Computer Help Please?

I have an older, less capable computer, and the symptoms you describe are things I see when there are not enough CPU cycles available to render things properly.Lots of things can cause that, including malware chewing up cycles and not having enough swap space available because your hard drive is full.Take a look at your task manager and see if you are near 100% utilization. Installing a codec pack is not going to help.Also the VLC video player plays just about everything without having to install codecs.Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.

Now that I think about it, I have run into the occasional wmv file that VLC does not handle. Usually when I encounter that, I go find another version of whatever the video, or re-encode it using something like WinFF or other free stuff.mp4 files do take require a bit more CPU to play than do avi files. VLC may be transcoding them on the fly. I'd definitely check the utilization. That process manager JonF mentioned sounds like a good idea.Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.

I'd try using malwarebytes or other malware remover first. If you cannot get rid of things that way, the last measure before reinstalling everything from scratch is to try something called combofix.If you are already getting your browser hi-jacked it is just a matter of time before your computer will stop letting you run anything and won't let you access sites that allow you to clean up your computer. Stuff disappearing from your desktop is a really bad sign.

Yes, I have used that, but the last version I installed would not convert properly to Ipod/Ipad formats and I haven't used it for awhile. I'm still using XP right now. I plan to install Windows 7 this weekend.

Try an internet search for adware related to whatever you downloaded. But be careful. Sometimes the posts you find are from computer thugs who want to miss up your machine.Even benign malware steals cycles and if it's hi-jacking your browser, that's just plain evil IMO.