Windows 7: System Instability When Running Windows Media Player

I have noticed lately that Windows Media Player has become a bit, choppy, a bit laggy. When playing videos, fraps reports a decent fps, and the actual video file is at a fps which will easily display as smooth, however I can clearly see choppy video. When this happens, other dynamic elements also become choppy, such as the windows animation displayed when moving files, or moving temperature graphs. Perhaps it is a video driver? Or something similar? Either way, the system should be easily able to keep up with the load. I'm looking to figure out what exactly is causing this.



Any input is greatly appreciated,
Thanks,
Tom

My first thought was, when was the last time you did any housekeeping?

Hard Disk Space - Free Up and Recover

And then force a: Disk Defragmenter - Open and Use

Funny you asked, I am right in the middle of some serious housekeeping. It actually seems to have smoothed out, so perhaps it was just a matter of a "messy" file system. If this is the case, the matter is solved, but I wont mark this thread so for a few days yet, just to make sure this was indeed the issue.

Thanks for the input

Your welcome!

One of the MVP's here likes running Puran Defrag - Automatically Defrag your Hard Disk Drives once in a while rather than the native Windows defragger.