Online video woes - Please help!

[AtomicMysteryMonster]

Last night, Youtube started to give me trouble despite it working fine earlier in the day. Whenever I'd try to play a video, it'd play for a few seconds, pause and show the "loading" circle display over the video, play, and then the process would start all over again. This problem extended to embedded Youtube videos and videos on sites like Dailymotion and Veoh as well.

I had the same problem a few days before that, but everything went back to normal after I cleared my cache and rebooted my computer. So I turned off my computer and went to bed figuring that it'd be resolved when I turned the computer back on the next day. I also thought that the problem was due to me spending longer than normal online, which I had done both times the problem occurred. However, that was not the case (even after clearing out my cache and rebooting the computer). Does anyone know how to solve this problem? I should note that I'm using Windows XP and Internet Explorer 7.

 

[Worm]

Does YouTube use Flash or Java plugins? (I can't remember)

You may want to check if they are up to date.

 

[Blue Bubble]

[...snip...]

I also thought that the problem was due to me spending longer than normal online, which I had done both times the problem occurred.

This could possibly depend on your ISP (Internet Service Provider). Given that you claim to have been "online for longer than normal", you might have exceed a certain threshold for the amount of traffic you are allowed in your contract with the ISP. At that point, it is possible that the ISP will have "throttled" back your speed, with the result that you see significant pauses in your connection.

 

[geni]

Does YouTube use Flash or Java plugins? (I can't remember)

You may want to check if they are up to date.

Youtube is flash but this sounds more like a connection issue of some type.

 

[AtomicMysteryMonster]

I actually figured out (what I think is) the solution a couple days ago, but haven't had the time to post it until now. I had to empty out my cache first and then shut off my computer. When I turned it on a little later, all the Flash stuff seemed to be working again. You see, I had merely restarted my computer (a "soft reboot") instead of completely shutting it down (a "hard reboot") on the 28th.

Thanks for all your suggestions! I'll keep them in mind if this ever happens again and my solution doesn't work.