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Flash Player issues on Speedtest.net

Jun 22, 2012 6:43 PM

I have the same problem. http://speedtest.net/ (that is using Flash to check the connection speed) demonstrates the problem very well:

 

http://screencast.com/t/lEoL0wKwPPS

 

The problem is occuring to me since uprading to Firefox 13 and Flash 11.3.300. IE and Chrome have the same version of Flash on my machine but are not affected. I switched even to Chrome now because sites like YouTube are not usable anymore in Firefox.

 

Workarounds:

 

I tried uninstalling 11.3.300 and reinstalling - didn't work

I turned off the RealPlayer setting - didn't work

I turned off my virus real time protection (F-Secure) - didn't work

Branched from an earlier discussion.
 
Replies
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 20, 2012 1:25 PM   in reply to megaDee

    I just want to make sure we're communicating clearly.  Are you experiencing a crash on speedtest.net?

     

    If so, try disabling hardware acceleration.  The video troubleshooting guide below has instructions on how to do that -- you can skip the other stuff.

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

     

    If the issue is around throughput, I'd like to branch this to a discussion dedicated to that issue.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 20, 2012 2:21 PM   in reply to Jeromie Clark

    Thank you for the post showing us how to downgrade to 11.2. It was helpful.

     

    Regarding hardware acceleration, I recall I had it disabled previous to the 11.3 update, but Flash kept crashing for me nonetheless once I updated, so it wasn't the problem in my case at least.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 21, 2012 5:35 AM   in reply to carlcarlcral

    I uninstalled 11.3 and installed 11.2, and now I'm not having any problems at all.  Maybe I'll upgrade later, if I happen to see that the bugs are fixed.  I'm not tech-savvy enough to do a lot of these repairs or whatever it is y'all are talking about, but I can uninstall and install programs.  I know I'm hopeless; no need to remind me.

     

    omatrisha

     
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  • Chris Campbell
    8,779 posts
    May 4, 2010
    Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 21, 2012 11:02 AM   in reply to omatrisha

    For users continuing to run into stability problems with Firefox, we've just released a new version of Windows Flash Player for Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, Opera and other browsers.  Please give it a try and let us know how it works for you.

    6/21/2012 - Windows Flash Player Update

     

    Download here: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer


     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 21, 2012 11:39 AM   in reply to Chris Campbell

    just installed it, same old problem

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 21, 2012 2:33 PM   in reply to megaDee

    megadee,

     

    I tested out the Flash app at the Speedetest.net site and didn't experience any problems.

     

    The only thing I noticed is that their bandwith test application seems to demand more memory than your usual flash app.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 21, 2012 3:08 PM   in reply to megaDee

    megaDee, can you go to about:crashes in Firefox, and give me links to the crashes that you're observing?

     

    Also, is there a set of steps that you're using that consistently reproduces this issue?

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 21, 2012 3:22 PM   in reply to megaDee

    If all else fails, uninstall 11.3 all together and reinstall 11.2 via the steps mentioned in that post #38.

     

    Also check your Firefox add ons installed and make sure certain browser plug ins aren't sitting active in the browser (disable the stuff you don't use).

     

    If you have time, check this out as well:

     

    http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-issues-with-plugins-f ix-problems

     

    http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-problems-realplayer-add-ons

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 21, 2012 4:00 PM   in reply to megaDee

    Thanks for sticking with this, we appreciate the feedback. 

     

    We *are* tracking a couple hangs that aren't fixed by the patch in 262, but the seem to be very intermittent, which makes them really hard to debug.

     

    Can you double check in about:crashes and make sure that nothing is logged?  Firefox does log hangs where it can.

     

    It would be interesting to know if disabling hardware acceleration in Firefox helps:

    Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing

    Un-check "Use hardware acceleration where available".

     

    Also, is there anything else that might be helpful in reproducing this?  I ran speedtest.net about 25 times in a row yesterday trying to collect some data on the performance issue that was also noticed there, and didn't encounter a crash.  Are you using lots of tabs/multiple windows, multiple monitors, etc?

     

    The output of dxdiag (Start > Run > dxdiag) would give us some good information about what video card and drivers you have.  I'd also like to know what OS, version and service pack you're running, and how much RAM you have.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 21, 2012 4:08 PM   in reply to Jeromie Clark

    DXDiag

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 22, 2012 6:46 PM   in reply to megaDee

    So, let me make sure I'm understanding. 


    You go to speedtest.net.  You run the speed test, and the browser becomes unresponsive?

     

    Is there anything else going on that would help me reproduce this?  Do you have other sites in other tabs open while you're doing this?

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 25, 2012 3:39 PM   in reply to Jeromie Clark

    Speedtest.net totally freezes firefox solid, no othe tabs open.  Same with youtube.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 25, 2012 3:58 PM   in reply to duhmez

    I have big news.  I really hope you will investigate this, I tracked down the issue and can reproduce it 100% of the time, and I can also make it work, sort of.

