YouTube + Flash Plugin + Firefox = CPU Cook

[Bloodwych]

Thanks for trying. I'm going to try and sort it out now. The fact that CPU usage drops dramatically when I simply cover the embedded player onscreen with Task Manager hints at a Flash/video driver conflict or issue.

Strange issue is, it is repeatable on both an AMD desktop and Intel Laptop. Only similarity between the two is the software used.

That video on your site took my processor up to 100%, but still no serious slow down.

Mine, yours and others too! The fact is, although you still get a responsive PC, others including myself are getting a sluggish system that takes minutes to complete tasks rather than seconds.

Flash still should not be running CPU's up to 100% usage - it increases temps, reduces battery life, causes cooling fans to rev up and is straight out annoying!!! It's unacceptable behavior from something that's becoming an internet standard.

This is working against the operating systems "green" functions as well as interfering with multitasking - all while you're doing the simple task of surfing the web.

Can I highly recomend Windows Media Player or Quicktime? Or maybe even just puting a link to the video so that nothing has to load up and then people can just download the video if they want to watch it?

Thanks for the suggestions. I initially used YouTube because it's very popular and wanted a vid of ClassicWB to popup when peeps do a search on there.

Now that flash suddenly is causing this issue, I'm seriously considering following through with your suggestions. I think I'd use Xvid however, as that's a universal freeware format and I don't like exclusive commercial orientated players like Real, Quicktime or WPM.

Norwegian tech-news site Itavisen.no had an article recently concerning what to do if you had troubles with Flash. Or actually, it said that if you have problems with your browser crashing for no good reason it's often the Flash component that's messed up. It suggests reinstalling it, but running Adobe's own Flash uninstall tool (found here) first, which will completely remove any trace of flash from your system. Could perhaps be worth a try.

I'll check it out - as you said, worth a try. Thanks for the information.