avi, divx, wmv, dvd playback problems

First, I want to thank anyone who can help me. I have read thru the forum and read many similar issues and the ways to correct them. And so i'm not sure how to fix this problem. I have avi, wmv, dvd's that wont play. I cant even watch videos online. As soon as I play a video in any format on any player (real, wm, winamp, quicktime, vlc, intervideo, interactual, power dvd etc..) my system freezes. It looks like the system is "redrawing" the browser or any program that is open. Sometimes I get audio, but never video. When this happens I cant even use CTL+ALT+DELETE. I have to restart the system.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled codecs using every pack I can come across. I have uninstalled and reinstalled my GPU drivers and hardware. I have done a system restore, and nothing works. I am about ready to do a clean install of windows, but I am hoping there is a solution.

Here are my specs...

Windows XP sp2
AMD 64 3000
2 gigs RAM PC3200
Nvidia 6800 256mb Xtreme (forceware 91.31, which btw is not found on the nvidia site, I found this on guru.com)

Again, Thank you for any help that you can provide.

 

If it has been this way all the while, then it could be sp2.

 

It just started last week. I bought the new GPU and upgraded all the drivers and such. Had been playing games with no problems, and then tried to watch a video a couple of days ago and this happens. So Im wondering if the conflict is with Forceware and the Nvidia card I have. Im about to start clean. I think it needs it anyways. Just hope I dont have to. Thanks for your reply.

 

Here is an update on the problem I was having. If you have an NVIDIA 6800 and are thinking about updating to Forceware driver 91.31, dont do it yet until NVIDIA actually endorses this. I did and that caused the problem I was having. Nothing played, my computer froze, I had all sorts of problems. Maybe this will help anyone who is having similar problems. So I uninstalled 91.31 and reinstalled the older driver and now everything works except Windows Media Player 11. There is no sound when I play DVD, but that will be fixed when I load proper codecs for it. Peace

 

Nice to know. Happy computing!