Sometimes when I play videos, they will play with the sound fine, and then stop after a varying amount of minutes (1-5ish). Sometimes, though, they play very choppy. If I close Windows Media Player or whatever else I am playing it in (this problem occurs in every player), and I try to reopen the file, it will freeze on the first frame and not play; this will continue if I try to open any other video after the inital one froze. HOWEVER, if when my video freezes, I double click on the video in the playlist to restart it, it will restart and play "normal" -- until it decides to freeze again. Moving the tracking bar to later on in the video almost always results in a frozen video.
When I stream videos from like youtube.com, a similar thing happens. If I just started my computer not too long ago and it is the first video I play, it will play (video+audio) from youtube until it decides to freeze. If I try to start another video after that one freezes, it will play the VIDEO of that video but will not stream the SOUND with it. HOWEVER, once again, if I press refresh on Internet Explorer on the initial video, it will restart the video and play fine (audio+video) until it decides to freeze once again. This usually only works through about 3 refreshes, and then I'm stuck with the 2 second video play with no sound. If I move the tracking bar to later on in the video, it will play those 2 seconds at that part, again with no sound.
Music will play for a varied amount of time (never over a minute) as well, and then it will freeze. Refreshing that song does nothing. I cannot start another song. My music experience is finished, until I restart, of course, and listen to a few more seconds. yay.... not.
I honestly do not know what to do. It's only been happening since I upgraded to Vista. Clean install is not an option -- I can't lose all of my stuff. I don't know if it's the codecs or whatnot. If you have any idea on what I can try, I'd be very thankful. I've tried searching the net but, like I said, it's hard to sum up my problem into a searchable phrase.
Everything else on Vista works perfect. Video and music are my only problems.
Thanks in advance,
Lenny