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Firefox for XP often won't play videos. What can I do?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by vineyridge

vineyridge
vineyridge
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Youtube always plays. Video plays in Chrome. I just got a message that my browser doesn't support HTML5. I have the Open H264 codec. On many websites, I will click the Play Arrow, and the video viewing area will simply go white. I'd say about half the websites that I go to will not play video on my XP computer. I have an nVidia video card that is two or three years old. I know I need a more updated OS and will probably shift to a Linux flavor when I get a new HD to put it on, but that takes money that I do not have.

I do have PeerBlock and Private Firewall. The latter is quite old and has not been updated recently, but it does seem to work. PeerBlock is checked daily for updates and for updated lists. I am somewhat neurotic about privacy, so I have many privacy Firefox add-ons.

I really hate Google and its lack of privacy, so much prefer to use Firefox for my browsing. I do have the Epic browser which is Chrome based, but Chrome has quit updating for XP, so I'd rather stay away from Chrome in all its forms.

Youtube always plays. Video plays in Chrome. I just got a message that my browser doesn't support HTML5. I have the Open H264 codec. On many websites, I will click the Play Arrow, and the video viewing area will simply go white. I'd say about half the websites that I go to will not play video on my XP computer. I have an nVidia video card that is two or three years old. I know I need a more updated OS and will probably shift to a Linux flavor when I get a new HD to put it on, but that takes money that I do not have. I do have PeerBlock and Private Firewall. The latter is quite old and has not been updated recently, but it does seem to work. PeerBlock is checked daily for updates and for updated lists. I am somewhat neurotic about privacy, so I have many privacy Firefox add-ons. I really hate Google and its lack of privacy, so much prefer to use Firefox for my browsing. I do have the Epic browser which is Chrome based, but Chrome has quit updating for XP, so I'd rather stay away from Chrome in all its forms.

All Replies (2)

Wesley Branton
Wesley Branton
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Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).

If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:

  • Click the menu button New Fx Menu, click Help Help-29 and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:

  • On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
  • On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
  • On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
    (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)

When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".

SafeMode-Fx35

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.

To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.

When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem.

That the issue occurs in Safe Mode, please navigate to the YouTube HTML5 page and let us know which options display anything other than a blue checkmark.

vineyridge
vineyridge Question owner
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I just went to Safe Mode, and my computer's performance is degraded terribly by it. Nothing, even things that have nothing to do with Firefox, will load quickly, and the internet performance is actually worse with Hughesnet that it was with dial-up.

I'm now fixing to try and run a video. That should be interesting, given my computer's stutters. 

No video will run because I have no video plugins or players can be found.

Modified by vineyridge