Adobe Flash Player Experiences 100% CPU Usage

[zzzzzzzzzz]

EDIT: Reported as Bug 812911

When a customized Adobe Flash content's context menu is accessed using Mozilla Firefox, a CPU core's usage is displayed at 100% (measured using Windows Task Manager on Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2). EDIT: Also, the out-of-process plugin container must be disabled. See the third post for the settings to disable the plug-in container.

The problem does not manifest for all customized Flash context menus; however, the problem does consistently manifest for flash content where the problem manifests. I am speculating that the problem manifests when the flash content's context menu is customized a certain way.

Two examples of flash content for which the problem manifests:

1. "The Right-Click me to check the Context Menu." labeled flash object on the http://www.republicofcode.com/tutorials ... ntextmenu/ page.
2. Any Youtube video video on a Youtube page. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0zzz3f9VpI

I have tested the behavior to occur on Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28, Mozilla Firefox 6.0.2, and Mozilla Firefox ESR 10.0.10esr. The problem manifests regardless of whether extensions are installed.

I have tested the behavior to occur with the latest 10.3 series of the flash player at the time of this post (10,3,183,43), and also older versions of the 10 series (Adobe Flash Player 10,3,183,18 and Adobe Flash Player 10,3,183,29).

The problem does not manifest at all on Opera 10.63 nor on Internet Explorer 6 with SP2 (Internet Explorer series should use a different plug-in (but shared control panel applet on Windows) than used by Mozilla and Opera).

The problem has been tested to manifest on Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2.

Though the problem manifests on all the tested versions, the problem is least bothersome with 10,3,183,18 (less frame skipping on video playback). Wherefore, at this time Adobe Flash Player 10,3,183,18 is preferred to newer versions.

Notwithstanding the consideration of the problem described herein, I would prefer to use a latest version of Adobe Flash Player, largely compatible version of Adobe Flash Player (so not the 11 series). At the time of this post the latest version of Adobe Flash Player is 10,3,183,43 (November 06, 2012 release date).

I am uncertain whether the problem is with Firefox or Adobe Flash Player. Is the problem with Firefox? I would appreciate more information regarding this issue or assistance to workaround this problem

EDIT: For my tests, plugin-container.exe was disabled. After enabling plugin-container.exe, the problem did not manifest.

Notes: Full installer versions of Adobe Flash Player may be acquired: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/ ... sions.html

[JayhawksRock]

On Firefox 17 with Flash Version: 11.4.402.287 the video plays very smoothly with plugin-container.exe using 34% cpu and firefox.exe using 2% after starting the video.
I think running Flash in a seperate processs (plugin-container.exe) began after Firefox 4

On http://www.republicofcode.com/tutorials ... ntextmenu/ right click on the settings box once opened uses 0%

[zzzzzzzzzz]

On Firefox 17 with Flash Version: 11.4.402.287 the video plays very smoothly with plugin-container.exe using 34% cpu and firefox.exe using 2% after starting the video.
I think running Flash in a seperate processs (plugin-container.exe) began after Firefox 4

On http://www.republicofcode.com/tutorials ... ntextmenu/ right click on the settings box once opened uses 0%

The 100% core usage problem occurs when the flash object's context menu (also known as the right-click menu) is displayed and not after it disappears (like when the settings box displays after clicking the "Settings..." menu item).

The use of plugin-container.exe was introduced in Firefox 3.6.4.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention that plugin-container.exe must be disabled for the problem to manifest. So the following preferences should be used:

Firefox 4 to Firefox 10 series (possibly high major versions also):
// Disable using separate process for plug-ins (using plug-in container)
// General handling (Firefox default is true)
user_pref("dom.ipc.plugins.enabled", false);
// Disable existing overrides (Firefox default is flase)
user_pref("dom.ipc.plugins.java.enabled", false);

Firefox 3.6.x, where x is greater than or equal to 4:
// Disable separate process for plug-ins (using plug-in container)
// General handling (Firefox default is flase)
user_pref("dom.ipc.plugins.enabled", false);
// Disable existing overrides (Firefox default is true)
user_pref("dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npctrl.dll", false);
user_pref("dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npqtplugin.dll", false);
user_pref("dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll", false);
user_pref("dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.nptest.dll", false);

[James]

I think running Flash in a seperate processs (plugin-container.exe) began after Firefox 4

The use of plugin-container.exe was introduced in Firefox 3.6.4.

