Computer locking up with flash player maybe?

[Zultir]

Now I'm not 100% sure of whats causing the issue here, for I've been trying to find the source of this lockup / crash for a LONG LONG time now, anywhere from 5 - 8 months now.

So, the issue is whenever I have a browser open (In this case, google chrome. But I have tested IE9 to see if it crashed there and it still does). At any random given time it likes to freeze my computer. These freezes generally happen around youtube / when flash player is involved. But it has crashed several times with flash player not present, although not as many times as flash player being present.

At first I thought it was a graphics card driver issue, for the video output would become unresponsive. I correctly uninstalled and re installed many many different versions of drivers and they all still crashed. I then began to think it was my graphics card itself that was the issue, so I took it out and replaced it with a lesser card that a friend lent me that was working for him. And after a couple days the lockups started happening again.

After that I was very confused at what was causing these issue so I decided to reformat my computer with a fresh OS. It stopped the freezes for a couple days, just like switching the GPU but then they started back up again.

At that time I was using my SSD for the OS + my browsers so i began to suspect that my SSD was the issue. So I pulled out my SSD and put a fresh OS install on my HDD. Stopped the crashes for a little bit just like the other 2 times, but sure enough the lockups came back to haunt me.

And this is where I'm at, I've tried several things that I've seen online and none of them have worked so far.

This is how a lockup goes: Derpin around on the internet, stuff freezes. Can't move mouse / type, can't CTR+ALT+DEL or alt+f4. I wait anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 minutes and it unlocks for me with an error in bottom right corner of the screen saying 'Display driver stopped responding and has recovered.'

For the longest time I thought that once this lockup happens my visual was 100% frozen, until 1 day I noticed that the loading thing next to my cursor was still swirling around, but everything else was frozen.

I think that is everything that had happened to me so far, or the things that I've tried. I'm starting to suspect my motherboard now, and I do plan on doing a bios update, but after researching it a little bit, it looks like a scary process.

Here's my stuff:


Ram: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233147

SSD (That I'm currently not using): Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F90GBGT-BK 2.5" 90GB SATA III
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233205

Monitor (If you'd like to know): 23" 2ms Full HD Widescreen LCD
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236059

GPU: GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125369

CPU (I currently do not have it OCed or turbo-boosted): Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
Link: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz

PSU: RAIDMAX 730W
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817152036

HDD: Western Digital 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136073

MOBO: GIGABYTE LGA 1155 Intel SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128487

I think that's all the important stuff. If I missed anything let me know, I'm open to all suggestions and I will try anything. Its just becoming a nuisance.


TL; DR: Kittens are adorable. Read the post.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Have you disabled flash hardware acceleration?

Open a youtube video, right-click, options, disable hardware acceleration.

[Zultir]

Have you disabled flash hardware acceleration?

Open a youtube video, right-click, options, disable hardware acceleration.

I'm pretty sure I've tried it a long time ago but not sure. I'll try it again now, thanks for the suggestion.

[Usako]

Mine has recently been crashing since Firefox updated a few weeks ago. :| I'm not sure what it is but thanks to reading this I disabled the hardware acceleration, so hopefully that will fix it.

[Evil Inside]

Disable flash hardware acceleration, I had the same problem.

[Usako]

So far so good, must have been what it was for me. I hoped it fixed the OP's as well.

[Distiller]

same problem here, but disabling hardware acceleration didnt do the job.

[Zultir]

So far so good, must have been what it was for me. I hoped it fixed the OP's as well.

So far so good aswell... I'll be back if It continues.

[Zultir]

And a couple days later the crashes start again... so bump maybe?