Some problems with Flash video playback can be resolved by disabling hardware acceleration in your Flash Player settings. (See this article for more information on using the Flash plugin in Firefox).

To disable hardware acceleration in Flash Player:

1. Go to this Adobe Flash Player Help page.
2. Right-click on the Flash Player logo on that page.
3. Click on Settings in the context menu. The Adobe Flash Player Settings screen will open.
4. Click on the icon at the bottom-left of the Adobe Flash Player Settings window to open the Display panel.
   
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5. Remove the check mark from Enable hardware acceleration.
6. Click Close to close the Adobe Flash Player Settings Window.
7. Restart Firefox.

This Flash Player Help - Display Settings page has more information on Flash Player hardware acceleration, if you're interested.

Does this solve the problem? Let us know.

thanks for trying to help me. At first, i thought this resolution had done the trick. I had unticked the hardware acc on flash as instructed, everything was ok for about 10 mins, but then i am having the freeze issue again :(

Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration. Since this feature was added to Firefox, it has gradually improved, but there still are a few glitches.

You might need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).

Then perform these steps:

• Click the orange Firefox button at the top left, then select the "Options" button, or, if there is no Firefox button at the top, go to Tools > Options.
• In the Firefox options window click the Advanced tab, then select "General".
• In the settings list, you should find the Use hardware acceleration when available checkbox. Uncheck this checkbox.
• Now, restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.

Additionally, please check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in the following Knowledge base articles:

• Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems

• Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL

Did this fix your problems? Please report back soon.

thanks again for your help. I think the problem has been resolved! I went to look for updates as suggested and i found a "graphics" update along with 2 other microsoft ones. I did these and now i am holding my breath, but i think everything is ok, as i have been playing FL game for a while without it freezing. It looks like it "goes to pause" but it moves again within a second, so thank you very much for this.

I am glad to hear that your problem has been resolved.

If you have not already, please mark this thread as solved by marking the solution.
This will help other users experiencing similar problems find help faster and more efficiently.

I hope you continue using our products and thank you for contacting Mozilla Support.

unfortunately, i still have the issue after all. It seemed to work fine for a while. I have now tried everything to stop firefox freezing and i am now wondering if it's a problem with flash? IE and Chrome work fine so it has to be something wrong with firefox. This problem of slowness and crashing has been happening for the last 6 weeks. I would also like to know in the "settings" and the various tabs, what function does the applications tab do? It gives a long list of contents and actions, but i don't know what it means or how important it is, or if there is stuff in that list that shouldn't be there. I maybe am clutching at straws but i am desperate for FF to work fully for me like before :(

You can check for problems with current Flash plugin versions and try these:

• disable a possible RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin extension for Firefox and update the RealPlayer if installed
• disable protected mode in the Flash plugin (Flash 11.3+ on Windows Vista and later)
• disable hardware acceleration in the Flash plugin

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Troubleshooting

sorry for the delay, but i had been doing all sorts of tests, disabling, re-enabling etc. I have followed all instructions in the help given to me. but alas, the problem still exists. I even uninstalled firefox and reinstalled, but to no avail. I cannot understand why this problem has occured only in the last few weeks, when everything had been running fine for well over a year beforehand. I have to keep using google chrome to play the fairyland game but i much prefer firefox and wish i could have it back working fully :(