Warning: Unresponsive Plugin; Shockwave flash may be busy, or it may have stopped responding.
I've been using firefox for a really really long time, and I play quite a lot of facebook games. Yesterday morning, things were working perfectly fine, but later in the day, I suddenly started getting these shockwave errors. I can't recall downloading anything and I must have uninstalled and reinstalled the flash player at least 8 times. It's honestly starting to frustrate me. I love firefox, but if the browser refuses to work, I probably won't be using it for much longer.
Chosen solution
This thread is now 5 pages and so excessively long. The comments possibly do not all relate to exactly the same problem.
(Just unlocking temporarily to comment this page at August 2013 has had about 156 thousand Views. It was opened in April so that is over 10 thousand hits a week)
At this point it is going to be impossible to propose a solution that everyone will agree on. I will lock this thread, marking this post as the solution and link to some of the post most likely to be helpful:
Potentially Useful posts
- The initial suggestion /questions/957423#answer-429894 consider use of Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings, please read the article before using that option. You will lose some information.
- Two of the highest voted posts /questions/957423#answer-429918 & /questions/957423#answer-432844
- Disabling Silverlight, several users report that as a solution e.g. /questions/957423?page=5#answer-453470 & /questions/957423?page=4#answer-448634
- Disabling Hardware accelertion in both FlashPlayer and Firefox /questions/957423?page=3#answer-442802
- note as a quick test Safe Mode disables Firefox Hardware Accelleration Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode & see Disable Hardware Acceleration & Adobe Article
- Uninstalling and re-installing FlashPlayer /questions/957423#answer-435489
- An OS update resolved this XP users problem /questions/957423?page=2#answer-437641
- Graphics driver updates fixed it in this post /questions/957423?page=2#answer-441894 (Also seeUpgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL )
- One of my explanatory posts with additional links /questions/957423?page=3#answer-444117
- A workaround involving changing the hang detector timing /questions/957423?page=3#answer-446306
- My suggestion about protectedmode- this is known to solve some Windows (Vista or later ) & Flashplayer problems /questions/957423?page=4#answer-448885
- a comment from a user with a FlashPlayer version prior to protected mode "workaround: Do NOT go to IE and allow it to install the latest flash"/questions/957423?page=4#answer-449044
I think really it would have been better to lock this thread earlier. Threads are best when they are definitely a single problem with solutions, rather than being about a symptom with many possible causes.
All Replies (8)
ittleccguy
@john99 Not running XP, and I am not a big fan of running in unprotected mode.
Thanks
Those are my points.
- Problems are not seen on XP; only Windows after XP;
because only the newer versions use FLASH Protected Mode - Problems disappear on using earlier versions of Flash
because those versions do NOT use Protected Mode - Also I am fairly certain there will have been more than one Critical Security Release of Flash in the intervening period
As far as I understand it the more secure method is to use the newer Flash Version, and if necessary disable Flash Protected Mode when you have problems but need Flash.
I have Windows XP and as stated above, I thought there might be a conflict between Silverlight and shockwave flash, so just had an error message for shockwave flash come up and I went to add-ons to disable (temporarily) Silverlight, and the shockwave flash error stopped instantly.
I among many others have this problem. I've tried every suggested solution and no dice. It really does appear as if the powers that be are completely aware of this problem, but unable or unwilling to provide a solution. Here's a suggestion, stop posting replies that repeat advice already offered.
jamesluk,
the problem resolution is largely dependent on action from Adobe, the developers of the Flash software. Given the length of time some of the problems have existed it may be that Adobe are not really interested in fully supporting Firefox; especially Firefox with other extensions in use.
As simple example Google Chrome on Ubuntu uses an integrated Flash 11.7 on Firefox it is only 11.2 see http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ Adobe is in the process of deprecating use on Linux etc.
There are probably multiple rather than single problems. The basic workarounds tend to be to risk downgrading Flash or the Flash Protected mode.
I'm not sure what you are saying about Ubuntu but I have Firefox 21.0 on Windows Vista and my latest update was to Flash 11.7 I haven't had a repeat of the problems since I updated to the latest version.
Also, I did the regular Microsoft Tuesday updates for June and something there might have helped. As I said before I had disabled Silverlight add-on in Firefox but I enabled it a few days ago and the error has not come back.
I always used the Adobe Flash Troubleshooter to uninstall and install flash updates since having trouble with the auto install ages ago not removing the old flash.
Modified
Eaglearchitect - thankyou. After putting up with this problem for weeks, your suggestion worked - I didn't uninstall Shockwave, just went to the website you suggested and downloaded
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/updaters/11/flashplayer_11_plugin_debug.exe
and the problem is finally fixed.
disabling the Silverlight plugin fixes the problem for me..
Chosen Solution
This thread is now 5 pages and so excessively long. The comments possibly do not all relate to exactly the same problem.
(Just unlocking temporarily to comment this page at August 2013 has had about 156 thousand Views. It was opened in April so that is over 10 thousand hits a week)
At this point it is going to be impossible to propose a solution that everyone will agree on. I will lock this thread, marking this post as the solution and link to some of the post most likely to be helpful:
Potentially Useful posts
- The initial suggestion /questions/957423#answer-429894 consider use of Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings, please read the article before using that option. You will lose some information.
- Two of the highest voted posts /questions/957423#answer-429918 & /questions/957423#answer-432844
- Disabling Silverlight, several users report that as a solution e.g. /questions/957423?page=5#answer-453470 & /questions/957423?page=4#answer-448634
- Disabling Hardware accelertion in both FlashPlayer and Firefox /questions/957423?page=3#answer-442802
- note as a quick test Safe Mode disables Firefox Hardware Accelleration Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode & see Disable Hardware Acceleration & Adobe Article
- Uninstalling and re-installing FlashPlayer /questions/957423#answer-435489
- An OS update resolved this XP users problem /questions/957423?page=2#answer-437641
- Graphics driver updates fixed it in this post /questions/957423?page=2#answer-441894 (Also seeUpgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL )
- One of my explanatory posts with additional links /questions/957423?page=3#answer-444117
- A workaround involving changing the hang detector timing /questions/957423?page=3#answer-446306
- My suggestion about protectedmode- this is known to solve some Windows (Vista or later ) & Flashplayer problems /questions/957423?page=4#answer-448885
- a comment from a user with a FlashPlayer version prior to protected mode "workaround: Do NOT go to IE and allow it to install the latest flash"/questions/957423?page=4#answer-449044
I think really it would have been better to lock this thread earlier. Threads are best when they are definitely a single problem with solutions, rather than being about a symptom with many possible causes.
Modified