A plugin (Shockwave Flash) isn't responding.

[RaulP5]

• OS & version: Windows 8.1
• Web browser & version: Google Chrome version 43.0.2357.65
• Flash Player version: 17.0.0.188
• Shockwave Flash version: 17.0 r0
• Problem:

     Shockwave Flash will crash at any given point during the time that I'm using my computer. I don't necessarily have to have a browser open for it to crash. I could be on Skype with nothing else open and Shockwave will still crash; I know it's shockwave because if i open a browser after the crash happens, the message above will show up on pages like Youtube. I know when Skype stops working properly because people will no longer be able to hear me and i won't be able to type on the chat, however I will still be able to hear other people. I could also be playing any game and it will crash. However in this case I won't know until i have to load something like going from the champion select screen to the pre-game loading screen on League of Legends, at that point the client will freeze up.

• Solutions I've tried:

     I have tried disabling the second flash version that is installed on my computer through Chrome://plugins->Flash(2)->disable. I have tried disabling each one individually, enabling both, and disabling both. I have also tried uninstalling the Shockwave Flash plugin and just leaving the one that Chrome comes with. Restarting my computer is the only way to temporary fix the problem, as there is no way that I have found for the plugin to respond again. I have run registry clean up programs and the system defrag. program the computer comes with. I've made sure that shockwave isn't being blocked by my firewall. I have looked into possible problems with Adblock but that didn't fix it either. Finally I have RESTORED MY COMPUTER TO FACTORY SETTINGS and the problem still persists.

     I still have my suspitions that it might be some sort of issue with Adblock interfering with Shockwave but I don't know what it is, as the problem began sometime after I installed Adblock; though I really, really, really hope it's not the case. At this point I'm open to any suggestions as this problem has been driving me insane for the past 5 months+ or so.

[RaulP5]

One thing i forgot to mention I also tried disabling Hardware acceleration, but as you can guess it didn't work either.

[jeromiec83223024]

The dialog that you're describing is called the Slow Script Dialog, and we display it when we see Flash content using an inordinate amount of CPU time.  If you're on a slow machine, or using content that's not written well, we'll throw this dialog instead of letting the content make Flash unresponsive.

If you haven't rebooted since you started running into this, that's a fantastic place to start.

If you're using lots of simultaneous tabs, or doing a lot of multitasking, you might try doing less stuff in parallel to see if you encounter the dialog less frequently

[jeromiec83223024]

Since this thread has turned into a grab-bag of various unrelated issues, and it seems like most folks are working, I'd like to close this thread.  Unfortunately, he threading is messed up such that I can't effectively break out the fixed issues into unique threads with resolutions to make it manageable.

Raul, I think the next step for you is to uninstall AdBlock Pro and see if the symptoms go away.  If they do, you know where the problem is.  If they persist, please try the advice in the thread on disabling hardware acceleration and making sure the system is updated and has been rebooted.

If you're still stuck, please shoot me a private message, or just open a new thread and mention me (just type the at sign and my name) and it will get my attention. 

Thanks!

[Guest]

I am having the exact same issue. Shockwave randomly stops responding across both Chrome and Edge. It makes the internet almost useless, which is infuriating. Even as I'm writing this I keep getting error messages. It only works temporarily when I restart my machine. I'm running on Windows 10 with a Lenovo Yoga 13. All programs (chrome, edge, etc.), plugins, and drivers are the latest versions. This is insanely frustrating.

It acts the same whether I'm using 1 tab or 20, and the rest of my machine is running smoothly. I can operate hefty programs like word, excel, and powerpoint while running a dataset with a million observations in Stata, no problem.

By the way, I never get an error in Edge, it just doesn't load flash content.

[jdt.otto]

I have EXACTLY the same issues:

Shockwave stops

Chome and Edge

Windows 10

Lenovo Yoga 13

[jeromiec83223024]

Any chance you have a set of reproducible steps that I can follow?

[jdt.otto]

there is nothing to reproduce.. I upgraded to windows 10, now i am stuck with this problem

Ive tried ALL the different browsers (so its not a browser problem) its a flash or microsoft problem

[jeromiec83223024]

So there's no website that you visit, or a set of steps that you can share that will allow me to see the thing that you're seeing?

