Video Media Freezing my PC

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I suspect that this problem is with my graphics card but before I buy new one I want to see if anyone else thinks differently.

When I attempt to play streaming video media on my PC both in WMP, WinAmp and Real Player the mdeia will often buffer to the point of loading and then freeze. However its not just the video that freezes, the entire PC freezes including the mouse and keyboard, the sound however continues to play. The only way I can get it back is to restart the PC. It does sometimes play though so I am a bit confused.

Any ideas?

[Hack]

Is this a fairly new thing?

How old is your PC?

[ALL]

when is the last time you formatted your computer, because it could be a driver access problem. try running knoppix or somthing on it and see if it does it in there too, and if it doesnt then you know it is a problem in the software.

in my oppinion i would bet it is not a problem with your video card, but rather a problem with software

[Hack]

Along with what ALL said, maybe running Defrag would help.

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This is acually a long term problem. I hoped that the last time I resinstalled the PC, a few months back, that the problem would go away. The PC its self is quite old, a 750mhz Athlon.

Good idea about Knoppix though, I'll give that a go. Are there any Linux apps which will play WMP and real player files?

[ALL]

cant you play a mpg file and have it do the same thing?

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Yes mpegs also do the same. I said in my original post streaming media - but i meant all video media. Even if I download it first - its just that I normally use streaming media.

Electroman once sent me an mpeg and I tried on several occasions to play it by to no avail.