Solution for flash player crashing problem

Report · Oct 01, 2012

This fix works pretty well, as all the latest versions of flash crash continuously, on almost every video.

First, download these two items:

Flash player Uninstaller

1. Flash player Uninstaller - http://download.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/support/uninstall_flash_player.exe

Flash 10.3.183.25

1. http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/archived-flash-player-versions.html

[Editors Note: I updated the link to point to the Flash Player archives page, instead of the non-Adobe site. Please, ALWAYS download Flash Player directly from Adobe to ensure you have a valid, authentic copy. Malware distributors often attempt to trick users into installing malicious files by naming them as legitimate software programs. Wherever possible, always download software from the author's site.]

Run the Uninstaller (with browsers closed).

Then run the new Installer. You should not have problems anymore.

This version also switches from full screen and back, smoothly (without freakin crashing).

So far, it is running smooth as a lamb. I have no idea what is wrong with the other versions of flash player, but it is annoying. Even the very latest version crashes.

I am back to enjoying videos again, hope you will be too. 🙂

Report · Oct 01, 2012

Hi,

We'd like to understand the crashing problem that you're running into. It's most likely related to the drivers or graphics hardware on your system. It's definitely something we're interested in fixing.

If you're on Windows, can you tell me what version you're using (Vista, Windows 7, etc) and provide the output of dxdiag for your system?

On Vista:

Click Start > Run > type dxdiag and hit Enter

On Win7:

Click Start > type dxdiag into the search box and hit Enter

Click Save All Information, and attach the output? You can use something like pastebin.org, dropbox, or http://sendnow.acrobat.com if you're an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber to attach the file.

Best regards,

Jeromie Clark

Report · Oct 01, 2012

I have no idea what the crash is. I assumed when I submitted "The Crash Report", U would get the crash report, stating whatever, buffer, memory etc.

But it started about a month or so ago, when the flash upgraded automatically.

I am running Windows 8, the Release Preview, build 8400.

I have been running it for four or five months now. My AMD-ATI video card has, and has had the latest drivers. This problem did not start until the flash player upgrade of a month and a 1/2 or so ago. And every single video was crashing, instantly. On every click. I have seen on other forums, that this is happening to nearly everybody. I finally found a fix on a Mozilla forum posted by a Mozilla staffer. I do not have the link and have tried to research it. It is the only page with the solution that worked well. Not just worked well, but worked perfectly.

As the staffer must know Firefox inside and out.

10.3.183.25 is the only flash that works well. Anything above or below that, is no good. I suppose that's why the Mozzila staff recommended it.

This is very peculier. Is your flash doing something it's not supposed to be doing?

I refuse to use any version of flash player that crashes. Whatever the problem is, is on your end. Whatever machine(s) you are testing all these out on. I suggest a new basic machine. That a typical user would have. With no testing or debugging software installed. And see what happens. Then install a debugger if the player is crashing. And find out why 10.3.183.25 isn't crashing. It even moves to full screen and back smoothly (without interruption of play other than a brief moment of black, audio continues to play). I have not seen any of your players do that in along time. I refuse to move to any other version, as 10.3.183.25 seems to be doing everything I need. And doing it well.

Report · Oct 01, 2012

Thanks for the follow-up. It's definitely something we want to fix.

Can you tell me what the exact model of your video card is? I'd like to build out an equivalent machine and test.

Again, output from dxdiag would be ideal. It's built into the OS, and is already installed on your machine. The output will give me the exact model and driver information that I need to reproduce your configuration.

Thanks!

Report · Oct 01, 2012

You changed the title of my post. This IS NOT just happening in Windows 8, it is happening in all versions of Windows, and all browsers. As I said, you should set up a basic machine, that is clean and has Windows 7 or something. Install the latest Firefox, Opera, Chrome. Goto youtube, and try to watch a video. After about 3 - 4 - 5 seconds of play, it will crash. After a few crashes, it will then play. Try to go to full screen after that, it will crash. This does not happen at all in 10.3.183.25 .

