Flash video slows entire computer down w/ periodic freezes

Undesirable · 11 Mar 2018 at 00:39

Hi there, I've got a strange issue with Channel 4 video which uses flash player. When I try to stream any video through the site, my entire computer freezes up every couple of seconds. I've tried disabling hardware acceleration and this doesn't seem to make any difference. My current specs are:

ASRock X399 Professional Gaming
Threadripper 1950x
Teamgroup RAM - 32GB
NVIDIA GeForce 1080 Floundering for Money Edition

Latest browser and Flash version (tried in both Firefox and Chrome).

When I open task manager as the video is being played back, it shows less than 5% CPU activity and 10% RAM usage, yet all applications and Windows itself is still freezing and unfreezing repeatedly.

darael · 11 Mar 2018 at 14:42

I also get this with Channel 4 videos. Videos on any other websites work just fine - only Channel 4 videos give me problems.

I use the latest version of Firefox and flash player. I also get the problem in other browsers. I even tried creating a new profile for Firefox, but this didn't change anything.

I will be watching this thread to see if there any known solutions. Luckily I don't watch C4 on demand too much, but this problem only makes me want to watch their programmes even less.

Orcvader · 11 Mar 2018 at 16:18

Nah it's definitely C4's site, it always brings my PC to its knees down for some reason. Tried with multiple browsers, and same happened to my Surface Pro 4 and older desktop running an Intel SB i7 and 7950. Could be how they're doing DRM or something?

jpaul · 11 Mar 2018 at 18:31

try an older 32 bit version - 26.0.0.151 works for me -(..yes minor security issue)
I had found this recommendation somewhere for nowtv/c4/itv which have out of date s/w.

Undesirable · 11 Mar 2018 at 18:58

OK, glad it wasn't just my computer. Cheers guys.

darael · 12 Mar 2018 at 22:15

jpaul said:
try an older 32 bit version - 26.0.0.151 works for me -(..yes minor security issue)
I had found this recommendation somewhere for nowtv/c4/itv which have out of date s/w.

I found and downloaded fp_26.0.0.131_archive.zip, but which file do I run to install Flash 26? These are what I have:

flashplayer26_0r0_131_linux.i386.tar.gz
flashplayer26_0r0_131_linux.x86_64.tar.gz
flashplayer26_0r0_131_linuxpep.i386.tar.gz
flashplayer26_0r0_131_linuxpep.x86_64.tar.gz
flashplayer26_0r0_131_linux_sa.x86_64.tar.gz
flashplayer26_0r0_131_mac.dmg
flashplayer26_0r0_131_macpep.dmg
flashplayer26_0r0_131_macpep_pkg.dmg
flashplayer26_0r0_131_mac_pkg.dmg
flashplayer26_0r0_131_mac_sa.dmg
flashplayer26_0r0_131_win.exe
flashplayer26_0r0_131_win.msi
flashplayer26_0r0_131_winax.exe
flashplayer26_0r0_131_winax.msi
flashplayer26_0r0_131_winpep.exe
flashplayer26_0r0_131_winpep.msi
flashplayer26_0r0_131_win_sa.exe
uninstall_flashplayer26_0r0_131_mac.dmg
uninstall_flashplayer26_0r0_131_win.exe

jpaul · 12 Mar 2018 at 22:49

I would try flashplayer26_0r0_131_win.exe, it needs to be 50MB or so, to be the install payload, as opposed to just a loader exe

you also need to disable auto updates, once installed, otherwise it may quickly update it.

darael · 13 Mar 2018 at 08:25

I managed to work it out in the end. I had to uninstall flash before I could install 26.0.131.

This is the weird part. I tried every last version before each major change in revision number and they worked fine. And now the latest flash version works fine. I wish I had tested Channel 4 player last night before installing v26, just to see if maybe Channel 4 had fixed the problem before my testing.