[jonathank57314853]

I'm om a Lenovo G50

Using Windows 10 and Chrome

These issues began roughly a week ago and haven't gotten better with multiple reboots, disabling of Chrome apps and plugins or anything else.

In fact, I have the error on this page as I type. ...

[jonathank57314853]

I think I figured it out. I uninstalled my audio driver, rebooted and it worked.

[suet81185115]

I've been down that road with no luck. Tell me, did you install a different

driver? If so, which one?

Thanks

From my phone

[jeromiec83223024]

Especially with Win10, there's an inevitable wave of driver bugs, particularly on old hardware; however, that doesn't typically manifest as the slow script dialog.  One of the challenges right now is that there's no way to disable hardware acceleration in Flash in IE/Edge on Windows 10.  It was supposed to be controlled by the IE-wide preferences for disabling hardware acceleration, but a change to IE broke that at some point.  We're working with Microsoft to provide a mechanism for disabling hardware in a future (most likely Windows) update.

That said, the slow script dialog typically isn't caused by hardware acceleration, unless we're just not able to leverage your graphics hardware.  If that's the case, then we have to fall back to doing all of the video and audio work on the general-purpose CPU, which could cause these symptoms.  If you're seeing Flash use 100% of the CPU when playing video or games, that's probably what's up.

In general though, hardware acceleration issues typically manifest in two ways:

• The driver crashes and takes Flash out along with it (you get the plugin crashed dialog)
• You get a black or green box where content *should* render

If it's just playing back really slow, then it's not hardware.  Something else is going on.

I'm going to have someone dig up the Lenovo Yoga this afternoon and spend some time testing real-world sites.

In the meantime, if people have reproducible steps that demonstrate the symptoms (go here, using this browser, etc), that makes it *really* easy for me to get the bug triaged, routed to an engineer, prioritized and fixed.  I might be able to identify a case in our ad-hoc testing, but if you already have something concrete, it helps us narrow the field of where to look.

Thanks!

[suet81185115]

Thanks Jeromie. Sounds like a bit of nightmare for you! The whole experience is very variable but here are some notes which might help:

1. I upgraded as soon as Win 10 came out, but this problem has only appeared in the last few weeks, and it's getting worse.
2. I usually use Chrome, so I saw it there first. Then I read that Chrome did something re Flash from 1st Sept (can't remember now what) so attributed it to that.
3. But it got worse and worse so I tried Firefox, then IE, then Edge, and it was the same for all of them (and yes I know that IE has built-in Flash but that seemed to make no difference)
4. I got the same 'not responding message with the first 3, but not with Edge - it simply freezes.
5. Rebooting brings only short respite then it starts again after maybe 5 minutes, sometimes longer.
6. Sites affected: seems NOT to affect Google sites e.g. Gmail, Calendar, Search. But it does affect Facebook, news sites, and shopping sites.
7. I don't play games online, and don't watch long videos, just those embedded in FB etc.
8. I have checked Task Manager when it happens and there is no noticeable surge in the CPU

Spec:

Lenovo Yoga 2.11

4GB (3.89GB usable)

64 bit

Windows 10 Home

Hope this helps. It has really made web-browsing an unpleasant experience lately.

thanks

[vanchico]

I've also been having issues with this as well. Edge, Chrome, IE, and, possibly but maybe not, Firefox as well

I get unresponsive script errors on Facebook, Youtube, Gmail, and other sites that require media. Incidentally, I'm also using a Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 13, with Windows 10

[kimt96729456]

Hello,

I am having the same issue as many people here, running Windows 10 and error coming up in Chrome and I am on a Lenovo Yoga.

This first happened on Sept 16th when I was using google hangouts at first I had no mic, I could hear but they couldn't hear me.

Then the dreaded shockwave player message started to appear in Hangouts, Outlook, my online banking website etc.

I rebooted and could get outlook working but not any of the other sites.

A friend walked me through resetting my microphone and we were able to video chat on hangouts the next day. 