I sometimes wonder if the crash is deliberate.

Report · Oct 02, 2012

You still need to retitle my post "Solution to flash player (always) crashing problem" - what right do you have renaming my post to something that isn't true? You've also made it impossible for me to edit my first messages. And after some thought, I think Windows or somebody has updated some patches to the OS (Windows). Through automatic updates. Which most Windows 7 users have now. Maybe Windows or Microsoft is getting tired of Flash being vulnerable to hacks, flash is almost an entire Operating System in itself. And I have seen it doing weird things. Like phoning into a server it should not be phoning into, etc. Scanning stuff on hard drives it should not be scanning. I almost published what I found last year.

Report · Oct 01, 2012

To anyone viewing my posts, let me know if my solution works. Videos are playing for me, and I couldn't be more content. They're playing smoothly and at full screen. Staff at adobe changed my link, so their version of 10.3.183.25 includes a flash debugger I think, as the Original 10.3.183.25 is 2.95 mb . The one they have, is 18.3 mb. I originally got the solution from a Mozilla post, although I can't find it.

Report · Oct 01, 2012

I've changed your title back to the original one posted. I was trying to make the post more discoverable, and my understanding from our previous conversation was that you were seeing this on Windows 8.

In general, we'd really like to collect data from people that are crashing consistently to understand the individual issues, find the root-cause and get them fixed in the product.

As a first step, we'd recommend that people update to the lastest available version of their browser and graphics drivers, and then install the latest Flash Player from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/.

There's a guide for finding the latest graphics drivers for your system here:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/945765?tstart=0

If you still continue experiencing problems after updating, please work through our Video Troubleshooting Guide:

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

If you're still experiencing problems after that, we'd like to work with you to get it fixed. The best way for us to do that is to reproduce the issue here by trying to replicate your combination of software and hardware and visitng the content that causes you to experience the crash.

To that end, the following information would be particularly helpful:

For Windows users, the output of the DirectX Diagnostic Utility will give us enough information to

Start > Run > Dxdiag

Choose Save All Information

Attach the output to the bug

Thanks!

Report · Oct 02, 2012

Hello, i would like to bump into this thread.

Flash is crashing and feezing in Mozilla Firefox here. It's unusable. And i have also noticed playback freezes in Pale Moon x64 and Internet Explorer (which i first did not notice, they are happening less often).

I have two videocards in my system. Problems happen on both videocards. I don't use them both, just one at a time. Depending on the display i use.

ATI HD3400 (12.1 Catalyst, but also on 9.x drivers)

Geforce GT220 (always latest)

Please refer to attached DXdiag for more info

Symptoms:

Flash: 11.4.402.278 - i couldn't even use Firefox on my ATI card anymore. Firefox would crash and freeze immediately on any Flash content. I had to force end the Firefox process.

Usable on GT220 card, but still crashes and freezes.

Other symptons, before playback ends:

- Green screen and audio distortion. Timer is still running, but no video and audio.

- Distorted screen (pixel blocks) and screen freeze. Timer is still running, but no video and audio.

- Freeze on playback or it just stops immediately and then skips to the end of the video.

All these problems happen involuntary.

Any flash 11.x version produces all symptoms.

Flash 10.3 version still freezes on playback. Playback just stops and i hear some audio distortion.

I even reverted back to Flash 10.2 , while it plays much much better it still freezes on playback with audio distortion. However : playback continues when for example on vimeo.com i disable HD and re-enable it. Perhaps to reset the playback or something.

On other Flash versions i have to refresh the complete browser...

Tried:

- Firefox 15 and Firefox 3.6

- Pale Moon x64

- Mostly all flash versions 10.2 and up.

- Turned off hardware acceleration and protected mode

- Firefox Safe mode (so all plugins and add-ons except flash are disabled)

- I fiddled around with some driver versions for my videocard.

