That's what I use. It also plays partialy DL'ed files if you drop them into the player. (great for when you want to see what you are dl'ing before the file if done)

[dinkeye]

Isn't that more for the DVD drive???

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Keep em coming. I watched Blood Diamond last night (excellent film) and had the same problem. It is very annoying.....

[Yaamon]

Could be windows media player ?

I had reformatted a computer and loaded back Win Xp Pro and it was only a P4 1.7 with 512M ram and while watchind dvd movie it was very choppy. The friend said that it used to be fine before.

I loaded a power dvd and it was fine, smooth playback. So try a different player.

Good luck.