iChat MAC to PC Video Freeze after 6.5 min

Hi Dave,

Thanks for staying subscribed to this thread and replying.

I have posted for Lynn to confirm which end the Application was on.

It wouldn't hurt to ask your PC friend.

Ralph

PeeCee side it seems: System Requirements

Hi Ralph,

This post does NOT seem to be relevant to my freeze. None of the symptoms is close to mine. In fact, the freeze on this link is
b at the PC end.

For me, it is the picture of my PC friend, John, that freezes
b in my Mac's iChat
window.

EZ Jim

HI All,

Latest Test between EZ Jim and Freeze Friend John.

John bought a new PC notebook. (Wow! Is he a serious trouble-shooter, or what?!)

We just completed our latest test chats. As of today's test, only John's ISP, cable modem, and web cam are common to both our iChat/AIM communication of today and our earlier video freezes (which froze on my Mac at 5minutes and 30 seconds in each session.)

We did three test sessions today. At 4 minutes and 45 seconds in EACH session, John's video picture froze on my Mac's screen. All symptoms except the timing (5 minutes and 30 seconds on his desktop PC) are exactly as reported in earlier posts of this thread.

I guess that means we can rule out the PC as the cause of THIS timing of the freeze. I offer no insight or suggestions -- just recording the facts for the trouble-shooters.

EZ Jim

My Pee Cee friend and I have the 6.5 minutes problem when she runs AIM on her 2GHz Dell using XP Pro, Service Pack 2. She then went back to her old machine a 400 MHz Pentium with XP Home, Service Pack 2, and we verified that there is no 6.5 minute problem with that machine. Same DSL modem using Verizon on her end. Same AIM software. Everything on my Mac side is the same, including my Cox Cable connection. Going back to to the XP Pro and the 6.5 freeze comes back again. Has anyone seen the 6.5 minute problem when the Pee Cee is running XP Home?

Lynn

Hi Lynn, et al,

My Freeze Friend John (see msg # 17) has XP Pro on his desktop (freeze at 5:30) but XP Home on the new lap-top (freeze at 4:45) we tested today.

Neither freeze is at 6.5 minute, and the time of the freeze is different for each of John's PCs. I cannot prove any relationship between XP version and freeze timing, however, because both processor speeds and XP versions are different on the two machines John uses.

EZ Jim

EZ Jim,

Dang! I thought we might be on to something.... Sorry!

Lynn

Good try, Lynn.

Not to worry. Someday, somebody is going to find a reason (and, hopefully, a fix) for at least ONE of these freezes. It might be you.

Who knows? You still might be onto something. Your freeze cause might not be the same as mine or others.

Don't give up.

EZ Jim

Oct 21.. That's a while ago... No one found a fix ??
I have the same problem but at 5 mins with my Father.

I can connect to my sister's Mac (Audio and Video ilimited)
I can connect to my mom's Mac (Audio and Video ilimited)
I can connect to 2 of my friends XP Pro PC's (Audio and Video ilimited)
I can connect to my father's XP but only for 5 mins.

He just re installed XP from a crashed HDD and we still get the same problem.

This is so wierd that we haven't figured it out yet.

Hi Paul,

No, no fix yet.

The closest thing seems to be a TV card installed on some Macs.

Can't remember the name Migila or Migilia or something like that.

It is unclear if a update for the driver of this card solves the problem.

I know that the Moderator of this area of the Discussions has asked the Apple Engineers to look at this, but there is no date for an answer.

I have no news on whether any TV card on a PC might be a problem.

Might pay for you to try and find out the entire set up on each of those contacts to find out what is different about your father's connection or set up.

Look at cameras and drivers as well.
Stages of Windows updates ? (Service Pack 2)
Firewall settings ?

Ralph

Ralph

There's no TV card installed in the Mac that I'm having this problem with. It is a plain vanilla G4/400 (AGP graphics version), upgraded to an 800mhz processor (Sonnet).

I know that the Windows machine in question is XP SP1 and is using a Draytek Vigor router to connect to the net. I think the camera is a Creative of some kind.

Regards
Dave

Hi Paul

EDIT -- (not "Hi Dave" -- Thanks Dave.)

Sorry, but I do not understand the "(Audio and Video ilimited}" parentheticals in your Nov 14 msg # 18.1.1.1.1. Do they mean the others sometimes freeze, too, or is your Father the ONLY one?

In my case, my PC "Freeze Friend" John has changed EVERYTHING except his ISP, cable modem, and web cam. The freeze continues. However, I do note that the time at which the freeze occurred was different for John when he "videoed" with James Weston.

Moreover, John's time at which the freeze occurs WITH ME changed when he switched to his new laptop PC. Do you think that fact could somehow be relevant to the freeze? Are you changing any hardware or going to update to your father's PC to SP 2 to try and troubleshoot your freeze?

I was glad to hear from Ralph that Apple is looking into this. Until they complete their study, thanks for sharing your experience. Like you, it seems to me that this must be solvable.

EZ Jim

Illimited means I've never experienced problems with those people.. meaning the chat can go on forever.

As for my father... it's always 5 minutes. And he's changed ISP several times.. DSL or cable... so I'd say it has something to do with the machine itself... the PC..

Otherwise, I can only pray.. even though I'm not a beleiver...

Thanks for educating me Paul.

Looked to you like it is Dad's PC--can't be ISP.
Looked to me like it
b can't be
John's PC--must be modem or ISP.
Huh ????

Now appears to me that these freezes have different causes for different people!

I
b AM
a believer. I just save prayer for my (many) bigger issues.

Jim

I did seemingly prove a while ago that the stream of packets from the AOL side continues to be received at the iChat side after the freeze (according to connection doctor) and that the stream speed as reported by iChat changes if the AOL user changes their video quality settings (again, as reported by connection doctor). When you take into account the fact that the audio stays connected throughout also I think it is maybe possible to rule out a general network/ISP/router type issue.

Seems to me the only way to debug this would be to capture a packet stream from each end of the connection (could take a BIG capture buffer). My guess is that either the packet stream sent by the AOL end becomes corrupted, or there is a bug in iChat that stops it from rendering frames from the stream after a certain time (buffer overflow maybe? memory leak?).

If I get chance I will try it sometime.

Regards
Dave