Full screen flash video causes system freeze

JimmiG · 11-03-2009, 03:44 PM

I have this strange problem with my system. The machine is perfectly stable when running games, benchmarks, stress-tests etc. However, as soon as I play a flash video from youtube and others, and switch to full screen mode, the whole system freezes completely after about 1 minute. It's not possible to move the mouse cursor and no keys have any effect. The only way to recover is to hit the reset switch or power off the system. This happens in both IE8 and Firefox 3.5.

Playing the videos windowed does not cause any problems. Also, downloading the .flv and playing it in Media Player Classic seems to work fine. Other movies like DivX and DVD's also play fine on the computer.

My system is in the link in the sig, short version:
Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe mobo, Phenom II 955BE (not overclocked), 4x1GB XMS2, Radeon HD4850 512MB with latest drivers, M-Audio Delta1010LT audio card, Win7 Pro x64 RTM.

mpilchfamily · 11-03-2009, 04:08 PM

Try updating Flash player.

Chapbass · 11-03-2009, 04:55 PM

Might not hurt to update your graphics drivers as well. I doubt thatd be it, but if theyre old, might as well

JimmiG · 11-04-2009, 08:39 AM

Thanks for your suggestions, but I could not find any updates for Flash player, and I always update the video card drivers every time a new Catalyst version comes out (currently running 9.10).

However when I tried to play a video in full screen today, the system did not freeze. Instead I got a BSOD, IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, followed by an automatic system reboot.

This is really strange as the system is completely stable otherwise. You would think that if I had dodgy RAM or an overheating problem or something, the system would be unstable under other circumstances, not just when playing flash video in full screen...

Chapbass · 11-04-2009, 11:36 AM

Id download memtest86 and do some memory tests anyway. Weird problems like that can happen, possibly if say flash wants to access ram in a different method than many other programs, and your stick isnt completely shot to where you're BSODing all the time.

Worth a shot. Maybe also try grabbing a livecd of ubuntu and seeing if flash works in there? That might help you on software/hardware.

Chapbass · 11-04-2009, 11:37 AM

Hell, since it only happens in fullscreen...do you have a test video card you can throw in there? If the card was bad I woudl think things like gaming would definitely do it...but its worth a shot.

JimmiG · 11-05-2009, 05:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chapbass

Id download memtest86 and do some memory tests anyway. Weird problems like that can happen, possibly if say flash wants to access ram in a different method than many other programs, and your stick isnt completely shot to where you're BSODing all the time.

Worth a shot. Maybe also try grabbing a livecd of ubuntu and seeing if flash works in there? That might help you on software/hardware.

Well I did this and what do you know? The computer automatically rebooted within a few seconds of starting the memory test.

After some experimentation, I think I've determined that the problem manifests itself when populating all four DIMM slots. With only one memory stick per channel, the test didn't fail (at least not immediately, didn't let it run for too long), regardless of which two sticks I used. Also, with only two sticks, the flash video I use for testing didn't crash the computer.

Again, I'm really surprised at this. Only yesterday I played through several quests in Oblivion, probably spending about 2 hours playing the game non-stop. I've also run Prime95 with the "Lots of RAM tested" option for several hours, and I've got a weekly backup running that compresses my entire 640GB C: drive to an archive on another drive. My point is, I do a lot of stuff that should be more stressful, yet the system only crashes when playing Flash video in full screen.. really strange.

Oh well, I guess someone will be running his system with 2GB of RAM and eventually go and purchase two 2GB sticks of DDR2 RAM...

JimmiG · 11-05-2009, 05:36 AM

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JimmiG · 11-05-2009, 05:36 AM

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JimmiG · 11-05-2009, 05:43 AM

Well I'm real happy for myself and imma let me finish. But the Anand forum server had one of the best time-out errors of all time.

ekoostik · 11-05-2009, 11:59 PM

I had the same problem on a new build. System locked up whenever I tried to play full screen flash (Hulu). I downloaded the latest set of AMD drivers and it worked fine on two 45 minute tests.

Yesterday I reformatted my drive and installed Windows 7 Pro x64 (had RC on previously). When I went out to http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx I found they had put out new drivers again. I tested it this morning and unfortunately it crashed but it played fine for 15 minutes first. It went down on the commercial, go figure! I haven't had time yet to install the previous driver and see if it remains stable.

Looks like we're both on the same OS. I'm really hoping it's the drivers, and that more/better driver updates fix this problem. One thing to check, make sure you don't have Windows Update automatically downloading and installing 'updates'. I kept getting offered a driver that was 4 months old until I hid it.

theevilsharpie · 11-06-2009, 01:35 AM

IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is usually driver-related, although memory in the early stages of failure can trigger it as well.

