Windows Media Player 10 is "Sticky"

Whenever I try to play a video file (like a .mpg) in Windows Media Player 10 from somewhere on my laptop, it plays as if it's getting stuck at certain points in the video file. 85% of the time it will continue playing after a momentary pause, although sometimes it will pause completely while the sound continues to play at a normal rate.

What's weird is that the files play smoothly and normally in another media player that I have.

Should I give up on Windows Media Player? Update it to the latest version?

 

Thank you for replying!

It definitely meets the requirements. It was already installed on my laptop when I bought it new. I got my laptop in January, and up until now, have never had any problems with WMP 10. (I checked the requirements just to be sure, and everything meets or surpasses the requirements.)

 

Okay, I went to the website that was linked, and tried the instructions provided as the answer for the first question. It actually made things WORSE.

Could it just be time to lay WMP 10 to rest?

 

Thanks for the link. I'll see if there's anything there that I can use.

I've noticed lately that whenever Windows Media Player is open, my mouse movements tend to become a little sticky too. I wonder what I did that made this happen. The last major thing I remember is installing Firefox 2.0 and IE7.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions!