Playing video files and animation slowdown drastically on VISTA

[sgbr_1]

Hi,

I have a problem playing videos and animation on VISTA Ultimate that I
cannot figure out. The strange part is that I cannot recall installing or
downloading anything apart from windows updates. I’ve been running VISTA fine
since Sep 07. Frequent visitor on YouTube, etc.. never had a problem playing
movie files either from local disk or streaming from the web. Up until about
mid June. When my machine slowed down (as close as stopped) playing anything
media driven, including the VISTA start-up logo when the machine start. The
logo plays like 2 frames per second and takes a long time to complete the
animation. Movie files play just as slow regardless of where I am playing
them from (local disk or the internet). Minimizing and maximizing windows
stutters through the display really slowly. Animation like the Vista welcome
screen is playing very slow.
Browsing the internet is fine. Loading explorer with images and previews are
fine and quick. Loading images through Windows Picture and Fax viewer is
fast, no problems. Email program is fine no problem. Only seems to affect
anything that in a way is a movie or media file.
So, troubleshooting completed so far: first restored to the oldest system
restore point, but that didn’t help at all. Added 2 extra GB of RAM (the PC
now has 3GB RAM). Purchased a new VISTA compatible graphics card: GeForce
8600GT with 256MB PCI-E; downloaded the latest drivers; this made no
difference. Again downloaded the latest windows updates, but still slow
playing movies.
Updated the bios on my motherboard to the latest available version, but it
made no difference.
Last night, re-installed VISTA via the “upgrade†root to find this morning
still playing movies really slowly.
Short of reformatting, I am now out of ideas. I have virus protection and
ran two types of spyware.

Anyone had this problem or has a suggestion I can try, I would really
appreciate it.
Thanks

 

[f/fgeorge]

Hi,

I have a problem playing videos and animation on VISTA Ultimate that I
cannot figure out. The strange part is that I cannot recall installing or
downloading anything apart from windows updates. I’ve been running VISTA fine
since Sep 07. Frequent visitor on YouTube, etc.. never had a problem playing
movie files either from local disk or streaming from the web. Up until about
mid June. When my machine slowed down (as close as stopped) playing anything
media driven, including the VISTA start-up logo when the machine start. The
logo plays like 2 frames per second and takes a long time to complete the
animation. Movie files play just as slow regardless of where I am playing
them from (local disk or the internet). Minimizing and maximizing windows
stutters through the display really slowly. Animation like the Vista welcome
screen is playing very slow.
Browsing the internet is fine. Loading explorer with images and previews are
fine and quick. Loading images through Windows Picture and Fax viewer is
fast, no problems. Email program is fine no problem. Only seems to affect
anything that in a way is a movie or media file.
So, troubleshooting completed so far: first restored to the oldest system
restore point, but that didn’t help at all. Added 2 extra GB of RAM (the PC
now has 3GB RAM). Purchased a new VISTA compatible graphics card: GeForce
8600GT with 256MB PCI-E; downloaded the latest drivers; this made no
difference. Again downloaded the latest windows updates, but still slow
playing movies.
Updated the bios on my motherboard to the latest available version, but it
made no difference.
Last night, re-installed VISTA via the “upgrade” root to find this morning
still playing movies really slowly.
Short of reformatting, I am now out of ideas. I have virus protection and
ran two types of spyware.

Anyone had this problem or has a suggestion I can try, I would really
appreciate it.
Thanks

Try opening Task Manager and see what is hogging the cpu. You will
have to click a couple of time on the cpu column to make it sort by
highest to lowest but you should be able to see what else is tying up
your cpu.

 

[sgbr_1]

Thanks for your reply. The clock isn't running on windows either. As soon as
I logon to VISTA, the time goes into slow motion. This makes task manager run
unreliably, to slow for me to check what could hug the CPU. The clock works
fine in the bios, but does get affected by VISTA. If I leave the machine
logged in, it looses time (almost stops time). VISTA works in safe mode, but
I cannot run movies to check whether that problem is there, media player
won't start in safe mode.

I've read on another blog that I might have a codec problem. Do you know any
way to figure this out?

Thanks again for your help.

 

[sgbr_1]

Hi Pulzar,

I've gone through drastic measures. Got a new drive, took out the old one
and installed a clean drive, clean partition and clean VISTA as it comes out
of the box, no updates or patches. My machine still has the problem, so I
guess I am now looking at a motherboard replacement.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[sgbr_1]

Hi,

An update to this: clean hard drive and new partition. Out of the box VISTA
and nothing else, not even critical patches. I still have the problem. This
makes me think that I have a motherboard issue now.

Thanks for your help.