Recent crashes of certain multimedia contents (this includes Youtube videos, certain flash games and other applications) in conjunction with Firefox are most probably caused by a recent Flash update and/or a malfunctioning browser plugin such as Real Player.

In order to remedy the problem, please perform the steps mentioned in these Knowledge Base articles:

• Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems

• Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again

• Flash 11.3 doesn't load video in Firefox

Other, more technical information about these issues can be found under these Links:

• http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1018071?tstart=0

• http://blogs.adobe.com/asset/2012/06/inside-flash-player-protected-mode-for-firefox.html

Please tell us if this helped!

I've been expecting your auto-post, waka.

The first three links you posted do not apply to my situation.

• Updating Flash is what got me into this situation.
• The Flash plugin is not crashing, or at least is not visibly indicating that it's crashed. YouTube videos alone report a problem.
• I'm not using Flash 11.3. I'm using Flash 11.7.700.224.

The final two links provide good troubleshooting steps (Though the Adobe Forum URL includes outdated instructions) but ultimately don't solve the situation. I followed the steps outlined at http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1018071?tstart=0 and the problem persists.

Note that this problem occurred after upgrading to Flash 11.7.700.202 from Flash 11.7.700.169. We did not have this problem on earlier versions of Flash. I don't think Protected Mode is part of the problem.

Have you disabled hardware acceleration in Flash and Firefox?

I'm not sure how to do that in Firefox? If you mean following these instructions in Firefox, then yes, but no effect.

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/891337

Go to FIrefox Menu > Options > Advanced > General Tab > Hardware Acceleration.

Got it. Still no effect, though.

Also another fix is to install Flash 10.3 from here which still works

http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/archived-flash-player-versions.html

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/957095
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/956651
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/956702
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/946562
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/960667
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/949292
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/963348
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/962745

Flash 10.3 is now outdated and unsupported.

SO I'VE HAD THIS PROBLEM POP UP TOO!! plays 1-3 seconds then quickly does shorter each time.. then snow...

looked frick'n everywhere. only 2 things i found that worked.

1. disable flash in chrome... this worked in the past, but did not fix it this time.

2. this solution you wont even believe!!! plug in a set of headphones... BOOOM!!! it worked for me. i found it on some message board. youtube/flash looks for an audio output. when it doesnt find it the thing just dies...

now the question is how to find a solution to stop forcing youtube to look for audio.

i hope this works for you!!! i didn't believe it until i tried it. i was like no frick'n way!!!

Confirmed -- that works for me, too, but only as long as headphones are plugged in. Not sure why all that should be a problem.

Presumably, most users who use YouTube have speakers or headphones plugged in. This could be a problem for far more users than those with symptoms.

oh ya.. its an absolutely insane bug.. you do have to keep something plugged in. doesnt go away after. i wonder though if you set a master playback device to the pc speakers if that would help. since its the search for a playback device that causes it.

i watch videos all the time w/o audio. like some instructional stuff.

hopefully they resolve, but good luck convincing/explaining this problem.

glad it worked!!

Hm. I'm willing to test that, but I don't know what you mean, RE setting up a master playback device.

I did try out the following -

• Uninstalled the RealTek management software that managed the audio card. Now relying on standard Windows drivers.
• In Control Panel > Sound > Playback, disabled all playback devices, which were already listed as "Not plugged in"
• Attempted to update drivers -- no updates available
• Disabled the audio card
• Uninstalled the audio card

Solved turning off DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming). See http://lifehacker.com/preload-entire-youtube-videos-by-disabling-dash-playbac-1186454034

Yep, turns out that's what it was. I have no audio devices (I 'might' be watching YouTube at work).

I solved this problem - just plugged some tiny earphones into audio out :) (before have none conneсted.)

Thanks, KWN --

Webclicks posted something similar and I've confirmed that works; but I'm holding out for a solution that doesn't require us to buy headphones for our 20 classroom PCs, solely so that we can watch YouTube videos in Firefox (Chrome, IE work fine).

We have on-board audio devices that ought to work, and do work for YouTube when viewed in other browsers.

CbrMrk made a post about DASH, which I'll look at next time I re-image the PCs, but the solution looks like an account setting, which won't work for public (anonymous) terminals.

It's not a huge inconvenience for us ATM, we just use another browser, but I'm keeping this issue open for the time-being, in the event the problem is solved.

This is a rather odd problem. Could it be defined as a bug?

Seems odd to me that the whole video should fail just because it has nowhere to pipe the audio to.

asather,

shortly tried to find where (or how) I can turn off DASH in Firefox and threw it - desktop which has the problem was just cheking after reinstall and in full use will be connected to loudspeakers and/or earphones.

(sorry for my bad english)

@benoliver99 Tell me about it. The issue is just with *some* videos on YouTube, and then only in Firefox. The issue started for after a routine re-imaging of the 20 stations, which usually involves:

• Common application updates (Firefox, Flash, Java, Adobe Reader, Chrome, etc. We use Ninite Pro for this)
• Windows Updates

Hardware configuration didn't change, nor would we have updated hardware drivers outside of what the standard Windows Update provides.

We prefer Firefox, so instructors are having users skip to Chrome, IE just to use YouTube. If the problem ever becomes more than annoyance, we'll probably have to wipe the machines and re-build the image (re-install Windows, etc)

If the videos work when you plug in headphones or speakers but don't when not plugged in, then in your case the videos should work if you disable windows detection of the plugged in audio devices.

I think it may not be practical (or desirable) to get headphones or speakers installed on all computers in a lab.

Changing the registry should help. You can search for "Disable Jack Detection" - there are lots of articles about this on the Internet. Basically you want to set "EnableDynamicDevices" to zero in the current ControlSet (you may have several control sets in your system registry - and make a backup before tinkering with this).

I agree that this issue is crazy. What if I am deaf and I didn't install any speakers or headphones? Does that mean I should be locked out of playing youtube videos? I am not allowed to smile at the sight of some crazy pet antics?