Videos start stuttering after a while

Support Software & Applications
1

Hi!

I changed my laptops display to a new one and after that everything works fine except that videos start lagging and stuttering after maybe 10 mins of watching. Any ideas what could be the issue?

inxi -zv8:

System:
  Kernel: 5.10.96-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10-x86_64
    root=UUID=873f89cd-7c31-4fa3-aa71-670e97f56232 rw quiet apparmor=1
    security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.23.5 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM
    Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Apple product: MacBook5,1 v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 v: Mac-F42D89C8
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Apple model: Mac-F42D89C8 v: Proto serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: Apple v: MB51.88Z.007D.B03.0904271443 date: 04/27/09
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 41.6 Wh (100.0%) condition: 41.6/45.4 Wh (91.7%)
    volts: 7.2 min: 10.8 model: SMP ASMB012 type: Li-ion serial: N/A
    status: Full cycles: 142
Memory:
  RAM: total: 7.52 GiB used: 1.84 GiB (24.4%)
  RAM Report:
    permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
PCI Slots:
  Permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core2 Duo P7350 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Core Penryn
    family: 6 model-id: 0x17 (23) stepping: 0xA (10) microcode: 0xA0B
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 128 KiB
    desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1592 min/max: 1596/1995 scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq
    governor: schedutil cores: 1: 1592 2: 1592 bogomips: 7963
  Flags: acpi aperfmperf apic arch_perfmon bts clflush cmov constant_tsc
    cpuid cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts est flexpriority fpu fxsr ht
    lahf_lm lm mca mce mmx monitor msr mtrr nopl nx pae pat pbe pdcm pebs pge
    pni pse pse36 pti rep_good sep sse sse2 sse4_1 ssse3 syscall tm tm2
    tpr_shadow tsc vme vmx vnmi vpid xsave xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: EPT disabled
  Type: mds
    status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: spec_store_bypass status: Vulnerable
  Type: spectre_v1
    mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2
    mitigation: Full generic retpoline, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA C79 [GeForce 9400M] vendor: Apple MacBook5 1
    driver: nvidia v: 340.108 alternate: nouveau bus-ID: 02:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:0863 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Apple Built-in iSight type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-4:2
    chip-ID: 05ac:8507 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.org 1.21.1.3 compositor: kwin_x11 driver:
    loaded: nvidia resolution: <missing: xdpyinfo>
  Message: Unable to show advanced data. Required tool glxinfo missing.
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA MCP79 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:08.0 chip-ID: 10de:0ac0 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.96-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.20 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.45 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: NVIDIA MCP79 Ethernet driver: forcedeth v: kernel port: 21e0
    bus-ID: 00:0a.0 chip-ID: 10de:0ab0 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp0s10 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Broadcom BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN
    vendor: Apple AirPort Extreme driver: wl v: kernel modules: ssb
    bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:432b class-ID: 0280
  IF: wls3 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Message: No bluetooth data found.
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 106.49 GiB (44.7%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: A-Data model: SP600 size: 238.47 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: SSD
    serial: <filter> rev: 5.2 scheme: GPT
  Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: HL-DT-ST model: DVDRW GS21N rev: SA18
    dev-links: cdrom
  Features: speed: 24 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes
    rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r state: running
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 238.17 GiB size: 233.38 GiB (97.99%)
    used: 106.49 GiB (45.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A
    uuid: 873f89cd-7c31-4fa3-aa71-670e97f56232
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: NO_LABEL
    uuid: 09B1-A016
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 7 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-4:2 info: Apple Built-in iSight type: Video driver: uvcvideo
    interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 05ac:8507
    class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 5 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 7 rev: 1.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-5:2 info: Apple Built-in IR Receiver type: HID
    driver: appleir,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 1.5 Mb/s power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 05ac:8242 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: 3-6:3 info: Apple Internal Keyboard/Trackpad (ISO)
    type: Keyboard,HID,Mouse driver: apple,bcm5974,usbhid interfaces: 3
    rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 40mA chip-ID: 05ac:0237 class-ID: 0301
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 5 rev: 1.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 81.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 84 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pacman: 1400 lib: 376 flatpak: 0
  Active pacman repo servers in: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
    1: https://manjaro.mirrors.lavatech.top/stable/$repo/$arch
    2: https://mirror.easyname.at/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    3: https://mirror.archlinux.tw/Manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    4: http://ftp.rz.tu-bs.de/pub/mirror/manjaro.org/repos/stable/$repo/$arch
    5: https://ipng.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    6: https://mnvoip.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    7: https://mirror.2degrees.nz/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    8: https://mirrors.manjaro.org/repo/stable/$repo/$arch
Processes:
  CPU top: 5 of 178
  1: cpu: 9.9% command: chrome pid: 983 mem: 333.6 MiB (4.3%)
  2: cpu: 9.7% command: chrome pid: 1409 mem: 264.0 MiB (3.4%)
  3: cpu: 7.2% command: chrome pid: 1027 mem: 201.6 MiB (2.6%)
  4: cpu: 7.2% command: chrome pid: 1373 mem: 266.1 MiB (3.4%)
  5: cpu: 5.6% command: xorg pid: 392 mem: 72.1 MiB (0.9%)
  Memory top: 5 of 178
  1: mem: 333.6 MiB (4.3%) command: chrome pid: 983 cpu: 9.9%
  2: mem: 302.5 MiB (3.9%) command: plasmashell pid: 541 cpu: 1.3%
  3: mem: 266.1 MiB (3.4%) command: chrome pid: 1373 cpu: 7.2%
  4: mem: 264.0 MiB (3.4%) command: chrome pid: 1409 cpu: 9.7%
  5: mem: 201.6 MiB (2.6%) command: chrome pid: 1027 cpu: 7.2%
Info:
  Processes: 178 Uptime: 27m wakeups: 2 Init: systemd v: 250 tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 clang: 13.0.0 Shell: Zsh v: 5.8 default: Bash
  v: 5.1.16 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.12

