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Flash video will not play on certain sites, but audio works

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For some reason, flash video will not play on most sites (e.g., Yahoo.com, cbs.com), but will on others (e.g., youtube.com). In all cases, the audio plays properly. When the video fails to show, there is just a large space where it should be playing (and audio plays fine). The problem goes away when FF is started in safe mode. HOWEVER, I have removed all add-ons and yet in regular mode the problem persists.

I have done each of the following to no avail:

Removed all add-ons. (verified that firefox shows nothing on the add-on page). Reset FF. Uninstalled FF, deleted all profile data, and reinstalled FF. Uninstalled virus software. Checked to be sure that Real Player is NOT installed on the machine. Uninstalled all Adobe software, and reinstalled (with v. 11 Flash). Tried downgrading to Flash v. 10.

None of these steps have resolved the issue. Flash works fine in Chrome. I am not certain when this issue started, though I believe it to be in the last month or two. Any ideas?

For some reason, flash video will not play on most sites (e.g., Yahoo.com, cbs.com), but will on others (e.g., youtube.com). In all cases, the audio plays properly. When the video fails to show, there is just a large space where it should be playing (and audio plays fine). The problem goes away when FF is started in safe mode. HOWEVER, I have removed all add-ons and yet in regular mode the problem persists. I have done each of the following to no avail: Removed all add-ons. (verified that firefox shows nothing on the add-on page). Reset FF. Uninstalled FF, deleted all profile data, and reinstalled FF. Uninstalled virus software. Checked to be sure that Real Player is NOT installed on the machine. Uninstalled all Adobe software, and reinstalled (with v. 11 Flash). Tried downgrading to Flash v. 10. None of these steps have resolved the issue. Flash works fine in Chrome. I am not certain when this issue started, though I believe it to be in the last month or two. Any ideas?

All Replies (3)

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To stop safe mode.

  • Firefox Menu > File > Quit

_________________________________________________________________________________ Please check if all your plugins are up-to-date. To do this, go to the Mozilla Plugin Check site.

Once you're there, the site will check if all your plugins have the latest versions. If you see plugins in the list that have a yellow Update button or a red Update now button, please update these immediately.

To do so, please click each red or yellow button. Then you should see a site that allows you to download the latest version. Double-click the downloaded file to start the installation and follow the steps mentioned in the installation procedure.

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Try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.


In Firefox Safe mode these changes are effective:

  • all extensions are disabled
  • the default theme is used (no persona)
  • userChrome.css and userContent.css are ignored
  • the default toolbar layout is used
  • the Javascript JIT compiler is disabled
  • hardware acceleration is disabled
  • plugins are not affected
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The problem was that the Intel graphics driver needed to be updated. I wish Firefox would show some kind of error message for this case, as it was very difficult to diagnose without one.