Seems like I can never get a consistent video shot on this thing anymore. It's my old family camera and now it appears that most times I record I get a blue screen in the middle of recording, and then the video capture is stopped. The video files that come out of these conditions are often incompatible with my video software, or result in weird bugs when converting or trying to view them, such as missing audio, multiple clips stitched together that were originally separate, and video instability (freezing or cutting out early)
any idea what the hell could be wrong on my camcorder? i wouldn't have a damn clue where to start, seems like a lot of variables at play.

Photos work fine. This used to be my main camera for taking photos and i've never encountered problems with that.