WMP 9, Windows XP Media Center, and WinDVD 4 crash when attempting to play dvds

I bought a m270n pc from HP, it comes with dvd-rom, dvd/cd
writer, the whole Windows Media Center experience
(including the remote and Cable-in).

Except one teeny problem. I bought it for its large
memory, its OS, and the fact that it can write/play DVDs.

So far, I have been pleased only by its large memory.
Here's a list of the bugs I have encountered in owning
this computer only 1 month.

-Spontaneous crashes caused by an NVIDIA driver (fixxed)
-WMP9 says that my screen is displaying too many colors
first time i try to play a movie, regardless of # of
colors.
-WMP9 crashes second time i try to play a movie
(consistantly), saying that the error was the Ac3audio.ax
file. When I looked at properties, the properties of
Ac3audio.ax were messed up, it has no viruses, I scanned.
-WinDVD 4 crashes just like WMP9, but doesn't tell me why.
-Media Center crashes when I try to watch DVDs
-Media Center fails to download TV Guides.

-Within one week of buying this computer, I was forced to
do a full system restore.

I would really appreciate it if you could help me fix
this...considering over half the stuff this computer came
with doesn't work.

On a side note: Why release Media Center if it is this
buggy? I would have gladly bought any computer with a
working dvd drive, regardless of the OS. Perhaps more
extensive testing should be done before the release of the
next OS? But what do I know?