Yesterday everything worked fine but I did not use Hangouts.

This morning, Outlook worked fine, just about to go to do banking when I got a Video call on Google Hangouts, couldn't answer the call, I got the message to kill or wait for this page to respond.  After that got the Shockwave player error message on outlook and bank site.

Restarted my computer and found this forum.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated,

Thanks

k

[jeromiec83223024]

kimt96729456‌

Windows 10 made some architectural changes to how the microphone is accessed, particularly from low privilege processes running in sandboxes, like Flash and Hangouts.  In Flash, we've resolved a similar-sounding crash related to Microphone access in Firefox as of Flash Player 19.  This might be what you're running into.

That said, Hangouts isn't Flash-based, but given the nature of the problem, it wouldn't surprise me if they were running into the same issue.

[jeromiec83223024]

All: given that there's a big cluster of Lenovo Yoga users on Win10, I've got someone assigned to upgrade the Yoga in our compatibility lab, and we'll take a look and get bugs filed as appropriate.

I'm definitely interested in whether or not folks see improvement after disabling hardware graphics acceleration in Flash and/or in the browsers.  Unfortunately, you can't disable hardware on IE/Edge on Win10 at this time, but results for Chrome would be interesting.  I'll also reach out to my friends on the IE and Chrome teams to see if they're seeing anything similar.

I just wanted to let you guys know that we appreciate the feedback and empathize with the frustration you're experiencing.  Right now, it seems like this particular laptop family is the common denominator, so that seems like a fruitful place to search. 

If you haven't, you might want to run Windows Update and check via the Lenovo maintenance utility or their website to see if there are any special Win10 firmware or driver updates that you need to download and install outside of the standard Windows Update workflow.

[kimt96729456]

Hi Jeromie,

Thanks for your suggestions. I've just run windows updates and got the following message that may be relevant:

There were problems installing some updates, but we'll try again later. If you keep seeing this and want to search the web or contact support for information, this may help:

Security Update for Internet Explorer Flash Player for Windows 10 for x64-based Systems (KB3087040) - Error 0x80004005

I will contact windows support and try the other suggestions in this thread.

Thanks!
k

[vanchico]

Everything seems to work now. Microsoft came up with a flash security update and Chrome updated their browser.

[Guest]

And one other tidbit, which I hope helps in solving this issue. I'm not running a lot of programs in the background. Only my anti-virus. I keep background stuff at the bare minimum. In other words, I keep memory hoging stuff off. 

[Albaniandawn]

I am also having this problem, and it is distressing to see how common it is and how there don't seem to be any answers. Sometimes I can't even access webpages like this one to help figure out the problem.

Lenovo laptop (sorry I don't know the model)

Windows 10

Google Chrome

Google apps seem to work fine (search, etc.)

Almost every other web page I try to open gives me that message, and just spins, often not loading at all

Help.... I need to be able to use the internet

[jisaacphoto]

I'm having the same issue as well, very unreliably, in Chrome Version 45.0.2454.93 m, Windows 10, on a Lenovo Ideapad Y410p.  Restarting seems to solve the problem for awhile, but it occurs even on websites that don't seem to use flash at all, like YouTube. It makes browsing the web virtually impossible at times.

[jeromiec83223024]

jisaacphoto‌

I'm leaning towards buggy graphics drivers, particularly given it's a cluster of bugs all from the same OEM.

I'm curious to know if disabling hardware acceleration resolves this for you.  You'll need to disable it in two places.

For HTML content, you'll need to change the Chrome preference.  In Chrome, uncheck Menu > Settings > Advanced > System > Use hardware acceleration when available.

For Flash content, use the directions here:

How do I disable or enable hardware acceleration?

Thanks!

[suet81185115]

Hi Jeromie

Thanks for this. I followed your instructions and turned off hardware acceleration in Chrome. Not sure if it has worked yet. Will test a few sites.

Your suggestion on doing the same in Flash is problematic however since the pages running Flash seize up, of course! I've not been able to get far enough in to follow your instructions! But will keep trying and report back.

thanks

Sue