Video in Adobe Flash Player Freezes / Windows Media Player

Here I thought I had it all figured out. Not.
My Flash Player and Windows Media Player are freezing on this laptop when playing a video.
Video begins OK, but a few seconds into it, it starts to freeze.
I was online with Dell technicians today for more than an hour trying to figure this out, but no dice.
The CPU maxes out when the videos play on either application, the audio steams better than the video. The video stutters.
Any thoughts anyone? Thanks.

{Windows XP, 1 GB Ram, fast processor, adware scanned, malware scanned, virus scanned, hard disk cleaned and defragged, latest Flashplayer installed, and Windows Media Player}

 

Close all other open programs that may be using processor cycles. Do a clean boot by using msconfig or other startup control software and test the flash player while nothing else is running.

If it still stutters, you may not have enough processor (or RAM) to handle the given graphics at your chosen resolution.