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

Lolu chungechunge lwabekwa kunqolobane. Uyacelwa ubuze umbuzo omusha uma udinga usizo.

Shockwave Flash plugin can use nearly 100% of CPU to play video; MacBook gets hot & slows down.

  • 5 uphendule
  • 72 zinale nkinga
  • 17 views
  • Igcine ukuphendulwa ngu no1uno

more options

MacBook Pro 8,2 with OS X 10.6.8 4GB RAM 2GH Core i7 Firefox 20.0 Shockwave Flash 11.7.700.169 Hardware acceleration enabled. Flash player plugin often starts at 40% to 60% of CPU but sometimes slowly builds up to where Activity Monitor is showing close to or even over 100% of CPU effort. Processors heat up and fans run at over 4,000 RPM. Video begins to drop frames and may eventually stop. Only solution (but not good) seems to be to either kill (force-quit) the Shockwave process or quit/reopen Firefox. I suspect there may be other things using the Shockwave process elsewhere on the web page and/or on other tabs that I can't find. (Running Shockwave player in Safari seems to use much less CPU effort. Even when I play two full HD videos at the same time, it only uses 60% to 80% of CPU in Safari.) Is there another video player that I can use in place of Shockwave Flash?

MacBook Pro 8,2 with OS X 10.6.8 4GB RAM 2GH Core i7 Firefox 20.0 Shockwave Flash 11.7.700.169 Hardware acceleration enabled. Flash player plugin often starts at 40% to 60% of CPU but sometimes slowly builds up to where Activity Monitor is showing close to or even over 100% of CPU effort. Processors heat up and fans run at over 4,000 RPM. Video begins to drop frames and may eventually stop. Only solution (but not good) seems to be to either kill (force-quit) the Shockwave process or quit/reopen Firefox. I suspect there may be other things using the Shockwave process elsewhere on the web page and/or on other tabs that I can't find. (Running Shockwave player in Safari seems to use much less CPU effort. Even when I play two full HD videos at the same time, it only uses 60% to 80% of CPU in Safari.) Is there another video player that I can use in place of Shockwave Flash?

All Replies (5)

more options

Check your plugins are uptodated!

Remove the unwanted plugins

more options

Thank you for the prompt reply and thanks for the suggestions, iam...

All of my plugins were already up to date, but I have disabled a couple which are not used.

A quick test for the problem shows it is still there, but seems improved. It will take some time to know for sure as I will have to try to recreate the same or similar conditions.

I think the best thing is to try to be sure there is only one Shockwave Flash process running at any time. Closing unneeded tabs/windows is probably the way to go.

P.S. I will soon be posting another question about a problem viewing video on the CNN.COM site.

more options

I have the same issue, it's an unpleasant experience. I'm continually having to go into 'add-ons' to disable the Shockwave Flash. It's now pissing me off to the point of having to consider an alternative browser.

The issue - huge processor cycles and overheating - occurs on websites displaying (unwanted) Flash ads. Is there a way of customising Firefox to prevent/disable these unwanted Flash ads? Or other remedies?

more options

Get AdBlock+ to disable flash ads. It includes a handy utility called FlashBlock. When enabled, this turns any flash element on a page into a placeholder, and you have to click on it to enable flash for that element. That should help a lot with your overheating issues when browsing the Internet.

more options

Thank you shifuimam. Have downloaded AdBlock+ and am looking forward to the benefits!