Windows media player clips freezing up

[cj22]

Just recently, when I've downloaded a clip to play in my windows media player it will lag for a few seconds in the middle of the clip. Then the clip will speed up faster than normal speed to try to catch up. It never used to do this. Does anyone know what's causing it or how to fix it? thanks!
CJ

 

[His Divine Shadow]

I've seen this problem too, especially when I try to move to the middle of a larger clip (file-size wise). Do you know if your computer is really workin' when you play these videos? To check, hit the CTRL, ALT and DEL keys at the same time to bring up the Task Manager. Go to the "Performance" tab and watch usage as you play the clip. If CPU usage repeatedly spikes/stays very high while playing the clip you may simply be running up against the limitations of your computer. Check the filesize of the clip; if it's above 80 MB and is of high resolution that may be it.

What file types are you experiencing this with? To determine this, right-click on the clip and select "Properties". The file type will be noted there.

 

[cj22]

I've seen this problem too, especially when I try to move to the middle of a larger clip (file-size wise). Do you know if your computer is really workin' when you play these videos? To check, hit the CTRL, ALT and DEL keys at the same time to bring up the Task Manager. Go to the "Performance" tab and watch usage as you play the clip. If CPU usage repeatedly spikes/stays very high while playing the clip you may simply be running up against the limitations of your computer. Check the filesize of the clip; if it's above 80 MB and is of high resolution that may be it.

What file types are you experiencing this with? To determine this, right-click on the clip and select "Properties". The file type will be noted there.

Thanks for the response. I did the performance check and you're right, its spiking up from around 7% to 55%-65%. All I have open is two browsing windows and windows media player. I wasn't even playing a video. Any suggestions on how to clean it up?

 

[His Divine Shadow]

It's not anything else; if you are playing a very high-resolution video it is taxing to your system. I haven't found a good way around it; even using different media players (including a stripped-down simple one) doesn't change it for me. I've never experienced it with just playing the video; only when manually moving to a place further forward or back from where I am currently at. Is that how it is for you? Or is it when you simply open the clip and let it play with no jumping around?

 

[cj22]

It's not anything else; if you are playing a very high-resolution video it is taxing to your system. I haven't found a good way around it; even using different media players (including a stripped-down simple one) doesn't change it for me. I've never experienced it with just playing the video; only when manually moving to a place further forward or back from where I am currently at. Is that how it is for you? Or is it when you simply open the clip and let it play with no jumping around?

No it happens when I simply open the clip and let it play. It lags on its own without me trying to ff or rew. My computer is spiking now and all I have open is aol. I'm not sure what's causing it but I don't think its my media player. I still don't know how to resolve it though. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated and thanks again for the response!

 

[His Divine Shadow]

It is only this one clip, yes? Let's examine the clip. Download the GSpot application from this link. It comes in a ZIP file; right-click on it and select "Extract All" to get at the files inside. One of the files that will extract is "GSpot.exe". Double-click on it. In the area labeled "File" in the upper-left there is a button with an ellipsis (...) on it; click that and browse for your clip. GSpot will analyze the clip and will note in the "Container" area if the clip is incomplete or corrupt. In the "Video" area it will note information on the codec. The easiest way to get that information to me may be to take a screen capture of GSpot. With GSpot open and visible follow the instructions to take a screen shot at this About.com page. Post the image here so we can have a look, eh?

 

[cj22]

Sorry to confuse, its not just the one clip. I think its a problem with my computer. Any clip I play, including embedded video clips, will lag. The spikes in my computers performance occur whether I'm viewing a clip or not. I don't know what to do to fix it. I tried running disk defrag but that froze up. I run Spy Sweeper and it doesn't make a difference. I'm not sure what else to do. Any suggestions? Thanks again!!
CJ

 

[His Divine Shadow]

A general problem it is, then. Disk Defragmentation freezing is odd, but lets look beyond that for now. You said this recently began happening, correct? Do you know if you have installed or changed anything on your computer at the time this began to happen? Sudden slowdowns are symptoms of an additional program installed or a system setting changed. Did you run Microsoft Update or anything like that?

 

[cj22]

You are correct, this just recently started happening. I didn't intentionally install anything new. My computer updates itself every so often, but I don't think it ever adds any major programs. So no, to my knowledge, nothing new was installed.

 

[His Divine Shadow]

If it began on Tuesday you likely got hit by some Windows Update. Microsoft pushes security updates out to users who have set Windows Update to automatically download and install updates. This occurs on so-called "Patch Tuesday", or the second Tuesday of every month. That, incidentally, was this past Tuesday. Would you like to try uninstalling the updates that it pushed out? We can try that. First, however, I would suggest you restart your computer if you haven't already. Sometimes updates require a restart before they take properly.