Problems With Computer Buffering
When your computer needs data, it searches the memory cache located on the hard drive. The memory cache is also known as a buffer, and temporarily stores data inside RAM (Random Access Memory). Sometimes, buffering problems occur when something abnormal happens to your computer. If an application freezes or your computer experiences a power failure, data in the buffer will be lost if it was not saved on the hard drive.
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History
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A computer buffer can retrieve data from RAM a thousand times faster, because each time your computer accesses data on the hard drive, a copy of the data is placed in the memory cache.
But your computer system may develop problems if the hard drive isn't well-maintained or recently defragmented. Poor computer maintenance can cause the data transfer rate to drop significantly.
Buffer Underrun
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Your computer may experience a buffer underrun when an optical drive's cache is writing or reading data. When the optical drive writes data faster than your computer settings can handle, an error usually occurs.
You may also encounter a buffer underrun when data is being streamed to your computer at a very slow speed. When this happens, pauses in video or distorted audio can occur while you are watching or listening to a recording.
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Buffer Overrun
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Common buffer overflow problems occur while you are streaming online multimedia over the Internet. Typically, data, videos and music are transported over the Internet in small data packets. If a data packet is missing, video or audio playback will jump to the next packet in line.
Since the buffer size is determined by your computer's Internet connection speed and system RAM, you can prevent this problem by increasing or lowering the buffer size. Most software that allows you to access multimedia content has a slider control to let you increase or decrease the amount of memory to set aside for the buffer.
Significance
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If your computer did not use a buffer, you would have to wait for an entire file to load before you could play the data stream, or endure playbacks with long lapses, pauses and delays.
Benefits
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Improve streaming media playback by adding more system RAM on your computer. In addition, invest in a good registry cleaner to help speed up your computer system. A speedy computer is less likely to have buffer underrun problems because it will be able to process data and reproduce information more quickly.
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