Gray circle with white exclamation mark on white background

I can confirm the problem of the gray circle with the white exclamation mark on white background appearing at random, usually after hours. We also use the flash player OCX 10,1,53,64 on windows xp.

Any suggestions? What about downgrading or upgrading to 10,1,82,76?

Thanks.

same trouble for me

config : XP x64 (fully updated)

IE7 7.0.5730.13 x32 (fully updated)

tested v10.1.53.64

and the latest v10,1,82,76 (still not working)

tested also with shockwave (not) & installed

i've also reformated my hard disk and no more luck with a clean windows install !

screen capture of the icon :

We also get this occasionally with our custom flash app running in digial signage (Rise running in IE8).

We are having trouble finding out:

a) what generates it (is it from Flash, IE, or Rise)

b) what it means

What digital signage platform are you using?

Does anyone know if the exclamation mark from Flash?  I cant find any Adobe documentation/refrences to it besides this post...

Any help would be much appreciated -

Correction - the players are running IE7.

We just spent an hour with Adobe support regarding this issue.  According to Adobe there is no error screen or icon generated by their software that matches the white screen with exclamation point that we are seeing.

Anyone else find a reason behind this icon or resolution?

We have the same problem with Flowplayer (SWF video player in embed&object tag, http://flowplayer.org), Firefox 3.6.3, Flash 10.1.53.64. After 3 - 4 days is visible white exclamation mark on white background. We would like to know how to detect this state and restart our swf application..

I'm having the same problem with my flash site. I did a small update yesterday and that's when it started.  The site went back to normal after about an hour, but its back to the gray circle with the exclamation point again today.

I suspect its an IE problem, as the site is normal in Firefox.

I really hope someone gets this figured out.

Thanks for the additional feedback - it helps in trying to eliminate variables here.

O. Esner had it happen in Firefox - so it appears to not be specific to IE.

The common variables appear to be:

* Windows

* Flash 10.1.53.64 and higher

Has anyone seen this occur on a non-windows machine?  We have only seen this on windows.

I'm wondering if there is any connection with ActiveX...and the latest Flash Player.

Hi, I was just reading this thread out of curiosity since the subject line was so different. Mostly users that are having problems with Flash Player post on this Flash Forum. I have seen many many various errors and have dealt with just as many causes, but don't recall any error as described here.

It seems if any new error would appear, the Flash Player forum would most likely be the first to hear about it

If anyone does post about this, I would let you know. I just thot perhaps this bit of info would be helpful as you are trying to find a solution.

Thanks,

eidnolb

We are having the same problem. A white screen with grey circle and exclamation mark.

Am running a standalone application wrapped in zinc 3.0 on windows 7. Flash player version v10,1,82,76 although I am not sure if this is applicable to the standalone player.

The white screen with grey circle appears on random time intervals. The only significant actions performed are loading and unloading image's. In my search for a solution I firstly determined that there are no memory leaks. But now I am weirded out too. I can't seem to determine who is mainly responsible, the flash player or windows 7 or a combination. Although I suspect it is the player.

At work we have made many of the same kind of kiosk-like projects and we had many strange bugs but this last one is the most maddening.

I hope the standalone-part is significant extra information, and that someone can solve this!

I was able to replicate the error consistently.

Assignment of a negative value to the length property of a vector seems to cause this.

eg.

var tLines:Vector.<TextLine> = new Vector.<TextLine>();

var value:int =  -1;

tLines.length = value

Good to know. But since we don't use any vectors in our project,it is also affecting other objects, or zinc (which we use to make an executable) is adding some kind of vector to our project...

Has anyone had any luck sourcing the problem?

I'm getting the "circle of death" too!

My HTC Incredible phone just got updated to Froyo, and now has Flash 10.1.

Many flash sites that didn't work before, now work well.

However, I also got the gray and white exclamation point and circle when I attempted to view a panorama on the Star Trek official movie site.

The main page worked. (I was able to activate the navigation icon on the site with my touch screen, with no trouble) but once I clicked on "panoramas," it took me to the page that had the panormas of the Enterprise, and then I got that damn exclamation point.

I'm getting this screen as well.

Windows 7 64bit, FireFox 3.6.8.

It happens after hours of non-stop play.

My SWF does not load any external assets, but it does send and receive a lot of data via NetStream peer-to-peer capibilities. However I've run into the error when the SWF was not ever connected to another SWF, and was running in a local-only mode.

My first guess was that it's a memory issue. I noticed my SWF seemed to be gradually increasing in max memory (using mr doobs stats) although garbage collection seemed to be consistently bring memory back down, it would still increase very slowly. So I decided to let it run for hours to confirm a high memory usage, but instead every time I've tried this and come back all I had was the icon described and attached in this thread. So to me that indicated memory got so high the player stopped running.

Based on the comments on this thread this does seem like something built in to the Flash Player, probably to prevent a full player crash.

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.

Developers can use the System.totalMemory property in AS3 to monitor the memory usage that the Flash Player is taking up. This iwll allow you to see how much memory is used, where leaks are and allow you to optimize your content based on this property.

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?

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

...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.

You're not serious with this right?  This is it?  This is all the documentation available on a major revision in how the Flash player works?  This can't be right.

I've had a Flex app out there for two years.  Works fine.  Code hasn't changed in nearly a year.  Ran very smoothly.  Now, all of a sudden, a white exclamation point where my app was and your advice is "check your application for high memory usage"?  What is high?  What's the number?  What am I shooting for here?

And "correct the errors"?  What errors?  Flex profiler is not showing memory spikes.  Nothing drastic anyway.  Whatever was permitted before is now not permitted.  So, what is the new mechanism?  How does it work?  What exactly is it looking for?  There must be metrics by which it decides to shut an app down.  What are they?

And no official announcement?  Just a forum response?

And just an exclamation point?  No error message indicating the precise nature of the problem?  What if when a user requested a page on the web that didn't exist web servers just returned an exclamation point?  How do we debug something with no error message?  How do users know what happened?

What "exactly" is the problem and what "exactly" is the solution?  Adobe, please document this thoroughly.

My apologies if I've missed the documentation.  I'm looking for it.  If I have missed it, could you please point me to it?

Thank you.

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!!!!!!

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!!

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?

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

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

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

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

Any solution out there?

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.