- I tried a different router. Turned off firewall.

- memtest to check out my memory

Well i basically tried everything i can think off.

I spent the last four days to try to fix this. I am going crazy here...

I don't remember when this started happening.

Jeromie Clark, please.. this needs to be debugged. For me it's a big drama.

Also, i watch hdtv, dvds, blu ray, video, edit video and audio on my system without problems. I experience no system crashes or other strange behavior.

I have this hardware for about 3 years now and these crashes started happening out of the blue.

------------

Download link for dxdiag file: https://www.wetransfer.com/dl/hk59e9ob/d32ca0ad039e674ff0f883e306e1e110b733e0cb4658a2a441ef80ec9b45a...

Report · Oct 02, 2012

If you still have 10.3.183.25 installed, try going to a video, pause it, and righ click and click "settings" , disable "hardware acceleration" . Reload the video. If you did not use the Flash Uninstaller as I have suggested, 10.3 might not be working correctly for that reason. Also, since I disabled hw acceleration, video goes from full screen to back with no problems and no delays at all. Which is even better than it was before. Remember, u have to install 10.3.183.25 . Not 10.3.xx.x.xx and something else. This is the only flash working. And it works better than any other flash did in awhile. Let me know results.

Report · Oct 02, 2012

I can't speak to the Pale Moon project. It's untested and unsupported from our perspective.

Win7 x64 with Firefox 15.0.1 and Flash Player 11.4.402.278 is something I can definitely help tackle. But seriously, it needs to be real Win7 x64. Running Pale Moon and calling it Win7 will just confuse the data.

First, I'm curious about what the call stacks from the crashes look like. In Firefox, can you go to about:crashes, and grab like the top 5 - 10 links for me? If they start with "bp..." then just copy the links and paste them. If they're all caps and start with other letters, click to submit them, then copy the resulting URL.

Can you point me to a URL/URLs where the crashes frequently occur? Can you give me some idea of how long it takes or what you're doing leading up to the crash? (I want to try and recreate the crashes here.)

It would also be helpful to get the contents of both the about:plugins and about:support pages. You may just have a third-party plug-in that's causing a compatibility problem or something.

There do seem to be newer drivers available from Nvidia:

Geforce R304 Driver - Version 306.23 (09/13/2012) for the GeForce 220: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win8-win7-winvista-64bit-306.23-whql-driver.html

dxdiag didn't enumerate the details on the ATI card because it was inactive.

I've seen a couple stability problems related to a third monitor over the years, but usually not two. If you're motivated, pulling the inactive card would be an interesting test, but if you have hardware acceleration disabled, it's probably something else.

I'm really curious about the other plugins and extensions, which we can get from about:support and about:plugins, and from the callstacks in the Mozilla crash reports. I can figure out where it's crashing in the player from that info. It might give us a hint as to what's going on.

Report · Oct 02, 2012

Here are 4 links. I hope these are right, never looked at this data before.

http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-03db7b83-ee55-4ba3-8a78-b5dc12121003

http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-a40cda36-9a16-40fc-b39f-85fe62121003

http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-94add72e-1ac6-4957-9c6e-b0e822121003

http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-8a3371b0-ead0-4e32-a212-aa3c72121003

The freezes, crashes, green screen, etc occor basically on any video. for ex https://vimeo.com/50512991 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfulqRdDbsg

Basically if i am doing nothing and just let it play a freeze, crash, green screen, etc will occur sooner or later. But skipping through the video will also result in such behavior.

I have these GT220 drivers (306.23) installed already.

hardware acceleration is permanently off indeed.

Here's a list. But you know, i think i have ruled out the plugins and addons already because i also used flash on a fresh Firefox install and on a complete new profile without any plugins and addons installed.

