Anyone else having trouble with video Skype?

[louisarogers]

My video Skype is not connecting well; image is fuzzy at times, and it occasionally cuts out. It did not do this 1-2 years ago. We have fiber-optic. Anyone else having this problem, and found a solution?

[DonJuane]

Try a full reboot prior to attempting Skype.

Skype, and in particular all browsers and all anti-virus software continue at a very rapid pace to slow down your system while claiming to take on the roll of "keeping you current with system updates", while in reality what they seem to be doing is to help carry out the hardware manufacturers' needs of "planned obsolescence". So think of all the software you use as eating away at your computer's resources, sometimes faster and sometimes slower but at least to a point you'll likely need to replace your computer with a new one every 3 years if you are a power user and 3-5 if you just browse websites. I always recommend updating with new hardware at least every 3 years and paying (e.g.) $350 rather than buying a $1000 computer and expecting it to last 6 years or longer. You always come out ahead if you go the "3-year rotating-replacement with the cheapest one that's not an absolute piece of junk" route.

Otherwise there are also your TSR programs that eat away at your system's resources and they have been with us since the days of DOS. Called "terminate and stay resident" because in the process of installing some program on your computer, what some of them may do automatically during the installation process is to additionally install a mini part of their program which isl automatically started each time your system is rebooted. They sometimes call it a "helper" or "fast start" or "rapid launch" and have many cute names for it but what these tiny pieces of the master program do is to section off a piece of your memory that can't be used easily by other programs and this soon slows the system down to intolerable levels. A good tech can go through your machine and remove all of these program stubs, fast-starts, helper or what ever you want to call them and your machine will run a hair faster for a little while. But just like city hall, you'll never beat them at their own game and if you want to continue to use the programs you depend upon, you'll have to upgrade your hardware to keep pace with the losing game.

Now regarding TSR stubs, if you are tech savvy you can download the free program "autoruns" and once it loads, then only the tab "Logon" and un-check anything that sounds like something you don't need. This can cause some software to fail if you uncheck the wrong thing. Key is to not mess with anything saying Intel, Microsoft or the name of your virus program. Things like Adobe programs or any program named here that is not needed to be running all the time, uncheck it. Of course a lot of the programs unless you can find the hidden setting to turn off the activity, they set their TSR stubs again to load at logon once they discovered you turned them off here, so they defeat you even if you know what they are doing. This situation sometimes requires help from a tech with very advanced skills and knowledge of modifications to the Windows registry, configuration files or other trickery.

!!! (Careful with "autoruns", as you can render your device unbootable; good to createo a system restore point before experimenting with all this so you can restore your system's registry if you encounter a sizable booboo on these configuration pages.)

[DonJuane]

Your wi-fi connection can slow you down as well which will cause video and audio to become pixelated and choppy.

If a bad or slow wi-fi signal is the issue, maybe there are too many concrete walls between your laptop and the router. To resolve this you can simply move the computer to the room with the router when you make a call or if impractical to always to this (e.g. you are renting a room in someone elses house) you can work to have the home rewired to provide a strong signal everywhere you need it. If you must have a strong signal throughout a house in Mexico which is typically composed of thick concrete or adobe walls rather than air-spaced sheet-rock like in the US, it normally demands installing several additional routers at key points throughout the house or at least routers configured as access points, a process most hotels are required to do as well. Don't make the mistake of buying a more expensive router, as many people do this and purchase one that looks like a space-ship costing upwards of $300 or more. Limiting factor with all routers is the FCC limits all routers to a half a watt (500mW) maximum so no space ship look or number of antennas can help or expensive price because they all attempt to put out the maximum power the FCC will permit. Now a directional antenna can help a bit and even with those unless the router is in the corner of the house, a directional cannot follow your movements.

Anyway, you can check your data throughput with something like www.speedtest.net and your should see a speed of 0.5M upload or faster and 3M download or faster to use a video streamer like Skype. If the speed shown is lower than you are paying for, first move the assumed wi-fi enabled computer to the room with the router and test it and if you still see the slow speed, contact your service provider. If the slow speed is only seen where you commonly use the computer, find a technical person to run you a piggy back router or AP closer to the place you wish to use the computer.