Flash stream makes my internet slow and cpu rush

When I try to watch a live Flash stream, my CPU usage goes up to 75% and my Internet speed goes down. If I run a test before the video-stream, my speed is ~40/10Mbps and during the stream it drops to 0.1-0.5Mbps. The stream is laggy and I can only watch one to two seconds at a time, start/stop/start/stop.

I have cleared my history, cache, cookies, temp files, and so on. I have searched for malware and took care of that. I have updated my drivers, reinstalled Flash and everything else I can think of, but it remains slow. I had this problem before and it just started working normally from one day to another. Could it be a hardware problem?

user1225840

Posted 2012-07-19T17:25:04.243

Reputation: 21

1Does it happen on any specific sites or all sites, including sites like Hulu? Unfortunately, Flash in general is really poorly implemented and always "sucks cycles", especially for videos. What could be happening is that the Flash player is bogging down the system to the point that it only draws ~0.1Mbps because it is running too slow. Try right-clicking the Flash player, select Settings and enable the hardware-acceleration option. – Synetech – 2012-07-19T18:30:39.453

What is your provider/location? Have you exceeded some traffic limitation and your ISP now punishes you with a bad youtube experience? BTW: You can only use those online speed meter services on unloaded connections, as only the meter's traffic is counted. Best would be a traffic meter in your router (which sees all traffic) or on your local machine (which sees at least both youtube's and the speed meter's traffic) – ce4 – 2012-07-20T07:02:32.783

I can watch youtube, but not any live stream or other flash videos. – user1225840 – 2012-07-20T12:14:36.140

Answers

The CPU usage is just a side effect of the fact that a lot of processing is going on. What kind of CPU do you have? What is your operating system? Chances are that the CPU usage is not abnormal, and chances are also that the CPU is not causing your stream to "start and stop"... especially if it's not at 100% CPU usage... 75% still means you have 25% of the time when the CPU is completely idle, so it wouldn't be the bottleneck.

You're using wireless to a router to a DSL or cable modem, right? :) I'm just guessing because it sounds like you are suffering from Bufferbloat.

allquixotic

Posted 2012-07-19T17:25:04.243

Reputation: 32 256

I would say that's just normal behavior of this high quality™ piece of Adobe® software. Whenever I feel the metal case of my MBP to be too cold, all I have to do is to watch a few minutes of HD youtube and it will be piping hot... However, the slow down of the internet speed is abnormal. – billc.cn – 2012-07-19T23:23:56.923

Another user answered unrelated question with Bufferbloat response http://superuser.com/a/451309/98645, all internet speed problems are now related to it?

– None – 2012-07-20T09:49:08.577

Yes Im using wireless to a router. Its so strange since I had this once before but did not do anything, it solved itself from one day to another. – user1225840 – 2012-07-20T12:15:52.767

I got another laptop to test with and on that it works like it should, connected the same way. On that machine the cpu goes up to 10%, on mine around 70%. So it is something on my laptop then, I have an Intel core i7 2630QM 2.00GHz 6gig ram – user1225840 – 2012-07-20T12:25:25.860