Why oh why is my YouTube running like a 2 legged dog?!

[Timref81]

As per the title, I will elaborate on all the performance, spec etc particulars below.

When ever I watch a YouTube clip on my laptop, the norm is that I'll get numerous spinning cirles of bordom and lagging with most clips that I watch. Weirdly, on occasions, they will run superbly, and I can move the video to its mid point and it will still run like a dream. Vids also run perfectly on my iphone 15, my wifes Samsung Galaxy, my wifes work laptop and both TV's. Until about 2 months ago the laptop had run videos perfectly for as far back as I can remember.

Our broadband download speed (just tested) is 46.36 mbps. The laptop is a Lenovo Yoga 510m Windows 11 home 64bit, with the following spec - Intel Core i5 1235u, 8gb DDR4 ram, 238gb SSD, and Intel Iris XE graphics card.

Also note, due to Windows sludging up as it has a habit of doing so, a fresh Windows install was completed at the beginning of the week by my go to IT guy. I have adblock and sponser block browser extensions, which I have tried turning off to no avail. The problem exists regardless of what browser I use, IE Chrome, Edge or firefox. Following AI suggestions I have also tried turning off 'Use graphics acceleration when available' within the settings, nope, no improvement.

I've checked for graphics card driver updates, and it came back saying that the best driver is installed. I've also tried logging in to our YouTube Premium, no change.

One thing potentially concerns. Within Piriform Speccy (which I installed to get the previously mentioned device spec) under 'network' it suggests that I have a signal strength/ quality of 42%. Putting this in to AI suggests that this is a weak to marginal connection, which amongst other things can cause lagging video.

Has anyone got any ideas regarding this? Is the concern in the previous above paragraph a red-herring or a legit issue? If so, is there a way to update the network driver, or install a better spec one to improve things? Failing all this, can anyone please offer any alternative suggestions, as the laptop has come close to being thrown at a wall!!

I'm maybe a 3/10 competancy where IT is concerned, so if any of you who are far better with it please please speak to me in plain English IT terms, as anything too nerdy will go right over my head

If anyone can assist it really will be appreciated, as over recent weeks, this has been me, every time a video is running badly

Edited by Timref81 on Thursday 20th August 18:00

[duckson]

Try plugging it in with an ethernet cable (turn off the wifi on the laptop) and see if the problem persists, at least then you can rule out slow wifi performance.

[Timref81]

duckson said:

Try plugging it in with an ethernet cable (turn off the wifi on the laptop) and see if the problem persists, at least then you can rule out slow wifi performance.

That is actually a very good suggestion, I'll try that in the morning.

[shtu]

Also worth right-clicking on a playing video, selecting "stats for nerds" and see if there's anything leaps out. Dropped frames, slower-than expected connection, etc.

[hersh]

Check the video resolution, set to auto might help
Maybe you are trying to run a resolution a bit too high for your connection?

[Timref81]

Thanks both (was out last night) I'll be sure to try out those suggestions

[Timref81]

OK, in response to the last two posters. I checked and vid quality on YT was set on auto. Even manually dropping down to 360p saw zero improvement.

RE specs for nerds (or words to that affect) I did this, but no idea what I'm meant to be looking for? Took this snap, does it suggest anything going off?

Or, could it just be, for whatever reason, that the laptops network adapter is now borked?

[Digger]

duckson said:

Try plugging it in with an ethernet cable (turn off the wifi on the laptop) and see if the problem persists, at least then you can rule out slow wifi performance.

Did you do this? Plug the Laptop directly to a spare port on the back of the router.

[Timref81]

Digger said:

Did you do this? Plug the Laptop directly to a spare port on the back of the router.

Apologies, I should have advised. There is no RJ45 port on the laptop. The only way I could fathom to connect the two would be USBc on the laptop, to a RJ45 port on the router. Would that even be possible, IE are there cables which would do this?

[Digger]

One of these should work but . . . obvs you can return if necessary!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/UGREEN-Ethernet-Adpater-T...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/UGREEN-Ethernet-Aluminum-...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cable-Matters-SuperSpeed-...

[ywouldi]

Pause any adblockers you have installed in the browser, I bet that's the issue.

[shtu]

Timref81 said:

OK, in response to the last two posters. I checked and vid quality on YT was set on auto. Even manually dropping down to 360p saw zero improvement.

RE specs for nerds (or words to that affect) I did this, but no idea what I'm meant to be looking for? Took this snap, does it suggest anything going off?

Or, could it just be, for whatever reason, that the laptops network adapter is now borked?

Reflection is right over the dropped frame count.

4Mbps connection to Youtube, how does that stack up against your broadband speed?

Nearly 80 seconds of buffered video at that moment, so plenty video cached locally.

[Digger]

Timref81 said:

Our broadband download speed (just tested) is 46.36 mbps. The laptop is a Lenovo Yoga 510m Windows 11 home 64bit, with the following spec - Intel Core i5 1235u, 8gb DDR4 ram, 238gb SSD, and Intel Iris XE graphics card.

Also, how was this tested? Were you next to the router holding the laptop, or a room away, for example ?

[3din]

Sounds hilarious *goes searching for 2 legged dog vids*

[Timref81]

ywouldi said:

Pause any adblockers you have installed in the browser, I bet that's the issue.

I tried this early on, no difference. Cheers for the suggestion though.

[Timref81]

Digger said:

Timref81 said:

Our broadband download speed (just tested) is 46.36 mbps. The laptop is a Lenovo Yoga 510m Windows 11 home 64bit, with the following spec - Intel Core i5 1235u, 8gb DDR4 ram, 238gb SSD, and Intel Iris XE graphics card.

Also, how was this tested? Were you next to the router holding the laptop, or a room away, for example ?

At a distance of possibly 4 metres from it

[Timref81]

Digger said:

One of these should work but . . . obvs you can return if necessary!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/UGREEN-Ethernet-Adpater-T...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/UGREEN-Ethernet-Aluminum-...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cable-Matters-SuperSpeed-...

TY, I'll get one of them bought at some point

[donkmeister]

OP, I have noticed that recently I occasionally get the YT circle. It's not platform specific for me, and I have YT Premium so I'm not using anything to block YT ads or something.

Many years ago I had Virgin cable, and they would use proxy servers for YT, which were completely overloaded and would also cause this behaviour. It was actually the reason I ditched them. So, it could be this problem lies with our ISPs or even YT servers.

[aterribleusername]

It's most likely the adblock extensions. Even if you turn them off YouTube detects them and plays silly buggers with your watching experience. I get the same if I try and watch via Chrome. The workaround is to use Brave browser. I use it purely for YouTube and it does still pause at the start of the video for a few seconds (where the advert is supposed to be) but then runs perfectly throughout the video no matter how long. For the sake of not having to put up with the crap ads interrupting things at the most inopportune times a few seconds pause is worth it IMO.

[SP_]

I'm convinced it's the adblockers, too. I am having the same issue.