Help! W98 - GIF images & music

I have posted this elsewhere, but I'm afraid I won't get any responds there, because I need someone who reaklly knows what they are doing. Sorry for posting again.

Basic backround info:
My OS is W98 SE upgraded from a W95. Recently I had to wipe/reformat my computer. As far as I know all my cards (Ethernet, USB...) are working fine with their drivers installed. They are all even listed over my device manager. i have 2 cd-rom drives. One came with the computer; the other is a cd-burner installed on the computer. I have also installed all the 'critical updates' from Microsoft already.

Problem #1:
Recently, I noticed while I was browsing the internet, that things weren't displaying right. It's only .gif images giving me problems (I found this out by double checking and exploring my own images) and maybe a few other types with the same purpose. It's only when animated images are being displayed. Instead of displayed smoothly, they are really choppy and 'flash' alot. I see alot of exactly which part of the image is changing if you know what I mean (due to the flashes). I have no idea what's wrong, so I can't fix it!
Oh yeah.. and what's the purpose for a .ani (animated cursor) file? For the mouse? I have over 60 .ani files saved on a cd which I burned before the reformat, but nothing to run them off of... I'm pretty sure they are image files, but my computer has no device choose to display them (or content type if needed).

Problem #2:
This has to do remotely with my CD drive(s). Right now my cd drives can any kind of disc, but my problem is with any disc dealing with any type of music files. (Regular file discs or installation discs works fine). I was trying to play one of .MP3 CDs on Windows Media Player 9. Instead of playing to like it did before I reformated, I get an error message saying 'Class Not Registered', but it shows teh correct number of files in the CD. I tried again with a normal music cd (aka store-purchased) and I got the same message/result. After that I tried just using the CD player (under Start Menu> Program> Accessories> Entertainment). Once again, it counted the number of tracks out, but when I pressed play... Nothing played.

Problem #2.5 (VERY closely related to #2):
I tried to reinstall WM Player 9, but it wouldnt finish out the installation for some reason. Tried again and got the same problem.