Windows 7 randomly speed up ALL videos after being paused.

So after I pause a YouTube video, BS player, Netflix, Media player classic or any type of videos, when I unpause after doing something random, everything just speeds up to like 200% speed and no audio what so ever. Games are unaffected, and seemingly everything else, just videos.

This is extremly annying since I use to find a bunch of things to watch, and do other stuff on my PC pausing, unpausing... I need to fix this, its driving me insane to restart browsers, video players and such and find where I was again and turn of all other YouTube vidoes...

Please, someone help me before I make a hole in the screens and case.

Did this never used to happen, and only started happening recently?

If so, what changes have you recently made to your system? Any new software installed recently that might be suspicious and possibly responsible?

I find it strange that even the Netflix-provided player (if you're using that app within Windows Media Center) is affected in this odd way, although if you're using some other player to play "Netflix videos and clips" (obtained from some other source) then maybe it's not so strange.

Just to add another data point to your experiments, to see if it's related to specific corruption in your system, why don't you try installing 64-bit PotPlayer (English) which doesn't require external codec packs to play virtually ALL audio/video media types. When you use PotPlayer on these media files you've had problems with using other players, do you also still see the same PAUSE/PLAY 200% speedup symptom, or not?

It started rather recently, but I just reformatted the PC so it could be one of all my important must have software. There is to much to go trough to figure out what did it. I tried turning off all background applications and it still happened.

I watch Netflix on Netflix... Jesus Christ, if it was just happening to pirated videos and downloaded anime I'd understand why it don't work and I wouldn't be here as a last resort. But when the same problem occur on several types of files with several different players with original content and real players that doesn't work the same way. Same problem with PotPlayer.

I didn't come here to confirm the problem or not, Its happening to every type of videos even YouTube.

I installed all the pending updates for windows 7, it stopped for a while, but its back again. I did several virus scans with two different programs, windows defender and avast.. No luck there.

You mention Windows Defender and Avast. Do you mean Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), which is the MS anti-virus for Win7? The name "Windows Defender" was a much older product name.

They've rebranded MSE back to Windows Defender in Win8 (where it's actually built in, rather than having to be installed separately by the user), but I'm still curious about your comment suggesting you have two separate A/V programs installed?

Also, have you installed any external codec packs in your recently reinstalled fresh Win7? Again, just curious about something which would be universal enough to affect audio/video for media files of various types and played by assorted media player software.

Certainly a strange symptom to try and diagnose, where there is no problem at all with these assorted media players as long as you don't PAUSE... but only after PAUSE/PLAY does the symptom appear, in all of them. Especially the disappearance of audio.

Do you have the ability to direct your audio output to an alternative path? I mean that if you're currently using desktop computer speakers connected to the "speakers" outputs of your mobo and you have "speakers" selected in "playback devices" (rmb on speaker icon in System Tray), do you have an option to redirect to say S/PDIF optical out of your mobo, and feed an AVR or soundbar via optical? Or, if you could feed HDMI from your video card for digital audio via HDMI (again, using "playback devices" to select it) that would be a really different audio path. I'm just trying to explore some way to decide if your "loss of audio" symptom is somehow related to your analog audio drivers (presumably from Realtek) or something else more universally active in your system.

If the same symptom (i.e. loss of audio after PAUSE/PLAY) is still with you when using digital audio output instead of analog audio output, we could probably conclude that the loss of audio is a "victim" rather than pointing to the audio drivers somehow being a "culprit".

I'm just exploring ideas, thinking out loud. Can't really imagine why PAUSE/PLAY from multiple different player programs (including PotPlayer you say, which doesn't use external codecs) would do anything harmful when the initial PLAY of the same media file was playing just fine until you hit PAUSE. I don't have an answer.

Oh yeah, It is MSE my bad. I did install the extra codecs provided with Ninite.com should I try uninstalling that?

I have a Xonar ST and I use the S/PDIF out, as well as the headset input happens on both, no audio.
So it might be when I took out the Xonar and put in and older Audigy card which didnt have driver support, so I had to find a really random driver. But then I realized I had SPDIF on the xonar and installed that again and uninstalled the old driver and installed xonar drivers again.

