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CPU running at 100% when watching videos online and offline computer freezes

Anonymous
2015-10-17T22:03:24+00:00

My computer's CPU is running at 100% anytime I try to watch video. This happens when I'm online watching Netflix, YouTube etc. and also happens when trying to watch saved movies from hard drive or movies saved on computer itself. The picture is very choppy and pixelated and skips around like a slideshow, the audio seems to not have the issues.  Tried VLC and win media player. When trying to watch online from Netflix, sometimes it totally freezes the whole computer and i have to reset the computer. When I look at the task manager, while playing online movies it says the plugin container for Firefox is running high CPU usage. Also It sometimes has a pop up saying silverlight has stopped working. I did uninstall Firefox and reinstall and no change, defraged hard drive, and removed downloads that took up large amount of space.

I have a Toshiba Satellite L455D-S5976 Laptop, Windows 7, 32 bit. Any help appreciated...

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-10-18T16:00:05+00:00

    This can happen if your hard drive is too full.  Performance will generally start to drop once you reach 75% and continues to get worse.

    Remove Firefox and Silverlight and see if the situation improves.

    What processor is in your computer?  How much memory?  Age?  Size of hard drive and how much is in use?

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-10-18T10:08:08+00:00

    Hello Travis,

    Thank you for visiting Microsoft Community and providing us with the detailed description about the issue.

    As per the description, I understand that you are experiencing issue with CPU usage to 100% while watching videos online on the system.

    I certainly understand your concern and will try my best to help you.

    I would suggest you to try the following methods and check if that helps.

    Method 1:

    To diagnose the problem whether any third party program or application is causing the conflict, I would suggest you to try “clean boot” and check if it helps.

    Placing your system in “Clean Boot” state helps in identifying if any third party applications or startup items are causing the issue. You need to follow the steps from the article mentioned below to perform a Clean Boot.

    How to perform a “clean boot” in Windows, please follow the steps in the link provided below.

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135/en-us

    Important: Putting your system in Clean Boot state helps in identifying if any third party applications or startup items are causing the issue. You need to follow the steps from the article mentioned below to perform a Clean Boot.

    Note: Refer "How to reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshooting" to reset the computer to start as normal after troubleshooting.

    Try to reboot the system and check if it helps.

    If the issue persists, follow method 2          

    Method 2:

    Try to run system maintenance troubleshooter and check if it helps. Please follow the steps in the link given below.

    Note: System maintenance troubleshooter looks for unused files and shortcuts that you clean up or remove so that your computer can run faster.

    Open the System Maintenance troubleshooter.

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Open-the-System-Maintenance-troubleshooter

    I hope this information is helpful.           

    Please do let us know if you need any further assistance, we will be glad to assist you.

    Thank you.

    Jayant

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