Application Basics

Name	Firefox
Version	15.0.1
User Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:15.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/15.0.1
Profile Folder
Enabled Plugins	about:plugins
Build Configuration	about:buildconfig
Crash Reports	about:crashes
Memory Use	about:memory

Extensions

Abduction!	3.0.14	true	{b0e1b4a6-2c6f-4e99-94f2-8e625d7ae255}
Adblock Plus	2.1.2	true	{d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}
Add to Search Bar	2.0	true	add-to-searchbox@maltekraus.de
Adobe Acrobat - Create PDF	1.2	true	web2pdfextension@web2pdf.adobedotcom
BetterPrivacy	1.68	true	{d40f5e7b-d2cf-4856-b441-cc613eeffbe3}
Collusion	0.16.3	true	jid1-F9UJ2thwoAm5gQ@jetpack
Download Statusbar	0.9.10	true	{D4DD63FA-01E4-46a7-B6B1-EDAB7D6AD389}
Fasterfox Lite	3.9.9Lite	true	FasterFox_Lite@BigRedBrent
Flash Video Downloader Youtube Downloader	3.7.0	true	artur.dubovoy@gmail.com
Greasemonkey	1.3	true	{e4a8a97b-f2ed-450b-b12d-ee082ba24781}
LiveClick	0.5.0.0b3	true	{d166ee2a-36bb-4f33-aff7-e85f912df509}
NoScript	2.5.6	true	{73a6fe31-595d-460b-a920-fcc0f8843232}
ShareMeNot	2.0.2	true	sharemenot@franziroesner.com
Soundcloud.com: Enable downloading for every track	0.4	true	sound@cloud.com
United States English Spellchecker	6.0	true	en-US@dictionaries.addons.mozilla.org
TrackMeNot	0.7.87a	false	trackmenot@mrl.nyu.edu

Important Modified Preferences

browser.cache.disk.capacity	76800
browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run	false
browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value	1048576
browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion	4
browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID	20120905151427
browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone	15.0.1
extensions.lastAppVersion	15.0.1
gfx.direct2d.disabled	true
gfx.direct3d.prefer_10_1	true
layers.acceleration.disabled	true
network.cookie.prefsMigrated	true
network.dnsCacheEntries	512
network.dnsCacheExpiration	3600
network.http.max-connections	48
network.http.max-connections-per-server	24
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy	16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server	8
network.http.pipelining	true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests	8
network.http.pipelining.ssl	true
network.http.proxy.pipelining	true
network.prefetch-next	false
places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages	104858
plugins.hide_infobar_for_outdated_plugin	true
privacy.donottrackheader.enabled	true
privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs	true
security.warn_viewing_mixed	false

Graphics

Adapter Description	NVIDIA GeForce GT 220
Vendor ID	0x10de
Device ID	0x0a20
Adapter RAM	1024
Adapter Drivers	nvd3dumx,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2umx nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver Version	9.18.13.623
Driver Date	8-30-2012
Adapter Description (GPU #2)	ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series
Vendor ID (GPU #2)	0x1002
Device ID (GPU #2)	0x95c5
Adapter RAM (GPU #2)	256
Adapter Drivers (GPU #2)	aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64
Driver Version (GPU #2)	8.930.0.0
Driver Date (GPU #2)	12-5-2011
Direct2D Enabled	false
DirectWrite Enabled	false (6.1.7601.17789)
ClearType Parameters	ClearType parameters not found
WebGL Renderer	Google Inc. -- ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 ) -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 1.0.0.1041)
GPU Accelerated Windows	0

JavaScript

Incremental GC	0

Library Versions

	Expected minimum version	Version in use
NSPR	4.9.1	4.9.1
NSS	3.13.6.0 Basic ECC	3.13.6.0 Basic ECC
NSS Util	3.13.6.0	3.13.6.0
NSS SSL	3.13.6.0 Basic ECC	3.13.6.0 Basic ECC
NSS S/MIME	3.13.6.0 Basic ECC	3.13.6.0 Basic ECC

