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phototropic

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Video will not play in YouTube. Safe-mode is fine.

My customers computer is running Win XP Home SP3.  It is working well, apart from the fact that video will not play in YouTube.  The screen simply goes blank and then IE reloads the page. The address bar for the page displays a small box at the beginning and end of the address

What I have tried:

Different browsers - Firefox says "Plugin has crashed";  Chrome reloads the page endlessly;
Uninstall/reinstall Java;
Uninstall/reinstall Flashplayer;
Scan for Malware with Mbam/A Squared ... nothing found;
Cleared the tmp file cache;
Reset IE;
Reinstalled IE8;
Run sfc /scannow;
Cleared everything from msconfig startups/non ms services;
Googled this issue endlessly.

Does anyone out there have any experience of this issue?

SOLUTION
Avatar of no worries :-) no nothing
no worries :-) no nothing
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Sometimes problematic extensions cause problems.
Try disabling selectively and find out which was the problem.
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phototropic

ASKER

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I have already disabled hardware acceleration.

What do you mean by "..problematic extensions..." ?
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Sudeep Sharma
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As I made clear in my original question:

"...What I have tried:
Uninstall/reinstall Java;
Uninstall/reinstall Flashplayer;..."

I used the Adobe Flash Uninstaller and reinstalled the appropriate software. \made no difference.

What I want to know is - how come the video will play in safe mode?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Have you tested a locally saved web page with the bare minimum code to compare what happens?

Save the attached *.HTM file to the affected user's desktop:
 YouTube-Test.htm
Double-Click to open in browser.  View menu > Source.
Where indicated by the comment, paste in the first "iFrame" type of video embed code, Save and close the source editor (default = Notepad), View > Refresh.
IE should show the prompt in the yellow bar to run ActiveX content.
Repeat, testing the different codes below.

Simple iFrame Code:
 
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TUtSskTCFus?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Open in new window

Privacy-Enhanced iFrame Mode:
 
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TUtSskTCFus?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Open in new window

Old Style "Object" Embed Code:
 
<object width="560" height="349">
    <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TUtSskTCFus?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;rel=0"></param>
    <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
    <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param>
    <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TUtSskTCFus?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="349" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>
</object>

Open in new window

Privacy-Enhanced Mode with Old Embed Code:
 
<object width="560" height="349">
    <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/TUtSskTCFus?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;rel=0"></param>
    <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
    <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param>
    <embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/TUtSskTCFus?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="349" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>
</object>

Open in new window


If you don't like the "Hitler is informed" parodies (with some swearing in the subtitles), then change to something other than "TUtSskTCFus" in the URL used in the code, like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDDILztf6vE and use 425 x 349 dimensions in code.
Hi Bill,

Thanks for your detailed response.  To answer your questions in order:

1)  I no longer see the boxes. In IE8, if I attempt to play any flash content, I am told that "IE8 has experienced a problem and needs to shut down."  In Firefox I am told that "...the Adobe Flash plugin has crashed..." and in Google Chrome "Google Chrome has encountered a problem and needs to close."

2)  I have cleared every cached item that is clearable in Flashplayer!!!

3)  The BBC video did the same thing.
      The Kangaroo game worked flawlessly.
       The BrowserHawk report says:  
     JavaApplets  True
     JavaVersion  Not tested
     JavaVendor  Not tested
     MSJVMBuild  Not tested
Plugin_JavaVer  Not tested
     JavaEnabled  Enabled

4)  None of the codes yielded a video which woulod run.

I'm wondering if this could be something to do with drivers for the graphics card.  Why else would it work in safe-mode?

Very strange indeed...

Well, Whaddya know...I just updated the drivers, and now video works!!!

It is an old nVidia GeForce3 card, and the updated drivers was dated 2006, so God knows what it was running on!!!

I have never known this to be a problem before - usually if a driver needs updating there will be lots of symptoms, not just a failure to play embedded video. And all the error messages related to browser problems: plugin crashed, "need to close" etc.

Anyway, it appears to be fixed. I'll monitor it for 24 hours, then close out this question.

Many thanks to everyone who took the time and trouble to help.
As you say, it's very strange indeed and the burning question of "why else would it work in safe-mode?" could certainly relate to graphics card drivers, especially given the "crash" nature of the errors rather than just a failure to play.

I really don't know.  I mean we could go on testing various Flash-related uses like whether a flash enabled photo album might or might not work, but that's as much of a time consuming exercise as installing different graphics card drivers.
Wow.  Now that is pretty weird, and not something I've encountered before.  Good call.  Could it be coincidental to updating from IE7 to IE8 perhaps?
No, what am I talking about, it affected other browsers too.  Just ignore that last comment.
Thank you phototropic.