mhwd -l:

> 0000:03:00.0 (0200:14e4:432b) Network controller Broadcom:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   network-broadcom-wl            2018.10.07               false            PCI


> 0000:02:00.0 (0300:10de:0863) Display controller nVidia Corporation:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI
     video-modesetting            2020.01.13                true            PCI
            video-vesa            2017.03.12                true            PCI

-Pietari

2

Does not show anything except available mhwd profiles.

mhwd -li

would show us what you have actually installed.

Does this mean you replaced the internal screen? Or that you changed the secondary display output (plugged in to a different monitor)?

8gb of memory and no swap means you can probably easily get into a full memory situation which would then cause lockups. SWAP is generally a good idea even with high memory. You do not have high memory.

1 Like
3

I had some stuttering as well with Pipewire then I switch back to Pulseaudio, that fix it on my end.

But should you be running both sound server?

ā€¦ also on what kind of player or Browser did the stuttering happend?

4

Thank you for your answers. Here is some additional information.

mhwd -li:

`> Installed PCI configs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI
   network-broadcom-wl            2018.10.07               false            PCI


Warning: No installed USB configs!

I replaced the internal screen.

I tried to create a 4GB swap file, but this didnā€™t solve the problem. Not sure if itā€™s working correctly thoā€¦

Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 4 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    file: /swapfile

Problem occurs (at least) in VLC player and youtube (via firefox). But for some reason youtube in chrome seems to work fine.

How can I disable Pipewire to try that?

-Pietari

5

VLC is not exactly ā€˜automaticā€™ ā€¦ one must choose the correct output settings etc.

Please try mpv or a fontend like smplayer (where the default/automatic settings are more sane).

If you can get different results from different software this sounds more like a software problem.

6

I faced a new problem when I tried to install those players. Installations fails and I get this error message: ā€œFailed to generate opencl-nvidia-340xx informationā€

-Pietari

7

I would disable all plugin and try again, but also if you have a Browser that works just use that.

8

It may help if you post the complete output from these installation attempts.

Iā€™ve looked but only found one ā€œsimilarā€ result on Arch Forums. Itā€™s an old thread (from 2015), but might provide some insight.

Iā€™d say the original issue is caused, as already mentioned, by insufficient memory availability; be that RAM or swap.

9

Had the similar 2009 MBP 5,4 (same graphics, ssd conversion) running Mate and, when used sensibly, it works fine with 4GB and 8GB. Sufficient swap is a must.

Your primary issue is related to the weak GT9400 and a buildup of heat when stressed, 80C+ will definitely trigger stuttering video playback, run inxi when the stutter occurs and I bet youā€™ll hitting 100C.

  • clean-up the machine
  • consider removing the dvd drive to increase airflow
  • if the drive is the old hdd switch to ssd
  • ā€˜unloadā€™ the graphics card as much as possible and switch off all eye candy, especially KDEā€™s transparencies, widgets, animations etc.

However, the more crucial issue is that your machine hasnā€™t been updated in about 4 years and I feel you should have mentioned that in your initial post to save people some time. Manjaro simply isnā€™t the right distro for this.

Of course, as you know, you canā€™t update it now without breaking the system. Yes, it probably used to work fine in 2021 but, quite apart from security concerns, internet content is getting bigger and video resolutions are gradually going up too, so ,ultimately, there is no way around a reinstall/distro change.

I wish you good luck.

2 Likes