Gray circle with white exclamation mark on white background

[jdw9113]

We have a digital signage app that uses the flash player OCX as a COM component within a .NET application running on XP and Win 7.   Since upgrading some clients to flash version 10.1.53.64 we are experiencing a variety of issues to include:

1) fscommand calls that are being raised from the SWFs being played eventually stop being raised to (or at least received by) the application.  The behavior is not consistant, and it usually takes a while for this to occur.  Only an app restart seems to restore functionality.

2) Also occasionally insted of the SWF that is supposed to be playing, a white screen is displayed in the flash window.   The screen has a small gray circle with a white exclamation mark in the center.  When this occurs it never recovers - even when a new SWF is loaded.  No errors are raised and the app "thinks" that everything is still going smoothly.  Again a app restart is required to fix it.

We can usually recover from missing fscommands because if we expect a command that never comes, we can restart gracefully.  Issue 2 is more problematic in that its only a visual thing - no errors or other bad behavior seem to be occuring.

Any thoughts of fixes or work arounds would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[chook_rl]

Hi - I am getting this type of error (Exclamation mark of death) when I am typing Hiragana (Japanese) using IME

and pressing SPACEBAR to turn it into Kanji glphys.

If I do it fast enough, I get the exclamation error.

THIS DOES NOT SEEMS TO BE A MEMORY ISSUE

I read something about length being negative... are there any other issues worth testing?

[Guest]

I also see the grey circle of death (GCOD).   I have developed a C++ plug-in for OmniPeek, called Compass.   Compass has three HTMLView windows, separated by splitters.   Each HTMLView loads a .htm file, which in turn loads a .swf file.   The .swf files implement charts that are updated once a second by chart data from the plug-in.   The C++ plug--in communicates to the .swf through javascript in the .htm file.   After running for some period of time, like overnight, I will return to see the circle of death in in all three windows.   This behaviour is consistent.   System.totalMemory, which is being monitored on a timer at 1 seconds intervals, is reasonable, as well as the total memory of the application, which is also reasonable.   After GCOD occurs, I can open another capture window, and it will work fine, for a while.

-Spacepacket

[Aubreyff]

I have this exclaimation mark as well. I have a memory test running and everything is successfully garbage collected.  However, I have video running intermittently every 4 minutes or so. The video is also successfully be garbage collected, unless it has been running for about one week or more. I am not seeing any lag or performance issues, which leads me to believe it has something to do with how the video (I am using MP4) is being handled in the flash player.

I have not been able to detect when this will happen with a memory test as the memory seems to stay consistent. I wonder if their are any other tests that can be done to avoid the Gray Exclaimation Point.

[shiznt]

I've been having this same issue myself, and although I'm no expert, I've checked as far as I can using common sense and online resourses and I can see no immediately obvious reason why this should be taking place.

The exclamation mark appeared initially whilst attempting a large (permitted) file upload on a file sharing site (megaupload.com).  I have made several attempts, with the same error/warning response each time.  Secondly, it just so happened today that I was playing video via YouTube when making an upload attampt, and the video was immediately halted, and replaced with our little grey friend.  Furthermore, every banner and video on every open browser tab was also substituted with said icon.

I checked both Java and Flash were up to date (they were), restarted Firefox (also tested in Safari, same result), and still I get the same result when attempting to upload.

Did anyone manage to resolve this frustrating issue?

Thanks.

[Thiago Lobo]

Notes: I didn't read the entire post / I'm not a developer / I don't exactly know what is the problem you're having / Yeah, I'm just lazy to read just now.

I just want to add that, here, in my computer, this happens when I have a lot of You Tube videos opened in, let's say, 7-9 tabs.

I load a video in a tab, then load another video on some other tab and so forth...when I reach 9th or 10th tab, I get the exclamation mark not only in the 10th video, but in ALL OF THEM previously opened. It's something like Flash is telling me: "Ok, too much, I can't handle this thing. I'm not running any of these".

The number of tabs varies...sometimes it happens with only 7 tabs, sometimes it take up to 10...maybe it's some issue related to Flash + memory, as I see.

My specs:

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit / 4Gb DDR3 RAM / NVidia Geforce 230M / Intel Quad-core i720-QM / Maxthon Browser / Latest Flash version 10.1.85.3

Hope this info helps someone.

Cheers,

chapter81

[__nel78]

I am still having this issue. Mostly in regards to shockwave plugins. Using the shockwave plugin to instantiate flash. Most of the time using basic animations and still getting this error. This is causing a huge amount of problems. Please help.

When I do use AS3, I don't use globals. I clear my object references, I kill my listeners, I null my objects, I even tried forcing garbage collection. Nothing.

I seriously think this is irresponsible for an Adobe Employee to say that this is a programming issue. Please supply more information Adobe. thanks.

[jonahsdf]

I have the same problem. Are you using Chrome? I think it's a youtube problem because I can have other flash videos open that work. I'm on XP 32-bit.