Shockwave Flash

File: NPSWF32_11_4_402_278.dll

Version: 11.4.402.278

Shockwave Flash 11.4 r402

application/x-shockwave-flash	Adobe Flash movie	swf
application/futuresplash	FutureSplash movie	spl

Silverlight Plug-In

File: npctrl.dll

Version: 5.1.10411.0

5.1.10411.0

application/x-silverlight	npctrl	scr
application/x-silverlight-2

Report · Oct 02, 2012

@

Adobe Is a Hack,

I kinda tried that version before and now again. It still freezes now and then. But yes it works a lot better than 11.x ,but not perfect.

Also i have Vsync and tearing problems if HW is turned off. Which are mostly fixed with HW turned on.

11.4.402.278 is really a no go for me now. Video's play very laggy until the complete thing freezes. Don't know where the lagging came from.

Tired -_-

Report · Oct 04, 2012

@Jeromie Clark

Comodo seems to be the problem.

https://forums.comodo.com/bug-reports-cis/flash-player-playback-issues-caused-by-comodo-firewall-t87...

Even with comodo firewall turned off or the program not running Flash wouldn't work. It seems Comodo has some system service always active.

I completely uninstalled Comodo and 10.3.183.25 works perfect in Firefox now.

Report · Oct 05, 2012

That's awesome, thanks! We'll confirm in our labs today and issue a technote on the forums.

Report · Oct 06, 2012

Hi Jerome, please also check this user. After i posted my problem with Comodo + Flash he discovered his problems were caused by NOD32 Firewall. And also, only completely uninstalling would solve the issue.

It seems for some reason the service of these 2 programs are conflicting with Flash.

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4753787#4753787

25. Rognik,

Oct 6, 2012 2:58 AM    in reply to apprentice77
Report
apprentice77,
I do not have Comodo firewall; I actually have ESET Smart Security (NOD32 anti-virus + firewall). However, I tried uninstalling it anyway and tested a number of YouTube videos as well as speedtest.net. I can confirm that all problems, as far as I can tell, are now gone. Both Flash 10.3 and Chrome's built-in flash installation work as I expect them to.
At one point I tried disabling the firewall and the problem still existed. However, every time I have tested the issue I did in fact have ESET installed; I never thought that might be causing the issue and thought it was best to always have my anti-virus and firewall installed before surfing the web.
Thank you very much for finding the problem! This has been driving me absolutely crazy. I don't know what I would have done without you bringing this to my attention.
As it turns out, my license for ESET expires tomorrow and I received a free copy of Kaspersky anti-virus with my recent hardware purchases (the installation of which caused this problem to appear in the first place). I guess I will be installing that now and seeing if that works any better. It's a shame, because ESET has otherwise worked flawlessly for me over the past 2 years.
-Rognik/Adam
PS: After this I realized that my PC might not have the most recent version of ESET Smart Security (4 instead of 5). I tried installing the newest version from their website and the problem immediately returned. I will try Kaspersky Anti-Virus + Windows Firewall (ugh) for now. Based on recent reviews of ESET Smart Security 5 it may be a good idea to switch to another security suite anyway.
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Report · Oct 18, 2012

I can report that unistalling ESET Smart Security 5, does indeed fix the problem with flash videos distorting, turning green and or fast forwarding. My guess is that this is a bug on either of the companies since I've had no problems whatsoever up until two, three weeks ago.

I would really appreciate it if you could look into this problem since I rather like ESETs products!

thank you

Mrs_pink

Report · Oct 18, 2012

Thank you for the heads up. I'll try Eset out tomorrow and get in contact with them about this issue.

Chris

Report · Oct 24, 2012

Hi, just want to update that 3 weeks later i still haven't seen a single symptom which i had when i had Comodo Firewall installed.

I now run Outpost Firewall PRO since the day i uninstalled Comodo... Flashplayer plays without any problems. 🙂