Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Flash suddenly won't run at all despite all software including firefox being updated and reinstalled. It now runs in Chrome and IE but not firefox

  • 11 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 15 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

I was trying to get flash to run more smoothly in zynga.com. I disable hw accel in both flash and firefox. When that didn't help I tried to re-install them. Flash stopped working completely. I have uninstalled and reinstalled chrome, ie, flash and firefox. I have gotten flash to work in IE and Chrome now but all I get in FIrefox is a white screen and I can't even right click to access the flash control panel. Can someone please help me figure out what theheck happened? I have a windows 7 home premium system with 16 gig ram, 2 terrabyte drive and 1 gig nvidia card (which also now has the latest drivers.)

I was trying to get flash to run more smoothly in zynga.com. I disable hw accel in both flash and firefox. When that didn't help I tried to re-install them. Flash stopped working completely. I have uninstalled and reinstalled chrome, ie, flash and firefox. I have gotten flash to work in IE and Chrome now but all I get in FIrefox is a white screen and I can't even right click to access the flash control panel. Can someone please help me figure out what theheck happened? I have a windows 7 home premium system with 16 gig ram, 2 terrabyte drive and 1 gig nvidia card (which also now has the latest drivers.)

Chosen solution

You can open the Properties of the Firefox desktop shortcut via the right-click context menu and check the "Compatibility" tab.
Make sure that all items are deselected in the "Compatibility" tab of the Properties window.

Doesn't Flash work at all or only not on some web pages?


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
Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (11)

more options

Could you start by disabling hardware acceleration in Firefox again?

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced

On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"

This takes effect after you restart Firefox.

Help at all?

more options

If you use extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) that can block content (e.g. Adblock Plus, NoScript, Flash Block, Ghostery) then make sure that such extensions aren't blocking content.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.
more options

Unfortunately nothing works. I totally removed and re-installed firefox. I reset firefox. I have un installed and reinstalled everything. When flash crashed it died on all 3 browsers. Now firefox is the only one I can't get working again.

more options

Okay, but can you confirm that the specific steps mentioned in the first two replies also have no effect:

(1) Disable hardware acceleration -- you need to do this again after a Reset

(2) Test in Firefox's Safe Mode

more options

I wiped out firefox completely and then reinstalled it for the 4th time.. guess that was the trick? I don't know... none of this makes sense but it seems to be working again at least.

more options

oh what the ................. it worked. I closed it opened email went back into it and it's not working again,.

more options

You've marked the above reply by jscher2000 as the solution, so I assume that you have fixed it.

Can you clarify which of the steps helped to fix your problem as this can help other who read this thread?

more options

actually none of this helped yet.. and I unmarked the solution. Can any one guess why firefox suddenly only works if I run it as an administrator? Windows 7 home premium.

more options

it's now forcing it as a compatibility thing to windows xp service pack 2

more options

and this is a sole use computer... so the "account" is an administrator account but unless I choose either run as admin or let it for XP it still doesn't work. So I am guessing this is a windows thing? but I have no idea what the ... is going on now.

more options

Chosen Solution

You can open the Properties of the Firefox desktop shortcut via the right-click context menu and check the "Compatibility" tab.
Make sure that all items are deselected in the "Compatibility" tab of the Properties window.

Doesn't Flash work at all or only not on some web pages?


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