Playing Any Video Crashes Comp. - Definitely a software issue

[marcusrex]

Hello,

I am writing this letter to Windows 7 Forums to ask for your help. I own an HP G61 511-wm laptop computer with stock components. The operating system is Windows 7 Premium Home Edition. For virus protection I use Windows Defender and I have anti-Malware Bytes installed to look for malware. In the past six months I’ve lost the ability to play videos on this computer. When I play a video from Netflix, YouTube, or any other source by streaming, or when I try to play videos I have stored on my harddrive, the CPU usage spikes to 100% and the computer stops responding.

I also own a ten-years old Sony Vaio desktop running a Linux distribution. That computer streams video and plays music with no problems and it’s ancient, so I believe that the problem I have with my laptop is a software problem.

I have checked that all of my drivers are updated and that adobe flash player is current and properly installed. I've made sure that I've downloaded and installed all updates for Windows 7. I’ve noticed that my CPU spends inordinate amounts of time at 75 or 100% capacity in general, and have been all over the blogs. I’ve tried every solution I could find there. Today, I typed ‘windows 7 video freezes computer’ into google and was led to this link:

Video Problem, computer freezes when playing video - Microsoft Community.

I implemented Method 1, and the only thing that happened was that my Power Saving settings were restored to default levels.

I then tried Method 2, clean boot. I set everything up just the way it was described in Method 2 and rebooted my computer. That seemed to remedy the problem completely. No problems whatsoever playing videos and the CPU usage stayed at 'normal' levels. I am certain this means I have a software problem, but now I am uncertain how to proceed.

Can the community please advise me how to proceed from here or point me to a resource that will help me learn how to configure my system?

Thank you,

Mark

 

[ThrashZone]

What were the results of using the Reliability monitor ?
Open reliability monitor,
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2270-reliability-monitor.html
Switch to Software rendering,
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/149063-internet-explorer-gpu-hardware-acceleration-turn-off.html
Video issue,
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2532294
I believe Netflix uses Silverlight ?
http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/Get-Started/Install/Default.aspx
Youtube uses mostly Adobe flash/ shockwave,
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html
Then there's Java,
http://www.java.com/en/download/faq/remove_olderversions.xml
http://www.java.com/en/download/help/uninstall_java.xml

Just like to add Windows defender isn't really an Antivirus,
Microsoft Security Essentials would qualify if that's what you mean ?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials

 

[marcusrex]

Oops! Yes, I meant Microsoft Security Essentials. Thank you.