Windows Media Player won't play video?

[Oilcan]

Well, I almost have 90% of my programs back up and going since my Sept.1 crash.

I tried downloading and playing some music on Windows Media Player 9.0, that went ok.

Downloading a video or clicking on a video, Media player opens up and says connecting, no video starts, and then the computer lags so bad it's unuseable. I have to re-boot.

It also does this when trying to run a downloaded video on my hard drive...."connecting"...why is it trying to "connect" to a video on my hard drive?.

I never had this type of problem on this machine before my crash.

Tomorrow afternoon I will call my local computer shop, but if anybody has any ideas now I'd appreciate it.

thanks

Oil