T61 and streaming video (NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M)

[Jwolfs]

For a year i'm a proud owner of a T61 (6457 - E2G 09/02). I like to get the most out of this machine and upgraded it with an SSD and 8 GB memory. I have a dual boot of Windows 7 and 10. With Windows 10 on the SSD and Windows 7 on the old drive. Both OS's run very smooth. With no issues at all, well except one.

I use this machine mostly for work, but sometimes like to watch a movie or youtube. Videos stored on the harddrive don't give this issue only streaming videos. On Windows 10 i can't watch with any browser at all. All are choppy. On windows 7 it only works on IE. I tried differerent drivers and tweaking the browsers, but no solution. I know i can use Windows 7 with IE with it bugs me like crazy. I can't get my finger around the problem. I think the problem is somewhere in the browser vs the drivers.

Anyone have some ideas why T61 has problems with streaming video. Thanks!!

[brchan]

What CPU do you have? Streaming still uses a bit of CPU especially since most use HTML5. On linux, a T7700 was the minimum to play smooth 1080p video, while a T7200 could only do 720p.

EDIT: You have a T8300 based on your MTM number. Issues are probably drivers. Try burning linux mint debian to a usb drive. Boot from it, play some youtube videos, and see if you get the same results.

[Shredder11]

My T7600 CPU will only play 1080p at lower frame rates such as 25fps but 50fps is literally a non-starter. A T7200 CPU will again only play 720p at lower frame rates. So to overcome this I installed the Broadcom Crystal HD BCM970015 video decoder card. However since YouTube and other websites dropped support for Java and Flash, I can only use the Broadcom with video files offline; no big deal but something to bear in mind. Check out this topic here http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=122323

[ac12]

Check if there is another computer in your office that will play streaming video smoothly.
Because the problem may not be your computer but rather your ISP, the internet connection, the internet itself or the source server.
- Even on my quad core desktop, I have had video stutter or stop. To me this seemed like a data flow problem somewhere upstream of me. Something was choking the data flow.
- When downloading files, I have had some files download at 50+MB/sec, and others down at a crawling 3MB/sec.

[Jwolfs]

Thanks for the replies.

No other computer in the house as a connection issue or any problem with streaming, only the T61.

I made an bootable USB with Linux Mint and install chrome. Youtube, netflix and all other streaming video run fine within Chrome. Not even an hick up. Conclusion must be that the T8300 and Nvidia Quadro NS 140M are capable of streaming video. But what is it? The drivers or the browsers.

EDIT: Playing around with the drivers in Linux Mint. Running xserver-xorg-video-nouveau driver it runs smooth, but running a Nvidia driver it goes bad. Looks likes that might be the problem.

[brchan]

Your gpu drivers on W7 are probably outdated or corrupted.

I always found chrome to give better media and 3D performance than other browsers, especially under linux.

[wujstefan]

JWolfs: I have exactly the same problem. Not all, just some videos. My config is in my sig - can't be much better, and I can see 1080p movs run nicely while some other 720p tragically lagging.

I've tried lots of solutions incl. GPU OC and running CPU in IDA to no effect.

[Jwolfs]

I tried different Nvidia drivers, but none solved it. I bought a T9500 to see if that helps, but reading your reply the answer is probably no...

I love this old brute. Too bad!!

[brchan]

Is GPU acceleration off in firefox/chrome? I would try forcing it on.

[E350]

See my post of today here for my experience:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 15#p796215

[Jwolfs]

The T9500 finally arrived. Installed it, but no effect. Dead end.

[wujstefan]

Try reinstalling Kernell and DirectX - these two caused my problems.

[TonyJZX]

some of the new formats like h265/hevc may prove problematic

i do believe that a machine like a t9500, 8Gb, ssd and nvidia should really romp thru even 1,080p 60fps video, even s/w.

you do well with a clean install of win7 and you will have some debate about the best drivers to use, wdm or the latest from nvidia etc.

IMO I have a faster machine than the above and IMO WIn7 works better on it than Win10, mainly due to drivers.

[SaskFellow]

I can agree Win 10 on these machines seems to be very fickle with streaming video.

I actually put my CrystalHD(the 70015 version, the 70012 is pretty limited in it's capability) back in, installed the drivers, and it seems to be helping. Watching HD HTML5 video, and my T9300 is bouncing around 20-30% even under full screen.

The latest drivers from Nvidia are a desperate addition, the older editions would cause nasty system crashes under 10. Now watching video and pausing it doesn't end up bluescreening. :lol

I have 10 Pro x64 installed on my T61.