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heavywulf
Participant
March 12, 2015
Question

Firefox keeps telling me my Shockwave Player is "unresponsive"?

  • March 12, 2015
  • 12 replies
  • 70305 views

So for the last several months my Firefox browser (running Windows 😎 keeps crashing on me everytime I try to watch an embedded video on YouTube or anywhere else.

Everytime I try to watch a video, everything just freezes and this message pops up that says:

"Warning: Unresponsive Plugin"

"Shockwave Flash may be busy or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the plugin now, or you can continue to see if the plugin will complete.

[Continue] [Stop plugin]

This message pops up at least three or four times before my video finally loads or it crashes. Clicking either option makes no difference.

I've tried updating my Firefox browser, my Adobe Flash, my Adobe Shockwave and nothing ever changes! I'm seriously at my wits end! Has anyone else here had this problem before? Did you actually fix it?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    12 replies

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    W
    wolfie138
    Participating Frequently
    July 8, 2015

    this problem is seriously getting on my goddamn nerves. i don't get it at home, but on the work laptop it's horrendous, i don't do YouTube but the ADVFN site locks up all the time. so according to this thread the wonderful Adobe people have been "working closely" for over 4 months and got nowhere, and the post above seems to be be "go and get something different because we can't be bothered to fix the item you like.

    jeromiec83223024
    jeromiec83223024
    Inspiring
    July 8, 2015

    It's unfortunate that the specific issue you're experiencing wasn't fixed by the work that landed in Firefox 39.  That said, the Firefox fixes that just landed in Firefox 39 *did* cut the aggregate Flash hang rate by about 50% for all Windows Firefox users, which is a tremendously successful outcome for an initial engagement, and we look forward to Firefox's active participation in identifying and resolving the other 50%.  We have always been and continue to be more than happy to support and prioritize these kinds of direct, collaborative engineering engagements, especially where the undertakings so clearly benefit our mutual users.

    If you have a set of steps that leads to a reproducible hang, including a direct link to something, I'm always happy to take a look.  I can't do much with "it crashes sometimes on some random stuff" in general, which is why those types of problems frequently linger without resolution, but problems with discrete steps and consistent outcomes are very straightforward.

    Also, if you haven't already, please run through the video troubleshooting guide, in particular, to see if disabling hardware acceleration makes the hang go away.

    https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html

    W
    wolfie138
    Participating Frequently
    July 9, 2015

    i have no steps, other than going to ADVFN - FTSE 100 Share Prices, LSE stock Quotes, Forex & Financial News and looking at some of the shares - the pages lock up on about 80% of the time at least as i'm browsing, either opening a particular share's page or clicking to go to a forum etc. as i say, i don't have this issue in the house. FF is not telling me Shockwave or Shockwave for Director needs updating etc. so what else do i need to look at to see why things aren't working?

    chris.campbell
    chris.campbell
    Legend
    March 12, 2015

    Could you try the steps outline in this FAQ?  In particular, could you try temporarily disabling the protected mode to see if that makes a difference (instructions for this step can be found at the bottom of the FAQ)

    How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?

    noahw60649262
    noahw60649262
    Participant
    March 13, 2015

    I had the exact same issue.

    Disabling protected mode solved the problem. (Thank you)

    It appears that compatibility issues between Mozilla browsers and Flash Protected Mode have been a recurring problem for quite some time (Flash 11.3 and above). (Although I only started experiencing them after recent updates)

    Several "workarounds" have been suggested:

    Flash - MozillaZine Knowledge Base

    Since Adobe strongly recommends running with Protected Mode enabled...

    What is the current status for resolving this incompatibility with Firefox?

    chris.campbell
    chris.campbell
    Legend
    March 13, 2015

    We're working closely with Mozilla to resolve this.  Having lived through the release of 11.3 and working very closely with the community, I totally get the frustration that this issue can cause.

    Do you have a sense for when this started occurring again?

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