I can't play videos on my PC?

Question

My PC gets really slow and when I open the Task Manager, the CPU usage is 99% on windows media player

I've just formatted my PC, it worked fine before. My video card is Nvidia Geforce 6600 (can't be that old i think)
I first installed the 6600's driver from the internet, that didn't work so well with my games and i found the install CD that came with it so I reinstalled that. Games work fine now but when i tried to open any videos, cpu goes to 99%, on any software I use to open it. Thanks for the replies, how do I reply to your answers.

AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2200+
1.80 Ghz, 512MB RAM

all worked fine before formatting

Answer 1

you have an old computer, a broken codec or you have driver problems with your video. remove all codecs on your computer and install just a single set. try CCCP. upgrade your drivers on your video card. do not set the settings for your video card to the highest settings and use a decent resolution (unless you need to, try not to go beyond 1024x768) more resolution requires more video memory and thus more processor cycles to update and display everything. for full screen video, make sure you have at least a 1ghz processor and that you're not trying to play something excessive such as MP4 or something which requires post process filtering and a lot of processor cycles. see www.doom9.org for further information.

Answer 2

I agree with the last answer of isolating the problem down to the hardware type that you have,I have also found with all my computers that running 1Gig (1024MB or 2X512MB) of Ram alway's fixes the problem,your video card is more than capable of doing the job so my guess is you are running 512MB,which will make your processor work harder than it has to...upgrade the Ram first..the other option is to forget running media player and download and run DVD X Player which is what I have and it uses 368 MB of Ram and 38 -56% of CPU Usage,I use my computer to watch DVD's on all the time and have enough resources left to write a letter..let me know how you get on.
Cheers,
Colin.

Answer 3

I have this same problem with my old laptop. It has a 2MB video card and can play DVDs, but the screen and sound flicker and the processor is bogged at about 99% as well. You either need to upgrade your video card or try using a media player that is not system resource heavy, which most microsoft software has an issue with.

You probably need a new video card, but try Zap Media Lite as an alternative to windows media player, don't worry its free!
http://www.download.com/Zap-Media-Lite/3000-12511_4-10283194.html?tag=lst-3-1

Answer 4

If Media Player is using 99% then clearly the file you are attempting to access requires more hardware resources than you have.

Please add comments on what version of Windows you have as well as:

- your processor type & speed
- how much RAM you have

This will help us isolate the problem for you.

regards,
Philip T

Answer 5

what is the format of ur videos?
if it is a format unsuitable for windows media player, then take a different media player
OR
u can change the format of ur videos
just rename the video with the format u wish
for example, if there is a video "trip to egypt.xyz"
and u want to change it to "abc" format,
rename it as "trip to egypt.abc"
Note- there are no such formats as abc and xyz

Answer 6

I think some spy's are working behind your scenes. instal some good antivirus and antispy ware. delete all the temporary files in your TEMP directory, Tempory internet Files, and other Offline files in your machine. Restart you machine and check the CPU Usage.

Answer 7

Visit micosoft.com and download the new version of direct x.Check the bit you use to play videos by right clicking your mouse and click properties and make the changes if neccesary.Also check your VGA and upgrade if neccesary.

Answer 8

i think you need a video card. and a media player.

Answer 9

100% you have a bad VIRUS, install a powerful anti virus!!!
such as : Norton anti virus2006, panda platinium, kaspersky...