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Chariott
Participating Frequently
June 6, 2010
Answered

Flash Player 10 not working in some sites, working fine in others

  • June 6, 2010
  • 3 replies
  • 13327 views

Lately I've been having problems viewing videos with Flash Player on many sites in which they viewed fine previously. What I see is a solid black rectangle the size of the video screen. No Player controls. Nothing. I have looked at the page code, but found nothing out of the ordinary. The system on this machine is XP Pro with SPII, and the problem occurs whether using IE 8 or Firefox 3.6.3. The "about" display showed that I had Falsh Player 10.0.32.18 installed on my system, so I downloaded 10.0.45.2 and installed it, hoping that would resolve the problem. Nope.

Presently, going to http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ via either IE of Firefox shows that I have version 10.0.45.2 properly installed. The animation plays fine in both browsers.

Today a friend of mine graduated from Temple University in Japan, The graduation cerimony was streamed live (3:30 in the morning my time). I could not watch it. That site was http://www.tuj.ac.jp/graduation2010/video.html The hosting site is UStream, specifically http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tuj-2010-graduation I cannot get any videos on UStream to open. All I see is a black rectangle. My friend's mother had no problem wathing the cerimony with Firefox on her laptop.

Other sites that worked fine recently but no longer ply videos at all on this system are Fox News and NBC News. I have no problem watching Al Jazeera news videos, but their videos post on UTube. I have no problem watching videos on UTube. BBC news videos also run fine, as do videos from many other sites. It makes no difference if I accept or block cookies on the sites that cnnot play the videos. What is different about these sites than the others?

I have read two related threads here, Problem  with sites not loading Flash... and Flash  videos not working on espn.com in any browser , but neither of them had any relevant help to my problem. Re: Flash videos not working on espn.com in any browser Re: Player won't startThe second thread concerned a problem loading videos from ESPN, giving the site

http://espn.go.com/video/category?id=3461971 as an example. but I have no problem watching videos on that site or any other videos on ESPN. Instructions given in the first thread said to delete several files from the C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash folder, but I had none of the files lilsted.

Is there somthing in my Registry that needs to be tweaked? Is there someting that my antivirus program (Bitstream) may have whacked? I really would like to fix this problem.

Thanks — Tony

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer

    You are most welcome. Adobe really needs to do a better job of explaining the

    consequences of  making changes to the settings in it's Global Settings Panel.

    3 replies

    Participant
    August 12, 2010

    Hi everyone, I have the same problem, I can watch videos on some websites (such as youtube via ktunnel) and cannot watch videos on other websites -youtube not via ktunnel, by DNS or websites with high quality videos. I've checked add ons, installedflash player again and again, and also checked the Flash folder (flash10i.ocx - flashinstall - flashplayer.xtp - flashutil10i_activex - flashutil10i_activex.dll - flashutil10i_plugin - npswf32.dll) and finally check my antivirus + firewall shit. Nothing happens. I've fed up with this situation. Hope anybody can help me, thanks!

    August 12, 2010

    Hi, you could check your add ons and make sure you have Shockwave Flash Object Enabled.

    eidnolb

    August 11, 2010

    If a  webpage with the same flash content  does not work in all browsers, (Chrome, Opera, IE, Firefox, Safari, etc), go to Adobe's Global Manager web page: http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html  or just right click on the blank Flash player and select " Global Settings", navigate to Global Storage Settings Panel  and check the box that says "Allow third party flash content to store data on your computer". This setting applies to your user account ONLY and will have to be checked on every instance of a new user account on your computer(s). While you are there, check the " Never ask Again" box. This will prevent every new site you visit from prompting to allow storage on your computer. ( who cares, it's a temporary allocation). Also check the third box " Store common Flash Components...." (why wouldn't you want this?)

    Chariott
    ChariottAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    August 11, 2010

    Thanks eagle100_3

    That was a wicked simple fix, and it worked beautifully!

    I had my Global Storage set to disallow third party Flash content storage in what I thought was a privacy/spyware safequard meassure, although I had allowed "store common Flach components". As you said, "why wouldn't you?" I also had "Never ask again" checked, so I really only needed to make one change. After I changed my Global Storage settings as per your suggestions, I immediatly went to several sites where previously I could not open any Flash videos and found that with the changed setting they all opened normally and quiickly. Brought a big smile to my face.

    In my Global Storage Settings I was not able to reset my disk allocation amount, which was and remains set to "none". I don't know why I cannot change that, but as all Flash videos now open normally in my browsers with a setting of "none", I don't see that I need to worry about changing it. Fox news did ask to save data to my system, and I clicked to deny it. The video opened and played normally without allowing anything to be saved. You said Flash storage is a "temporary allocation". I'm still apprehensive about spyware coming in through flash content storage. Is this a non problem? If so, I may tackle the allocation setting next.

    Thanks again for your help!