Yep.
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/3.6.4/releasenotes/

[patrickjdempsey]

Have you attempted to disable hardware acceleration in Flash?

[zzzzzzzzzz]

Have you attempted to disable hardware acceleration in Flash?

I have. The problem occurs regardless as to whether hardware acceleration is enabled.

I have now also verified the problem to occur on a computer running Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3. Again the plug-in container was disabled.

[mightyglydd]

[patrickjdempsey]

So is there any specific reason you are crippling the plugin-container? Also, I ran Firefox 10 ESR on a Windows 2000 machine up until a few months ago and it ran fine (plugin-container does not work in W2K).

[zzzzzzzzzz]

So is there any specific reason you are crippling the plugin-container?

The plug-in container is not being crippled; rather, it is simply not being used. If the plugin container let to function, the problem described in this thread is not observable.

On a side note, I have found that Firefox (I have mainly used versions of 3.6, 6.0, and 10 series) is more stable when the plugin container is not used. Interestingly the Opera browser developers had also (in addition to Mozilla) decided to implement the Out-of-process plugin functionality (they did so much later than Firefox) in Opera 12.00, but after many problems with it, they disabled it for Opera 12.02.

[patrickjdempsey]

So you find it more stable except for 100% CPU usage?

[zzzzzzzzzz]

So you find it more stable except for 100% CPU usage?

Correct. Though to be more precise, the 100% CPU usage problem described in this thread. I have observed cases where the plug-in container is used and Firefox (not just the plugin container) becomes unstable. If the plugin container is disabled, those problems do not happen.

[patrickjdempsey]

You say this while using at least 3 different versions of Firefox, two of which are severely out-of-date, and several different versions of Flash, none of which are the correct one for the later versions of Firefox. I'm assuming you are using different profiles for all of those different Firefox versions? Your root issues appear to be these vague "stability problems" which you've decided to "fix" using a method that is introducing other problems. How about going back to square one and simplifying the whole equation with one version of Firefox and one version of Flash and see if you can get things running satisfactory there?

I would recommend reading through this:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash

[zzzzzzzzzz]

3 different versions of Firefox, two of which are severely out-of-date

I am working to migrate the Firefox 3.6 series running computers to Firefox ESR 10. Firefox 6.0.2 is an intermediate test version (which also has my preferred default skin/theme)).

I'm assuming you are using different profiles for all of those different Firefox versions?...
How about going back to square one and simplifying the whole equation with one version of Firefox and one version of Flash and see if you can get things running satisfactory there?

I use different profiles for the different sources of Firefox; typically, I segregate select test cases using virtual machines. I also only have at a time installed one version of Adobe Flash player per machine (counting a virtual machine as a separate machine). I test across different machines and with different hardware; there are both real and virtual machines. The problem described in this thread manifest regardless as to whether the machine is virtual or real.

[patrickjdempsey]

Unfortunately your migration work is an entire year late. Firefox 10 ESR will be replaced by Firefox 17 ESR in January and it will have significant changes.

[zzzzzzzzzz]

Unfortunately your migration work is an entire year late.

Not really. The Firefox 3.6 branch as still good to use (though Mozilla discontinued it) until about the last 40 days.

I had already preformed much of the migration preparation in the past when I was preparing to migrate to Mozilla Firefox 6.0.2. Unfortunately, Mozilla discontinued the series and declared its intention to discontinue series of Firefox with much greater frequency (rapid release cycle). I then stopped migration and continued on Firefox 3.6 series. This happen before there were ESR releases.