# Flash Freezing Firefox

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flash-freezing-firefox/542011>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 5, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flash-freezing-firefox/542011 "2010-06-05T02:21:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flash-freezing-firefox/542011/1 "2010-06-05T02:21:54Z")

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My browser has suddenly decided to not play videos of any sort. I watched some as recently as last night but today, for no apparent reason, any time I load a site with a video, the entire browser freezes and I have to close and reopen it.

I’ve searched around for fixes, and it seems like it’s a common problem, but I can’t find anything that seems to help me. I’ve tried restarting, installing an older version of Firefox, and I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled Flash at least a dozen times. Now, one site says I don’t even have Flash, but others still show the first still of a video, but never actually play.

Does anyone have any experience with this, or any recommendations?

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**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flash-freezing-firefox/542011/2 "2010-06-05T02:28:25Z")

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Flash is pretty processor-intensive. I know that the only thing that makes my computer’s fans kick up is watching a Flash video.

Have you blown the dust out of your computer lately? I’d be inclined to think that it’s actually a processor heat issue instead of a software issue.

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**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flash-freezing-firefox/542011/3 "2010-06-05T02:32:05Z")

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Have you tried clearing the cache?

Have you tried another browser to see if the same sites work?

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**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flash-freezing-firefox/542011/4 "2010-06-05T02:33:56Z")

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My laptop’s less than a year old, \has 4GB of memory, and is running pretty cool right now. I doubt that’s it.

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**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flash-freezing-firefox/542011/5 "2010-06-05T02:39:25Z")

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> [@Reply](#):
>
> Have you tried clearing the cache?
> 
> Have you tried another browser to see if the same sites work?

Works in IE. Now Firefox just tells me I need the latest version of Flash, which I’ve downloaded a bazillion times, while IE plays the same videos with no problem.