Could there still be remnants of those old drivers in the system?

fanzypantz said:

Oh yeah, It is MSE my bad.

Ok. Just a typo.

But you're saying you have both MSE and Avast installed? Why not just one or the other?

I can understand have one A/V plus something additional like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, but two true A/V products? I really don't think this is relevant to the problem, but it's interesting.

I did install the extra codecs provided with Ninite.com should I try uninstalling that?

Well, I myself am ardently against installing external codec packs. In my experience, and for my own video collection, I don't need anything other than what comes with Win7. And using Winamp for audio and PotPlayer for video, I also don't need to install any 3rd-party codecs while still being able to play all audio and video formats, even those which might not be playable directly with Windows Media Player.

Since these external multimedia codecs obviously affect players, and it's your players which are behaving strangely, I'd definitely experiment with an uninstall of the codec pack and see if it makes any difference.

For that matter, if you have the easy ability to just take a "system image" backup of your currently installed system to an external USB 3.0 drive (so that you can easily restore it after your further experiments are complete), I'd suggest doing just that... and reinstalling a brand new Win7 again. That way you can truly determine at what point, if at all, your PAUSE/PLAY symptom actually starts happening or maybe never returns.

Start the fresh Win7 install from the beginning but keep it "pure", install motherboard chipset drivers, install additional hardware drivers for video and audio, complete all Windows updates, install your primary basic 3rd-party software products (including PotPlayer if that's one of them, as that doesn't involve or require external codecs). Do not install the Ninite codec pack.

And I'd suggest picking maybe just one anti-virus for now, say MSE (because it's non-intrusive and very quick and easy to install, and doesn't require any customization, and does not pepper you with solicitations to buy the non-free version or register after 30 days or whatever).

And before wasting any more time completing the rest of what would be your full Win7 reinstall, see if the PAUSE/PLAY symptom is now present or not. How you go from there depends on what you find at this point.

So you invest maybe a couple of hours in this side-trip, but your "system image" backup taken before embarking on this side-trip will allow you to restore your currently installed full system if that is warranted. But if indeed the PAUSE/PLAY problem is no longer present, then you've learned it must be from something else you had done previously that you hadn't yet done in your fresh start which is the "culprit". Could be the codec pack, or might be something else, but it's not coming from base Win7 and fundamental system and hardware drivers or the software products you've installed so far.

Whatever you learn during this "clean" reinstall experiment, if it does eliminate the PAUSE/PLAY problem then it will obviously have been worth the time. My guess is that the PAUSE/PLAY problem will not be present at this point.

I have a Xonar ST and I use the S/PDIF out, as well as the headset input happens on both, no audio.
So it might be when I took out the Xonar and put in and older Audigy card which didnt have driver support, so I had to find a really random driver.

Hmm...

But then I realized I had SPDIF on the xonar and installed that again and uninstalled the old driver and installed xonar drivers again.

Well, a few hours spent on a fresh Win7 reinstall experiment without any old Creative Audigy hardware or unsupported driver/software now is sounding even more promising. I wouldn't really trust old Vista or XP drivers for the Audigy (PCI?), if true Win7 software/drivers for the card were not available from Creative.

Could there still be remnants of those old drivers in the system?

I suppose.

But the fresh reinstall idea is sounding like a promising use of several hours, just to eliminate all of the other potentially relevant variables you have described which were part of how you reached your currently operational system which is exhibiting this PAUSE/PLAY symptom.

That's what I'd do if it were my machine and had this problem. It's clearly some software thing you did along the way which is responsible. In my opinion it is 100% guaranteed NOT to be present when doing a "quick reinstall" of Win7, just to prove it didn't come from Microsoft or your hardware vendors.

Yeah, the simplest route is to reinstall again, good think I have a few installers downloaded already for my important programs such as UE4 and my 3D programs.

The reason I chose two anti virus programs was simple; there where multiple options on ninite and i clicked the two :P I'll uninstall avast cause the free trail is running out.

Although today nothing has happened yet so god only knows if it has been fixed randomly.