Next time it BSODs, take a note of the numbers after IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. If they're the same each time, it's a driver issuer and you can use the Debugging Tools for Windows to find out which driver is causing it.

JimmiG · 11-06-2009, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theevilsharpie

IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is usually driver-related, although memory in the early stages of failure can trigger it as well.

Next time it BSODs, take a note of the numbers after IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. If they're the same each time, it's a driver issuer and you can use the Debugging Tools for Windows to find out which driver is causing it.

Well, it's possible that the crashes with flash video and the memtest failures are unrelated. I'll keep watching for BSODs even though I no longer run 4x1GB of RAM (which caused memtest to fail).

I was able to pick up two 2GB sticks of some Apacer OEM memory today - the specs are similar to my old Corsair RAM, but they don't come with any fancy heatsinks or anything. They seem to pass memtest and flash videos didn't crash within the first few minutes like they did with 4x1GB of RAM. Still, it's possible that it would crash if I kept playing clips for 15-30 minutes or more so I'll keep an eye out for unexplained crashes or BSODs.

JimmiG · 11-08-2009, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ekoostik

I had the same problem on a new build. System locked up whenever I tried to play full screen flash (Hulu). I downloaded the latest set of AMD drivers and it worked fine on two 45 minute tests.

Yesterday I reformatted my drive and installed Windows 7 Pro x64 (had RC on previously). When I went out to http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx I found they had put out new drivers again. I tested it this morning and unfortunately it crashed but it played fine for 15 minutes first. It went down on the commercial, go figure! I haven't had time yet to install the previous driver and see if it remains stable.

Looks like we're both on the same OS. I'm really hoping it's the drivers, and that more/better driver updates fix this problem. One thing to check, make sure you don't have Windows Update automatically downloading and installing 'updates'. I kept getting offered a driver that was 4 months old until I hid it.

Well, I got another crash, this time after about 3 minutes, and when watching a completely different clip (from a local newspaper's site). Still, it made sense to replace the four sticks of RAM with 2x2GB I think, since memtest *did* fail with four sticks. I can probably rule out dodgy RAM now, although I'll run memtest over night just to be sure.

Maybe it's a Catalyst bug then? Please post if you find out anything new...

theevilsharpie · 11-08-2009, 04:10 PM

The only way you're going to find out what is causing the BSOD is to examine the memory dump. Download the debugging tools for Windows and then go to http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...sh.html?page=1 for instructions on how to use it.

ekoostik · 11-08-2009, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmiG

Maybe it's a Catalyst bug then? Please post if you find out anything new...

I applied a new BIOS version to my board and to my surprise that appears to have fixed this problem. I haven't changed the settings to my preffered optoins yet, but running on standard/'optimized' settings I watched a few full screen Hulu shows without a problem. I just have to find time now to tweak my BIOS and re-test. Sorry this probably doesn't help you much.

alexnb · 11-18-2009, 01:13 PM

I just built a brand new rig with 4g DDR3 ram, and intel core i5, gigabyte mobo.

Everything was brand new. The only thing that wasn't was my psu, which is 480W... pretty low for my system. But I have a 750W on the way.

My graphics card is an ati HD card... can't recall everything, but 1gb ddr3 ram on it and 128-bit processing. 4670.

I get the problem ONLY in fullscreen. I get it on hulu, youtube, anywhere with flash. The screen goes black and you can control alt delete it and get into the window where you choose, task list, log off, switch user, etc. But none of them do anything when selected.

You have to hard reset it.

I too am running windows 7 pro 64 bit.

I've re installed flash, have yet to test with that though. I've heard if you right click flash and disable heardware acceleration it will solve it. But I have yet to do that too. I am not using that computer to type this.. I'm on my mac... which has 0 problems... as usual. Gotta love macs.

Anyways, it interesting that we all have win 7 pro 64bit

ekoostik · 11-18-2009, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexnb

I just built a brand new rig with 4g DDR3 ram, and intel core i5, gigabyte mobo.

Everything was brand new. The only thing that wasn't was my psu, which is 480W... pretty low for my system. But I have a 750W on the way.

My graphics card is an ati HD card... can't recall everything, but 1gb ddr3 ram on it and 128-bit processing. 4670.

I get the problem ONLY in fullscreen.

If you're running at stock and you have an HD 4670 GPU then 480W is plenty for your system. I'm running that setup but with an i7 860 using a 450W PSU. Now you're PSU may be a POS but that's different altogether. And more watts doesn't automatically make a better PSU.

I had this same problem, it only happened on full screen. Updating either BIOS or GPU drivers or both fixed the problem.

If you haven't upgraded your BIOS recently you should do that. Also AMD has been releasing driver updates every couple weeks. They released a new set yesterday - version 9.11. It may fix your problem without a BIOS update. It will also be the easiest thing to check first:
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx