Video causing 100% CPU, followed by freezes

Hello; I can reproduce freezes - 100% CPU usage, which occasionally lead to crashes pretty consistently just by viewing any video, say bloomberg.com/tv/. CPU usage quickly runs up to 100% on Task Manager and the freeze occurs. No issues when running all my other programs, including streaming radio. I can reproduce this on IE9, as well as Chrome and on Firefox. I had assumed this was a Shockwave Flash item only, but I notice it freezes on Skype video. The only changes I can point to recently are a ton of Windows updates in the last 2 months including SP1. At the time, SP1 failed a couple of times, until I applied a hotfix, now it's on, but I still have the video issues.

I'll be happy to participate in any resolution - just tell me how I can assist.

I have also by the way downloaded the latest video drivers (accelerated media), bios, and chipset drivers, but this has not helped.

I run Windows 7 64-bit SP1. I have application hang errors in the windows event logs, but not crashes, so I don't see any crash id's

Thanks so much for any assistance!