ubuntu-8.10-alternate-i386 LTS multimedia players recently died

[David Christensen]

ubuntu-users:

I have a ubuntu-8.10-alternate-i386 machine running LTS.  I've noticed 
that the video and sound players have recently died.  If I try to play a 
sound or video file, the players start, do nothing, and then turn gray 
after 5-10 seconds.  When I try to close them, I get a dialog:

     The window "<name>" is not responding.

     Forcing this application to quit will cause you to lose any unsaved
     changes.

                                                   Cancel    Force Quit

I'm not sure exactly when the problems started, but some possibilities 
come to mind:

1.  I installed the Dragon video player, because the default video 
player didn't work correctly on certain MPEG clips (very jerky playback, 
large portions skipped).  Dragon was smoother, but the colors were very 
strange.  When I then tried the default player, the jerkiness was still 
there, as was the color problem.  So, I rebooted and ignored it for a 
few days.  Now video playback is dead.

2. I uninstalled Dragon, but the problems persist.

3.  I've installed updates, when notified that they were available.


Are there log files I can look at for clues?  Are there any other 
troubleshooting means?


TIA,

David