Flash plug-in install fails; says a newer version exists

[ozarknature]

Hello friends,

I have a perplexing issue. I run Windows 7 Home Premium SP 1 on a 64-bit HP Pavilion dv6-3010us, 2010 model w/4GB RAM. Trying to install (re-install) Flash Player Plug-in on Firefox but when I try to install the installer fails right at the 50% mark on the progress bar with an error message saying a newer version of Flash already exists on this machine. I am attempting to install the Firefox-specific version of Flash Player. I do have the 32-bit Internet Explorer-specific version installed but it is the identical version number as the Firefox plug-in, #10.3.183.7. I have run the Flash Player Uninstaller prior to attempting to install either. I have tried three different general-purpose uninstaller programs including the Programs & Features control panel and cannot find any other version or instance of Flash Player on the machine. I uninstalled Shockwave PLayer and Adobe Air as well. But this is absolutely consistent in behavior with the failure right @ the 50% mark.

If anyone has any suggestions or knows what's wrong, I would be most grateful for feedback!

OzarkNature

[DanRaisch]

Do you have Firefox closed when you attempt to install the Flash update?

[ozarknature]

Yes, I have tried it with FF closed and with FF open, the result is the same: @ 50% the install fails saying a newer version is already installed.

One more curious behavior I've noticed: Each and every time I run an installer that I've downloaded from Adobe, as soon as the installation process begins the Install Program disappears from my desktop or download folder, whichever one I download the program to. The program's icon disappears from the screen and I can't find it through a search.

[Anonymosity]

What happens if you uninstall the old one first? There is an uninstaller you can get from Adobe.
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/fl ... player.exe

[ozarknature]

Yes, I have tried using the Adobe Flash uninstaller, and I get the same result!

[LIMPET235]

Hi,
What AV & firewall app/s are you running?
Might be one interfering?

I use the manual method of updating most programs, especially Flash.
Exactly like you, I run their un-installer with everything closed & then run both installers.
Takes about 2 mins normally.

Strange that the installer disappears, though.
Try disabling your AV.

[ozarknature]

hello folks!

I have figured out a work-around for my issue.

The source of the problem, i think, is that I recently installed the beta version of Flash Player 11 from Adobe Labs' website. It worked fine, as far as I know, but since then I had a malware attack (Trojan Swisyn) which killed off all my applications including Flash, Java and Shockwave. It was a bitch but I finally traced down the malware, removed it, and just for kicks I have been re-installing my apps instead of doing it the easy way and reformatting my hard drive. I re-installed both the ActiveX and Plug-in versions of Flash Player 10.3, which worked fine for a week or so. But as I was re-installing other apps I somehow broke the Flash Plug-in. When I went to re-install the plug-in, I began getting this message about there being a newer version on my machine.

So at first it didn't occur to me that the problem was related to my earlier installation of the Flash 11 Plug-in, but last night as I was puzzling over this problem and getting more and more frustrated, it dawned on me. So I un-installed the ActiveX version of Flash 10.3 and re-installed both the beta ActiveX and Plug-in versions of Flash 11 and now everything seems to be fine.

For now I will just keep v.11 on my machine. After all, if it ain't broke, why fix it? Knock on the keyboard! Hopefully I can just continue to use v.11 and not have any reason to have to go back to 10.3 and risk this headache all over again!

Thanks to you who offered your ideas, Comet in Oz, Anonymosity and DanRaisch! May your pathways remain uncorrupted and your crashes be few!

David Orr
Fayetteville, Arkansas

[DanRaisch]

You're welcome. Thanks for posting your findings.