Streaming issues - Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, YouTube

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Streaming issues - Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, YouTube

I'm having issues with streaming on my Macbook Pro. I've never had a problem with watching video (or any other issues with my MBP) until 2 days ago, and it seemed like an overnight change. All of a sudden streaming anything, whether on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, even YouTube...the video is just very choppy, skips, there's a delay, etc, and happens no matter which browser I use - Chrome, Firefox, Safari (although I haven't used Safari in like 2-3 years).

At first I thought it was my internet connection, but I tried another computer at home and streaming worked fine. Regular browsing on websites on my MBP (gmail, facebook, news, online shopping) is fine and works normally, but I just can't seem to stream anything. I tried uninstalling Flash and Silverlight but that hasn't made a difference.

I will say that I bought my Macbook Pro in May or June 2010 so it's about 5 1/2 years old and maybe the time has come to buy a new one, but I don't (and never have) use this for games, photo/video editing, or anything major...just regular online browsing, simple word/excel documents and streaming, so I can't imagine there's a lot of wear and tear on this one.

I will also say that I never did a software update so I'm still on 10.6.8. Any ideas? Is there something the Genius Bar can fix or should I just buy a new one? I'm wondering because I live overseas for work in Kiev and there's no real Apple store here and I'm going home to the States next month - I just don't want the problem to be partially fixed but then I get back here and within 2 months the issue reappears, and then I'm really out of luck because I won't have another trip back for a while

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 25, 2015 5:45 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Oct 25, 2015 11:05 AM in response to cannella2255

Hello,

Of course a new one will be faster, or can be if you get the right model, but...

Open Activity Monitor in Applications>Utilities, select All Processes & sort on CPU%, any indications there?

How much free RAM & free Disk space do you have also, click on the Memory & Disk Usage Tabs.

Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.

In the Memory tab of Activity Monitor, are there a lot of Pageouts?

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Answer 2

cannella2255 Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 26, 2015 5:29 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for the reply.

I opened Activity Monitor and selected All Processes - the highest percentage was Google Chrome Helper at fluctuating between 15-18%. Under CPU it says User: 16%, System: 7%, Idle: 72%.

When I checked System memory it says

Free: 538.8 MB

Wired: 631.0 MB

Active: 2.19 MB

Inactive: 686.7 MB

Used: 3.47 MB

Page Outs: 1.4 MB

Under Disk Activity it says

Reads in: 215540

Writes out: 125303

I have no idea what any of this means by the way haha. I checked the console and there were a couple repeated messages - something about pepper flash and missing a colon in the HTTP headline.

I checked Hulu on internet not at my apartment and the video streaming worked okay in the beginning. But the weird thing was when I was watching the video it would start to skip, but then when I opened another tab (non video) and still had Hulu playing on in the background, it would be totally fine. But as soon as I switched back to the tab where my show was playing it would start skipping again??

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Answer 3

Limnos

Level 10

428,189 points

Oct 26, 2015 7:38 AM in response to cannella2255

Realize too you posted to the wrong forum which mean a whole lot of people who may know something about your issue may not see this. This is the OSX 10.4 forum.

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Oct 27, 2015 10:08 AM in response to cannella2255

Hmmmm, very strange...

Open Console in Applications>Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Oct 30, 2015 8:31 AM in response to cannella2255

Try a restart.

Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.

Safe Mode

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Answer 6

nulli

Level 1

8 points

Oct 9, 2016 8:06 AM in response to cannella2255

i just bought a late 2014 mac mini from the app store and i'm running the latest sierra and amazon prime video won't work - it wouldn't work on my late 2009 mac mini with the latest el Capitan on it either - amazon claims it's silverlight but netflix runs silverlight too and they work just fine so my conclusion is that it's an amazon/mac feud or something else equally absurd - can anyone help me? thank you 🙂

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Answer 7

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Oct 9, 2016 8:13 AM in response to nulli

You might have better luck posting in the Sierra community.

Please see my post above yours and try those steps.

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