AMD Display Driver Crash when using Flash Player

[TheDivergent21]

So here is the issue.. Any time Flash Player is being used (YouTube, Facebook, anywhere) my display driver will crash.

Sometimes it works fine. Sometimes my monitor will just go black (sound still playing) and recover after a few seconds. Sometimes my screen will go black and my monitor will act as if there is nothing plugged into it. Sometimes my computer will just completely crash and restart.

I can play games with zero issues but as soon as Flash Player is used it causes problems. I have tried installing the most recent driver from AMD, I have tried installing the latest driver from Asus for my GPU with no success. The interesting thing is the default Windows/VGA adapter driver for my display works like a charm. I can play YouTube videos with no problems using the default Windows driver. I have tried turning off Hardware Acceleration and Flash plugin for my browsers but with AMD drivers installed I still have that issue.

UEFI BIOS is up to date and I have a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

This is my rig:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor FD6300WMHKBOX
MB: ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
RAM: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory AX3U1600W4G9-DB
SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive SV300S37A/120G
GPU: Asus Radeon R7 260X 2GB DirectCU II R7260X-DC2OC-2GD5
PSU: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Browser: Google Chrome (gave me more crashes so I uninstalled), Firefox (replaced Chrome which seems a little more stable but still crashes)

These are all brand new parts too. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Try reinstalling Adobe Flash Player, use its uninstall utility which you can download from adobe's website.

 

[TheDivergent21]

Try reinstalling Adobe Flash Player, use its uninstall utility which you can download from adobe's website.

I have tried that too. I have even tried installing older version of Adobe Flash and I still get the same issue.

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Had the same issue when Flash Player 15 was released, I fixed it using an older version of AMD drivers for my video card, once version 16 was released however I was able to use latest version with no problem, so you could give that a try.

One more thing to try before going to an older driver version, uninstall Flash Player once more, run CCleaner (both file cleansing and registry fix) and then install Flash Player.

 

[VYZZAL]

I had the same prob. This happens when due to conflict between you GPU driver and windows. Try to update your flash player or your browser.
Try more browsers also. Finally if nothing works then try installing windows 8.1.
Also if you are using your PC for gaming then windows 8.1 give 20% better game performance and uses less RAM.

 

[RaDiKaL_]

I'd like to see benchmarks showing that 20% improvement.

 

[TheDivergent21]

Had the same issue when Flash Player 15 was released, I fixed it using an older version of AMD drivers for my video card, once version 16 was released however I was able to use latest version with no problem, so you could give that a try.

One more thing to try before going to an older driver version, uninstall Flash Player once more, run CCleaner (both file cleansing and registry fix) and then install Flash Player.

I did exactly what you said so I'm going to see if I get the same issue still.

I had the same prob. This happens when due to conflict between you GPU driver and windows. Try to update your flash player or your browser.
Try more browsers also. Finally if nothing works then try installing windows 8.1.
Also if you are using your PC for gaming then windows 8.1 give 20% better game performance and uses less RAM.

Didn't mean to select this as Best Solution to be honest.. I was on Windows 8.1 originally which seemed even more unstable and as Radikal said, I would like to see proof regarding the 20% performance increase because I don't see a difference myself.

 

[VYZZAL]

Dude just visit youtube or google 'windows 8.1 vs windows 7 gaming'. You will see tons of proofs and benchmarks that 8.1 is a bit better than 7.

And regarding your Crashing problem, is it fixed or still crashed ?

 

[TheDivergent21]

Dude just visit youtube or google 'windows 8.1 vs windows 7 gaming'. You will see tons of proofs and benchmarks that 8.1 is a bit better than 7.

And regarding your Crashing problem, is it fixed or still crashed ?

It is still crashing for me unfortunately..

 

[VYZZAL]

Try restoring your windows.

Open System Restore by clicking the Start button . ...
Do one of the following: ...
Click the restore point that you want, and then click Next. ...
Review the restore point, and then click Finish.

 

[TheDivergent21]

I think I found the answer. I installed an add-on for both Firefox and Chrome that turns off the HTML5 player on YouTube and replaces it with the classic Flash Player instead. Then I right click on the player, make sure Hardware Acceleration is turned off. Haven't had one single crash since I did this two days ago. Both browsers work perfectly now.

 

[Fauxling]

Try reinstalling Adobe Flash Player, use its uninstall utility which you can download from adobe's website.

I have tried that too. I have even tried installing older version of Adobe Flash and I still get the same issue.

I've been having this issue as well, but it's only when crossfire is active on my Radeon R7 200 series cards. If I have crossfire turned off then everything works as normal, turning it on will result in what is usually a temporary driver crash.

Note: I only have an issue with Flash causing a crash if a game is already on. I don't seem to have an issue as long as it's just a game or just flash. Crossfire + Game + Flash = Random crashes sometimes, for a mere few seconds.

Win 7
AMD FX-8150 Eight-Core Processor, 361222 Mhz, 4 Cores(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
Two Radeon R7 200 Series cards
8GB of mem

Ah, but my computer info also lists part of the Radeon Drivers as not functioning entirely properly. I'll look into how to fix that, but it might be something for others to look at as well. AODDriver4.2.0 is listed as not functioning properly.

 

[Nighthaak]

I think I found the answer. I installed an add-on for both Firefox and Chrome that turns off the HTML5 player on YouTube and replaces it with the classic Flash Player instead. Then I right click on the player, make sure Hardware Acceleration is turned off. Haven't had one single crash since I did this two days ago. Both browsers work perfectly now.

You are RIGHT on the money. Fixed it right away, no more hanging videos. Thanks.