Adobe Flash Player causing IE and Chrome to crash when on ESPN

[Guest]

I have a 64 bit Windows 7 Sony Vaio that I just purchased.  Everything seems to be working ok, except when I go to ESPN.  When I have Flash Player enabled, Internet Explorer and Chrome both stop working and crash unless I leave the page.  When I have uninstalled Flash player or disabled it, I do not have the problem (but I can't view Flash movies on any website).  Adobe Flash Player works fine on other websites on all browsers, its just this particular website on all browsers.  I think the problem is with Flash or involves a virus/malware.  I have MacAfee and nothing is coming up.  I read about a Host file issues in other threads but don't know enough about fixing that myself (if that is indeed the problem).  Does anyone have any suggestions?  If if it involves a virus, can someone suggest a program to fix the problem?

[hkudo]

Please disable HW acceleration to see if it stop the crash. (refer to FAQ if you don't know how)

[hkudo]

I found another ESPN crashing problem here: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/922257?tstart=30

[Guest]

I had previously turned off the HD acceleration and that did not work.  I tried it again on your suggestion, and it actually made the problem worse.  Before the movie would play for about 30 seconds, then the website would crash.  Now, the movie won't even play and the website still crashes.  I appreciate the attempt but right now I don't think there is an easy answer.  I tend think it is either malware or the HOST file issue that I read about elsewhere, perhaps I am wrong.  Is there a way I can test the HOST file issue?

[Guest]

Just to be clear I clicked on "Use software rendering not GPU rendering" under "accelerated graphics" under "Advanced" in Internet Options, is this what you meant?

[hkudo]

This is FAQ link: http://forums.adobe.com/message/3863047#3863047

However if problem is unique to ESPN site and not other video site, HW enable/disable may not matter.  I suspect they have something special to cause it. I'd try to check if similar thing reported in ESPN forum (exist?) or searching similar issue on internet.

[Guest]

That didn't work either.  I have been searching the internet for reports of this problem, but I haven't seen any.  I will continue to look.

Do you have any other suggestions?  Do you think it could be a virus or malware?  I just want to discount that as a possibility.

[hkudo]

Another suggestion is to downgrade Flash Player to 10.3 and see if it still crash or not. I noted how to uninstall current version and install older version in the other thread: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/922257?tstart=30

Let us know if older version work fine or stil crash. There is different code path between 10.3 and 11 so there might be chance that older one won't crash. I hope you can enjoy ESPN soon.

[Guest]

This was a Malware problem.  I had a goodle redirect virus, I used Hitman Pro and it got rid of the problem.  Now Flash works fine on ESPN.  I figured it out when I was searching for solutions and kept getting re-directed.   Thanks for your help and I'll let you know if I have any other problems.