What can I do?

[mrsl]

Apparently, since I am the only one who complains, I am the only one who has this problem. Soon I will have to quit this site because as soon as four or five You Tube things go on a thread, it messes my computer up so I have to turn it off and on again to clear it. It's now to the point that I don't have to click on the arrow. As soon as I click onto the thread my computer starts grinding and loading automatically - is there any way I can stop that? I clicked on Ms. Goddess name in the Dewey record party thread, and had to go through the on and off thing. Sometimes I have to do this twice a night, or whatever because there is no way to know that it is a video, or music thing.

Do you have any idea why my computer does this and nobody elses?

Anne

[Ollie]

I don't understand this quite. When you open a thread and if it's got X number YouTube links, your computer goes into some kind of spasm, as if it's automatically loading them?

Or maybe my correct question is - if you open one of these threads, are you clicking on any of the YouTube links?

Or do you think they're just affecting your computer simply because you're opening the thread?

If this is the case, this sounds like some kind of horrible AutoPlay function is enabled.

Sometimes, I've seen users with a "Smart Search" enabled for their Mouse Pointer - it goes to the 'next field' automatically. This has been used in laptops where screen-visibility was a problem, and users turned this feature 'on' so they wouldn't have to search for their mouse and then search for fields.

I wonder if this could be enabled?

Or another situation... when I plop in a DVD or CD, some of my computers will automatically start playing them. On some computers, I turn this Auto-Start off because playing those disks isn't what I want to happen - usually - on those computers.

Does your computer seem to be automatically opening YouTubes?

THen, I wonder what kind of anti-pop-up system you may have installed. Or maybe what kind of browser? I'm not sure I've seen an Auto-Start on YouTube, but I suppose I could do that. Hmmm

[Ollie]

On a slightly lighter note - or maybe darker!! - computers do all kinds of terrible things to me. If that helps any. I scream at them. I've learned all kinds of languages, all their cuss words, and I swear - I'm standing RIGHT in front of them, and they still refuse to do as I command. They act like I'm not here. And I AM!

Well, I'm almost sure I am.

Possibly.

Maybe...

I really hate 2001 sometimes. Someone else wrote about never liking machines after 2001. Yeah. I know what you mean. I wish I knew all of Yosemite Sam's mutters.

[Dawtrina]

Hi Anne,

There are many possible reasons for the sort of issues you're describing (low spec machine, too little RAM, bad page file configuration, a need for a cache clear etc), but there's a reasonably easy way to avoid it that may work for you. It works for me very well indeed.

I browse using Opera, which gives me an easy way to switch browser plugins on or off (via the F12 key), but I'm sure there must be easy ways to do the same thing in IE or Firefox or whichever browser you use.

With browser plugins off, all I see on those YouTube posts is a link. Nothing loads, nothing connects to anything else and everything stays nice and quick.

If I want to see one of these videos, I click on the link and it takes me to the page at YouTube (or whichever video site the link is to). Because browser plugins are still off the video still doesn't show. However I open a window to http://keepvid.com/ and copy the web address from YouTube (or whichever) to KeepVid. Now I can download the video to my computer and watch it whenever I like.

This may well be a far more drastic solution to your problems, but at least it's now an option for you.

[mrsl]

Ollie:

You said, at the beginning of your first post:

"I don't understand this quite. When you open a thread and if it's got X number YouTube links, your computer goes into some kind of spasm, as if it's automatically loading them?

Or do you think they're just affecting your computer simply because you're opening the thread?"

Both of those are correct, I deleted the one in the middle.

Dawtrina:

You lost me when you started talking about Browsers. You have to realize you're talking to a person who is not necessarily interested in learning all the intricacies of a computer. I did my computer learning when I was working, and I don't want it to become a job now at this stage of my life. I get onto the net from my main page, (yahoo). I use Mozilla firefox with Norton protection. Most of the sites I visit are in my bookmarks list, so all I have to do is click on them. When I find a new site, I put it on my bookmark list so I don't have to go through the i.d. process, it's all there through my Mozilla.

When my granddaughter and when my son was in from CA last spring, they both have 4 or 5 screens up, but I have no idea how they do it. My computer is able to do a lot more than I use it for, but for me it is only for fun and paying bills.

Thanks for answering.

Anne

[Ollie]

MrsL, you answered some of our questions when you said "Firefox with Norton". I've been experimenting and can't get my machine to match yours yet, but I'm still working on this.

[Dawtrina]

You lost me when you started talking about Browsers. You have to realize you're talking to a person who is not necessarily interested in learning all the intricacies of a computer.

In which case, I'm not sure which alternative would be the best one to suggest but there are four at the following link:

http://tinyurl.com/2sq9fp

Do any of these work for you?

[mrsl]

In the first place, thank you for all your responses. I didn't come on much
yesterday because I'm afraid of breaking my computer. Now, as luck has
it, I can't read your responses because they go way off the margin para-
meters, and the little left/right arrows at the bottom have disappeared, so
I can't scroll over. At least I know that is due to the URL address being too
long. I also appreciate the P/M's, but they get a little over my head.

Because I love Musicals, I went into the thread about favorite musical
performances. but even though I never clicked on any of the UTube arrows
I still got locked out, and had to do a Restart. I notice almost all of the
threads now have UTube videos on them so I'll try to hold out for a few
more days, but don't have much hope.

Anne

[moirafinnie]

Hi Anne,
I shortened that long link that had been placed in this thread.
It is here: http://tinyurl.com/2sq9fp

If you follow this link that Dawtrina very kindly found, it gives you step-by-step instrux on how to stop YouTube videos from automatically playing in Firefox. I also hope that you got my pm describing some additional steps that might help your computer run more efficiently.

FYI guys & gals:
If a long web address is posted in a thread it distorts the frame, causing some messages to be a giant pain to try to read. Since we want to make it easier to communicate, I recommend the free Tiny URL site, which takes long links and makes them small and manageable. Here's the link to Tiny URL:
http://tinyurl.com/create.php

[mrsl]

Again, thank you all for your help. I wasn't aware until this afternoon that I have a computer geek living upstairs. I was relating my problem to the author who lives across the hall, who in turn, told the upstairs guy. He'll be down tomorrow to do the installing and all for me since I have no idea how to go about it, for the neighborly fee of zilch!

So, thanks again to moira, ollie, and everyone else who tried to help.

Anne

[Ollie]

Thanks, Daw. I had NO IDEA such an exploit existed. Du-uh. So in this case, MrsL did a favor by raising this.

[jondaris]

[quote="moirafinnie"]Here's the link to Tiny URL:
http://tinyurl.com/create.php[/quote]

An even better and easier method is to use BB code to creat a link. You do that like this:

[url=http://silverscreenoasis.com]SSO[/url]

To see what this looks like when you post it, check the next post.

[jondaris]

SSO

[moirafinnie]

Good point, Jon!
That way you can embed your links within a message more seamlessly without affecting the margins at all.

[Ollie]

Dawt (and everyone else) - do you know how the AutoPlay is loaded in the first place?

I visited the 40-odd computers in the office, another dozen at clients and homes, and none of their Firefoxes auto-play YouTube videos. Still, it's obvious that these 'extensions' are useful when MrsL (and many others) suffer from this.

Any idea what could be installed to kick off this AutoPlay scenario? (And NO, I won't try a lot to find out for myself - here's a case where my natural laziness seems to be a great benefit!! ha ha)