Windows 7: Full screen videos and games lagging

I'm having a serious problem when trying to watch videos in full scream. When in full screen, the videos get slow, lagging in various scenes, sometimes with cuts in the audio too.

My config is Sempron 2600+, 1.5gb ram and Geforce 5500 256MB 128 bits. Display 22", 1680x1050 resolution. I'm using nvidia beta driver for Windows 7 (it seems to be the same driver used for Windows Vista, don't know).

I tried lots of codecs and players, nothing works. Windows Media Player and Media Player classic are working almost perfectly than any other players, but I really hate WMP.

I tried to change the settings in nVidia Control Panel, but I can't find the nvidia control panel, it's not in the right button menu.

I installed the game Marvel Ultimate Alliance and it's slow too, but I have all the requirements to play it smoothly.

I'm using build 7600.

How can I solve this?

If you are still using the Win 7 default display drivers you might want to look in the Nvidia driver page for updated drivers for your system.

The default Windows 7 Nvidia drivers do not install the Nvidia control panel.
Look here for your drivers. Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers

I'm using the latest version of nvidia driver. How can I install the control panel?

a 5500 is rather old hardware, chances are your just trying to play movies that are out of its range. HD movies have been around for years, but are only popular now because there are actually cards that can handle them.

lower your settings on the games to up the speed, especially if its a newer game. and try watching movies with a lower resolution.

No, I'm trying to watch regular AVI movies, and the game I'm trying to play is in it's lowest settings.

have you tried lowering the resolution when you play fullscreen videos? it shouldnt matter but it might? are you trying to play the game at max resolution but lowest settings?

also i've noticed videos seem to play better for me on MPC when i use VMR9 windowed as the output mode, others tend to lag when opening the movie or have laggy audio or crash MPC.

regular avi? regular by what standard ?

what about turning off things like aero? are you using desktop slide show ? are you running lots of background stuff that is zapping power away?

limited information leads to limited help! but i've had a fx5500 before which was upgraded with an ati 9200 and saw huge improvement, and even more so with an x1550, and with some of the much higher powered videocards around these days for $50 theres really no reason to still be using a 5500 unless you absolutely have to

Try this bro go to desktop backgrounds and close to the bottom left of the screen look for picture position and choose (stretch) Hope this helps ......All your games should be full screen PEACE