[Guest]

It may be something YouTube does, but still, it is Flash that gives up with the GCOD, no matter what the application is.   In my case, it is caused by running the Flash app too long.  The longer it runs, the more data points there will be in the graph.   I suspect the garbage collector goes south, but I do not really know.   

Chris Bloom

  Customer Solutions Expert

  WildPackets, Inc. 

  925-274-5443

[radioways1]

Hello,

We are facing the same problem on a website and have the following feedback (through thousands of users) if it could help :

- The white page with exclamation replaces the flash :

1. After 2 to 3 hours of continuous play through integrated flash multimedia player (music) ou integrated wmp plugin

2. On all the players : IE (all versions 8), Chrome and Firefox

3. Sometimes, after this display, Internet Explorer have difficulties to read correctly javascript, unless the computer is REBOOTED.

If you'd like to make tests, the website is : http://www.radioways.com

We have a lot of feedback as the people listen to the radios online for hours on this site.
We made a lot of internal test and modified the code as we could with no possible solution.

We sent a message to Adobe but did not get any answer yet.

We think that it comes from an internal memory overload of the flashplayer that does not empty correctly. And we think that Adobe should consider more seriously this issue.

Georges

+ 33 6 59 96 06 06

[Ryeee-HWyhWe]

I too, am having this issue. I use IE8 and this just started while I was trying to watch a video on Hulu. It has consistently happened even with restarting. I don't even think I ran the video for more than 10-15 minutes when it happened. I have gone through and checked out a bunch of things, and haven't gotten anywhere with the issue. When it happens, banners and pictures on other tabs turn to the GCOD as well. This is incredibly irritating. Sorry I don't have any answers! WISH I DID!!!!!!

[harleyblueswoman]

while playing games on Facebook, lately I too receive this white page with the gray circle

and an exclamation mark inside.....only thing that I can do is

quit and sometimes it works and other times it shows up on every game I try and play for a small window in time.  Eventually it goes away and allows access to the games again. I assumed it had something to do with the Flash player. I use IE9 and have Vista.  Anyone figure this out yet....it is quite annoying!!

[terryranson]

As far as I can tell the are no correct answers posted here. We have somewhat defined the error but no method for guaranteed testing or programming around it. Can we get some comment from Adobe as to exactly what throws this error and how we can work through it as developers please?

[Ramz58]

I am Highly disappointed in adobe for allowing this problem to continue on since 2009 with no resolve.  Obvisously there are many users out here experiencing this problem including ME.

It happens in all browsers not just IE. All browsers have in common is ADOBE its their problem and needs attention right away. I have failed to see any solutions to this problem as it stands now.

Ramz

[radioways1]

Hi Ramz,

I deeply agree with you... What a shame for a company like Adobe and for an important tool like flash, not to take in consideration since more than 3 years, this very important problem that make the use of Flash less and less interesting and this is the reason why a lot of developpers are getting out of Flash (when they can) to use java libraries and web 2.0

In our case, we have made a huge developpement using at it's maximum the possibilities of Adobe Flash Player. You can chek it at :
http://www.radioways.com

Unfortunately, after 2 to 4 hours of listening or watching tv, Flash crashes with this exclamation mark.

We deeply regret the huge investment using Adobe (over 1Musd developpement)

We have done thousands of different configuration, tests, empty the temporary memory, reload the player etc... We did not find anything to solve this problem.

It is a terrible bug from Adobe Flash

We tried to contact Adobe, but is became an administration and we never could get any answer. Maybe we do not have th right contacts.

Does anybody know how to contact Adobe ?

Regards

[Guest]

There is no doubt that the lack of tools for actionscript programming sucks.   However, I have to admit that after I re-architected my application to make better use of memory and it works great now.  check it out:

http://download.cnet.com/WildPackets-Compass/3000-2085_4-75447541.html

[binkerman1]

I am having the same problem.  Tried uninstalling and re-install flash, that didn't work.

Any solution out there?

[Posis_Das]

I first ran across this problem this past week. My team and I created an eLearning course using Captivate and imbedded .f4v videos throughout the course. On most systems the videos play just fine. However, two computers got the Gray Circle of Death. On the computers that ran into no problems, the flash versions ranged from 10.1.181.14 to 10.3.181.26. The ones that failed were using flash version 10.3.181.26 - same as one of the successful computers. So the flash version wasn't inherently causing the flash video to fail. The same held true for browser versions.

The difference between the successful and unsuccessful systems seemed to be the CPU chipset. The systems that ran into no difficulty were all running on Intel Core2 Duo CPUs. The systems that got the GCOD were both using Intel Core i Series of CPUs (specifically an i5 and i7). After reading this thread, the only chipset I saw listed was an Intel i Series. Though I only skimmed and might have missed another listing. The GCOD might have something to do with the Intel i Series memory management and new versions of flash.

[sweepy07]

I'm currently running on IE9 and my flash player seems to run with no problems at all until

I get on Facebook. When I play the games on there is when I have the problems and receive

the exclamation point. Then Im unable to play any FB games until I redownload the same flash player. I have to do this almost on daily basis. I dont know what it is but everybody seems to be having the same problem. I thought it was just a FB flub but after reading everyones posts I guess not.

