Check that your graphics drivers are up-to-date, and also try with hardware acceleration off.

• Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL
• Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems

You say it freezes do you get plugin crashes if so submit them and post back with the Crash IDs

• Send plugin crash reports to help Mozilla improve Firefox
• Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again

This could be something new affecting only Windows 8, but there has been an issue affecting Windows Vista and later due to the Adobe sandboxing. Try turning off Flash's protected mode

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Flash_Player_11.3_Protected_Mode_-_Windows

i do not get any error message, just a straight up freeze. all my drivers are up to date.

Did you try disabling

1. hardware acceleration
2. protected mode

did that help.

every time, and i mean EVERY TIME i enable flash on firefox 20 running windows 8 it freezes.

Does it even freeze when you are not on sites with video content ?

i tried disabling protected mode but it didn't work, it said i did not have permission to do so even though i rain notepad in admin mode. how do i get permission to access or change the mms.cfg file? or how can i just downgrade to version 10.3?

If you scroll the article I linked to it will explain how to install Flash 10.3

I try not to use Windows, but opened Windows 7 (I do not have Windows 8 ), but last really used Windows properly when it was XP pro (or earlier).

Even in a limited account I could copy and rename the .cfg file if I used Admin privileges. Trying in an Admin account I also ran into problems, but using a method recommended in the linked article worked. It seems the file may be edited whilst outside of the Flash folder and then dragged back in.

I do not even know protected mode will solve the problem but it is worth trying. If you need more help with editing .cfg files I guess you will need to consult Windows forums. It will be of interest to know what works to rename such files in Windows 8. Did you try dragging it out before editing and then dragging back.

okay, i will try, thanks, but i hope they figure this out, it is really annoying

Did you try disabling all plugins.You have video related plugins.Safemode does NOT disable plugins. (It does disable hardware acceleration and extensions).

You did not answer my earlier question

• does it freeze even when you have no video content ?
• if it is only with video content give some examples of public sites that freeze.

yeah i disabled plug ins one at a time to see if there was a difference, none. and yes, it froze just going to yahoo mail or to facebook. so far it is working, i checked the flash mms.cfg file and it changed over to protectedmode 0

I can not immediately think of a reason it should freeze if there is no flash content. But many sites do have Flash content.

Did changing protected mode actually help. It should be easy enough to change it back as a test now you are able to edit the .cfg file.

Just a suggestion. I used to have this problem for a very long time. I just installed the extension "Flashblock" and so far, I haven't seen any freeze (from Adobe Flash).

So you might want to try that to see if that helps.

so far so good. only time will tell. thanks for all your help

Glad it is working at least for now.

It would be interesting to discover if the change turning off protected mode helped in this instance.

Hi silkphoenix,

I used to get fed up with Flash content, especially when I had a slower connection & PC. For quite a while I have been blocking unnecessary Flash one way or another, currently with the No Script add-on.

Click-to-play will not be set to block Flash by default, but if I was using that now (it is behind a pref) I would be setting Flash as click-to-play.

• https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2012/10/11/click-to-play-plugins-blocklist-style/
• https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2013/01/29/putting-users-in-control-of-plugins/

I'm having a similar problem. I'm running Vista 32 bit and I just updated FP to 11.7 from 11.3. I'm not having all kinds of problems with FF20 freezing my AOL homepage. When that happens I have to use task manager to close the screen. Now, my flash does work, YouTube, etc, but this freezing my home page is annoying. For that matter my IE9 browser will also freeze from time-to-time, although, I rarely use IE9. I've tried resetting the FF20 browser-no effect. I disabled video acceleration-no effect. I subsequently did a clean uninstall and reinstall using the FP tool with no change. I finally went back to FP11.3 but now I get the annoying FF warnings about FP11.3. For point-of-reference, I had problems several months ago when I tried updating then. Can anybody help??

My Gateway GT5662 system has occasionally (three times so far) been freezing totally while using Firefox... does not respond to mouse or keyboard input... cannot bring up Task Manager.... can only restore system by turning computer off via power switch.

Am running XP SP3, Firefox 20.0.1, FlashPlayer 11.7.700.169, on a Gateway GT5662 with an AMD quadcore Phenom processor.

I ran the Windiag memory checker and no errors were found,

NOTE: The problem of freezing has not yet occurred on my other two Windows XP machines, one being a Dell Optiplex GX280, the other being a Lenovo with an Intel quadcore CPU. But on the other hand, I do not use these machines as much as the Gateway.

Please read the thread and any linked documents.

If you continue to have problems start another thread of your own using /questions/new/. If you wish post back here to confirm you have done so.Readers of this thread may be interested.

• ''Edit please use this special direct quick LINK

Please follow the prompts about troubleshooting information when you post, and state what you have tried.

There is another question/thread with a similar problem. "How come watching youtube clips and other videos is like watching a slideshow?" Was there a resolution on this one? Thanks

My computer has been freezing time to time since 2010. Some time every 3-5minutes.

It first started suddenly when I was watching Youtube, I could not move mouse or press ctrl alt del, no respond at all, reboot diddnt work, only switch of power and restart.

I even freezes when I develop webpages and insert my own made Flashbanner on a local wampserver. Sometimes it freezes after viewing 1-2 sec of flash material.

I have disabled hardware acc.

I have updated every driver, graphics, adobe, Win, Mozilla.

Why is this happening?

I have Vista and had problems for months (but only on slow connections - on my fast, wired connection at work, it has continued to work fine).

Good news for me was that the advice on "Disabling Protected Mode just worked for me.

Thanks to them that provided that advice - you may want to try that too.

The big problem here is that although Adobe flash player is free... HURRAAAY - it is basically a load of under-developed rubbish... BOOOO

Ya gets what ya pays for I'm afraid, and until we wanna pay for something better, then we're stuck with this useless piece of time-wasting rubbish :(

Unfortunately it is what we have and I have not figured out a way to function without it. Also, unfortunately, Firefox is the only browser that has the problem.