Aspire 3100

Hi I'm a total newbie this is my first linux pc it. I'm in awe, I love ecomorph I'm planning on keeping it the thing is that it works like a charm but when ever I try to play a DVD the system slows down badly. I ended up downloading VLC (I still don't know how i did it ) but it's the same. Could it be a problem with my ati video chip or could it be solved by using the Stable elive version?

thanks

PS I tried to run a dvd in the default mode but it doesnt make any difference at all.

Just there are some little issues, to mention network isn't allways loaded (the wired for example is sometimes not loaded and if not, it just don't load while trying to activate, it isn't the network itself, another comp. starts it on the same router)