    Tony

    Correct answer
    August 11, 2010

    You are most welcome. Adobe really needs to do a better job of explaining the

    consequences of  making changes to the settings in it's Global Settings Panel.

    June 6, 2010

    Hi, thanks for the complete information. Using IE, go to Tools, manage add ons(all add ons) and find Shockwave Flash Object..ActiveX Control...it should have Flash10e.ocx listed which is the vs 10.0.45.2 and must be Enabled.

    Next, go to C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash  Right click on the Flash folder and Open. Post back all files listed there. Sometimes during an Uninstall/Install an old Flash file may not have been removed.

    The Anti-Virus Bitstream could be causing a conflict. Do you have any other Security on your system? Does this AV also have it's own Firewall?  If you have a version number, that would be helpful. While you are getting the above info for me,

    I'll check on Bitstream.

    On the site UStream, you might take a look at their system requirements.

    Thanks,

    eidnolb

    Chariott
    ChariottAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    June 6, 2010

    Thanks for your very quick reply eidnolb

    In IE add-ons I show Shockwave Flash Object — Active X Control 10.0.45.2. enabled.

    In C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash I have the following items listed:

    FlashPlayerTrust (a folder)

    NPSWF32.dll

    FlashUtil10e.exe

    NPSWF32_FlashUtil.exe

    uninstall_plugin.exe

    install.log

    Flash10e.ocx

    flashplayer.xpt

    I miswrote before. The anitivirus program is BitDefender 2010. (Bitstream is a font software comapny, a competitor to Adobe Fonts. Um . . . sorry.)  I've had problems with BitDefender Antivirus whacking my system in various ways, generally via changes to the Registry.

    On the UStream site I found the following page — Can't See/View a Stream. I was excited because I have the Adblock Plus extension added to my Firefox, but changing the settings for Adblock Plus had no effect.

    I have both Ad-Aware Pro 8.1.4 and BitDefender 2010 on this system, the two setup to be compatable (Ad-Aware's antivirus is disabled, for instance) and no firewall for either. Infact, no software firewalls are active on this system. The router's hardware firewall is the only firewall activated, and other computers accessing the internet through the same router have no problem viewing videos.

    Thanks — Tony

    . . .  And an aside. How come my profile icon doesn't display in threads? Is there a setting I need to change?

    June 6, 2010

    Howdy eidnolb,

    Both NPSWF32.dll and NPSWF32_FlashUtil.exe show version 10.0.45.2. The file Uninstall_ActiveX.exe does not  exist anywhere on my system. I did find UNINSTALL_ACTIVEX.EXE-0D9A8307.pf in my Prefetch directory, but that's as close as I could come.

    There is no SWF plug-in sowing in my Firefox Add-ons list, nor is there any SWF listing in my Firefox Options/Applications tab.

    Even with those missing elements, I don't understand why some Flash movies play normally and others do not play at all. If I go to http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/ , the intro Flash movie plays beautifully. I'm more inclined to think that the problem is caused by something blocking specific videos or sites than by a missing piece of Adobe Flash.

    BitDefender has caused me a lot of problems. Most of them I have worked out via their forums. One major problem with Firefox was the automatic (no option out) installation of the BitDefender toolbar. That one is still not resolved, although a work-around functions okay until updating the program. There is also a BitDefender toolbar automatically installed in IE, which I have disabled. Disabling the toolbar in Firefox did not eliviate the problems. BitDefender has asked me to let them have access to my system to see what is transpiring within Firefox for themselves, but I have too many security issues to agree to that. I'd like to know what you find from the other BitDefender users. My first thought was that the problem somehow related to BitDefender, but I may be overly gunshy about BitDefender at this point.

    On the profile icon, you mean avatar?

    Yeah. I might need to talk to the profile  manager about that question.

    Tony


    Hi, ok thanks for all of the searching. The Uninstall_ActiveX.exe is not required in order for the FP to work as long as all other files are there and along with the IE ActiveX Control in the add ons. However, it always is there. When it isn't then

    that says that the FP Install for IE was not completed for some reason. Now, does it need to be there if you would ever want to Uninstall FP again and is it used in that process? That I don't know.

    In FF, the fact that you don't have the SWF is not a good sign. When you say you have no problem on the Adobe test site, are you using the FF browser? Did you check add ons, plug-ins and extensions? Do check in those areas and then use FF and go to this test site :  http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ If you don't have the SWF plug-in, this test should tell you.

    BitDefender causes problems for many users. I would not allow them access either. The problem is not Firefox or IE or Flash Player, it is BitDefender. Mandantory Toolbar???? That program is most likely why you don't have the SWF. The problem other users were having was exactly that. Some component of BitDefender was blocking it. After you use FF for the test site above, and give another go checking for the SWF then you might do this: Disable every add on, extenstion or plug-in that BitDefender has in FF and then use FF and see if you can isolate which one it is.

    (Haven't gotten to the avatar yet:-)

    Thanks,

    eidnolb