Temporary freezing when opening video files

I am running WinXP Pro SP-1, with Windows Media Player 9. The problem I
have didn't always exist; it only began rearing its ugly head a couple
of months ago, though I don't know exactly what brought it on.

The problem is that whenever I open a video for the first time, the
whole system freezes for about 5 seconds (to the extent that the mouse
cursor won't move). After that, everything is fine--the video even
plays correctly. Even stranger than that, if I close and reopen the
same video file, the freeze won't happen a second time--unless I switch
away, do other things, and open it again later.

The problem doesn't happen with any other type of file; just video
files. And the system runs great otherwise.

This happens with MPG files, AVI files, and with various codecs (Intel
Indeo, DivX, etc.). I've also tried third-party media players (Light
Alloy, Media Player Classic, etc.), and the problem is exactly the same
with all of them.

I've tried different codecs (Nic's XviD build, Koepi's XviD build,
various DivX versions, etc.), and I've even tried screwing around with
ffdshow. None of these things has helped to eliminate this aggravating
problem.

Please help if you can...

Bill Moyer wrote:

I am running WinXP Pro SP-1, with Windows Media Player 9. The
problem I have didn't always exist; it only began rearing its ugly
head a couple of months ago, though I don't know exactly what brought
it on.

The problem is that whenever I open a video for the first time, the
whole system freezes for about 5 seconds (to the extent that the mouse
cursor won't move). After that, everything is fine--the video even
plays correctly. Even stranger than that, if I close and reopen the
same video file, the freeze won't happen a second time--unless I
switch away, do other things, and open it again later.

The problem doesn't happen with any other type of file; just video
files. And the system runs great otherwise.

This happens with MPG files, AVI files, and with various codecs (Intel
Indeo, DivX, etc.). I've also tried third-party media players (Light
Alloy, Media Player Classic, etc.), and the problem is exactly the
same with all of them.

I've tried different codecs (Nic's XviD build, Koepi's XviD build,
various DivX versions, etc.), and I've even tried screwing around with
ffdshow. None of these things has helped to eliminate this
aggravating problem.

Please help if you can...

I upgraded from Nvidia's 40.72 WHQL driver to the 45.23 WHQL driver, and
the problem seems to be rectified (or very substantially reduced
anyway). I had previously tried other driver versions, but not the very
latest. Mea culpa on that.

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