Laptop problem/question

Factual Questions
1

Hi all,

I have two questions regarding an HP Pavillion notebook that we purchased in Feb or March of this year.

It has been running Microsoft Office 2010 since the purchase. We have been using various online TV providers such as Shomi, Crave and Netflix, without any problems until a few weeks ago.

Since then, while watching Netflix, we have been having major problems with the connection between our computer and our TV while using an HDMI cable. The first time this happened we were watching Netflix and partway through the show, Netflix and our computer just quit, the computer rebooted itself, and we could no longer watch Netflix on the TV.

I subsequently went through an HP update process and after that we were able to get 40 minutes out of Netflix before the same thing happened again.

The second issue, which probably also started a few weeks ago, is that we have, associated with our mouse pointer, an annoying, permanent, flickering “waiting” icon (the small blue rotating ring, right beside the mouse pointer).

Does anyone out there have any ideas or solutions about either or both issues?

Thanks

2

Are you having any issues with the other services or is it just netflix?

3

drachillix, that’s a really good question. In fact, nothing connects and, if I go into control panel, no second monitor (the TV) is even recognized.

So when stuff works, it all works. When it doesn’t (but the laptop does) it is as though the HDMI cable doesn’t work, even though it does.

4

Seems that the computer may be having a hard time identifying the video system. The constant wait icon may be indicating that. Then it defaults to minimal settings. Killing all the extra capabilities.

Specifically updating the video drivers might solve it. For laptops you often have to go to the laptop manufacturer website, as they sometimes have custom drivers.

5

Could be a physical problem with the HDMI cable, or with the port either on your laptop or the TV.

I have a desktop hooked up to my TV, and I had weird intermittent issues with the HDMI connection that went away when I replaced the cable. I even occasionally would get video working perfectly with no audio, which I thought wasn’t possible with HDMI. My guess is that the contacts on the cable were occasionally not making a solid connection and things would go down. It would sometimes work for days at a time, so it’s not like it was totally broken.

One of the symptoms when it was in this flaky state is that the video driver control panel would not be able to detect the display it was connected to. Sometimes that would be the case even while both audio and video seemed to work perfectly.

6

I was actually thinking the opposite, his random reboot could very well have been part of a windows update which may include video drivers.

I would advise trying to rollback to before the “incident” if that solves the problem, it is something software.

7

“flickering “waiting” icon (the small blue rotating ring, right beside the mouse pointer)”
it’s called a “throbber”.

i speculate the problem could emanate from a windows update.

8

I had a very similar problem. You’re running Windows 10, aren’t you? In my case, it seems that the Windows Anniversary Update tried to install itself and bollixed things. Manually running the Anniversary Update fixed it for me.

9

Hi all,

Thanks for the advice. I’ll try rolling back and/or manually doing the anniversary update to see if there’s any success.

“Throbber”? Wow, who’d a thunk?