Flash Player locks up Windows

[Schyfis]

Hi, I'm having a strange problem.

I've been searching for it online for a while, and it seems to occur with both NVIDIA and ATI video cards, so I concluded that the problem must be a Flash Player issue instead of a driver or chipset issue.

The problem is as follows:

When watching Flash video in fullscreen, the computer will spontaneously lock up, requiring a hard reboot. It is a total lock up, pressing escape will not bring me out of fullscreen, the hard drive access light is dark, and sometimes the last second of sound will continue to loop. It happens to me on a fairly regular basis, but I've noticed that if I pause the video and then attempt to play it again it is more likely to occur. I've had this problem using a variety of different streaming Flash video sites. When I examine the logs kept by the Windows Event Viewer after I reboot, I find that there is a "Kernel-Power" critical error (event ID 41) after each crash caused by Flash Player.

Everything on my computer is set to factory default, no overclocking or anything. This is a really annoying problem, if I don't save everything before watching a video I could lose my work. I do everything on this computer from graphic design and programming to heavy gaming, and the only lock ups I get are from Flash Player in fullscreen.

Here are my system specs:

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Processor: Intel Core i5 M 430 (~2.3GHz quad-core)

Memory: 4GB RAM

DirectX Version: 11

Display Device: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M

Screen Resolution: 1680x945

Browser: Google Chrome 5.0.375.70 Beta

Hopefully someone can help!

[pwillener]

What is your Flash Player version?

Do you have the latest graphics card drivers installed?

Do you have hardware acceleration enabled?

[Schyfis]

Flash Player version: 10,0,45,2

Yes, the latest graphics card drivers are installed.

DirectDraw, Direct3D, and AGP Texture acceleration are all enabled.

[pwillener]

I meant hardware acceleration in Flash Player Settings (right-click on any online Flash object to get the Settings panel).

[Schyfis]

Sorry. Yes, it is enabled. Should I try disabling it?

[pwillener]

Yes, please disable it, then restart your browser and try again.

It may also be worth (if the above doesn't work) to disable the DirectX hardware acceleration.

[mmarlatt1982]

I am having the exact same problem. Here are my specs:

Windows 7 home premium

AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.0 ghz

1 gig of ram

NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE

Realtek High Definition Audio.

I have tried everything. Every web browser, removing and reinstalling flash, disabling hardware acceleration.

When it crashes, the video freezes and the sound goes into a loop of jittering. The hard drive light stays lit and I need to hold the power button to start up the system again.

I have been searching for a solution for awhile and nothing seems to work.

[Schyfis]

I disabled hardware acceleration and it no longer hangs. Try that and

hopefully it will work.

[mmarlatt1982]

I have tried that, same issue and the video looks grainier! lol No matter what browser it does the same thing. It's truly confusing and frustrating

[mmarlatt1982]

There is a bit of an update to this. Today there was an update for flash and thus far nothing bad has happened. The only other thing I did was disabled hardware acceleration and re-enabled it.

I'll post an update if anything else happens.