[AminaSack]

I have a Mac 8 core -- hence an Intel 2core duo.  I run both Firefox and Chrome and both of them receive the gray circle.  Most of my circles have been in games on Facebook.   On one browser I'm running 10.3.x and the other 10.1.x So let's see, that means:

• It's not just on Windows machines
• It isn't just a problem on single core intel chips
• It isn't a problem specific to YouTube or to IE.
• The verson of the player isn't the issue.

So the problem still stands.  ...and I'm really steamed that the dam* thing doesn't have some kind of error code too!

[Matt_Talistu]

Just quoting the comment from joshdura earlier in this thread, as it seems that some of you have missed it (possibly because this thread hasn't been marked as "answered"):

"The error you are seeing is the new out of memory notification. It is  basically shielding the user when memory usage gets near the system  resource cap. The best course of action here (if you own the content) is  to check your application for high memory usage and correct the errors.  If you don't own the content, it would probably be best to contact the  owners and make them aware of the issue you are seeing."

This is the reason that you are seeing the exclamation point graphic.

[Posis_Das]

If your system is a Mac Pro 8-Core, it uses two Quad-core Xeon 5600 CPUs. The Xeon is the server version of Intel's Core i Series of chips. The only Macs that use Intel Core2 Duo are the Mac mini's, Macbook (NOT Pro), and Macbook Air. I still have a feeling the memory issue is caused by the Intel Core i series (or it's server version, Xeon). I have 2 systems that match in flash ver (10.3.181.26), IE Browser version (8.0.7600.16385), OS (Win7 Enterprise) and RAM (4.00GB). The only difference between these two systems is one has a Intel Core2 Duo (which ran the flash animations just fine) and an Intel Core i7 (which failed). I don't think this is simply an across the board high-memory issue as the two systems match in both OS (Win7) and RAM (4GB) so they should in theory have similar memory usage capabilities.

[AminaSack]

I capitulate.  It's best I leave the figuring out of the problem to younger computer experts.  I've been out of the game for 10 years.  My info is cold.  Anyone want to know about RISC architecture? lol

[radioways1]

HERE IS THE EXACT AND CORRECT ANSWER TO THIS ISSUE WITH GREY CIRCLE MARK.

1. The grey circle means “out of memory”

2. Why does it happen :

Because the adobe Flash player runing under any browser does not empty correctly the memory.

As a proof,  lunch your pc with only one web browser (and nothing else)

Run ANY webbased flash application (ANY website that has a flash application)

And watch the RAM memory  on your windows task manager.

For small Flash apps, you’ll have an increase of 1Mb/5minutes

For more important Flash Apps (games or others) you can have up to 4Mb increase/minute

That means that if you run a game and a couple of other application, your RAM memory will quickly go OUT OF MEMORY.

3. TESTS : Our lab made very precise tests on a flash application, using Adobe profiling tools to analyse the lack of memory. We have made sure that this adobe tools give us an aswer of exactly ZERO lack of memory and perfect profiling for the test application.

With this perfect flash application, we observed EXACTLY the same loss of memory when runing on a browser.

Conclusion :

Flash player runing under any web explorer looses more or less memory.

The reason why not too many people are complaning is that the computers are now 2, 4 or 8Gb ram. Only an application that would run for hours (or running with many flash applications) would after a while show this exclamation mark.

So Matt Talistu and spacepacket, I suggest you make more tests before you post wrong information on this Forum.

IT IS REALLY A SHAME THAT THERE IS NO WAY TO CONTACT ADOBE FOR SUCH IMPORTANT PROBLEMS.

We followed the online VERY complicated procedure, and never got an answer from Adobe

ANYONE KNOWS HOW TO REACH ADOBE FLASH DEVELOPMENT TEAM ????

Georges
gb@radioways.com

[chris.campbell]

radioways1 wrote:

IT IS REALLY A SHAME THAT THERE IS NO WAY TO CONTACT ADOBE FOR SUCH IMPORTANT PROBLEMS.

We followed the online VERY complicated procedure, and never got an answer from Adobe

ANYONE KNOWS HOW TO REACH ADOBE FLASH DEVELOPMENT TEAM ????

Hi Georges,

The best way to reach us regarding this would be to file a bug at http://bugs.adobe.com/flashplayer/.  In the bug, please include exact steps and sample content (and code) so that we can reproduce the issue internally.  Once you've filed the bug, you can add notes and track the progress online.  I'd also recommend posting the URL to the bug so that others effected can cast their votes and add comments.

Thanks,

Chris

[radioways1]

Dear Chris,

Thank you for your quick answer.
I have already checked   http://bugs.adobe.com/flashplayer and saw that the bug was listed :
The bug is reported ref : FP5898

Opened at : 12/07/10 03:53 PM

I just discovered today that it has been closed : 04/27/11

It is said that the new version of Flash Player solves this issue.

But we tested with the latest version and the problem is still there.

There is no way we can open again this bug ?

Best regards.