    My game,  "Lineage 2" is the culprit, somehow messing with something you put into flash update.  GO TO www.lineage2.com and download the game for free.  All you need to do is run the game and wait for the logon box to come up.  You don't need to register a player character or even log into game, just lok at the logon screen.  Now run firefox and go to ANY flash video page, and firefox will freeze solid.

     

    I am sure what is going on is the anticheat software called "GAME GUARD"  is what is the specific mechanism that is getting tangled up here.  Game guard is designed to rpevent cheating and botting in a game, but to do so it installed some low level filters and acts like a rootkit/antivirus software.  It would be advisable to get in touch with ncsoft who makes lineage 2, and Nprotect who makes game guard and figure this out.  When my game is open, I cant use firefox, when my game is closed I can use firefox.

     

    This is a major issue because many multiplayer games these days you game guard technology.  Please keep me posted about this, I want my Firefox back.

     

     

    Addition: I tested with firefox 14 beta, same problem.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 25, 2012 4:00 PM   in reply to duhmez

    And when I say the logon screen, what I mean is click the NClauncher game launch app, click "lineage 2" and click "play game" then the logon screen will pop up and u can then see the freeze for yourself.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 25, 2012 8:51 PM   in reply to megaDee

    I'm having this problem with YouTube videos, and it seems to happen at least once a year. The problem is definitely with the adobe flash plugin, I have no doubt. Anytime I try to watch a video, firefox completely hangs. I have to bring up the task manager and do an end process on the plugin container to get control back. Seriously, why does this happen literally every year?

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 25, 2012 8:59 PM   in reply to ZosoAchilles

    First, update to Firefox 13.0.1 and Flash Player 11.3.300.262.  They both address stability issues.  Then, make sure you have the latest available drivers for your video card.

     

    Once you've gotten that out of the way, we want to make sure that we get this issue fixed.  The steps below will help narrow down the cause and help us take the shortest path possible to getting a fix for you.

     

    1.) Type "about:crashes" in your address bar, and copy the links for the time period where you encountered the crash.

     

    2.) Please temporarily disable other plugins.  Click Firefox > Help > Restart with Add-ons disabled

     

    3.) Try disabling Hardware Acceleration in Flash Player.  Details are the Solve Video Problems section, here:  http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html

     

    4.) If the issue persists, please disable Hardware Acceleration in Firefox:

    Click the orange Firefox button

    Click Options

    Under General, uncheck Use hardware acceleration where available

     

    5.) Attach the output of dxdiag.exe

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 25, 2012 8:58 PM   in reply to Jeromie Clark

    U can expect anything to crash once per year.  I would not stress about it.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 25, 2012 9:13 PM   in reply to Jeromie Clark

    I've updated firefox and flash to the current versions. I've done step 2 plenty of times: it's the flash plugin. I've done step 3.

    I actually just fixed it (probably temporary) by typing "about:config" and changing dom.ipc.plugins.enabled and dom.ipc.plugins.java.enabled manually to true, and dom.ipc.plugins.timeoutSecs to 1. We'll see how long this lasts.

     

    Crash reports, just because:

    1. https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-68ae585c-0da8-4fe8-861 f-cfba62120626

    2. https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/4bd87a8f-18db-429b-abb6-2 e25e2120626

    3. https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-dc1cc9b2-9e3b-4eb2-935 4-beb552120626

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 25, 2012 9:26 PM   in reply to ZosoAchilles

    Okay, that's the main signature I'm tracking in Firefox.  Unfortunately it's a generic crash signature that gets logged for a number of different root-causes. 

     

    Setting dom.ipc.plugins.timeoutSecs to -1 disables Firefox's hang protection.  This may prevent crashes in some instances (the crash logged is a result of Firefox killing the hosting plugin-container.exe process, and the subsequent dirty shutdown), but you'll also encounter more unrecoverable hangs where you'll need to kill off the process tree.  Our developers frequently test like this, because the debug version of Flash Player is much slower and artificially triggers the timeout a lot.

     

    Setting dom.ipc.plugins.timeoutSecs to 1 is going to make Firefox's hang protection really aggressive, in that it's going to kill Flash Player after one second of waiting for a response.  This is probably going to result in a higher frequency of crashes, but you won't wait around very long in the event that you encounter a real hang.  The default is 45 seconds.

     

    I'm really interested in the contents of your dxdiag output, and would be curious to know if disabling Hardware Acceleration in Flash resolves the crashers for you.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jun 25, 2012 9:35 PM   in reply to Jeromie Clark

    I would close the plugin-container.exe from task manager. I think setting dom.ipc.plugins.timeoutSecs to -1 is how I took care of this last time, I really wish I didn't have to bypass a feature of firefox to do so. I've already disabled the flash hardware acceleration, on its own it did nothing to remedy the problem. what is this dxdiag?

     
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