Hi there, some time ago I started using MKV files on my laptop, and were playing back perfectly without any stutter.
All of a sudden a month ago they became unwatchable. After many different attempts to rectify the problem (removing codecs updating, trying different players like vcd player etc. I gave up.
Now a few days ago my PC started randomly shutting down without warning and then every time I booted I got to the windows boot screen and it would switch off again. Although my laptop was under guarantee I was very reluctant to send it off for a replacement/repaor which could have taken forever, I decided to investigate myself.
What I had noticed was that the fan seemed to be working overtime and firtly considered that there may well be software issues and bugs causing crashes etc. so installed a fresh copy of windows.
This did not rectify the problem either so I decided to open her up!
Now My laptop is an Acer Travelmate 7520, so I am nor saying this is fact for all issues with laptops but what I found was staggering.
The fan system seems to be hooked up to some kind of exhuast system and I noticed some fluff had accumilated in a small gap after trying to gently remove this with a small make up brush I found there seemd to be a lot, so I decided to take of the exhaust cover and there was litterally a ball of wool there! Fluff and dust had bulit up to the degree where the exhaust was doing absolutely zero.
After removing this fluff and re assembling everything has been perfect.
I decided to check on the MKV files once more and BANG worked flawlessly! As I am sure most of you are aware, the specification for a PC/Laptop to run MKV files effortlessly needs to be fairly high anyway and the processors will always have to work hard to process the files, so an overheating is going to make things even harder.
In conclusion, if you are having MKV playback issues then the first thing I suggest is clean out those fans, re apply tthermal paste to chips if that is within your remit and generally ensure you pc/laptop is in prestine condition and the CPU is not having to work even harder because of cooling issues!
I am only writing this as I wish after all the googling about the problem (many hours of many days) I had found something that had even made me cosider this possibility, even if it only he,lps 1 more user then writing this would have been worth it.
